The Vatican opens door to the Anglicans

Levada, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, claimed the new canonical structure is a response to the many requests that have come to the Vatican over the years from Anglicans wishing to see a full mending of the split between Catholicism and Anglicanism. “The Anglo-Catholics have been waiting for this for decades,” Colin Blakely, editor of the […]

Levada, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, claimed the new canonical structure is a response to the many requests that have come to the Vatican over the years from Anglicans wishing to see a full mending of the split between Catholicism and Anglicanism.

“The Anglo-Catholics have been waiting for this for decades,” Colin Blakely, editor of the Church of England newspaper told Deutsche Welle.

But the move is seen by many as a deliberate attempt to entice conservative Anglicans disaffected with the more liberal policies of the Anglican Church, including the ordination of women and homosexuals as priests and bishops.

A joint press conference was held at the Catholic Church headquarters in London in response to the Vatican announcement, hoping to ease concerns that relations between the heads of the 1.1-billion members of Catholic Church and the 77-million Anglican Communion would be affected by the Vatican’s move.

“There was a heavy atmosphere at first because people didn’t know what to expect,” Toby Cohen, who covered the press conference for the Church of England newspaper, told Deutsche Welle, “Rowan Williams sat there with a slightly bruised expression. Then it slowly became clear what a deep power struggle had been unfolding between the two churches.”

Both churches were keen to emphasize their fundamental unity, but the venue of the press conference and the realization, made clear during the question and answer session, that Williams had only learnt of the Vatican’s plan two weeks ago revealed that the move amounted to a significant power shift.

The announcement comes only a week after an Anglican revision committee into the issue of women in the clergy. The committee’s decision, to allow congregations to appeal to a higher bishop if they were assigned a female vicar, was seen as a significant concession to traditionalists.

An official Vatican statement called the Apostolic Constitution “a reasonable and even necessary response to a world-wide phenomenon”. It was referring to the reaction of many Anglican congregations, particularly in the United States, to the modernization of the Protestant church.

“Some segments of the Anglican Communion have departed from the common biblical teaching on human sexuality … by the ordination of openly homosexual clergy and the blessing of homosexual partnerships,” the statement read. “At the same time, as the Anglican Communion faces these new and difficult challenges, the Catholic Church remains fully committed to continuing ecumenical engagement with the Anglican Communion.”