When the Archbishop of Canterbury first heard that the Apostolic Constitution was pending, he telephoned Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, in the middle of the night to demand what was going on. Edward Pentin and other blogs have covered this, which came from an interview with Kasper in L'Osservatore Romano. As we report in The Times today, Dr Rowan Williams flew into Rome this morning, as did I, and this afternoon I hope to hear him speak at an ecumenical conference at the Gregorian university with Cardinal Kasper. Read the full interview with Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, blaming Anglican bishops and not the Pope for keeping the Archbishop of Canterbury in the dark, in tomorrow's Tablet.
In a brief comment piece, fresh from reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall on the Tudor dealings of Thomas Cromwell, I dreamed of inspiring some slightly more muscular leadership the Archbishop of Canterbury. But the comments posted already this morning make clear that this dream might be hopelessly naive.
In fact, more than one in ten Church of England priests who converted to Roman Catholicism over the ordination of women priests has returned to ministry in the established Anglican church.
The possible defection of large numbers of traditionalist Anglicans increased last week when the General Synod committee examining the consecration of women bishops decided there should be no statutory provision for Catholic Anglicans.
Last time, the Synod agreed a generous compensation package, the year after the vote to proceed with women priests in 1992. Since then 441 priests received payments totalling £27.5 million. Of these, 260 went to the Catholic church. Some, although not all, were ordained Catholic priests.
What is less well known is that 33 have now returned to stipendiary ministry in the Church of England.
Others who did not qualify for the compensation but also left have subsequently returned as well, although figures on them are harder to establish because the Church Commissioners has only kept data on those who received the compensation, which covered resettlement grants for these clergy, plus periodical payments which were subject to reduction if and when they started earning elsewhere.
The Rev Peter Bolton, 51, unmarried, who resigned in 1994 and then came back a year later and now ministers in Weston-super-Mare, received a diminishing series of payments for three years.
He believed the Synod did not have the right to make the unilateral decision to ordain women, going against the wider Catholic and Orthodox Church traditions. One member of his congregation at a Victorian neo-Gothic parish church at Royton near Oldham, Lancashire also converted and has also since returned.
Father Bolton was received by the then Bishop of Salford, Patrick Kelly, now Archbishop of Liverpool. He was interviewed by the diocesan vocations officer about becoming a priest but was offended to be treated 'like a 17-year-old.'
He said: 'I thought, I can't do this. I never felt welcome.'
His 'sponsor' was aanother ex-Anglican, under who he served one of his curacies, the Rev Roger Alderson, who had converted to Catholicism two years before and who received no compensation.
Father Alderson has also since returned to Anglican ministry although is now retired. Father Bolton added: 'I could not fault Archbishop Kelly. He was superb. But I never really felt part of the Catholic Church. I remember going to Mass on Sunday morning. In the Church of England, you expect people to talk to you. But in the Catholic Church, not a priest, not a man in the congregation, no-one spoke to me. I felt so isolated and lonely. I recognised that I had really hurt people I loved very much and who loved me. They had stayed and I think they felt betrayed by me. I did not like where I was, and wanted to be back in communion with people I loved.'
He went to a Catholic priest who was helping him, who told him to 'go back home'. Father Bolton said the two churches were culturally different. 'While I desired communion with the Catholic Church, it did not quite seem to happen for me.'
He still opposes women priests and bishops and described the Pope's offer as 'incredibly generous'. He added: 'It is a great idea. Anglican congregations can be in communion with the Holy See without having to become Roman Catholic in England. In practice, I do not see that there are going to be that many who do it.'
His sponsor Father Alderson, 62, who was married with four daughters and who supported himself while he was a Catholic by teaching RE in Catholic schools, said he found the pressures 'intolerable'. His difficulties were compounded when his wife left him. He did not wish to be ordained because he believed it would be unfair on cradle Catholic priests who were not allowed to marry. He loved the 'ordinary' nature of being a Catholic.
'In practice it was not that different from the Church of England.' Once he realised that he also spoke to a priest who was a close friend, who advised him to go back.
He ministered in the Durham diocese until he retired two years ago.
Christina Rees, of the pro-women's ordination lobby group Watch, said many in the Church were thinking of and praying for the Archbishop of Canterbury this week. 'We want Rowan Williams to know that he goes to Rome with the full support and authority of our church and we believe him to hold that authority. Anglicanism thrives on diversity. It is not always easy but it does mean our tradition has been dynamic and our understanding of that is always growing and changing, unlike the Catholic Church which is unable to live with diversity. Truth is more important than unity. That is a message the Archbishop really needs to hear.' (Ruth Gledhill)
Miles Rowley wrote: 'Surely Cromwell never envisaged constitutional monarchy, let alone synodical government, let alone women bishops. Moreover, he had a very clear policy in mind that he could devote himself to. A modern AoC has to have the dexterity of a juggler, the suavete of a diplomat, but those skills will go only so far in what has now seems to have become a cold and determined war. The CoE is imv too well loved to go under, but its eventual shape is probably anyone's guess.'
We also carried a brief report of one convert who went to Rome when women priests were ordained and came back a year later to resume his Anglican ministry. His sponsor, also a former Anglican vicar, returned as well to Church of England pastoral duties. One of these priests said to me he wished the Church of England's flying bishops, in particular the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, had spent less time flying back and forth to Rome for talks with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and more time looking after their Anglo-Catholic flock at home base.