Not for nothing has the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome been known as the “Suprema.” It does not specialize in consultation with other bodies, whether within the Vatican or elsewhere. This mindset was spectacularly exhibited with the abrupt unveiling of a new supra-territorial Roman Catholic church structure titled a “Personal Ordinariate,” with its doors open to groups of disaffected Anglicans throughout the world who were invited to move collectively to Rome, bringing their Anglican patrimony with them. This explosive device had been secretly laid below the surface of Anglican-Roman Catholic relations by a small party of doctrinal congregation sappers, encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI. In press conferences on Oct. 20, 2009, it was detonated.
The debris from the explosion is now settling. In England, the only country so far where the ordinariate is up and running, almost a thousand ex-Anglicans, composed of groups of laity with 64 of their pastors, of whom 54 have applied to become Catholic priests, have come over in the first wave. The ordination of the former Anglican clergy is being fast-tracked for Pentecost. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is calling the shots, for the local Roman Catholic bishops had wanted these clergy to undergo a year’s preparation.
A year’s preparation would have been a reasonable enough requirement, but it appears Rome is set on depriving all the naysayers any opportunity to claim maltreatment. Good for Benedict XVI. These poor folks have been through enough abuse in the C of E, they need and deserve calm waters on the Barque of Peter.
Calm waters? LOL. Read the rest of the National Catholic Reporter and see if any of the issues sound familiar. Read the comments after the articles and tell us if you detect “calm.”
Just a quick word of caution. Anything coming from NCR should be taken with a very large grain of salt, if not the whole shaker. The only thing “Catholic” about it is… well there is nothing Catholic about it. This is an agenda oriented publication. And the agenda is dissent and heresy. I would be hard pressed to name any defined doctrine of the Roman Church that they have not suggested is “open to discussion.”
NCR is a radical lefty leftover from the hippie 1960’s-70’s. They thought they were the voice of the generation that was going to turn the Catholic Church and the world upside down. Fr. Z aptly refers to it as the National Catholic Fishwrap.
Heh, Ad Orientem. We used to call it the National Catholic Tattler. 😉
I was raised with the NCR on the coffee table and used to read it when I was in high school. I nearly left the church I was so filled with angst–but eventually I grew out of it. I came to realize that everyday Catholics were not angry and that the Church is an enormous force for good. Basically, the NCR is the remnant of Catholicism which has not yet gone over to TEC. But, many, many of my liberal Catholic friends from the 80’s have gone TEC or simply stopped going to church. I have begun to rethink “liberal” as a descriptor for them, though. Perhaps “secularized Catholics” is better.