Breaking: Vatican welcomes Anglicans into Catholic Church with Apostolic Constitution

Some stories are so big it's hard to know where to begin.

So let's begin with what the Vatican is saying:

"Today’s announcement of the Apostolic Constitution is a response by Pope Benedict XVI to a number of requests over the past few years to the Holy See from groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and are willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept the Petrine ministry as willed by Christ for his Church.

Pope Benedict XVI has approved, within the Apostolic Constitution, a canonical structure that provides for Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony.

The announcement of this Apostolic Constitution brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church. It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution." (VIS)

UK Telegraph reporter Damian Thompson (and "British Papist") is the man to read at this hour:

This is astonishing news. Pope Benedict XVI has created an entirely new Church structure for disaffected Anglicans that will allow them to worship together – using elements of Anglican liturgy – under the pastoral supervision of their own specially appointed bishop or senior priest.

The Pope is now offering Anglicans worldwide “corporate reunion” on terms that will delight Anglo-Catholics. In theory, they can have their own married priests, parishes and bishops – and they will be free of liturgical interference by liberal Catholic bishops who are unsympathetic to their conservative stance.

There is even the possibility that married Anglican laymen could be accepted for ordination on a case-by-case basis – a remarkable concession.

.... This is a decision of supreme boldness and generosity by Pope Benedict XVI, comparable to his liberation of the Traditional Latin Mass. The implications of this announcement will take a long time to sink in, but I suspect that this will be a day of rejoicing for conservative Anglo-Catholics and their Roman Catholic friends all over the world.

Also to read at this early stage: Deacon Keith Fournier (for more implications of this decision) and BBC News (to get an early sense for how the British press views this move). I will be updating this post as time permits today.

*At this time the text of the Apostolic Constitution is not available online.*

More....

• Damian Thompson: Archbishop of Canterbury criticises Rome for springing this announcement on him
• Fr. Z. Commentary on Note of the CDF about personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church
• John Allen: Vatican reveals plan to welcome disaffected Anglicans
• Associated Press: Pope Approves Plan to Bring Anglicans Into the Fold
• Catholic News Service: Pope establishes structure for Anglicans uniting with Rome
• The Anchoress is following the story closely, and I'm pleased to see she is mindful of the huge implications of this move for more traditional Anglicans in Africa
• New York Times: Pope Approves Plan to Allow Anglicans Into the Fold
• [You have to laugh at National Catholic Reporter's take: "Pope okays new structures to absorb disgruntled Anglican conservatives"]

More #2....

• Canon Lawyer Ed Peters: First thoughts on an Anglican ordinariate
• AmP follow-up: Anglo-Vatican announcement has important American/African dimension

Head of Catholic Church in UK criticizes online communities

And the UK Tech Herald isn't at all happy to hear it:

Breaking with its well-established tradition of remaining respectfully quiet on subjects that reach beyond the Bible, the good old Catholic Church has this week weighed in with its opinions on social networking. Surprisingly, the Church isn’t a fan and probably won’t be delivering bite-sized sermons on Twitter any time soon.

More pointedly, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has said social networking destinations such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo place a focus on forging potentially delicate “transient relationships” that can cause suicidal tendencies when and if they fracture.

The Church also said social networks place far too much emphasis and importance on how many friends a user can amass as opposed to the actual quality of any resulting friendships.

The criticism of social networking, which was offered up by Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols in UK broadsheet The Sunday Telegraph, comes following the suicide of 15-year-old high school student Megan Gillan, who took a fatal overdose of painkillers after being bullied online through Bebo.

The UK Tech Herald makes the (I think somewhat jerky move) of recommending readers join their Twitter and Facebook groups. Disagreeing with the criticism is one thing, but trying to be sneaky about promoting the opposite of what you think the Archbishop is recommending is not a very mature response.

