På Damian Thompsons nokså dristige blog (Holy Smoke) kan vi lese at flere konservative anglikanere nå ønsker å bli katolikker, men at de engelske katolske biskopene knapt ønsker å ta imot dem. Kan det være sant? Selv er jeg noe usikker; men mange ting ser ut til å være problematiske i Kirken i England, og jeg har lest flere ganger at kardinal Hume hadde store problemer med sine medbiskoper, da han ville ta imot med åpne armer de hundrevis av anglikanske prester som konverterte rundt 1992. Slik leser vi på bloggen:
At least one Church of England “flying bishop” is ready to convert to Catholicism, and so are thousands of Anglicans. What is stopping them? According to a highly placed source, they simply cannot face the hostility of the current bishops of England and Wales.
There are four provincial episcopal visitors, to give them their proper name, and my information is that one or perhaps two of them want to be Roman Catholics, sacrificing their status as bishops in the process.
There is tremendous enthusiasm for Pope Benedict among Anglo-Catholics, who love his theological emphasis on beauty in the liturgy. He, in turn, is anxious to welcome them into the Roman fold.
Not so the current bishops of England and Wales, who are almost uniformly liberal. In the early 1990s, the bishops forced Basil Hume to place as many obstacles as possible in the path of Catholic-minded Anglicans wanting to convert together. For many observers (including me) that was a profoundly disillusioning moment.
Some tremendously talented Anglican priests did cross the Tiber. Of those that remained, I think we can identify four broad groups:
1. Anglo-Catholics who now accept women priests – I would never have believed, 15 years ago, that so many “bells and smells” types would become reconciled to this innovation, but they have.
2. Anglo-Catholic clergy who, despite their extreme Roman ritualism, are in irregular relationships that would not be tolerated by the Catholic authorities, so they pull up the drawbridge.
3. Anglo-Catholics who still believe, against all the evidence, that they will be able to preserve their male-only priesthood until their fellow Anglicans see the error of their ways.
4. Anglo-Catholics who know the game is up, that there will never be corporate reunion with Rome, and that their future lies in submitting to the Holy See.
Og det er her kritikken av økumenikk (den falske varianten) kommer inn.
Alle vet at Cormac Murphy O’Connor og de fleste andre biskopene på øyene i vest ikke er glade for konversjoner, fordi man skal jo heller ha økumeniske samtalepartnere…
At så mange anglikanske klerikale formelt vender om fra vranglæren, er jo helt utrolig bra! Hvilken triumf for Guds rike!
Men hvilket eksempel sender disse katolske biskopene som ikke vil ta imot dem? Stod St. Peter og de andre apostlene og nektet folk å vende om?
Husk at anglikanske biskoper er ikke biskoper og at anglikanske prester er ikke prester. De er ingenting. Se på Apostolica Curae av Paven Leo XIII.
René,
Absolutt. Men siden Apostolica Curae ble skrevet, har det vært slik at enkelte høykirkelige anglikanere har blitt konsekrert av ortodokse el gammelkatolske biskoper. Det KAN forandre saken i enkelte tilfeller.
Likevel er anglikanske ordinasjoner i utgangspunktet «null and void».