Tags : Anglican Church, catholic church, liturgical customs, vatican
Vatican Lets Dissatisfied Anglicans into Catholic Church
Vatican City, Rome (AHN) – The Vatican on Tuesday said it has found a way for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while retaining their liturgical customs. The Anglican Church was on the brink of a schism last year and currently faces widespread discontent from traditionalists who oppose ordaining homosexual bishops and women priests.
The Holy See said it has developed an Apostolic Constitution that allows Anglicans worldwide “who wish to enter into full visible communion” with the Catholic Church to do so. It explained that it had received “many requests from groups of Anglican faithful,” and that the constitution “provides a reasonable and even necessary response to a world-wide phenomenon.”
The constitution will permit married Anglican clergy to be serve as Catholic priests, but prohibit married Anglican bishops from being ordained. “Historical and ecumenical reasons preclude the ordination of married men as bishops in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Constitution therefore stipulates that the Ordinary can be either a priest or an unmarried bishop,” the Vatican said.
The Anglican Church welcomed the decision, declaring in a statement “an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church.”
“It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution,” it added.
The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Church, in July opened the door to allow gays to be ordained.
The Anglican Church was on the brink of a schism as recently as last year over the ordination of V. Gene Robinson, who was ordained as its first openly gay bishop wearing a bullet-proof vest in 2003. It issued a resolution in 2006, that called on bishops worldwide “to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.”
The controversy continued during the Church’s 2008 Lambeth Conference in England, which was boycotted by a quarter of the world’s Anglican bishops, who wanted Robinson to resign.
The Episcopal Church ordains women to the priesthood and has over 2 million members, while the Anglican Church consists of 80 million members in more than 160 nations.
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