Anglo-Catholics becoming Roman?
  • This would be amazing news for Catholic musicians in particular. Many Anglo-Catholic churches are actually using Gregorian propers and Catholic polyphony, and they tend to actually pay their musicians!
  • This is spectacular news, especially from the standpoint of the Church's making reasonable 'pastoral provisions' for high-church Anglicans, my former co-religionists. The implementation will be extremely complex and less dramatic.
    Many (and probably a strong majority of) self-named Anglo-Catholics actually have no intention of entering the full communion of the Catholic Church.
    Unfortunately, this includes most (if not all) of the 'showplace' congregations with the best music.
    An increasing number of individuals from these congregations may well take advantage of this new outreach, and God be praised for it!
    Sadly, however, none of the congregations whose music has been extolled in this and similar forums will be going anywhere as formal entities.
    The local congregations of the Traditional Anglican Communion, whose request for unity spurred this new round of speculation and possible papal action, are all small 'remnant' groups with (mostly) subsistance-level music. My characterization here is not intended as an insult to these Christians who are avidly seeking Catholic truth, but as a remark about who the players are in this drama.
    The only places where entire congregations recently part of the Episcopal church may make moves to Rome are in Fort Worth, plus a few places in Illinois and on the coasts.
    The ecclesiastical landscape in England is much different. There, Anglo-Catholics have been organized with their own separate Church of England bishops ever since British Anglicans began including women among their clergy in 1992. Unfortunately, the Catholic hierarchy in England is mostly very hostile to conservative Anglicans, for reasons that go beyond the reasonable scope of this forum.
  • Mark M.Mark M.
    Posts: 632
    Am curious here… I see this was a very recent post of yours, Jeffrey, but it doesn't appear on the NLM homepage. I can only access it from the link you provided above. Is this just an oversight, or are "rumor watch" NLM posts kept out of view?
  • I seriously doubt that anyone is hiding posts. But I'm not an admin, so I can't say for sure. I'm just a guest on NLM
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    From the news today, it seems the talk about a personal prelature is just another rumor. A CDF official told the NC Register correspondent that nothing's been decided:

    http://www.ncregister.com/daily/anglican_rumors_denied

    By the way, I should have figured that the rumor wasn't solid. A personal prelature like Opus Dei's isn't really a good model for the TAC; after all, Opus Dei doesn't run parishes. On the other hand, an apostolic administration (like the parallel EF jurisdiction in Brazil) would be more suitable.
  • very encouraging! Nothing like a denial of a final decision to fuel further speculation.