For kicks and giggles – a round up of the fun, the foreseeable, and the absurd.
What is it with the Brits? The are so delightfully overflowing with droll vitriol that I am left in a perpetual state of envy. Insult as art is so unappreciated this side of the pond. My appreciation for Damian Thompson is well recognized. Add to this list Gerald Warner. In describing blindsided ecumenists Rowan Williams and Cardinal Kasper, Warner built a picture in my head I will not soon forget.
While press releases spouted ecumaniac drivel, the Anglicans voted to ordain priestesses in 1992. In 2003 John Paul II suspended talks, following the consecration of the homosexual American bishop Gene Robinson. The Church of England is now moving inexorably to the consecration of women “bishops”. Only a clutch of flared-trousered 1960s relics still dance arthritically to the ecumenical tune. Now Rowan Williams and Walter Kasper have been left to dance around their handbags.
Totally awesome awesomeness. Take a moment and picture that. Heels. Pearls. Bad perfume. The macarena. Got it? Moving on…
A liberal Episcopal priest from Salem thinks that the Pope is a very bad man for being nice to the Anglicans. He has his talking points and he’s sticking to them.
The Rev. Paul Bresnahan of St. Peter’s Church in Salem said he is troubled by the Catholic Church’s unexpected overture this week, which appeared to be aimed at conservative Anglicans who have become disillusioned with their church, in part over its acceptance of openly gay bishops and female priests.
“It sends a terrible message to the gay community,” said Bresnahan, the father of two gay sons. “It says, in effect, you’re not welcome here. To me, that slams the door shut in your face.”
…“What kind of message does it send to half the population of the world? What if a woman feels she is called to serve God as a priest?” Bresnahan said. It puts her in a position, he said, of “saying no to God.”
What with door slamming and misogyny, its a wonder the Pope has time for anything else. Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice… There is a group of so called Anglo-Catholic priests who still prefer the Anglo to the Catholic. Run of the mill stuff but I liked this part.
On the other hand, anglo-catholics have found the openness of the Anglican tradition, allowing for a wide range of views and different approaches, to reflect the realities of life in the Body of Christ as it is lived out in history and the world. For many within the catholic tradition, recent changes are a natural extension of our understanding of the evolution of tradition within the life of the Church. The catholic tradition has never been about simply safeguarding narrowly explicit interpretations of scripture but about engaging the contributions and experience of all the members of the Body of Christ in the life of the Church.
These are not the anglo-catholics you are looking for, move along. These are not the anglo-catholics we are looking for. Move along, move along.
Of course, no litany of the inane would be complete without a quote from FutureChurch.
Following news that the Roman Catholic church may accept more married ex-Anglican priests into its ranks, the grassroots network FutureChurch has called for the option of a married priesthood in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church too.
Sister Christine Schenk, the director of FutureChurch, said: “Parishes in Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom are closing, while thousands of Catholics in the developing world have virtually no access to Mass and the sacraments because of too few celibate priests.”
Up to 80 per cent of all Sunday celebrations in Brazil are led by lay leaders because there are no priests, she added.
“I think this may be painful news for married Catholic priests who are not permitted to serve the Church”, said FutureChurch board member Bill Wisniewski, himself a married Catholic priest.
I don’t even know what to say to that. Let’s finish up with something good. A senior prelate in the Church of England, The Bishop of Fulham, the Right Rev John Broadhurst after calling a former Archbishop of Canterbury a moaner for complaining about the surprise over something that was in the making for years had this to say.
Asked what his views were on giving up his title as bishop, Bishop Broadhurst said: “Who cares. Soon I’ll be in a wooden box in front of the altar. What matters is the bigger picture. God matters, the truth matters. We as individuals don’t matter. We think we matter but we don’t.”
The truth matters, eh? Oh, he will never fit in as a Catholic.
October 27, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Patrick,
That Williams/Animal comparison photo is hilarious. Animal is such a ringer for him!
October 27, 2009 at 12:47 pm
That Gerald Warner piece is a gold mine. Just a random sampling:
After 40 years of phoney ecumenical dialogue, Benedict XVI has finally cut the Gordian knot. Since 1970, the ecumenical circus has been run by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), with spectacular lack of success. In this dialogue of the deaf, "liberals" from both sides indulged in dishonest wordplay, with Catholic appeasers trying to disown more and more of their faith, while Anglicanism ran ever faster in the opposite direction.
October 27, 2009 at 12:54 pm
And wuv……TWOO luv….
Thanks for the Princess Bride pic:-).
October 27, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Patrick – you ought to add the article from David Gibson in the Washington Post where he claims Pope Benedict XVI is a closet liberal. It'd be funny if he wasn't serious about the charge.
