But they're not proper Catholics . . .

Are they?

Met some absolutely lovely people at an ecumenical gathering yesterday (as we are currently beginning the second week of the octet of prayer for Christian unity). I was there as the Chairman of the local 'Churches Together' group and we held a town centre celebration to mark the fact that we really do work together.

We had some visitors from an RC church who were visiting family and came with them. I have to be honest and say that they surprised me a little in that their take on the subordinariate was a little cool and perhaps even a tad negative. They seemed to regard the new group as not being Anglicans but also not being fully Catholic! A sort of bastardised sub-class of people who didn't want to be Church of England but weren't quite whatever it was to become fully Catholic!

I was quite shocked by this take on things as I assumed that the whole of the RC plc organisation would be leaping with joy at the increase to their priestly ranks and the swelling of the bums of pew population by the transfer of sheep to the fields alongside the Tiber. Not so! Perhaps this is because where we find ourselves isn't near enough to the trendy South to be part of the excitement and that the apathy (or even antipathy) is merely a local condition.

The reality is that for those in my area they don't see it making any difference to their daily, or even Sunday, church life and it's all a bit. I thought the comment of one person was a bit shocking when they said that importing even more mysoginists was probably the last thing the church of Rome needed. They needed people who were engaged with society and willing to examine the really important questions and, "If they had to run from their own church, what confidence does it give us that they will be faithful once moved?"

Another spoke of the Murphy report and how the already weakened church needed men of integrity and solid Catholicity to overcome the many negatives and support what was, in their view, a weakened church. They spoke of the days when presbyteries had a number of priests living in them and the situation now where they find perhaps one priest serving more than one congregation and some not managing a Sunday service every Sunday.

I find this sad and have decided to make sure I pray for vocations in the RC church on a regular basis, as this is not a satisfactory state of affairs.

I find this even sadder that apart from the PR and the razzmatazz that surrounds the moves in London and the places perhaps they were ministering - seems that there is less to the inordinariate than meets the eye! I hope not, for to have left 'home' and gone to 'Rome' to find it's not the promised land that some hope for would be even sadder.

Pax