Our new “married bishops” from the Church of England

The UK Guardian’s Stephen Bates has a bit of snarky column about the five bishops defecting from the Church of England, in which he asks some interesting questions:


“What makes Catholics suspicious is, if Broadhurst and his ilk were so convinced of their Catholicism, what has taken them so long to convert? They could have done so at any time. It would have been arduous, conceivably long, possibly lonely, maybe even difficult and certainly low-profile, but it would have had an integrity which seems lacking now that they have had so long to get used to the single issue motivating them now: the ordination of women as bishops, so long after they were first consecrated priests.”


This has always been my question about welcoming folks who are fleeing their own communion angry. Why now? Of course anyone is welcome to join the Roman Catholic Church, but why all the special consideration for this group? Their own “ordinariate,” no celibacy (at least for those grandfathered in), their own liturgy.


If anything, they are certainly not courtesies extended to those of us born into the Latin rite. The ways of Rome on this one are mysterious indeed.