The crusade the Catholic Church launched recently to convert disaffected Anglicans should disabuse anyone of any doubt that the mission of organized religion is more about amassing power than saving souls.
Why else would Benedict XVI, the most conservative and doctrinaire pope in modern times, implement liberal reforms just to make it easier to increase his flock of tithing worshipers….
Specifically, the Catholic Church seems hell-bent on exploiting the irreparable rift that developed in the Anglican Church a few years ago over the ordination of women priests and the consecration of gay bishops:
In a March 2005 column, I predicted that the battle within the Anglican Church over the role of women and gays would eventually blow its worldwide communion asunder. Back then, some of the most influential dioceses in the United States and overseas (especially in Latin America and Africa) threatened to secede… Because, they claimed, ordaining women as priests and consecrating gays as bishops (to say nothing of performing gay marriages) amounted to a “Satanic attack” on the Church.
[Internecine battle for the soul (and property) of the Anglican Church, TIJ, December 18, 2006]
Interestingly enough, a significant number of white Anglicans became so disaffected that they abandoned their white leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and joined a rival worldwide communion headed by a black leader, the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola.
More to the point, though, the Catholic Church clearly saw this internecine battle within the Anglican Church as a divine recruiting opportunity. And to make it easier for Anglicans to jump ship, the pope decreed on October 20 that even married Anglican priests would be welcome on board his ship of faith.
Never mind that this decree makes a mockery of the declaration the pope made in 2006, in which he:
… reaffirmed the value of the choice of priestly celibacy [insisting that] opening up the Church to a married priesthood is no cure for the sickness that is plaguing Catholicism in its historic birthplace of Western Europe.
[The Pope Lays Down the Law on Celibacy, TIME, November 16, 2006]
So much for the infallible pronouncements of the pope, eh….
But nothing will swell the ranks of his faithful quite like the pope’s decision to allow Anglicans:
to convert as individuals, parishes or even as whole dioceses.
In fact, Reuters reports that the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), which has some 400,000 members, has already joined the Catholic Church en masse.
Meanwhile, to add insult to this injurious poaching, the Vatican announced on Friday that it has invited the Archbishop of Canterbury to meet with the pope on November 21 to discuss worldwide Christian unification.
But this cuckolded Archbishop must surely know that the Vatican envisions this unification taking place under the pastoral leadership of the pope and under the banner of the Roman Catholic Church.
Amen.
Related commentaries:
Internecine battle for the soul
Pope lays down Law on Celibacy
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