I think that without any doubt whatsoever that the most fantastic speeches and response to the Holy Father at the Assembly of FiF in London came from Fr. Christopher Kinch, James Bradley
Daniel Lloyd, and Fr Philip Corbett. These men all display the grace and gratitude and are future young leaders in the Church Catholic that will take on the new evangelisation encouraged by Pope John Paul II and showing its abundant fruit in the generosity of our Holy Father. We live in exciting times and I pray, please God, England will be Catholic once again! Thank you to the four of you for delivering the proper response to the Holy Father!! Well done and hurry home!
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A man who honestly (even if falsely) believes that he is already a complete Catholic, lacking nothing in Word or Sacrament, while still in the Church of England or one of its daughters will have little reason to sacrifice a beautiful building, a gracious living, the comfort of a well known life, and the prestige of a known position in order to be acknowledged as being in full communion with the Catholic Church by the Bishop of Rome.
Only a man who concludes that he cannot stay where he is because his religion is incomplete will make such sacrifices, and I suspect that we are going to find that not many of the Anglican clergy in Forward in Faith will conclude that they need to move anywhere. They may later be pushed by the revisionists who run the table in the Church of England, but that is different from moving of one's own accord.
It is not in any way a defect of charity to point out this fact and to insist that it is a contradiction of the very goal of restored communion with the Bishop of Rome so long sought by Forward in Faith.
Much of what you said Father I tried to put in my piece below. I believe some attitudes need changing for sure. For me personally, your point is the fact of how my conversion came about. To this very moment I wouldn't change a thing because I became a Catholic by a real internal conversion of heart.
Thanks for posting your comments, Jeff.
Not being English my native language, there are some voices that I can not understand.
But so it seems that some people in Forward in Faith is ready to enrich the whole Catholic Church with their anglican heritage. It could be wonderful, really...
It is interesting that the only clerical commentator so far to your latest post on the current FIF conference is a High Church Episopalian. He gives away more than he realizes when he mentions status and simply proves what a different animal American Anglo-Catholicism is from its British counterpart and mother. In the States what remains of it seems to be little better than Anglophile, High Church Protestantism, a form of class-based nostalgia for something that has not existed for years. For better or worse the American Episcopal Church is the Church of Bishop Spong.
But there is truth in part of his observation because not that many Anglo-Catholic clergymen, their wives and families, will want to run the risk of entering the unknown unless there is strong financial provision to make it possible. I, too, admired the zeal and integrity of the young speakers you identify but their priestly lives remain largely untested and it will be easier for them to make a sacrifice than older, more established men.
The most revealing section of the recorded debate was the part limited to the laity. It was manifestly clear that they were thrown by the Pope's invitation and could hardly cope with it on a conceptual, let alone emotional, basis. The Anglo-Catholic layman is perfectly happy going to a church he knows where he finds what he wants. He does not have to think of the Church of England or what happens outside. This makes Anglo-Catholicism a lay religious phenomenon with a better-informed clerical icing.
Forthcoming months and years will be interesting and so will the results of Fr Kirk's motion to be debated by PCCs. What annoys me most about clerics who say that they cannot leave their people is a) that they have not taught then properly and thereby enable them to follow them and b) that when the time comes for them to retire there is, in the present climate, little chance that their successor will hold their views. In both cases their people will miss out. In reality this merely gives them little more than an excuse for staying put.
If the Pope's invitation is refused all Anglo-Catholics can do thereafter is sit up and shut up. As Fr Kirk said, the Holy Father has called their bluff.
Couldn't agree more, Jeffrey. What a privilege it is to have such mature and committed young ordinands and clergy in the church who are so +ve about what the Holy Father has offered at potential cost to themselves - I hope that the Assembly really heard what they were saying and will take it on board
Fr John Jay Newman; you really do specialize in saying what does not need to be said. Anyway, thanks for the sweetness and light.
Father Newman,
Thank you -- it is very important to hear the truth - difficult, but essential. Otherwise one can remain lost forever.
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