What the author doesn't seem to recognize is that this move was prompted by the REQUEST of members not of the Anglican Communion or the Episcopal Church, but by a traditional Anglican group that I believe broke with Canterbury over the prayerbook. They claim 400,000 members - which is a larger than many of the RCC's Eastern Churches, and they specifically petitioned to join Rome en masse. While this offer certainly extends to those Anglicans/Episcopalians who are currently disaffected by the current situation in the Anglican communion, it was not created specifically with them in mind. Given this request, how could the Pope ignore them? They want to be Catholic, and this was a very generous gesture on his part. This was not a sheep steal, a poach, or a lure. It was a pastoral response to a very large request.
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maggie c
Oct 26, 2009
11:12 a.m.
What the author doesn't seem to recognize is that this move was prompted by the REQUEST of members not of the Anglican Communion or the Episcopal Church, but by a traditional Anglican group that I believe broke with Canterbury over the prayerbook. They claim 400,000 members - which is a larger than many of the RCC's Eastern Churches, and they specifically petitioned to join Rome en masse. While this offer certainly extends to those Anglicans/Episcopalians who are currently disaffected by the current situation in the Anglican communion, it was not created specifically with them in mind. Given this request, how could the Pope ignore them? They want to be Catholic, and this was a very generous gesture on his part. This was not a sheep steal, a poach, or a lure. It was a pastoral response to a very large request.