I think Archbishop Nichols has the right sense here - clearly technology can be used for good and bad purposes, and like any tool, must be used prudently. But the tone one uses to criticize these matters is important - and it's also important to be fairly-well informed about the technologies one is criticizing. Other catholics - lay and ordained - have of course embraced technology to do good things online, and goodness knows the internet benefits from our active presence!

My simple rule of thumb is that our online activity should serve our "real" life. If we're spending time on Facebook catching up on what our faraway friends are doing, instead of spending time with the ones who are actual neighbors, that could be a problem, and an imbalance we need to address.

So we should both take the good things that people see in online communities, and the sober advice of our ecclesiastical shepherds, and make an informed judgement call. 

You know, like we should do with anything else (when we have legitimate options).

Friday offbeat: Church of England offers 2-for-1 sacraments

Specifically, "A wedding for the couples, and baptisms for their kids":

The Church of England is offering couples a two-for-one service - marriage for them and baptisms for their children.

The church says it is recognizing the changing reality of British families. Statistics show that 44 per cent of children in Britain are born to unmarried women.

New guidelines sent to the Church of England's 16,000 parish churches encourage services that combine a wedding with a christening or a service of thanksgiving for the birth of a child.

Some clergy welcomed the move Thursday, but others said it undermined church teaching about the sanctity of marriage.

The church said it was responding to demand, but still believed the best place for sex was within marriage. (AP)

Did you catch that? Marriage is not the "only" place for sex, just the "best" place.

UK Court rules Catholic Charities breaking law on homosexual adoption

It is becoming increasingly impossible for the Catholic Church to maintain her autonomy in the face of the homosexual lobby, especially in the United Kingdom:

"The tribunal ruled that a "heterosexuals only" policy in the adoption field of the Catholic Church in England and Wales would fall foul of the ban on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation brought in two years ago.

The Tribunal's ruling leaves leading charity Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) facing a deep religious impasse and creates a fundamental conflict between the tenets of the Catholic Church and the law of the land.

If the charity now sticks to Church policy and continues to follow its "heterosexuals only" policy it could lose its charity status and public funding.

It might also face discrimination claims by same-sex couples it has turned away in the past.

The ruling means that Catholic Care has been thwarted in its wish to amend its charitable objectives on religious grounds so that it could discriminate against same-sex couples wishing to adopt.

Catholic Care has a respected reputation, particularly in finding new families for "hard to place" children, but has never provided adoption services to homosexuals for religious reasons. (UK Telegraph)"

In other words, similar to cases in the US, Catholic Charities is faced with the option of getting out of the adoption business ... or compromising its principles. That's a choice a Church charity shouldn't have to make.

update: and, as if on cue, 9th Circuit Upholds Anti-Catholic Resolution - Same-sex Adoption Backgrounder.

Ph/t: Blog of the Courtier.

Confirmed: New Archbishop of Westminister Vin Nichols

Ruth Gledhill gets the scoop {update: and it's confirmed.}

"As we report in The Times, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham will tomorrow, Friday, be announced as the new Archbishop of Westminster. There will be a press conference at 11am at Archbishop's House, Ambrosden Avenue when he will be named as successor to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, ending months of speculation.

Read all about 'Vin', as he is known, on the diocesan website. He is a 'safe pair of hands', a man with a big heart and of increasingly conservative beliefs, who will be warmly welcomed in Westminster and beyond."

Damian Thompson (my go-to source for informed, orthodox UK Catholic news) is delighted by the news:

"... all the signs were that the job was going to a less suitable candidate. "Vin", as he is known, may be ambitious – but for a long time now he has been ambitious on behalf of the Catholic Church. He has fought the Catholic corner a good deal harder than many of his fellow bishops, most recently seeing off plans to force Catholic schools to accept a quota of non-Catholic students. He has also given the BBC a hard time for its anti-Catholic stance.

