Australians go first

from Damian Thompson's blogs:

Revealed: Anglo-Catholic bishop in talks with CDF to stop English bishops 'smothering' Pope's Anglican plan

Somebody has leaked to the Guardian a sensitive email from the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, “flying” Bishop of Ebbsfleet, to Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne, the Catholic auxiliary bishop in charge of implementing Anglicanorum coetibus in Australia.

In it, Bishop Burnham – an outstanding and inspiring Anglo-Catholic leader – confirms what we’ve all long suspected: that there are forces in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales who hate the Pope’s plan and want Anglicans to stay Anglican. Or, as he puts it, “who think that Anglicans are best off doing what they are presently doing”.

Bishop Burnham will be embarrassed by this leak, which reveals that in order to make sure that the Ordinariate project is not “smothered” he has been talking privately to Mgr Patrick Burke at the CDF (another great priest, by the way).

The Anglican exodus begins…

… in Australia, where, as my colleagues Bonnie Malkin and Martin Beckford report, Forward in Faith Australia has voted to join the Ordinariate.

We’re not talking about a large group, not everyone is going, and it’s led by a retired bishop. But the psychological impact of official Anglicans bearing the Forward in Faith logo voting to convert to Rome under the new corporate scheme will be significant. I wonder if it explains the malicious leak of an email from Bishop Andrew Burnham to the Australian Bishop Peter Elliot: did someone want to distract us from this development?

Incidentally, I like the quote from the FiF bishop, the Rt Rev David Robarts: “I love my Anglican heritage, but I’m not going to lose it by taking this step.”

Church of England bishop converts to Rome

The former assistant Bishop of Newcastle, Paul Richardson, has been received into full communion with the Holy See, I am pleased to reveal. Richardson – also a former Anglican bishop in Papua New Guinea and diocesan bishop of Wangaratta in Australia – was received into the Church at the chaplaincy at Durham University last month.

He tells me that his conversion is not the product of recent controversies. “I would have become a Catholic even if the Church of England wasn’t ordaining women bishops,” he says. “In a sense I feel it’s what I’ve always been, so this is like coming home.”

Richardson, 63, is not planning to join the Ordinariate, but hasn’t ruled out ordination as a Catholic priest – “You can’t just jump in and say ‘I want to be ordained’. I think I have to let the Church guide me over that,” he says.

Why it doesn't matter if the Pope's Ordinariate for ex-Anglicans is small at first

Here’s the start of my op-ed article on the Anglican ordinariates from this week’s Catholic Herald:

On Monday, Anglo-Catholics across England will be holding a day of prayer to help their bishops, clergy and laity decide how to respond to the Pope’s provision of a self-governing Ordinariate for former Anglicans. Many members of our Church will be praying with them; in Oxford, Anglicans are joining the members of the Oratory for a Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

There is a lot to pray about, and a lot to pray for. Anglo-Catholics interested in the Holy Father’s offer will be praying for gifts of discernment not only for themselves but for their fellow Anglican Catholics and Catholic Anglicans. (The two terms are not quite interchangeable, which gives you some idea of the complexity of the situation.)