Monday, November 02, 2009

Celibacy dispute stalls Anglo-Catholic constitution

Vatican officials are in dispute over priestly celibacy provisions in the forthcoming Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans returning to the Catholic Church, papal biographer, Andrea Tornelli, is reporting.

Tornielli, the biographer of several modern Popes including Pope Benedict, said that just over a week after its existence was revealed by the Vatican, the text of the Apostolic Constitution laying down the conditions for the creation of a new “Anglo-Catholic” section of the Church was still not ready for publication, the Times Online says.

This was not because of translation problems but “something more serious”, Mr Tornielli said. There was still debate behind the scenes over priestly celibacy, the “most sensitive point for public opinion”.

When asked last week about admission into the Catholic Church of married Anglican priests under the new rules, Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, replied that requests would be judged “on a case by case basis”.

It was left unclear however whether Anglican seminarians who were either married or who wished to get married before being ordained would also be admitted to the Catholic Church. The final text of the Apostolic Constitution is likely to “eliminate this ambiguity” by making clear that all trainee priests will be required to be celibate if they wish to go over to Rome, Mr Tornielli said.

The row has been exacerbated by the decision to disclose Pope Benedict’s approach to Anglican traditionalists before the final text was ready, thus risking another of the “diplomatic gaffes” that have occasionally marked his pontificate so far.

The Pope is understood to have wanted the announcement to be made only when the text was finalised, in order to avoid a public relations disaster like that which followed his rehabilitation in January of Richard Williamson, an excommunicated arch-conservative bishop, before he became aware that Bishop Williamson was a Holocaust denier.

However Cardinal Levada announced the Anglican move prematurely because he had just briefed Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Catholic Bishops of England of Wales - neither of whom were consulted - and was concerned that the news might leak out unofficially, Mr Tornielli wrote in Il Giornale.

A number of Catholic commentators have pointed out that allowing Anglicans to bring their “traditions and practices” with them could end up altering the traditions and practices of the Catholic Church - including celibacy - as much as undermining the Anglican communion.
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