Anglicans can no longer speak of \u201cswimming the Tiber\u201d\u009d. Pope Benedict XVI has built a noble bridge, a symbol chosen as the cover illustration for the Catholic Truth Society edition of his Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus. Today I want to try to describe where that bridge leads.<\/p>\n
The Tiber crossings of those Anglicans who have gone before us have often been difficult and dangerous \u201d\u201d and, in any event, it has proven difficult to organize a group swim. Not only is the Holy Father\u2019s bridge a noble construction that lifts us high above the perilous waters, it allows us to pass over the deep without breaking ranks. And, as Fr. Dwight Longenecker has observed, this comfortable crossing may appeal to other Christians inspired by the ordered march of the Anglican host towards the threshold of the Apostles.<\/p>\n
I have already summed up the papal offer as \u201cunited in communion but not absorbed\u201d\u009d, words which resonate with the ecumenical vision of the recent past, particularly the era of Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey. Now \u201cUnited in communion but not absorbed\u201d\u009d is realized in \u201ca Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans who wish to enter full communion with the Catholic Church\u201d\u009d, to use the Holy Father\u2019s words in his Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.<\/p>\n