Benedict's Ecumenical Blitzkrieg

People might be willing to make comparisons to the Blitzkrieg, and others, especially partisans of the Holy Father might be offended, but how can you not compare this to a successful military operation involving complete secrecy beforehand, leaving the stunned defenders completely oblivious as they are surrounded and cut off in a daring pincer movement.

Gerard Warner at the Scotsman, borrowing unatributively from Ruth Gledhill at The Times described Williams waking up with tanks on his lawn. It's a nice image.

For face-saving reasons, Williams tried desperately to pretend that this Vatican initiative was the outcome of mutual consultation, when the reality was that he had wakened up that morning to find Ratzinger's tanks on his lawn.

He also makes mention of the fact that, as in a perfect offensive maneuver, even enemy spies were oblivious of the move as Cardinal Kasper was nowhere to be seen. [He was in Cyprus] This promises to proceed apace as a smooth and well-timed and executed military-like operation after years and years of ineffectual discussions while the Anglican Church drifted further and further away from sanity and orthodoxy on the seas of modernity.

The entire thing promises to work like a Catholic reconquista with Catholics finally regaining possession of church campuses and monasteries stolen from them by Henry VIII and now occasionally in the possession of rock stars and Anglicans.