About 50 Anglican priests are expected to defect to the Catholic church, it emerged on Friday, as the first details were disclosed of an unprecedented initiative that will allow Anglicans disaffected over the ordination of women to convert. The clergy have registered their interest in the Vatican scheme and will undergo training for priesthood in the Catholic church.
The initiative, known as a personal ordinariate, is the response by Pope Benedict XVI to the demands of traditionalists who are unhappy with liberal developments in the Church of England and want to convert to Catholicism, but retain elements of their Anglican heritage.
A statement from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said five bishops who earlier this month announced their resignation would “enter into full communion” with Rome in early January. The Catholic church is providing ￡250,000 (US$399,350) to set up the ordinariate and said local dioceses will “respond generously” with “regard to housing and looking for ways in the beginning in which they can be sustained financially.”
The details were released as the archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Reverend Rowan Williams, warned that the departure of clergy could pose practical challenges to the Church of England. However, in an interview with Vatican Radio he said there was “no ill feeling” between him and the five bishops who were heading to Rome.
“The challenge will come in working out shared use of churches,” he said. “And also, of course, there will be some parishes without priests, so we have a practical challenge here and there to supply. It remains to be seen just how large a movement we’re talking about and I remain skeptical about some of the larger claims that are made.”
About 30 groups are said to have registered an interest in joining the ordinariate, which could mean up to 600 Anglicans, including possibly 50 priests from a total of 8,228 in England. The bishops leave behind salaries and housing and pension provision that is more generous than that they are likely to get in the Catholic Church. Neither will they receive compensation from the Church of England, as clergy who left the church over the ordination of women did in the 1990s.
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