I don't think +Vincent would have been the first choice of many, if any, Catholic traditionalists, who were hoping that the Pope would choose a dynamic conservative outsider. The Archbishop of Birmingham is dynamic, all right, but it would seem ridiculous to describe him as conservative or an outsider.

And yet... Vin Nichols has become more conservative over the years, and more independent-minded."

Sources say the news will be announced this morning at 11AM (UK time).

update: Catholic Herald has a statement congradulating Abp. Nichols, statements from Christian leaders welcoming him, and a full story + video of the nomination (what good coverage!). VIS:

The Holy Father appointed Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham, England, as metropolitan archbishop of Westminster (area 3,634, population 4,664,000, Catholics 472,600, priests 669, permanent deacons 8, religious 1,560), England. He succeeds Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

update 2 - Whipers has video of the press conference and Q&A. I'm too lazy to embed them.

Outrageous: UK abortion clinics to advertise on TV for first time

You can't advertise cigarettes, but you can advertise mass murder:

Condom adverts could also be shown before the 9pm watershed. The Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice is launching a 12 week consultation to gauge reaction to the plans.

The watchdog claims it is responding to Government calls for action to combat rising teenage pregnancy.

It would be the first time that pro and anti abortion services will be allowed to advertise.

However, those against abortion will be required to make clear if they do not refer women for abortion so that delays do not result in medical complications.

The move has been criticised by the church and pro-life groups. (UK Telegraph)

And also criticized by Ed West who says:

These abortion adverts are supposed to combat our teenage pregnancy rate, currently six times neighbouring Holland's, but will only have the reverse effect. The Government has already spent a fortune combating unwanted pregnancy these past dozen years, making abortion and contraception ever easier and looking surprised when the pregnancy rate fails to fall or even goes up. They're like General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth, sending thousands of men to their deaths in the hope that this time the "big push" will work.

It won't. If It didn't before, why will it work now? Alcoholics Anonymous have a saying: "If you keep doing the same thing, you'll keep getting the same result".

Forget condoms and abortion adverts: money spent on normal academic classes that instil students with self-confidence and teach them to think for themselves would bring better results. But that would mean the health establishment getting over its addiction to sex education.

Of course I think West's solution fall short. But it's far better than the one proposed by the UK government.

"Addiction to sex education." I hope people pick up that damning phrase.

UK bishop "thrilled" by Obama's election ... or is he?

LifeSiteNews reports:

A British Catholic bishop has issued a statement enthusiastically welcoming the man who has been labelled the “most pro-abortion US president in history” – president-elect Barack Obama. Bishop Crispian Hollis of the Portsmouth diocese in southern England has said he is “thrilled” at the election of Obama.

The bishop’s message, posted on the website of the Portsmouth diocese, says, “With millions of others, I have been thrilled by Barack Obama’s victory and I thank God for it. For me, it represents a rare moment of hope and optimism which shows American democracy at its best and it is of seismic significance and potential for the whole global community. And so, more than ever now, he deserves and needs us to keep him in our prayers.”

This ardent welcome from Hollis, known in Britain to be on the extreme left of the Catholic Church, is in sharp contrast to a letter issued yesterday by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, in which they warned Obama that “aggressive pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.”

But an update from Damian Thompson:

Bishop Hollis has now "clarified" his message as follows:

I genuinely welcome [Mr Obama's] election because he represents such a different political profile from that of President Bush. America – and the world – needs that political change and will benefit from it.However, I am aware of what he has said about abortion and about the so-called freedom of choice and I deplore his words.

There is no way in which I endorse his position on these crucial “life” matters, nor, as a Catholic bishop, could I ever do so.Perhaps it’s naïve to say this but I hope and pray that the realities of the political process will mean that he has to temper his personal policies on these all important life issues and pay serious attention to the outrage with which many view his “life” agenda.

That's much better, though I don't think the Bishop should present his own party political views on a diocesan website. I'm glad he's deplored Obama's extreme pro-abortion opinions; I would have thought that he would have mentioned them in his original message, but maybe they slipped his mind.

