Friday, August 29, 2008

English Anglo-Catholics, Beware of Crossing the Tiber

Recently, I’ve lamented that the default option for many Anglo-Catholics is Rome. Those who are so minded, particularly in England, had best take a closer look at the Roman Catholic Church in England.

To say that the English RC Church is inhospitable to traditionalists would be an understatement. Its bishops willfully undermine Pope Benedict’s bringing back the Latin Mass. Sordid liberals have been running the show for decades and likely will for years to come. Even worse, as Damian Thompson has been documenting, if a bishop doesn’t like your parish because you’re too traditionalist for his tastes, he just may shut you down. And he may be so underhanded in how he goes about that, it would make even an Episcopalian blush.

If the bishop chooses not to go quite that far but doesn’t like the way you say mass, he can just tell you to stop.

Combine these abuses of episcopal power with the fact that some English RC bishops are not at all well disposed toward Anglo-Catholics . . . . Well, cross the Tiber at your own risk. Who’s to say your traditional parish won’t be arbitrarily closed or your priest muzzled?

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