His cat is named Joseph — after Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, and there is a picture of the Pope on the wall. The Anglican priest is one of the hundreds considering defecting to the Roman Catholic Church after the Pope decreed that he would introduce a structure for accepting Anglicans. The 120-strong congregation of the parish of St Saviour is one of several considering moving over en bloc.
I'm still a bit confused. If they are so anxious to join Rome, why have they not done so sooner?
While not wishing to minimize the really heart-wrenching decisions any potential converts from Canterbury to Rome would have to make, I must say this:
My friend, a married man whose wife and (at the time) five (later six!) children were involved with him in his momentous decision, was one of the first Episcopal priests to become a Roman Catholic back in 1981 or early 1982 . . . he made the move BEFORE the Pastoral Provision had been announced, when such a conversion almost certainly meant life and employment as a layman . . .
NOTHING could hold him back, so ABSOLUTE was the conviction that THIS must be done and MUST be done NOW: that it was God’s will.
Since then, several other friends and acquaintances have “Poped” - they say, “Once you know that God wills this, EVERYTHING ELSE - the question of Orders, Marian dogmas, buildings and locations - EVERYTHING ELSE matters not at all.”
I have no doubt that it will be so also for many of these Anglican clergy now.