(no subject)

Is Pope Benedict a closet liberal?, by David Gibson, Sunday, October 25, 2009

When I heard last week that the Pope had announced that Anglicans can join the Catholic Church without giving up their rites and traditions, I wasn't sure how to react. My initial positive reaction was tempered by the fact that the invitation appears to be targeted towards the most conservative elements of the Anglican community. In that light, this would appear to be a move to bolster those element of the most conservative elements of the Catholic Church, those very elements that I have the most issues with. Furthermore, this invitation does not appear (at least in any of the media coverage I've seen so far) to address biggest theological differences between Anglicans and Catholics.

The editorial linked above points this out as well, noting that the Pope's invitation to Anglicans seems to suggest that the common social conservatism trumps the significant theological differences. I have to wonder, as does the author of the article, about the long term impact this move will have on the Church.

Unless the theological differences really are still important (in which case, I suspect very few Anglican communities will make the move to join the Catholic Church), then this opens a flood gate to widely divergent beliefs under the umbrella of the Church, dramatically altering the character of the Church and the sense of identity for its members.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into all this. But somehow, this strikes me as an important moment in Church history. I just don't know what kind of impact to expect.