October 27, 2009 at 4:28 pm
no litany of the inane would be complete without a quote from FutureChurch
Am I the only one that gets the "willies" whenever I hear these modernist groups fuse words together like that (especially with the word "Church")? It's like cold seaweed trailing down my spine, that is. Reliable sign for "Run like ****, and don't stop running", too…
October 27, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Give them the best robe and put it on them, put a ring on their fingers and sandals on their feet, bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of ours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.
http://heyitsjustablogman.blogspot.com/2009/10/anglicans-returning-to-communion.html
October 27, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I love a good hahaha as much as the next fellow, but somebody PLEASE address my fears that these Anglicans will be bringing wives in tow as they tip-toe cross the Tiber. In my small universe, they have further added scandal to the community with massive buttinski-ing, divorce shenanigans, and a love of power that beats Trollope's Mrs. Proudie at her own game. Their traditional causes include Amnesty International and crusades against the death penalty (for BORN people they are launched into fits; for the unborn, not so much).
This is aside from the fact that the confraternity of the priesthood becomes not a band of brothers, but a couples social club heavily influenced by the feminine. It also sends a terrible message about whether the Church is serious about celibacy in an age that desperately needs it.
Are we absolutely sure that wives aren't part of the deal?
October 29, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I am an Episcopal priest considering with gratitude Benedict's generous and unsettling offer.
I read with grins and chuckles the "no-wives, please" post above. That tops even Hans Kung's egregious sterotype of all would-be-Catholic Episcopalians as inherently part of the "misfit fringe."
I am 49 years old. I have what is to Episcopal standards a very large parish in the midwest.
I am married with two children, ages 16 and 12. My wife is a professor at a major University. She is not into "butt-inski," whatever that is. She is a successful academic. We live in a leafy suburb, try to have family meals together, kids sports schedules permitting. We struggle to make time for our marriage. I swim every morning at 6. I play golf, much less than I like. I listen to NPR,Miles Davis, U2,BB King. I opened last week's homily with a quote from "Desperado." I am way into BBQ. We drive a Honda Oddyssey, and voted for Barak Obama. I read Annie LaMott, Parker Palmer, Karl Rahner and Thomas Merton.
Let me assure you, potential brothers and sisters and, if the Holy Spirit so orders it–potential parishioners— I am neither a mysogninist nor a homophobe.
My attraction to Rome is affirmative. Being Church-in-the-world requires for me a visible source of unity. As one who for twenty years has languished in a Canterbury-infused fantasy world of group-think, overly-local, tree-hugging irrelevance, I have learned the hard way that we never can or will agree on anything. Simply put, and to borrow a sports metaphor, to play the game you need a referee.
I love the high culture of Anglicanism, and will endeavor to bring that ethos with me as part of what Benedict so graciously refers to as our "Anglican Patrimony." This includes not only liturgical texts, rites and vestments, but also the culture of Shakespeare, John Updike, TS Eliot, and–gasp–Robin Williams. I will cherish these artists and thinkers deeply.
But I am ready to move on.
I do so not out of anger or resentment, but because I am mysteriously summoned forward. I believe this is the movement of the Holy Spirit.
It is to me the Scripture of the pearl of great price. I will be leaving a very comfortable pension, and I have no idea how we will pay for college for our kids. I feel incredibly naive to say this, but I believe it to be true: I think the Gospel requires that of me.
I am a devotee of our best and brightest Anglican thinker, John Henry Newman. He is my North Star. After many year's prayer and increasing islolation in a left-ward lurching Anglican communion, I am coming home.
It is true that many of my predecessors in swimming the Tiber were reactionary, anti-women, anti-gay. I am decidedly not. I never have and never will be a Druid, tree-hugging Rowan Williams sort of priest. Nor do I wear rose-colored glasses about +Benedict's record or ulterior motives. I mourn the "war" within your walls over the reforms of the Second Council.
From my close friends who are progressive RC priests in this Archdiocese, I hear so much anger and suspicion towards Benedict. I understand that. I well remember his past pronouncements as Ratzinger. His intemperate dismissal of the validity of our orders still stings. Many of my Episcopal colleagues will scratch their heads when they learn of my plans.
But "in the name of love," as Bono reminds us, we must nonetheless try to speak to culture in a unified voice. We must get over our ecclesial infighting and ideologies, and witness to the world the reality of a transcendent hope. (John 17)
I am thankful beyond words for Benedict's overture. It is bold, counter-cultural, and life-giving to me. I eagerly await details.
I will do my best to humbly learn about this new-to-me world of yours on the far side of the Tiber. Together I think we can make a difference. But please, don't stereotype all of us who come to you with open arms.
October 29, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Welcome home, Fr Theoden! We are an annoying, exasperating bunch, but we're family.