For One Episcopal Parish, a Path to Catholicism

When the Vatican announced last week that it would welcome groups of traditionalist Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church, leaders of one Episcopal parish celebrated as if a ship had arrived to rescue them from a drifting ice floe.

Bishop David Moyer of the Church of the Good Shepherd welcomes a Vatican decision to embrace traditionalist Anglicans.

“We’d been praying for this daily for two years,” said Bishop David L. Moyer, who leads the Church of the Good Shepherd, a parish in the Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia that is battling to keep its historic property. “When I heard the news I was speechless, then the joy came and the tears.”

This parish could be one of the first in the United States to convert en masse after the Vatican completes plans for a new structure to allow Anglicans to become Catholic while retaining many of their spiritual traditions, like the Book of Common Prayer and married priests.

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Vatican Creates New Church Structure For Non-Catholics

Pope Benedict has approved a new church provision that will allow non-Catholics and in particular, the Anglicans, to convert to Catholicism while at the same time, maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions.

The Vatican made this decision in response to the disillusionment of some Anglicans over the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same sex marriage which has caused a major uproar in the Anglican church not only in England, but across the world.

This never-before provision for Protestants to become a part of the Catholic Church has many Protestant leaders concerned about the breakdown in doctrinal differences between the Catholics and Protestants that came out of the Reformation 500 years ago.

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Pope Calls For A True World Political Authority

Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday condemned the “grave deviations and failures” of capitalism exposed by the financial crisis and issued a strong call for ” to oversee a return to ethics in the global economy.

The pontiff’s call for stronger government regulation was made in his third and eagerly awaited encyclical, Charity in Truth, which the Vatican chose to issue on the eve of the G8 summit of rich nations being held in Italy.

His attack on unbridled capitalism and unregulated market forces was also accompanied by a strong critique of some international aid agencies, which he accused of encouraging abortion, sterilisation and imposing contraception. The pontiff, elected to the papacy in 2005, stirred controversy on his first visit to Africa in March when he said that use of condoms exacerbated the Aids crisis.

While the pontiff’s call for a new political authority is unlikely to go down well with the G8 heads of government, his plea for financiers in particular to refocus on ethics will be reflected in a G8 communiqué bearing the imprint of Italy and Germany in their push for stronger and more co-ordinated “global standards”.

In common with some of the more regulatory-minded members of the G8, the pope does not reject globalisation outright but seeks more forceful implementation of common rules and standards.

Pope Benedict’s emphasis on the need for “forms of redistribution of wealth” is also likely to fuel the debate at the summit – to be attended by 39 heads of government and international institutions – over the failure of several rich nations, most notably Italy and France, to honour past aid commitments.

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Catholic Priest – Refrain From Communion If You Voted For Obama

A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him “constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.”

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

“Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president,” Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.

“Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.”

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