And then there was one fewer...

For those of you who move in Anglo-Papalist circles online, you will surely have come across the Confused Anglo-Papalist which subsequently became the Seriously Confused Anglo-Papalist. Well, the prefix Anglo has disappeared (as well as the serious confusion), a sure sign that Fr. Marco Vervoorst has made the decision to swim the Tiber. Certainly I wish him well, and pray that he may be happy in his new Catholic family.

So how do I react to a rare breed becoming one fewer? Well, I have no condemnation for Fr. Vervoorst at all; he will always be one of ours just as Cardinal Newman was always one of ours. There is sadness yes, but there is no real problem with what he's done.

It does make me think about my own position. I am on my own in my physical community, and I find myself surrounded by larger animals telling me which is the correct doctrine. As an individual I have a choice, but with my choice comes the responsibilities of living up to the consequences of that choice. I no longer belong to a church whose teaching is consistent with the Catholic Faith.

So what will it take for me to finally shake the dust of the C of E from my feet?

First: a home to go to. I do not want to run away from the C of E, I want to run to an established home which will receive me in love and keep me in the Catholic Faith.

Second: that I am assured of a smooth period of transition so that I may in some sense get my affairs in order before I make the break. Considering that I have a family and a considerable number of friends whom I only really see in a church context as a member of a choir and a Bible Study group, this will be where the pain of the transition lies.

Third: if there were a definite split in the C of E along the Catholic fault lines then I would move with that split on the proviso that the resulting denomination is perfectly consonant with the Catholic Faith.

These are the big three that readily spring to mind. There may be others.

God bless Fr. Vervoorst!