A South Carolina Catholic Priest Talks Tough Love to Anglo Catholics

Father Longenecker over at Standing on My Head has a ton of interesting and provocative posts on the whole Anglo Catholics coming to Rome thing. In fact one of the Major UK Anglo Catholic Bishop players makes an appearance in one of the comment sections.

Father Longenecker was a Protestant, became an Anglican and then a Anglican Priest, was in England for a long time, became Catholic, and now is back in South Carolina as a Catholic Priest. So he has a body of knowledge that should be listened too.

I do think I differ with Father on some things but mostly it is a matter of tone. I think I would be a little bit more "Carrot and less stick".

Still his points are valid and the discussion that has been going on the last few days is worth reading. See in order Anglo Catholics to be Received? , Corporate Reception of Anglicans , Anglicans and Schism , Mr Grumpy , Bishop of Ebbsfleet , Nuther Question , and St Lawrence .

I think part of the frustration is there seems a lack of movement on all sides as to this issue.. I agree with Father that corporate reunion has problems. Still we are looking at Anglo Catholics starting to get not only pushed out by their local Churches but in fact in the new groups that are being formed to correct the problem. Is GAFCOM with its evangelical nature actually going to be a good home for them? I sometimes get the feeling the Anglo Catholics are there for window dressing.

So how do you reach (or we as a Catholic community) reach out to these Anglo Catholics that are in various jurisdictions. That is in union with the See of Canterbury and those that are not. In effect I wished there was more of a "Plan".

I do think the Bishops and the Catholic laity need to be doing more.