The Pope's Anglican Proposal will draw at least 20-30 Bishops

The current initiative to invite Anglicans into the Catholic Church en masse was prompted by numerous requests. It is now clear that not just a few will be joining the Catholic Church throughout the world in response to these conservative Anglicans' increasing alienation in the Anglican Communion due to women's ordination and homosexuality; but quite a bit more outside of the Traditional Anglican Communion, numbering from 20-30 Bishops wishing direct communion to include individual groups constituting large numbers of prospective Catholics. What father would give his child a stone when he asked for bread?

However, there are conditions attached. Anglicans entering the fold must recognise the pope as the head of the church. The parishes would be led by former Anglican clergy who would be ordained as Catholic priests. “The ordinary,” who heads an ordinariate, can be either a celibate priest or an unmarried bishop, and “will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy,” the cardinal stated. While married Anglican priests may be ordained as Catholic priests, this does not apply to married Anglican bishops. As Africa's Newswatch Magazine reports:

Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, CDF, announced this decision at a special international press briefing in the Vatican, October 20. Cardinal Levada said the Pope decided to establish this special structure in response to “the many requests” that were submitted to the Holy See over the past three years or more “from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into visible communion.” He announced that about “20 to 30 bishops” had submitted requests, while “hundreds of requests” had been received from large groups of people,” and not from just the Traditional Anglican Community which has 500,000 members worldwide. He said it was expected that the Pope would issue an apostolic constitution, a document to enact or promulgate laws, on this issue in a few weeks.

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