The pope has ordained that Anglo-Catholics can become part of the Roman Catholic Church while retaining their liturgies and other aspects of their Anglican heritage. [Taylor] Marshall emphasized to his audience that they must not listen to theories made up by other people simply because they have a biased view on either one of the faiths. “Theories mentioned such as, ‘The pope doesn’t have priests so he will steal priests from the Anglicans,’ are not theories to be listened to,” he said. “Instead, when one of these theories is heard, correct the person and try to explain.” This new ordinance will be very difficult for those who are already bishops in the Anglican Church. These bishops depend solely on the church, and when they leave, they will lose everything that they have.
“This is something that will make a radical difference,” Marshall said. “Pensions will be lost, insurance will be removed and many will even be attacked by others.” The people who realize that they want to join the Catholic faith will have to give up many of their dreams and material belongings. This will only continue to get worse as people begin to lose jobs, but even with this radical movement, the Catholic faith will continue to help those in need. Even though this may seem like a small movement ordained by the pope, Marshall mentioned that the pope is “mirroring the sacred heart of Jesus.”
[blockquote]The people who realize that they want to join the Catholic faith will have to give up many of their dreams and material belongings.[/blockquote]
and doctrines, as the Church Society recently pointed out.
1. I don’t think it is good form to diminish the heroic sacrifices that some Anglican will face in following their consciences into the Catholic faith. Those sacrifices will not be symbolic, trivial or temporary, but rather real, significant and enduring. They have my admiration.
I regret I have but one former life to give up for the Church!
#1, those who have any interest in the new arrangement probably didn’t put much faith in those doctrines, and were closer to Catholic doctrine and praxis than the more evangelical wing of Anglicanism (the ones who really believe all 39 articles, etc).
“Pensions will be lost and insurances removed”? Oh come now! When priest leaves TEC, for whatever reason, his pension is frozen, not lost. One’s Church Pension is not portable but that’s not the Episcopal Church’s attempt to punish anyone; it’s the way the pension plan was set up according to the laws of the State of New York. Yes, if you have insurance because of your employment as a preist of TEC, then you lose it. That’s not persecution but the way it happens whenever one changes employment. Taylor Marshall is right to debunk the myths surrounding the Vatican invitation to disaffected Episcopalians and other Anglicans but he should avoid creating new myths!
He has now posted an audio file of his talk at the University of Dallas on his blog, [url=http://cantuar.blogspot.com]Canterbury Tales[/url]. Be sure to have Adobe Flash Player installed.