So then.
Why doesn’t he just fire the man?
If you were Pope wouldn’t you fire him?
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/files/2008/03/pope2.jpg
If I were pope I would do lots of things differently and that is probably why I am not the pope.
THink about the TAC situation a bit.
Rome says that now Anglican orders are invalid. Orthodox orders are valid and their sacraments are valid. SSPX, SSPV and all the other shcismatic groups have valid orders. They have separated themselves and are in schism.
The TAC folks are interested in rejoining Rome, presumably because the rest of the Anglicans went bezerk. If that had not happened they probably would have been happy to continue along as they had been for several centuries, making believe they had valid orders and sacraments, etc. So perhaps they are trying to escape something that has become intolerable more than repair the breach or disunity with Catholics.
Think about a young man or woman who is engaged and gets jilted. There is disappointment in suffering a broken relationship and sometimes the person jumps right into another one on the rebound as it is called. The whole is filled without careful thought and it does not work out.
The TAC solution is to acknowledge Rome, but not simply become Catholic parishes within their respective dioceses. They want to retain a somehwat separate identity, call it the expanded Anglican Use Provision. I do not blame them for this. I would not want to give up a beautiful tradition and liturgy and be forced to go to a Mass with terrible translations and be so banal and sparse as the modern Latin Rite.
But suppose that things do not go well with this attempt at reunion. Suppose this is a well intended endeavor, but not executed with enough care, on the rebound so to speak. Suppose in a few years they have regrets and reseparate.
Their Orders would be valid and you would have another schism.
Every person in the TAC could knock on the door of a Catholic parish and convert. There is no question about that. What makes it touchy is maintaining a separate jurisdiction. Rome has to do this with care and it takes time.
The speculation that the pope is blocking reunion to help Rowan hold together Anglicanism as it disintegrates into theological chaos and help Rowan’s agenda of women bishops and gay marriages is preposterous. Newspapers have their own agendas.