VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said on Monday that its new rules facilitating the conversion of Anglicans, including married Anglican priests, did not “signify any change” in its rules for priestly celibacy.The announcement seemed aimed at dampening recent debate about whether in creating a new Anglican rite within the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican had brought in a kind of Trojan horse — married former Anglican clergy — a practice that might someday normalize the acceptance of married Catholic priests.
In a watershed in Catholic-Anglican relations, Pope Benedict XVI announced three weeks ago the creation of a new structure in which Anglicans could convert to Catholicism yet keep certain parts of the Anglican ritual, including liturgy. The move was widely seen as an effort to attract traditionalist Anglicans uncomfortable with the ordination of women and gay clergy members.
On Monday, the Vatican released the rules governing the new structures. They uphold current practice; the rules say married Anglican priests can become Catholic priests only on “a case-by-case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.”
The new norm “does not signify any change in the church’s discipline of clerical celibacy,” the Vatican press office said in a statement.
It added that the new structure was “consistent” with the church’s “commitment to ecumenical dialogue.”
The Vatican has emphasized that the new norms were not aimed at poaching Anglicans but were created in response to requests by traditionalist Anglicans. In its statement on Monday, the Vatican said the new structure was “a generous response from the Holy Father to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups.”
Nevertheless, the creation of an Anglican rite within the Catholic Church has been widely perceived as a bold and even aggressive act capitalizing on the weaknesses of the Church of England, which in recent years has been increasingly divided over the issue of female and gay clergy members.
A recent headline in The Times of London read, “Rome Parks Tanks on Rowan’s Lawn,” referring to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Williams, who jointly announced the new norms with the Vatican at a news conference on Oct. 20 in London, is expected to meet the pope in Rome next week.
The new rules stipulate that men who were baptized as Catholics and subsequently became Anglicans cannot become priests. They also say that Anglican bishops who convert to Catholicism will remain priests but will lose the rank of bishop.
Called Personal Ordinariates, the new structures are akin to dioceses but without geographic bounds. They are to be overseen by bishops or priests chosen by the pope. The ordinariates will work in conjunction with local dioceses but will not answer to them, and will belong to the local bishops conference.
It remains to be seen how many Anglicans will take the Vatican up on the offer.
