Cardinal: New Vatican move not a reflection on Anglican Communion

Nov-2-2009
By Simon Caldwell
Catholic News Service

LONDON (CNS) -- An English cardinal said Pope Benedict XVI's decision to receive entire groups of Anglicans into the Catholic Church did not represent a comment on the state of the Anglican Communion.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster, said a forthcoming apostolic constitution to establish "personal ordinariates" should not be seen as an attempt by the Vatican to poach Anglicans disaffected by such issues as the ordination of women and sexually active homosexuals as priests and bishops.

The former Catholic co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission made his remarks in the Richard Stewart Memorial Lecture at Worth Abbey, near London, Oct. 29. He said the canonical structures announced in Rome and London Oct. 20 were simply a generous response to requests over a number of years by Anglican communities that wanted to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive spiritual patrimony. the rest