According to Nichols, there was not much consultation at all by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about its plans for the Anglicans. “It is a difficult thing to do and opening it up to public consultation would have made it public, ” he said. He and Williams had known about the initiative for a couple of weeks before the announcement in October. “He very quickly agreed that he would announce it with me. We talked about the way the announcement would be used to create divisions and so we should do it together.”
But could the Anglicans wanting to become Catholics not be received in the usual way, as individuals? Nichols is clear that they will have to be received as individuals, even if an entire church congregation crosses over to Rome together. “It’s not ”˜all put your hands up and you’re in’. Faith is both an individual experience and a corporate experience. Each individual will have to go through a process of formation and reception. People who come in are Catholics ”“ full stop.”
But it seems that the Archbishop is struggling, like so many others, with what exactly this overture means. “The Pope wants to give expression and space to the fruit and character of Anglican patrimony. It is quite difficult to know what that means, especially in this country ”“ perhaps it is clearer elsewhere. But Anglican patrimony is an historical inheritance.”
The press conference that Nichols held did not just involve the Archbishop of Canterbury in his capacity in the Church of England; Williams is also the primate of the worldwide Anglican Communion. So the situation in England and Wales is more complicated isn’t it, with Williams kept out of the loop?
“The leader of the Anglican Communion is here and that is a difficulty. While approaches had been made to the Holy See, I don’t think that had been conveyed to the Archbishop of Canterbury,” he said, intimating that it was the Anglicans interested in crossing to Rome who should have kept Canterbury informed.
[blockquote] they will have to be received as individuals, even if an entire church congregation crosses over to Rome together[/blockquote] Something of which the TAC seems blissfully unaware.
[blockquote]Something of which the TAC seems blissfully unaware.[/blockquote]
They don’t seem unaware to me (blissfully or otherwise). They’ve read and signed the CCC.
CPKS, it appears to me that the TAC (in England, at least) wants to move as a unit to the RCC, retaining their bishop. Not to mention that their request would grant TAC leadership over CoE priests who transfer, leaving the tail wagging the dog.
#3
You assume that there will be only one ordinariate in England or that CoE/FiF priests and congregations would have a problem with being under a TAC bishop (in this case Robert Mercer).
You also assume to regard group and individual reception as mutually exclusive things. They are not. They go hand in hand. The group seeks reception and each individual must make their own personal, informed, declaration of faith.
Conor, the TAC request to Rome was that Mercer be appointed THE ordinariate for England [emphasis mine], so that particular assumption is theirs, not mine.
As to non-TAC congregations resenting being under a TAC bishop, I grant that my assumption may be incorrect.
I am well aware that the different groups are not mutually exclusive. Yet the groups are different and separate for some kind of reason, and I assume that those differences remain to be worked out.