English Catholics Claim 900 Anglican Converts

LONDON — About 900 members of the Church of England have taken the first step toward becoming Catholics, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales said Tuesday.

The converts participated in a Rite of Election, the first step toward confirmation, over the weekend, the church said.

They will be joining the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, established by Pope Benedict XVI to receive Anglicans who increasingly have felt isolated since the Church of England decided in 1992 to ordain women as priests.

Tensions have grown as the governing General Synod moves to allow women to become bishops while denying any specific protection for traditionalists. Converts joining the ordinariate will be allowed to keep some Anglican liturgy and traditions.

The largest number, some 240, were reported in the diocese of Brentwood east of London, followed by 167 in the south London diocese of Southwark and 100 in Birmingham. The Catholic agency says converts included 61 former Church of England priests.

"I am greatly encouraged that these people will be received into the Catholic Church at Easter as members of the Ordinariate," said Father Keith Newton, the priest in charge of the new group.

The Church of England has 22,000 clergy and claims 1.7 million active members.

Benedict caught Catholic and Anglican leaders in England by surprise in October 2009 when he gave them very late notice of his announcement that he was creating the ordinariate.

The ordinariate takes its name from an 11th-century vision by a woman in Walsingham in eastern England, who claimed the Virgin Mary led her in spirit to Nazareth to see the place where the Bible says an angel told Mary she would bear a son.

Comments

[Abdul-Halim Vazquez]

12:09 PM on 04/28/2011

Question:
Is this less objectionable, more objectionable, or just as objectionable as Christian attempts to prosyletize Jews? Should Anglicans feel offended if the Catholic Church makes space for them in this way? Should Jews feel offended if the Catholic Church (or some other Christian group) made space for them in an analagous way (like Jews for Jesus)?

[KennebunkportIndependent]

02:13 AM on 04/29/2011

Anglicans believe in free will.  Those who choose to leave do so with our warm blessing.  The door is always open.

[Talossa]

12:54 AM on 05/02/2011

There is absolutely nothing wrong with proselytizing. Every free country allows all religious groups (except, I guess, violent or immoral ones -- and sometimes even those) to proselytize freely.

I was in Morocco a few months ago where I was told flat out that it was "illegal" for Christians to share their faith with Muslims. Hmmm.. I wonder why that is.

[Abdul-Halim Vazquez]

09:25 AM on 05/02/2011

I had asked because some Jews tend to look at proselytizing as akin to genocide and are highly offended when Christians try to target them through groups like Jews for Jesus. My basic attitude would be to agree with you, at least in terms of US society, that religious freedom means that all groups should be able to proselytize. But at the same time I'm not unsympathetic to the Jewish attitude. Missionaries can be a disruptive force in certain situations.

[New Yorker]

12:14 PM on 04/14/2011

Mary conceived Jesus by the power of The Holy Spirit, the living God in the person of The Holy Spirit. Once again many mistaken men underestimate the power of God, and imagine Mary was "Impregnated", when she in fact conceived by the power of God. We humans so often disbelieve the power of God.
At The Last Supper Jesus said " Do This in Commemoration of Me" after he had changed the bread and wine into the spiritual body and blood He was about to sacrifice on the Cross. Jesus did not say, " Make Believe you can do what I just did", He said DO THIS in commemoration of me after He, God, had cahnged the bread into His Body, and the Wine into His blood. Only Catholics do as He told His Apostles. The saint Padre Pio who died in 1968 told us before he died that ifd the poeple of this world knew what was to be gained by this Holy Eurcharist, Catholics would need crowd control at every Mass. Once again humans underestimate the power of God.

[john1513]

12:21 PM on 04/14/2011

Amen.

"This is (like, a symbol of) my body"
or
"This is my body"

[New Yorker]

12:03 PM on 04/14/2011

Mary the virgin mother of Jesus has many names. Mary is the New Arc of the New covenant because she held within her the living God. Because sin can never exist in the presence of God Mary was the only human born that was untouched by Adam & eve's "Original Sin", so Mary is also called, " The Immaculate Conception" signifying that she was conceived without sin. Mary is also The Queen of Heaven, The Lady of Lourdes, The Lady of Guadalupe, The Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. It will be Mary that crushes the head of the serpent, the 'woman' described by God in Genesis who He has placed enmity between her and the serpent. Pray the Rosary for Peace on Earth because she is given the power by God to defeat evil, and the more mankind turns to Mary the sooner we will end all wars.

Mary is simply the greatest human who ever lived, and she is the pride of all mankind. When asked if she would accept the role of mother her response to God was one we should all try to emulate, Mary said, "Let it be done to me according to they will." No If's , And's or Buts !

[KennebunkportIndependent]

02:14 AM on 04/29/2011

Mary is greater than Jesus...or Jesus was not human?  You confuse me.

[b525]

11:42 AM on 04/11/2011

Why do Catholics and others call Mary "the Mother of God".......why would God impregnate his own mother?......therefore Mary is the WIFE of God and the mother of Jesus.

Jesus is the SON of Joseph/God and shares in the glorified/perfected spirit of his father.

Joseph, Mary and Jesus all had glorified/perfected spiritual bodies and minds in heaven and imperfect physical bodies and minds on earth.

[New Yorker]

12:07 PM on 04/14/2011

You Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong about all that.

[American Air]

09:12 AM on 04/07/2011

The Catholic church should taget the two viIe groups in christianity. The Southern Baptist evangelicals and Pentocostals.

We need to get rid of thosw two viIe groups.

