The most remarkable thing about the Pope’s message to American Pentecostal leaders was not the cordial, open-armed welcome from the Holy Father to a group of separated brethren”“in their own way all the popes in the last fifty years have done the same. Okay”“the informal use of a cell phone video was pretty amazing, but the real news story in all of this is not so much the moving welcome from the Holy Father, but the appearance of Bishop Tony Palmer on the world stage as an “Anglican bishop”.
This has been missed by every other commentator because I think they are unaware of the huge shifts within the world of Anglicanism. To understand this one has to first understand historic Anglicanism. We all know it was started by King Henry VIII because he wanted a divorce and Pope Clement wouldn’t give him one. Well, it was more complicated than that, but the fact is, this crisis precipitated the foundation of the Anglican Church. In the centuries to follow wherever the English went they took their church with them. Thus we find the Anglican Communion all over the world in what were English colonies.
Why is Fr Longenecker writing about something that he patently does not understand?
[blockquote] “We all know it was started by King Henry VIII because he wanted a divorce and Pope Clement wouldn’t give him one.”[/blockquote]
For starters, he didn’t want a divorce, he wanted an annulment. And he expected to get one because the Papacy bought and sold annulments like used cars. And no, that episode had little if anything to do with the start of Anglicanism.
[blockquote] “What is also remarkable is the willingness of the Vatican to talk to representatives of these groups and to accept them. Pope Francis is not the only one to welcome them as brothers in the Lord. It was Pope Benedict who had his own remarkable interaction with the continuing Anglicans.” [/blockquote]
If the Pope doesn’t see things Fr Longenecker’s way, then the good father has two options – like it or lump it (as my grandmother used to say).
[blockquote] “Despite my critique of Tony Palmer, I wish him and the movement well and I hope the Spirit guides more and more into full communion with the Catholic Church in ways that we cannot yet foresee.” [/blockquote]
We can’t foresee it because it basically isn’t happening. The ordinariate is on course to have about the same impact as the Pastoral Provision of JPII.
RE: “Why is Fr Longenecker writing about something that he patently does not understand? . . . ”
Word out to MichaelA!
http://dwightlongenecker.com/about-fr-longenecker/
I think he’s a classic example of a guy who never was able to grasp what exactly he was resisting and believes it was “Protestantism” . . . I see this with *so many* people who graduated from Bob Jones University. They knew they were frustrated and sickened. But they never really analyzed what precisely was legitimately so frustrating and sickening and repulsing.