In his comment filled with platitudes on the meeting today (the "Feria Quarta", or Wednesday-centered, periodical meeting of the full composition of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - which was supposed to deal, among other matters, with the latest responses of the Society of Saint Pius X/SSPX to the Doctrinal Preamble presented to them by Cardinal Levada last September, as we had mentioned some days ago), Paolo Rodari, Vaticanist for Italian daily Il Foglio, had this nugget:
There is a paradox inside the current Pontificate: the Pope who pleads respect for tradition loudly strives to find an agreement with "the extreme right" of the Catholic world. It is easier for him to sort things with the Anglicans, that part of Christianity mostly keeping Liberal positions.
There is no "paradox" at all, because there was no agreement with people keeping "Liberal positions". Quite the opposite, the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans were created precisely because Anglo-Catholics are in general so far from the Liberal (doctrinal, ecclesiastical, and liturgical) positions maintained by most in the Anglican Communion. The Pope did not go after simply any Anglicans, but those who wished to become truly Roman, giving them the structure that they needed and for which they had longed for generations. Which is why most Traditional-minded Catholics were and are thrilled with Anglicanorum Coetibus and rejoice in every occasion in which former Anglicans are welcomed into the Church - as we did last Sunday with Mount Calvary, in Maryland. We know most of them are our allies and our friends. They wish us well, and we wish them well.
If only Traditional-minded Catholics were given the canonical structures that they need! Then, Rodari, Tornielli et al. would see clearly that there is much more convergence than "paradox" in all of this. At the moment, it clearly seems they have no idea what they are talking - and writing - about (not a surprise, really).
[Image: Christmas at Our Lady of the Atonement, San Antonio, Texas]
