RC v CofE

Charles Moore

I wish the Pope’s new offer to Anglicans had been available when I became a Catholic 15 years ago. It would have helped avoid many misunderstandings.

In modern times, most Anglicans converting to Roman Catholicism are not trying to repudiate their existing beliefs. Instead, they are recognising that the logic of those beliefs leads them to become Catholics.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult for those close to them to see this. They can feel rejected. Conversion, a word now frowned on by the authorities, sounds sudden and absolute, when in fact the process is neither. The old phrase about ‘the parting of friends’ has a baleful ring. Parents, in particular, often imagine an implicit criticism of them, and ask, as they do when their children become drug addicts, ‘Where did we go wrong?’

None of these problems can be entirely abolished, particularly so long as the non-Catholic world persists in the illusion that becoming a Catholic means sacrificing your freedom to make up your own mind. But they can be mitigated if, wherever possible, the continuity is emphasised.

This is particularly true for the clergy. They have faithfully given their lives, as Anglican priests, to serving God and their flocks. The most difficult thing for them remains Rome’s view that their priestly orders are ‘null and void’. They therefore have to be re-ordained if they wish to serve as Catholic priests. But it helps them greatly if the liturgy and spiritual traditions and leadership which they have followed can be accepted by the Vatican. They are making a critical decision to find a new home. It is much less daunting if the welcome is warm and the surroundings familiar. Their orders may have been invalid: their deeds and prayers were not, and their spiritual traditions can enrich the universal Church.