New Catholic Times

"I am still fuming with the Pope.  How insensitive and arrogant to welcome misogynists and homophobes into the Catholic Church here in England behind Archbishop Rowan Williams back.  I read that Cardinal Cormac tried to stop him." 

So begins a note from a well known British writer on religious issues.

We may not go that far in our evaluation of the latest Vatican move in this area, nor as far as Mary Hunt in her article in this edition.

"Let history record this theological scandal for what it is. Touted by Rome as a step forward in ecumenical relations with a cousin communion, it is in fact the joining of two camps united in their rejection of women and queer people as unworthy of religious leadership."

i Or James Carroll in the Boston Globe:

"From the misfit fringe of another denomination, Rome recruits the naysayers it needs to bolster what has become its own place on the margin of Catholic life. First there was Opus Dei, with its crypto-fascist origins, then there were the Holocaust-denying lovers of Latin - and now the Anglo-fundies. Come on over, guys!"

In substance however we do agree these fellow Catholic writers. This is a retrograde move for the Roman leadership of the Catholic church and the long-suffering people in the pews.

If our British correspondent is right, this seems more like Roman unilateralism, a pre-emptive strike with little consultation. It raises too many questions for us to think about here. One  major line of thinking would be just how far Rome will go to smooth the transition from Canterbury. Would Rome be willing to genuflect in the direction of the more egalitarian Anglican democratic structures? The Church of England is miles ahead of Rome in its integration of the Council's priesthood of all believers.

Another issue surely is that of celibacy. About thirty years ago when the first Anglican dissenters came over to Rome bent out of shape by female ordination, several Toronto priests complained to then Cardinal Carter about the celibacy that they had endured. For most it was hardly a grace at all. They reminded Carter that they had forsaken families with teeth clenched because they desired priesthood and now these Anglicans were sailing in with families in tow. What's going on?

A decent man like Vatican spokesman  Cardinal Levada laughed when a reporter asked if women priests would be welcomed.

One wonders when highly intelligent people like Levada can continue to ignore the obvious. The Spirit has been beckoning for decades now to heed the the undeniable orientation of Jesus for radical inclusion in every area of life.

Writer James Carroll alluded to this failure to come to terms with "the signs of the times" in human culture.

"Equally damaging, the Vatican's preemptive exploitation of Anglican distress explicitly ducks the large and urgent challenge facing every religion and every religious person, which is how to positively reconcile tradition with the massive changes in awareness, knowledge, and communication that come with the scientific and technological breakthroughs that daily alter the meaning of existence."

The obvious solution to a more dynamic church is to make celibacy optional, ordain married men and women and stop poaching priests not only from Anglicans but from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. A church which cannot priest itself from the baptized among them has very little future.