Rowan Williams Meets with Pope Benedict XVI

“The head of the Church of England, Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury met privately in Rome with Pope Benedict XVI on Nov. 18. The meeting comes at an awkward time in relations between the Church of England and the Catholic Church.
“On Nov. 8, five Anglican bishops announced they were resigning their posts to enter the Catholic Church under special terms outlined last year by Pope Benedict. One of the five, Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham, told the London Times, that he believed thousands, not hundreds, of laity would follow them into the Catholic Church.”

Obviously, the meeting was intended to smooth relations between the two churches over the defection of whole communities of Anglican Churches for the Catholic Church.

The Archbishop, however, is trying to downplay the number of conversions to Rome. “He said he was ‘deeply skeptical’ about the ‘larger claims’ of a massive exodus of Anglicans to Rome,” in an interview. “I don’t see [the papal creation of personal ordinariates] as an aggressive act, meant to destabilize the relations of the churches, and it remains to be seen just how large a movement we’re talking about.”

“The process is just getting underway… By way of these ordinariates Anglicans will be able to “cross over” singly or en masse into the Catholic Church while retaining their liturgical traditions.”

“For the first time, Archbishop Williams suggested that worshipers who join the ordinariate could be allowed to stay in their Anglican churches under a plan to let Roman Catholics share Church of England facilities.”

Not only is Rome attempting to decimate the Anglican Church of its members and even its bishops and priests, it is also attempting to recover its property in the process.

“And all the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:3. Which churches are next?

Catholic News Agency [Source]