JAMES CARROLL’S most recent diatribe against the Catholic Church (“From Vatican, a tainted olive branch,’’ Op-ed, Oct. 26) continues to reveal his misunderstanding of the affairs of the church, and in this case, the announcement last week by the Vatican that former Anglicans who are dissatisfied with the direction their former church has taken may now become members of the Catholic Church while retaining their collective identity within specially designed dioceses.
This “olive branch,’’ rather than being “tainted’’ and a “cruel assault’’ on fellow Christians, is merely another step taken by the Vatican to recognize and permit rites and liturgy that can be traced back to the origins of Christianity.
The global tent of the Catholic Church is spacious and diverse. Witness the millions of so-called charismatic Catholics in Latin America and elsewhere, whose spectacular masses feature Pentecostal-style faith healing and speaking in tongues.
Rather than criticize Pope Benedict XVI for his foresight and courage to strengthen the diversity and inclusiveness of the Catholic Church, Carroll should rejoice in this invitation and opportunity for former Anglican churchgoers to find a place in an established religion that welcomes them.
Carroll may enjoy characterizing the former Anglican Church members as a “misfit fringe,’’ but he misses the point that the Catholic Church is moving forward in the spirit of its oldest traditions while encouraging liturgical diversity.
James T. Grady
Marion
Radical Anglicans who support women bishops and homosexual activity misinterpret the Bible, and are guided by a false sense of freedom. They seek not God but their own selfish desires of power and lust.
Sadly, some people want to measure the truth of the faith by modern society’s standards. They mistakenly believe that divine revelation must adapt itself to the current mentality in order to be credible, instead of the current mentality’s converting in the light that comes to us from on high.
The result is a stripping of the redeemer of man of his radical uniqueness, and a classification of him as someone who can be managed and domesticated.
Traditionalists should take heart. They are always welcome back to the fullness of truth that resides, with all its pristine beauty and splendor, inside the Catholic Church. I encourage Anglican traditionalists and all others tossed about by the waves of false doctrines to climb aboard the barque of Peter, for it will be their only safe haven in these troubling times.
Paul Kokoski
Hamilton, Ontario 