[Father Alberto Cutie]

10:02 PM on 04/09/2011

Most of the people leaving the Anglican Communion just cannot accept that men and women were both created in God's image and likeness... Leaving just because women in the 21st century are able to serve as priests and bishops is really sad. Many of these folks will be very surprised with what they find in the Roman Church.

[garybob]

04:55 PM on 04/27/2011

Coming from the guy who broke his vows to God.

[American Air]

09:11 AM on 04/07/2011

Christian predat0rs are going after one another... Flock stealing is the thing among christians. A viIe culture and doctrine of reigious supremacy.,

[Hysterian68]

05:04 PM on 03/30/2011

At last the Anglican Communion will be rid of these Anglo Papist pests with their lace dresses and Catholic look-alike get ups and never-ending Romish prattle about being a bridge from Canterbury to Rome. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Now the Church of England should simply proceed with ordaining women to be bishops and be done with it once and for all. Let the Anglo Catholic tools of Rome leave. Few will follow in their footsteps.

The Church of England and worldwide Anglicanism get the better end of this bargain. The Romanists still don't get the beautiful cathedrals Henry VIII grabbed from them. Parliament will never give them back. The pope is still going to be Persona Non Grata to most Anglicans and others too. So no gain there either.

Roman Catholics on the other hand gain from having this Anglican ORdinariate because they'll have parishes springing up with the best liturgy and music to be found anywhere in English-speaking U.S. or British Catholicism. Better than the Latin Mass of 1962 could ever offer and definitely eons better than the childish prattle and dreadful looking churches built since Pope Paul VI's time.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

08:48 PM on 04/26/2011

Your denomination was founded by a murder and an adulterer. Nuff said, windbag.

[deluk]

05:23 PM on 03/26/2011

"The largest number, some 240, were reported in the diocese of Brentwood east of London, followed by 167 in the south London diocese of Southwark and 100 in Birmingham"

So probably of African origin then?  This may have more to do with the Anglican position on gays than the article states.

[deluk]

05:25 PM on 03/26/2011

whoops! double post.

[liberal123]

12:12 PM on 03/25/2011

900 members is rounding on national or international church membership figures. It is a measure of the Catholic church's desperation that they are crowing about 900 converts from the Anglican church. It is funny that they are apparently touting this as some sort of achievement or validation of the appeal of Catholic church dogma. Ratzinger and the old fossils at the Vatican are trying to seem as if they have some sort of retrenchment momentum going.

[John Ramsey001]

02:27 PM on 03/27/2011

Does it bother you?

[Hysterian68]

05:08 PM on 03/30/2011

No,but it bothers the ultra traditionalist neocon Catholics who see their attempt to revive the 1962, all Latin, one-size fits all liturgy being trumped by the Anglican Ordinariate's far superior organization and liturgy. These Ordinariate parishes will be mushrooming all over the place drawing more Catholics to them than Anglicans.

[Hectrev1]

09:49 PM on 03/24/2011

Now if the rest of the Anglicans would come to their senses and return to Rome where they belong, they can leave the nutty American Episcopal church to itself so that it can come up with its next circus event.

[Hysterian68]

05:11 PM on 03/30/2011

Sorry, but Canterbury was never known for circuses, but Rome was and still is.

Anglicanism represents modernity, progressive thought, and the furtherance of freedom of conscience and thought. Women and gays/lesbians are respected there and have a big say in how the parishes and dioceses are governed. Anglicans also have beautiful liturgies and church music even in very small parished. Everything completely antithetical to Rome and this pope.

[Henrik Lundqvist]

08:58 PM on 04/26/2011

More ignorance from the flapping lips. "Modernity" and "progressive thought" aren't neutral, objective points of view, and you're just throwing them around like buzzwords. Since when is truth contingent on what is currently fashionable, especially when that thing is decadent and nihilistic? And in case you hadn't noticed, modernity died and degenerated further into postmodernism.

[European1919]

08:54 AM on 03/24/2011

Good riddance I say. Henry didn't cross rapiers with the tw@ in Rome to give employment to such back-stabbing filth.

[ninetailedfox]

08:47 AM on 03/24/2011

Nice pic of the Pope. I didnt do it!

[YeahDonkey]

03:17 PM on 03/19/2011

Maybe both churches should get some big neon signs with a rolling count of how many members they have.

If you can't see how completely pathetic this is, then I feel sorry for you.

I could be wrong, but I thought it was about your relationship with God and not how many members you had?

What's Next "HOME OF THE BODY OF CHRIST 50 BILLION SERVED"

How long will you continue to be organized religions puppets?

[Macnos]

04:12 AM on 03/24/2011

I don't remember anyone in the article claiming it is about the numbers.

[YeahDonkey]

11:27 AM on 03/24/2011

Then you didn't read the article.........or even the title.

[ninetailedfox]

08:48 AM on 03/24/2011

Religion has always been about the numbers.

[Hysterian68]

05:12 PM on 03/30/2011

Yes, a real numbers racket.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

02:20 AM on 04/29/2011

If so, then Islam is winning the growth race.  Perhaps Christians should calm down and contemplate that.

[Aleks Hunter]

12:18 PM on 03/19/2011

How Many British Catholics converted to something else during the same period? It is unlikely that the RC church had a net gain.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/16/english-catholics-claim-9_n_836721.html#

[KennebunkportIndependent]

02:21 AM on 04/29/2011

That number is hidden.  The RC is not big on transparency.

[deluk]

06:49 AM on 03/19/2011

"he largest number, some 240, were reported in the diocese of Brentwood east of London, followed by 167 in the south London diocese of Southwark and 100 in Birmingham"

Mostly of African origin then?...methinks this is more to do with the Anglican churches liberal attitude toward gays.