Vatican to Anglicans: Either Crap or Get Off the Pot

Speaking of Dr. Williams below, it looks like Cardinal Kasper almost did something worthwhile for a change. He asked a very pointed question, basically wondering, where is Anglicanism going?

Frankly, it looks like it's headed straight for a major schism right now, so when it comes to Kasper's options "the churches of the first millennium -Catholic and Orthodox - or . . . more to the Protestant churches of the 16th century" the answer might be both. Or neither, considering that the liberalism dominating the western elements of the Church of England (like Gene Robinson and Katherine Schori) would have been monstrous for the Reformers. No, the problematic parts of the Anglican communion are way too lost in their own shenanigans to even contemplate some sort of "belonging" with the other mainline Reformed ecclesial communities.

Let's be really honest, though. There's not much left of anything first millenium even away from the progressive whackjobs. Their orders are null. They are not a church. They embraced contraception before any other Christian group even considered it. How much more Protestant can you get?

Finally, even when he seems to be trying to do something good, it's like Kasper can't keep from espousing error. Somebody needs to let him know that there were no first millenium "churches." There was and is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. One Mystical Body of Christ. That Church is the Catholic Church and all others are either heretical and/or schismatic. Like the Anglicans. We need to be praying for these souls to come home rather than perhaps feeding some of their errors (like the idea that they may actually be a church, regardless of their lack of a priesthood).

Wherefore, strictly adhering, in this matter, to the decrees of the pontiffs, our predecessors, and confirming them most fully, and, as it were, renewing them by our authority, of our own initiative and certain knowledge, we pronounce and declare that ordinations carried out according to the Anglican rite have been, and are, absolutely null and utterly void.

Pope Leo XIII, Apostolicae Curae (arguably an ex cathedra pronouncement)