Too bad, I was waiting for the pro-Obama Catholics to register their outrage at Bishop Hollis' brutal display of partisanship. Yawn.

The short road to modern eugenics...

... is upon us in the form of a "one-stop" genetic test for embryos:

A gene mapping test could tell parents-to-be if embryos are affected by almost any inherited disease, UK scientists have claimed.

The team from London's Bridge Centre say the £1,500 test could detect any of the 15,000 inherited diseases in weeks.

Current tests are either focused on a specific gene mutation, or take a lot longer to give results.

But other experts warned the fertility regulator would have to ensure there were strict limits on the test's use. (BBC)

.... because British courts have been so careful about imposing strict limits on embryonic procedures.

Britain Approves Animal-Human Embryos

Bad, bad news:

British plans to allow scientists to use hybrid animal-human embryos for stem-cell research won final approval from lawmakers Wednesday in a sweeping overhaul of sensitive science laws.

The House of Commons also clarified laws that allow the screening of embryos to produce babies with suitable bone marrow or other material for transplant to sick siblings.

It was the first review of embryo science in Britain in almost 20 years.

The legislators voted 355-129 to authorize the proposals after months of sometimes bitter debate that has pitted Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government and scientists against religious leaders, anti-abortion campaigners and others anxious about medical advances. (AP)

We're really losing badly here. And just to make the obvious connection: A liberal president and democrat-controlled House will in all likelihood introduce and sign similar legislation in the U.S.

Cardinal Newman isn't in his tomb, and that's okay

This editoral published in the UK Times ("Please - enough of this ghoulish sideshow") is quite a handful.

First, let's separate the facts from the anti-Catholic comments (which requires a editing scalpel):

On Saturday [Church officials] confirmed that since the [Cardinal Neman] never had a lead-lined coffin, he is all gone. “Brass, wooden and cloth artefacts” were recovered, but “there were no remains of the body... in the view of medical professionals in attendance, burial in a wooden coffin in a very damp site makes this kind of total decomposition unsurprising.”

Regular AmP readers will remember that I've been covering the efforts (and resistance) to exhuming Cardinal Newman's body, an ordinary part of the Catholic Church's canonization process.

As for Libby Purves' vitriolic commentary, I could go line-by-line on it, writes hundreds of words that most people won't bother to spend the time reading, or I could jump right to the heart of the matter:

For all her pretense of erudition, Ms. Purves completely misses the point when she says:

"The Church's weird horror of fleshly things (unmarried or contracepted sex, gay love) is nastily counterpointed by its affection for cadavers."

Actually, it is the radical Christian respect of the fleshly that causes us to both hold ourselves to a high standard of sexual purity (see: the writings of St. Paul, the unbroken teaching of the Church) and to simultaneously respect the dignity of the human body even in death (see: relics, belief in bodily resurrection, adoration of the human nature hypostatically united to the divine nature in the person of Jesus Christ).

Her second major mistep, the subtitle to her article:

"The creepy attempt to exhume the remains of Cardinal Newman will drive people away from the Church"

That's certainly odd coming from someone who claims she was a "genuinely devout Catholic schoolchild" who "hated this stuff, and ... hates it more now." I'm sorry that she is repulsed by the Church's veneration of a holy person's body. I'm sorry she doesn't realize that same respect undergirds why Catholics attempt to remain pure in this life as well.

But don't say you're terrified the Church might lose members over it. Try to understand it first.

Update: BBC World News if you're intrigued by the actual story.

UK v. Catholic Schools

UK Times:

A Roman Catholic school is refusing to allow 12 and 13-year-old girls to be immunised against cervical cancer on its premises.

The move, by St Monica’s High School in Prestwich, was condemned as irresponsible by the Department for Health, which began its programme to immunise girls against the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) this month.

