By David W. Virtue
Virtue Online
November 26, 2011
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=15244
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John Hepworth, the Archbishop of the Adelaide-based Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), will be received back into the Roman Catholic Church, but only as a layman.
Sources say Hepworth was given a letter from Rome by the hand of Melbourne Archbishop Denis J. Hart. This was to have been kept quiet to allow the Archbishop a reflection period of several weeks.
VOL broke the news Tuesday in a story "PRIMATE PLUMMETS" saying that he had been denied a return to the Roman Catholic fold as a bishop or priest.
An Australian bishop leaked the content of this letter by way of gossip at the Australian Bishops Conference. The text was released to The Australian with a headline that ran Archbishop Hepworth to return to Catholic fold as Indian, not chief.
Hepworth has not yet decided whether he will accept the Catholic Church's offer.
The article reports that Hepworth "will be forced to relinquish his role as the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion if he is to reconcile with the Catholic Church, after being informed he will only be accepted as a layperson".
This ends years of speculation that the Archbishop would be reinstated into the priesthood in the Ordinariate, bringing an alleged, but never confirmed, 700,000 Anglo-Catholics with him.
Hepworth had hoped that recent revelations that he had been sexually abused by three priests would be mitigating circumstances to allow him to return to Rome as a priest. That did not happen. He revealed that he had been seduced by a Roman Catholic monsignor who denied the charges. Two other persons Hepworth named have since died. Hepworth also ruffled too many Roman Catholic feathers when he publicly blasted what he saw as efforts by Roman Catholic authorities to take over parts of his Canadian flock.
Over time, TAC jurisdictions in Canada, the US, South Africa and India rejected the Pope's personal offer of an Ordinariate and requested that Hepworth step down as Primate of the TAC. He refused. One commentator described the whole Ordinariate process as an "impersonal machine" calling the [Roman Catholic] Church both "medieval and modern."
One pro-TAC blog called it "the ecclesiastical equivalent of a judge sentencing a man to be hanged by the neck until dead for stealing a loaf of bread."
However, the Complementary Norms attached to Anglicanorum Coetibus are clear in (Article 6 §2): "Those who have been previously ordained in the Catholic Church and subsequently have become Anglicans may not exercise sacred ministry in the Ordinariate. Anglican clergy who are in irregular marriage situations may not be accepted for Holy Orders in the Ordinariate."
One TAC priest opined, "It might have been helpful if we could have been informed right at the beginning that there were no mitigating circumstances whatsoever, and that this rule would be applied absolutely."
There is a certain parallel here with that of Pennsylvania Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison. He was found guilty of covering up his brother's (a priest) sexual abuse of a minor and was inhibited and later deposed. A trial of his peers found him guilty, but he later returned as bishop when it was learned that the judgment exceeded the Statute of Limitations.
The Anglican Church in America (ACA) is still a part of TAC. They, along with five jurisdictions, have called on Hepworth to resign as primate. They want a new archbishop. While Hepworth has been asked to step down, he has not responded to demands, ACA Presiding Bishop Brian Marsh told VOL.
In Philadelphia, Bishop David L. Moyer, a close personal friend of Hepworth's and former rector of Church of the Good Shepherd before being tossed out by the Diocese of Pennsylvania, will not soon be a part of either the ACA or the TAC. He and his splinter group have applied for permission to join Rome through the Ordinariate. Moyer jumped the first hurdle when he was notified recently that he had received a nulla osta from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in Rome. This is by no means the final step, however. He must still pass psychological examinations and background checks for ordination as a deacon and priest in the Catholic Church.
His lawsuits and a lawsuit from his former attorney might come back to haunt him as circumstances have for Archbishop John Hepworth.
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