BishopAccountability.org
	Vatican to Admit Married Anglican Priests, but Can’t Become Bishops ChattahBox November 1, 2009 http://chattahbox.com/world/2009/11/01/vatican-to-admit-married-anglican-priests-but-cant-become-bishops/ An official statement from the Vatican over the weekend, made it clear that married Anglican priests would be allowed to become part of the Catholic priesthood. This statement comes on the heels of a previous announcement permitting Anglicans to become Roman Catholics, while still retaining limited Anglican liturgy and identity. On Saturday, Cardinal William Levada the Holy See’s guardian of doctrinal correctness said, that the Vatican would accept married Anglican clergy, by evaluating each case on its own merits. This policy confirms the existing practice of allowing married Anglican priests to continue as clergy when converting to Catholicism. Married priests however, would still be denied positions as Bishops. And the policies regarding married Anglican seminarians remain murky. Cardinal Levada said, “objective criteria about any such possibilities (married seminarians already in training) are to be developed” for approval by the Holy See. Despite the admittance of married Anglican priests, the Vatican took pains to push back against the notion that celibacy would no longer be required of Anglican priests entering the Catholic Church. Levada flatly stated, “there is no substance to such speculation.” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of Anglicans plans to meet with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Nov. 21, to discuss the many evolutions in relations between the two churches. In recent years, many conservative Anglicans have opposed modern reforms in their church, allowing women priests, the blessing of same-sex unions and the church’s first openly gay bishop. Pope Benedict XVI stepped in to take advantage of the ideological split, by making it easier for conservative Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, which denounces homosexuality and does not permit women in the priesthood. Pope Benedict referred to homosexuality, as having a “tendency toward an intrinsic moral evil.”
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