Rome puts smackdown on foofoo Anglicanism

"Roundup: Canadian paper lashes out at Vatican; Father Rutler sees ‘slap-down of liberal Anglicanism’" (CatholicCulture.org, October 21, 2009):

The editors of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s second most popular newspaper, have lashed out at the Vatican’s decision to permit Anglican communities to join the Catholic Church as communities.

“The Vatican's welcome of some Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church is a Trojan horse,” the editors write. “In the face of an inflexible hierarchy, liberal Catholic voices have had little effect; the grudging loyalty of those who remain is in jeopardy. The Vatican announcement will make the Catholic Church more conservative and the Anglican church more liberal. Is that what ecumenism is meant to accomplish?”

Similar criticisms were made by one New York Times commentator, who charged the Pope with fostering “cafeteria Catholicism.” Other writers, however-- such as John Allen and Collen Carrroll Campbell in The New York Times, and Father Raymond J. de Souza in the National Post,-- offered commentary that was more balanced and less shrill.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Editorial: An embrace that divides (Globe and Mail)
• Why the Vatican Wants Anglicans (New York Times)
• Ruth Gledhill: Desperate bishops invited Rome to park its tanks on Archbishop’s lawn (The Times)
• Amen to a good offer (National Post)
• Fr. Dwight Longenecker: 'A Bridge Across the Tiber' (Catholic Online)
• Fr. Rutler discusses Vatican's Anglican provision (CNA)
• Pontiff to permit Anglican communities to join Catholic Church (CWN, 10/20)

[Hat tip to J.M.]