Ephraim Kasozi & Tabu Butagira
Kampala
Church of Uganda yesterday said Vaticans open invite to disgruntled Anglicans to embrace the Catholic Church for spiritual relief will have no effect on its following. Ms Alison Barfoot, the Churches external relations officer, said there are no Anglican-Catholic members in their fold to heed the Popes call.
Critics say the Apostolic Constitution or decree that Rome made public last month appears calculated to exploit the intra-Anglican divide and trigger mass defections over the issue of homosexuality and consecration of women as bishops. It seems the Pope created the structure [of Anglican Ordinariate] to allow the disaffected, especially Anglo-Catholic, to preserve their tradition of prayers and liturgy while allowing them to be Catholics, she said, adding: We dont think its going to have any impact here.
Ms Barfoot comments follow Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams admission that the Popes offer left him with a sore ego and put him in an awkward position.
The Church of Uganda official, however, said she was happy that Dr Williams after the weekend meeting in Rome with his host Pope Benedict XVI, announced that the ecumenical dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics will continue.
About a fortnight ago, the Global Anglican Future Conference, a group of conservative Anglicans that Uganda helped co-found in Israeli last year in protest to Dr Williams perceived tolerance of gay and lesbians, said the Popes invite was unnecessary and opportunistic. After meeting the Pope at the Vatican over the weekend, Dr Rowan Williams insisted that relations between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches were back on track.
Dr Williams reportedly told the Pope of his embarrassment at the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced an Apostolic Constitution to set up Anglican Ordinariates for those who refuse to accept women priests and bishops. He had only a few days notice and made a late-night telephone call to the cardinal who heads the Council for Christian Unity, to find out what was going on.
Msgr John Wynand Katende described the move as positive in the process of reuniting the church saying divisions have been unhealthy for the church over the years. Knowing how human nature is weak, we are prone to divisions; that is why Jesus left us one shepherd, the Pope to lead one flock. That is the basis of Ecumenism to the entire Christianity, said Fr. Katende, the spokesperson of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala. He said: But the law of celibacy is very clear for all seminarians under the Catholic Church and still stands. It is not a question of argument but the theology of priesthood from God.
Fr Katende said the Popes decision to welcome and allow former Anglican Priests into Roman Catholic Church was answering their request to go back to their mother church after the discomfort arising from ordination of females as priests while others supporting homosexuality.
Kampala
Church of Uganda yesterday said Vaticans open invite to disgruntled Anglicans to embrace the Catholic Church for spiritual relief will have no effect on its following. Ms Alison Barfoot, the Churches external relations officer, said there are no Anglican-Catholic members in their fold to heed the Popes call.
Critics say the Apostolic Constitution or decree that Rome made public last month appears calculated to exploit the intra-Anglican divide and trigger mass defections over the issue of homosexuality and consecration of women as bishops. It seems the Pope created the structure [of Anglican Ordinariate] to allow the disaffected, especially Anglo-Catholic, to preserve their tradition of prayers and liturgy while allowing them to be Catholics, she said, adding: We dont think its going to have any impact here.
Ms Barfoot comments follow Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams admission that the Popes offer left him with a sore ego and put him in an awkward position.
The Church of Uganda official, however, said she was happy that Dr Williams after the weekend meeting in Rome with his host Pope Benedict XVI, announced that the ecumenical dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics will continue.
About a fortnight ago, the Global Anglican Future Conference, a group of conservative Anglicans that Uganda helped co-found in Israeli last year in protest to Dr Williams perceived tolerance of gay and lesbians, said the Popes invite was unnecessary and opportunistic. After meeting the Pope at the Vatican over the weekend, Dr Rowan Williams insisted that relations between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches were back on track.
Dr Williams reportedly told the Pope of his embarrassment at the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced an Apostolic Constitution to set up Anglican Ordinariates for those who refuse to accept women priests and bishops. He had only a few days notice and made a late-night telephone call to the cardinal who heads the Council for Christian Unity, to find out what was going on.
Msgr John Wynand Katende described the move as positive in the process of reuniting the church saying divisions have been unhealthy for the church over the years. Knowing how human nature is weak, we are prone to divisions; that is why Jesus left us one shepherd, the Pope to lead one flock. That is the basis of Ecumenism to the entire Christianity, said Fr. Katende, the spokesperson of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala. He said: But the law of celibacy is very clear for all seminarians under the Catholic Church and still stands. It is not a question of argument but the theology of priesthood from God.
Fr Katende said the Popes decision to welcome and allow former Anglican Priests into Roman Catholic Church was answering their request to go back to their mother church after the discomfort arising from ordination of females as priests while others supporting homosexuality.
