Reaction to the fine print on the Pope’s offer to welcome dissatisfied Anglicans into His Church is beginning to filter in. And the first indications are that those who want to leave will also want to take their church buildings and a hefty bon voyage bonus with them in cold hard cash.
Over at Forward in Faith, +John Fulham writes: “For some of us I suspect our bluff is called! This is both an exciting and dangerous time for Christianity in this country. Those who take up this offer will need to enter into negotiation with the Church of England about access to parish churches and many other matters. This situation must not be used to damage the Church of England but I do believe we have a valid claim on our own heritage in history.”
The salaries, pensions, etc. of these new Roman Catholic clergy are to be paid by their congregations. “Under the structure as published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the onus for paying for the new clergy, the ordinary in charge or “bishop”, the seminaries and other costs, will be down to the ex-Anglicans themselves,” notes Ruth Gledhill in the London Times.
At the Guardian, Andrew Brown observes: the mood in the rest of the Church of England is hardening against them. There is a general resentment of the humiliating way in which this was sprung on the Archbishop of Canterbury (who will go to Rome later this month, and deliver a speech on the 23rd; it is not thought that the Pope will be present, looking embarrassed, when he does so). The demands of the Anglo-Catholics that they be paid off and given their churches as well when they go are greeted with something between incredulity and anger. No one knows whether their congregations will follow them. It might just be that this tremendous edifice will be greeted with a rather embarrassed silence, like the competence of erection manifesting itself in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Also at the Guardian, Graham King notes: “From the Church of England, special financial provision for the clergy who may take up this offer will not be made available and there must be strong doubts whether church property or parsonages legally can be transferable.”
The fat is in the fire over buildings and salaries. If the CofE can’t be bullied in giving up both, the number of congregations that jump ship may be smaller than the number of priests and bishops who want to leave.
[...] of these disaffected but pious souls will need to take their fine church buildings, not to mention their pensions, into the papal bosom with them. This may create some problems for your average troubled Anglican [...]