Rome is on the brink of welcoming members of the Traditional Anglican Communion

[Bennie_P]

As a convert–I was an Anglo-Catholic but got tired waiting it was seemingly never to be-- I am ecstatic, my prayers are answered. The Catholic faith is so much more than I hoped for, so deeply fullfilling I can’t believe my destiny and now my former brothers and sisters will get to experience what I feel daily!

 

[piperspop]

As a member of TAC, the church in question, let me assure you the LAST thing I want is to be any part of a church populated by people like Lisa44, who speaks with both vitriol and spite.

 

[elgar]

As a member of TAC, the church in question, let me assure you the LAST thing I want is to be any part of a church populated by people like Lisa44, who speaks with both vitriol and spite.

You would be misunderstood as you could probably teach RCIA more factually as an Anglo-Catholic than many cradle Catholics running the show. I’m afraid I wouldn’t fit in too well either being a re-vert. Converts and re-verts tend to be the most zealous in an excited way only to be looked at by thoses on the inside as a little “kooky”. There is no perfect church and I’m sure TAC is full of nuts too. I guess we’ll all know when the time is right to make the move.

 

[piperspop]

Thanks elgar, sometimes the whole “we’re better than you” RC thing just gets to me. Maybe Lisa should understand that the whole Anglican/Roman thing goes back more than 50 years, and that several popes have spoken about Anglicans being “united, not absorbed”.
We have set no preconditions, but that does not mean that just anything is acceptable to our individual parishes.
I pray that this pope wil find a new way forward, so we can be united, as Christ desires.

 

[chris_molter]

As a member of TAC, the church in question, let me assure you the LAST thing I want is to be any part of a church populated by people like Lisa44, who speaks with both vitriol and spite.

I understand. Overzealousness is tacky at best. Just remember that there are spiteful folks EVERYWHERE. It’s not easy being a convert from Anglicanism. You wind up defending yourself to your former co-religionists for “Poping”, you wind up being regarded as a “fundamentalist” by liberal Catholics, and you wind up being viewed as some sort of “evangelical invader” by traditionalist Catholics.


In the end, though, none of that really matters. What matters is being in communion with the See of Peter as Christ intended.

 

[rr1213]

Any true Anglo-Catholics should indignantly reject the offer of a “personal prelature,” which is an ecclesiological aberration totally incompatible with historic Catholic polity. The fact that Rome thinks it can create such monstrosities is one of the main reasons to question Rome’s claims in the first place.

One bishop, one city. That’s one of the most basic principles of Catholic ecclesiology.

Of course, “traditional” Anglicans have been shattering this principle for some years now, and pouring scorn on the idea that it’s really important.

Edwin

Edwin,

All of this is premature, of course, until we get a solid word from the Church as to how TAC’s proposal will be addressed. Nonethless, if I see no problem with a personal prelature if that is how the Church wishes to proceed. That arrangement would (or could) allow TAC to retain some corporate nature at the same time that it comes into unity with the Church. It also could allow TAC to preserve those aspects of its Anglican heritage that are compatible with Church teaching and serve as a template for future unions by other Anglican groups with the Church. Sounds like a win/win situation to me.

Surely, the power to bind and lose includes the power and authority to set up ecclessiastical structures such as is suggested here.

RR1213

 

[CapIV]

I guess Rome can’t start to mend broken ties with members of the Traditional Anglican communion until they personally inspect every paper, interview, and issued statement made by every member of the Traditional Anglican communion ever just in case one of those statements might hurt someone’s feelings somewhere.

 

[piperspop]

A personal prelature would place each parish under the control of the local RC bishop. This, at least in America would quickly destroy any Anglican heritage we have simply because we are way to conservative for RC bishops. Look at how many Anglican Use parishes there are and how many there could be with a little help from the diocese.

The RC church has talked of Christian Unity for decades now.
Popes have spoken of Anglicans being “United not absorbed”.
Now we come, humbly setting no preconditions to our request, except that we wish “Corporate Unity”, to be accepted as and allowed to remain a separate group in communion with the Holy See.

I view this as a test not for the TAC, but for the pope and the RC church. Can you find a way to accomplish this? May we maintain our heritage and traditions? If not, the other faiths, east and west, must look with suspicion on Roman claims to desire the unity that Christ has commanded from us.

It will be interesting to see if Rome can be as accepting as we in the TAC have been humble.

 

[rr1213]

A personal prelature would place each parish under the control of the local RC bishop.

Are you sure of that? I may be wrong, but my understanding is that the prelature would have its own bishops and own priests outside of the structure of the diocese. If parishes are subject to diocesean bishops, I would agree that the arrangement would not be adequate to preserve the Anglican culture of TAC. I suppose we will just have to see how it ends up.

 

[piperspop]

Actually, I have read differing views on how a PP works. I hope it would be a structure that would allow us to work with but not under the local bishops. Always remember, the Holy Father has the power to make new cannon law, and set up a new structur to accomodate new circumstances.

That we may all be one…

 

[piperspop]

Here are the actual canons regarding personal prelatures.
It seems to include only clergy. And requires some kind of cooperation from the local ordinary.

However, it also seems that each prelature would have statutes that are unique to it. (The devil is in the details?)

Let us all pray that this becomes a first great step toward Chrictian unity.

TITLE IV: PERSONAL PRELATURES (Cann. 294 - 297)

Can. 294 Personal prelatures may be established by the Apostolic See after consultation with the Episcopal Conferences concerned. They are composed of deacons and priests of the secular clergy. Their purpose is to promote an appropriate distribution of priests, or to carry out special pastoral or missionary enterprises in different regions or for different social groups.

Can. 295 §1 A personal prelature is governed by statutes laid down by the Apostolic See. It is presided over by a Prelate as its proper Ordinary. He has the right to establish a national or an international seminary, and to incardinate students and promote them to orders with the title of service of the prelature.

§2 The Prelate must provide both for the spiritual formation of those who are ordained with this title, and for their becoming support.

Can. 296 Lay people can dedicate themselves to the apostolic work of a personal prelature by way of agreements made with the prelature. The manner of this organic cooperation and the principal obligations and rights associated with it, are to be duly defined in the statutes.

Can. 297 The statutes are likewise to define the relationships of the prelature with the local Ordinaries in whose particular Churches the prelature, with the prior consent of the diocesan Bishop, exercises or wishes to exercise its pastoral or missionary activity.

 

[Neil_Anthony]

A personal prelature would place each parish under the control of the local RC bishop. This, at least in America would quickly destroy any Anglican heritage we have simply because we are way to conservative for RC bishops. Look at how many Anglican Use parishes there are and how many there could be with a little help from the diocese.

A personal prelature makes the organization independant of the local bishop. The only example so far is Opus Dei. They don’t require the approval of the local bishop for what they do. Their bishop is the prelate of Opus Dei who is responsible directly to Rome.

 

[piperspop]

That would work for me!