Forward in Faith Australia, part of the Anglo-Catholic group that also has members in Britain and America, is setting up a working party guided by a Catholic bishop to work out how its followers can cross over to Rome.
It is believed to be the first group within the Anglican church to accept Pope Benedict XVI’s unprecedented offer for disaffected members of the Communion to convert en masse while retaining parts of their spiritual heritage.
So far only the Traditional Anglican Communion, which has already broken away from the 70 million-strong Anglican Communion, has declared that its members will become Catholics under the Apostolic Constitution.
Somebody tell Rowan. The last thing he needs is more surprises. However, we have to be careful here. It's not all roses and rainbows:
The Rt Rev David Robarts OAM, chairman of FIF Australia, said members of the association felt excluded by the Anglican Church in Australia, which had not provided them with a bishop to champion their conservative views on homosexuality and women bishops.
"We're not shifting the furniture, we're simply saying that we have been faithful Anglicans upholding what Anglicans have always believed and we're not wanting to change anything, but we have been marginalised by people who want to introduce innovations. We need to have bishops that believe what we believe."
I hope this second paragraph is a paraphrase or something because from a Catholic perspective it's completely inacceptable. The whole point here is that these Anglicans can't just keep "upholding what Anglicans have always believed" and not "change anything." Read the apostolic constitution. This isn't Cardinal Kaspar's party anymore. The very fact of becoming Catholic means abjuring Anglican errors, in other words, a change. I hope Mr. Robarts understands this. He's going to have to be ordained again. He's going to have to accept the primacy of the Holy Father. And so on, and so forth.
St. Augustine of Canterbury, pray for them (and us).
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