Il aurait fallu une majorité des 2/3 dans les trois assemblées du Synode Général de l'Eglise d'Anleterre. Pas de problême chez les évêques, nommés par le Gouvernement, ni avec les représentants du clergé, habitués aux femmes-pasteurs de puis 20 ans. Mais 36% de la Chambre des laïcs ont dit NON! Juste assez pour ridiculiser toutes les autorités ecclésiasatiques anglicanes, y compris leur primus inter pares Mgr WELBY, futur Archevêque de Cantorbéry: une victoire inattendue pour la courageuse minorité désargentée de prêtres qui ont traversé le Tibre pour se loger dans l'Ordinariat de N-D de Walsingham et qui n'ont pas été suivis par grand nombre de leurs paroissiens.

Anglo-Catholics: passing into history (sur le blog de Damian Thompson:)

In the early 1990s I was religious affairs correspondent of this newspaper. The main leaders of the conservative Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church of England were, at the time: the Reverends John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham, Peter Geldard, Geoffrey Kirk, David Silk and Stuart Wilson. All these men are now Roman Catholic priests, with the exception of Dr Kirk, who has only just crossed the Tiber (and would make an excellent RC priest). Some converted after the C of E ordained women priests; others form part of the small and dynamic Ordinariate. I would have been astonished, at the time, if you had told me that all these clergy would go over to Rome: indeed, Bishop Broadhurst, as he became, was for years the figurehead for traditionalists who refused to be pushed out of the established Church.

There has, however, been no huge movement of laity to correspond to the conversion of their pastors. I expect that to remain the case. Your typical worshipper at an Anglo-Catholic church does not feel so strongly about women priests or bishops that he or she is prepared to take a step that instinctively feels wrong – becoming a "Roman" and moving parish as a result. It's true that the Ordinariate offers a means of retaining elements of Anglican worship as a Roman Catholic, but that body will not reach critical mass for some time, thanks in part to the hierarchy's shameful reluctance to provide it with a principal church. Six months ago I thought the experiment had failed; now, having witnessed its determination up close, I'm sure it will find a secure place for itself in the English Catholic landscape. But it will do so by evangelism and punching above its weight, not by forming a church within a church.

What this boils down to is the effective disappearance of traditional Anglo-Catholicism in the Church of England. Its old clerical leaders have "poped"; those that remain are biddable in a way that their predecessors were not. These Protestants in gold chasubles have lived with women priests for 20 years; despite their anguished rhetoric at this week's General Synod, they'll find a way to live with women bishops. Their anger will be as nothing compared to that of supporters of the move if victory is snatched away from them on a technicality. I know it's none of my business, but I hope the measure passes.

Soutenir le Forum Catholique dans son entretien, c'est possible. Soit à l'aide d'un virement mensuel soit par le biais d'un soutien ponctuel. Rendez-vous sur la page dédiée en cliquant ici. D'avance, merci !