George Will—Rome’s Call: “Come on Over”

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Having seen much change -- and much resistance to it -- [thomas] Reese is relaxed about 2009's most intriguing development in Christianity, the Vatican's enticement of disaffected Anglicans. Rome is saying to individuals, and perhaps to entire parishes and even dioceses: "Come on over." It is trolling with rules, recently written, that will enable Anglicans-become-Catholics to retain some of their liturgy. The church will accept some already married priests, and perhaps married seminarians, but not bishops.

The Vatican says it is not raiding but merely answers to Anglican knocks on its door. Combined, however, with Pope Benedict XVI's having appealed to dissident conservative Catholics by removing most restrictions on celebrating the traditional Latin Mass, the courtship of Anglicans looks like an aggressive -- although not improperly so -- attempt to consolidate an expanded Catholicism.

There are 1.1 billion Catholics. Anglicanism is the third-largest Christian communion (Eastern Orthodox is second) but has just 80 million adherents, of whom only 2.3 million are Americans, and a mere 16,000 of them -- those in New Hampshire -- have helped to precipitate the Vatican's move. The election of a gay Episcopalian as New Hampshire's bishop was one brick over a load for conservatives, who think the Episcopal Church has become a Moveon.org at prayer -- liberal politics in vestments.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

6 Comments
Posted December 24, 2009 at 12:02 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. TACit wrote:

Unfortunately Will makes the same mistake many others make.  The dissidence is not over ‘gays and women priests’, it is over authority in the Church.  Protestants always incline to say ‘the authority of Scripture’, while Catholic-minded people seek the authority of Scripture that is embodied in the Church as constituted by Jesus Christ when he called his Apostles.  The Catholic Church has a magisterium, and some Catholic-minded Anglicans are able to accept the teachings of that magisterium.

December 24, 4:31 am | [comment link]
2. Dan Crawford wrote:

George Will should stick to baseball.

December 24, 7:41 am | [comment link]
3. William P. Sulik wrote:

Also, following up on the comments of #1, as long as the dogma of Ineffabilis Deus, promulgated pursuant to the authority of the magisterium, - as long as that dogma remains in effect, I could never go over.

December 24, 9:48 am | [comment link]
4. Tired of Hypocrisy wrote:

No, I think George gets it exactly correct. In a few words, he captures the essence of the problem, and the opportunity. In any case, his interpretation is far more careful and clear than the average outside observer’s seems to be—and far surpasses the analysis most cloudy-headed insiders proffer as well. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

December 25, 2:21 am | [comment link]
5. athan-asi-us wrote:

Will: “But many of the conservative Anglicans to whom Rome is beckoning are apt to be especially serious about the theological differences with Rome that have defined Anglicanism for almost five centuries, including the nature of the sacraments, veneration of Mary, and papal infallibility. “
This rather well covers the problem for many who, for the reasons stated above , will not “convert”. It is more than just the infallibility issue.

December 25, 1:05 pm | [comment link]
6. chips wrote:

I believe that Will is an Episcopalian unless he has departed.  The divide on liberals and conservatives will always be scripture vs modernity; tradition vs the “New Thing”.  Will is correct that the current flashpoint is gays and women priests.  I think that the most pressing problem the Catholic church has is the celibate priesthood -large deterent to recruitment - tends to lead folks who dont fit in to join up.  Perhaps an influx of married priests will provide a model for some portions of the Catholic Priesthood to be married.

December 28, 2:17 pm | [comment link]
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