Forward in Faith 'in talks with Vatican'

By Damian Thompson
July 28th, 2009

A well-connected Rome source reports that Forward in Faith, the umbrella group for conservative Anglo-Catholics in the C of E, is talking to the Vatican about corporate union. Here’s the odd thing about the rumour: it claims that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna is meeting with Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham at the suggestion of the Holy Father.
The model for the move to Rome could be the proposed reception of the Traditional Anglican Communion into the Catholic Church. But Broadhurst has very firmly denied that Forward in Faith is throwing in its lot with the TAC, a rebel Anglican group that has already submitted to the Magisterium.

Read the rest on Mr. Thompson's Holy Smoke blog.

Traditional Anglicans want to join Catholic Church

March 4, 2009
By NICOLE WINFIELD and ROHAN SULLIVAN

The Vatican is considering welcoming into the Roman Catholic Church a group of traditional Anglicans who broke away from the global Anglican Communion nearly two decades ago over women's ordination and other issues, officials say. Vatican officials stress that no decision has been made and no announcement is imminent. Still, Anglicans across the spectrum of belief are closely watching for any signs of movement. Absorbing the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion would be a small but notable victory for Pope Benedict XVI, who has made unifying Christians a goal of his papacy...
Read in full at the Associated Press.

Primate clarifies aspects of several reports on TAC-Holy See initiative

February 25, 2009

SINCE the publication of a report on the Traditional Anglican Communion and unity in the semi-official Vatican publication "Civilta Catholica" (in Italian in October last year, in English in December) there has been speculation about precisely what structure might be considered appropriate for the Traditional Anglican Communion. This speculation reached new heights in early February with a major feature in the Catholic Record (the
Catholic weekly paper from Perth, Australia.)

Read in full in The Messenger.

Pope ‘wants personal prelature’ for ex-Anglicans

By Ed West
February 6, 2009

Plans to create a personal prelature for former Anglicans in the Catholic Church could lead to a flood of converts, according to a senior figure in the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England. The cleric, who asked not to be named, was speaking after an Australian magazine announced that the Vatican is progressing with plans to bring the 400,000-strong Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) into the Church. The TAC was founded in 1991 from groups that had broken with the Anglican Communion over the issue of the ordination of women and other issues. It has been in discussions with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since late 2007...
Read in full at The Catholic Herald.

Healing the Reformation's fault lines

January 28, 2009

History may be in the making. It appears Rome is on the brink of welcoming close to half a million members of the Traditional Anglican Communion into membership of the Roman Catholic Church, writes Anthony Barich. Such a move would be the most historic development in Anglican-Catholic relations in the last 500 years. But it may also be a prelude to a much greater influx of Anglicans waiting on the sidelines, pushed too far by the controversy surrounding the consecration of practising homosexual bishops, women clergy and a host of other issues...
Read in full at The Record.

See also articles about this story on Damin Thompson's Holy Smoke blog, and Ruth Gledhill's Articles of Faith blog.

Former Episcopal Bishop Describes the 'Joy' of Being Catholic

Converts from the Anglican tradition to Roman Catholicism are nothing new, whether among laity or clergy. However, as former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande, Jeffrey Steenson, D.Phil., stood out among the rest last Advent when he was received into the Catholic Church in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore...
Read the rest at Headline Bistro.

Anglican Rumblings: A Pastoral Provision in England's Green and Pleasant Land?

by Matthew Alderman
July 10, 2008

There has been much discussion, both heated or hopeful, since Benedict XVI's election about a future influx of conservative Anglicans into the Catholic Church as a result of the recent controversies over homosexuality and women's ordination, what shape this ingrafting might take, and what impact (if any) this might have on the Roman liturgy. The already-thin ties that bind the Anglican Communion have been stretched to the breaking point by Monday's vote in the House of Bishops paving the way to the episcopal ordination of women. Debate was contentious, lasting six hours, and moving at least one Anglican bishop to weep with shame. Structural proposals for men-only dioceses and "super-bishops" that might have helped the evangelical and Anglo-Catholic wings save face were rejected. Traditional Anglicans must now face they are no longer welcome in the Church of England...
Read in full at the blog of The New Liturgical Movement

ANALYSIS: Will Anglicans Come Home to Rome?

by Deacon Keith Fournier
Novemer 24, 2007

On the eve of the Consistory, rumors are swirling of a major movement toward Rome.
As the Anglican communion world wide suffers from internal division over issues of Christian orthodoxy, could a significant movement of Anglicans soon be received into the full communion of the Catholic Church?
Read in full at Catholic Online.