Archbishop Nichols assures Anglicans of a very warm welcome to the Church

From England-

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has said that Anglicans joining the Catholic Church this Easter will be ‘warmly welcomed’ and will feel entirely at home.

Speaking before a Lenten lecture at Brentwood Cathedral, the archbishop (right) said that the Catholic Church will ‘keep open and positive our relationships with the Church of England.’

Around 900 Anglicans, including 60 clergy, are expected to join the Catholic Church at Easter and Archbishop Nichols believes that Pope Benedict XVI’s ordinariate ‘shows us not to be afraid of diversity within the Catholic Church,’ as well as adding that we can recognise that ‘the Catholic community has got many different faces in this country now.’

The Westminster Archbishop said that the possibility of more married Anglican clergy becoming Catholic priests is not a threat to existing Catholic priests who are celibate.

“We have been receiving priests from the Church of England and ordaining them into our presbyterate, now, for 15 years,” Archbishop Nichols said. “And some of those have been married and have their own families and I think it has led, on the whole, to a greater maturity about reflection on celibacy as part of the priesthood in the Catholic Church as the norm in the Latin Rite as we call it—in the Latin Church.”

More here-

http://www.sconews.co.uk/news/7702/archbishop-nichols-assures-anglicans-of-a-very-warm-welcome-to-the-church/