TAC and Rome: Possibilities and Problems

Here are a few simple thoughts on the rumour that the Church of Rome is prepared to offer a personal prelature status to the Traditional Anglican Communion, and by extension, to Anglo-Papalists worldwide...

1.The possibility of a personal prelature, like that of Opus Dei, for Anglo-Papalists who desire to enter into communion with the See of Rome is a welcome and exciting gesture from the Pope, should it actually materialise. It will be an answer to the fervent and faithful prayers of many devout Anglicans. However, the creation of such of prelature will be of no practical significance or consequence for those Anglo-Catholics in the Continuing Churches who cannot, as a matter of faith and conscience, accept the 1870 definition of the I Vatican Council concerning the infallibility and universal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. For Anglo-Catholics who maintain the Tradition of the Undivided Church and thus by necessity reject the modern Papal Claims, the prelature would represent a positive breakthrough in ecumenical relations, but nothing more. For them, the modern Papal Claims remain an insuperable barrier to full communion with Rome.

2.The jurisdictional situation created by a personal prelature would be difficult to resolve in practical terms. According to Roman Canon Law, the local Ordinary of the Latin Rite diocese must give his approval for the erection of any personal prelature parishes within his diocese. The bishop in question would have to give his assent to the implementation of an Anglican Use parish in his local church. Given the animosity of many Latin Rite bishops toward the Anglican Tradition, particularly in the UK, the likelihood that many Anglican Use parishes will be free to establish themselves without restriction or condition is very slim indeed.

3.The Traditional Anglican Communion itself is divided on the matter of communion with the Roman Church – many of the parishes and laity of the TAC, especially in the USA, are not Papalists at all and will refuse to submit to the merger. The Romeward movement is primarily clergy-driven. Like every other Continuing Church, the Anglican Church in America possesses a diversity of theological and liturgical expressions, ranging from Anglo-Papalism to Prayer Book Catholicism to Latitudinarianism to ‘low church.’ Only convinced and enthusiastic Papalists will likely be willing to proceed into communion with Rome. The others will probably depart TAC/ACA for other Continuing Churches. In the end, only a smaller group from within the original Traditional Anglican Communion would actually progress to being received into the Church of Rome.

4.The invalidity of Anglican Orders is now a set dogma of the Roman Catholic Church and is held to be a definitive and promulgated teaching of the ordinary magisterium of the Papal See. The doctrinal commentary on the motu proprio Ad Tuendam Fidem of 1998, written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and approved by Pope John Paul II, declares Apostolicae Curae to be an infallible teaching of the Roman magisterium. ‘With regard to those truths connected to revelation by historical necessity and which are to be held definitively, but are not able to be declared as divinely revealed, the following examples can be given: the legitimacy of the election of the Supreme Pontiff or of the celebration of an ecumenical council, the canonizations of saints, and the declaration of Pope Leo XIII in the apostolic letter Apostolicae Curae on the invalidity of Anglican ordinations.’ The practical consequence of this teaching is that every cleric of the former TAC would be required to submit to absolute (or in some rarer cases, conditional) ordination. The potential reiteration of the indelible character of Holy Orders is for many Anglican clergy a sacrilege impossible to countenance, one which would in turn prohibit otherwise interested and desirous clergy from moving into full communion with Rome. Rome simply will not recognise the validity of Anglican Orders – and that is now an immutable fact.

5.The canonical quagmire of married bishops and divorced and remarried bishops, priests and deacons would be extremely difficult to sort out. It is clear that married bishops would not be permitted in any scheme of reunion between Anglo-Papalists and Rome, and celibate priests would have to be chosen by papal mandate and consecrated to serve any personal prelature. Every single case of divorced and remarried clergy, or of clergy married to divorced and remarried wives, or both, would have to be examined, reviewed and resolved according to Canon Law and the usual marriage tribunal system, a process that could take years to accomplish. Clergy in marriages deemed invalid would not be allowed to be reordained or even to be received into full communion: for example, persons in marriages determined to be invalid would have to refrain from receiving the Holy Eucharist. The prospect of such a situation would indeed be a painful one for all involved. But a painstaking process of this magnitude would be necessary in order for any kind of corporate reconciliation to take.

6. The hierarchy of the Roman Church in England and Wales would likely oppose any such measure as a personal prelature: the Roman bishops of those two countries are generally modernist and liberal, and eschew traditionalist Anglo-Papalists and the threat they pose to the modern post-Vatican II agenda. UK Anglo-Papalists are on the whole vastly more traditional and orthodox than their average Roman counterparts. The single best book on the subject of British Roman Catholic episcopal antipathy to Anglo-Papalism, as demonstrated by its uncooperative response to the priestess crisis of 1992, is undoubtedly The Roman Option by William Oddie. Anglo-Papalists as a whole should not expect a warm welcome from the official hierarchy in Great Britain. In North America and Australia, one expects the situation would only be slightly better.

7. The liturgical issues would also have to be addressed. It is presumed that any Anglican prelature would be based on the Missa Normativa, the Novus Ordo Missae, with the possible use of the Extraordinary Form and the Book of Divine Worship. Elements of the Anglican Rite would probably be retained in places where they are desired, but most of British Anglo-Papalism is already completely Roman Rite. Overall, the liturgy would differ little in structure from regular Latin Rite parishes, although it must be admitted that the ethos and liturgical expression of the prelature would be greatly deepened and enhanced by the Anglican penchant for beauty, reverence and precision.

8. Buildings and properties would be an area of concern and potential conflict as well. In the USA, Canada, Australia and other countries, those parishes of the TAC which already own their own buildings could bring the properties along with them into communion with Rome. In the UK, Anglo-Papalists within the Church of England still inhabit buildings and properties belonging to the Established Church. The effort to move Church of England properties to Rome would be complex, expensive and litigious. Many Anglo-Papalists in the UK would face the grim necessity of leaving behind their ancient parish churches for rented space or more modern facilities were they to enter into full communion.