Out of the Know

Fascinating and frustrating blog by the estimable Fr Hunwicke, of Liturgical Notes, about highly place  men of the Church, (of E,) who seemed ready to come Rome home, and actually worked toward it and now are acting as if nothing happened, step along then, nothing to see here....

The post reads a bit like a blind item on a gossip page to out-of-the-know me, American, RC, and with just the barest knowledge of the complicated goings-on in Anglicanism -- who are these people? would they be instantly and easily identified by Fr H's British readers? or Episcopalians, for that matter...

Whoever he's talking about, I find his crusty kindness very admirable.

Most of us are now in the Ordinariate; but others, including some of those who seemed most enthusiastic and vocal about the 'Roman Option', are still with the remnants in the Church of England, [including] a secret group of Anglican bishops (seven diocesans and at least a couple of others) who made secret dead-of-night visits with secret overtures to Rome but who drew their secret and trembling toes back up out of the water when Benedict XVI made public his offer of an Ordinariate.... inexplicably, have been nowhere to be seen since the publication of Anglicanorum coetibus.

Of one thing I am sure. When their time comes, it must be made easy for them (and indeed also for those ex-diocesan bishops, if only they can be man enough and humble enough). There must be no unpleasant nonsense about how they missed the opportunity when the 'terms' were easy. Men who have spent 50 years in the Sacred Priesthood, who are priests to their fingertips, must not be told that they are "too old" for the presbyterate of the Ordinariate; that never again can they expect to stand at an altar holding in their hands the Adorable Sacrifice, that vocation which in the Mind of the Eternal was theirs before the ages began. There must be no subtle (or unsubtle!) systems of discouragement. The spirit of Benedict's gracious intentions must be honoured to the full. The doors must be widely and generously and permanently open. These are good and able men, fine priests, who are called by God to give service in His Vineyard.

Dear Lord, I need want an Ordinariate parish near us, so badly.