In a letter to parents, the school says that the vaccine has been proved neither safe nor effective, that girls who took part in a pilot programme last year suffered side-effects and that the vaccine could “interfere with the body’s natural defences”. It concluded: “We do not believe that school is the right place for the three injections to be administered.”

Ph/t: William Newton.

Muslims taking over Britain by having more babies

Religion News Blog (which can tend to be sensational):

A hate fanatic has boasted that Muslims will one day conquer Britain — by having more babies.

Speaking at a rally marking 9/11, Anjem Choudary bragged that a birth explosion would let followers of Islam take control of the country.

Undercover Sun investigators secretly recorded Choudary telling a young and impressionable audience that they would eventually rule under strict Sharia law.

And our team listened in chilled silence as he predicted: “Islam is superior and will never be surpassed. The flag of Islam will rise over Downing Street.”

Hateful rhetoric aside, the objective demographics he refers to - are correct. And not just England, but France, Italy, etc.

Catholic Cherie Blair defends her use of contraception

A brief dip into the UK tabloids, where Catholic Cherie Blair defends her use of contraception. Local press thinks she's talking about this sort of stuff to sell her recently released memoirs.

The international press, however, has at times been quick to see this as a case of a high-level dissent, when actually it strikes me rather more as a case of ordinary ignorance and uncaring:

Former British prime minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie has defended her use of contraception despite calling herself a "good Catholic girl".

Mrs Blair, whose husband coverted to Catholicism after leaving office last June, made the comments after she revealed in a new book how her fourth child was conceived accidentally, during a holiday with teh Queen.

"People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception,'' she told GMTV television.

"But it is really an important thing for women .. One of the reasons women's lives have changed is that they have been able to control their fertility, it is an important issue."

In her just-published autobiography, Speaking for Myself, Mrs Blair describes how the birth of the couple's last child Leo followed a visit to the queen's Balmoral Scottish residence in 1999.

She tells how she had not packed her "contraceptive equipment'' because the previous year it had embarrassingly been discovered, unpacked along with a "range of unmentionables''.

"As usual up there, it had been bitterly cold, and what with one thing and another... but then, I thought, I can't be. I'm too old. It must be the menopause,'' she said. (source)

Spare me. This is a classic example of the "it's just common sense" defense of contraception.

Her husband Tony Blair has also publicly held several positions contrary to the Church's teaching.

Rome to Anglicans: Decide if you are Protestants or Catholics

A controversial story from UK blogger Damien Thompson:

The Vatican said last night that the time has come for the Anglican Church to choose between Protestantism and the ancient sacramental Churches of Rome and Orthodoxy.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, told the Catholic Herald that the Anglican Communion must “clarify its identity” and stop hovering between the Catholic and Protestant traditions.

... The cardinal [Kasper] is clearly hoping for some sort of breakthrough – or break-up? – at this summer’s Lambeth Conference, which already promises to be a spectacular disaster. But I don’t think we should jump to the conclusion that his views represent those of Pope Benedict.

An Anglican-Catholic reunion looked far more likely before Anglicans decided to start ordaining women, etc.

update: The story is picking up steam, Phil Lawler talks about it here.

Fr Aidan Nichols lays out plan to save Catholic Church in England

Damian Thompson of the UK Telegraph reports:

The Domican theologian Fr Aidan Nichols – Holy Smoke readers’ choice to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor at Westminster – has just published an ambitious plan to revive the wretchedly moribund English Catholic Church.

His new book The Realm: An Unfashionable Essay on the Conversion of England suggests that the bishops should vigorously convert people to Roman Catholicism. I can already hear the snooty splutters ("How reactionary! How inappropriate!") from the episcopal HQ at Eccleston Square, various bossy "trained liturgists" – and, of course, the Bitter Pill.

Now there's a novel idea. The Church? Evangelize?! How scandalous.

The title doesn't appear to be available in the U.S. at present. UK orders for now.