Vatican opens doors to married Anglican clergy
Under the Apostolic Constitution former Catholic priests who left the church and married and became Anglican clergy will not be allowed to return. Photo: Getty Images
THE Pope has made it as easy as possible for traditional and "continuing" Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism while retaining key elements of their ecclesiastical heritage.
The eagerly awaited Apostolic Constitution, published by the Vatican yesterday, will enable hundreds of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Catholics. Married Anglican clergy will be allowed to train for the priesthood in seminaries set up within the new Anglican Ordinariates -- as long as their marital state is not "irregular". The constitution states that the admission of married men will be considered "on a case-by-case basis".
Status
It even allows for married Anglican bishops to be granted the status of retired Catholic bishops, to become members of the local Catholic bishops' conference, and to be granted permission to use the "insignia" of episcopal office such as the mitre, and pectoral cross and staff by the Holy See in Rome.
The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to allow Anglicans to preserve "elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony" while entering "full communion" with the Catholic Church raised questions about the discipline of celibacy among Catholic priests. After a hard-fought battle within the Holy See, though, there is no change to the Vatican's line on priestly celibacy.
Former Catholic priests who left the Church to marry and subsequently became Anglican clergy will not be permitted to return.
Newly converted Anglicans will be responsible for funding the new clergy and seminaries. This is unlikely to create dissent because, given recent crises in Church of England finances and the almost total erosion of funding from the centre in many dioceses, most Anglican congregations are used to paying their vicar's £20,000 (€22,350) stipend and pension contributions. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which published the constitution, will be in charge of the new Ordinariates. The former Anglicans will be encouraged to gain secular employment to help to finance this new branch of Catholicism.
The British branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion, which has about 400,000 "continuing" Anglican members worldwide and is led by Archbishop John Hepworth in Australia, has indicated that its members will move over to the Ordinariates. (© The Times, London).
- Ruth Gledhill in Rome
Irish Independent
