ANGLO-CATHOLICS. - Under this denomination are understood those members of the Anglican church who, while not forming part of the Roman Catholic Church, and without officially detaching themselves from their Church, intend to return to the uses and practices of the ancient English Church of before the Reformation. Heirs and epigones of the "Oxford Movement" of the first half of the nineteenth century that created ritualism, today they aim at the rebirth, in the sense of Anglicanism, of faith in the real presence and in the eucharistic sacrifice, of confession, of celibacy and of the ascetic and monastic ideal.
From when, in 1850, the Anglican vicar W. J. E. Bennet began to attract attention to himself for certain ritualistic innovations of his, such as the use of candles on the altar and of the cross, up to today, giant steps have been taken in this direction, by the adversaries - constituted as the "Church Association" (Church Association), precisely for the purpose of opposing such innovations - qualified as "papists", "ultra rubricists", "romanists", "abusive" or "Romanly aggressive". Despite every veiled and open opposition, and even legal opposition, the A.-C. gradually accepted incense, vestments and liturgical books, altar linens, chalices, patens, antependia, candlesticks, the use of the "Roman collar" and of the host instead of common bread, the use by which the consecrant, in the act of consecration, turns his back to the people, the ablutions, the singing of the Agnus Dei, the use of the consecration of the Eucharist, the Mass of the presanctified, the procession of Corpus Christi with the Sacrament, eucharistic celebration even if there are no faithful to communicate, the adoption of hymns invoking Mary and the saints, the observance of the feast of the Assumption and of the Sacred Heart, the practice of the rosary, that of benediction, the use of Latin, at least for the canon of the Mass, and, still in a minority number, even belief in papal infallibility. It should be recalled here that the A.-C. are divided into moderates and extremists.
In 1901, in 1525 churches of the only two Anglican dioceses of York and Canterbury, liturgical vestments were used, and such use may be called constant and normal in private churches and in the chapel of the ever-growing monastic communities, Anglican in name, but adopting the rules of the most distinguished Orders of catholicity. So far nothing has been able to restrain these A.-C. from putting into effect their intention of adopting almost all the external practices and, as far as possible, also the spirit of Catholicism: neither the threats of the ecclesiastical disciplinary regulation (Church Discipline Bill) of 1899, nor the judicial persecutions of the act regulating public worship (Public Worship Regulation Act). Not even the Anglican bishops have succeeded in arresting the tendency of so many ecclesiastics and laymen aiming toward Rome. Lord Halifax, as regards such authority of the Anglican episcopate, said he was prepared to submit if it is exercised by virtue of apostolic power and not as interpreter of a parliamentary act or of a decision of a Court of justice. Dr. Wace, dean of Canterbury, proposed the criterion of appeal to the first six centuries of the Church. Not yet satisfied with this, the A.-C. claim for themselves the continuity of the Church of the 20th century with that which immediately preceded the reform of the 16th century. And if someone threatens to remove them, with renewed persecution or with coercion, they hint at their withdrawal from what is the established Anglican Church, that is, from that institution that was compared to an "old vessel, which lasts only on condition of not being touched."
The learned Jesuit H. Thurston holds that the "real force and the secret of the constant increase of such ritualists consists in their sacramental doctrine, in true devotion and in personal sacrifice."
Bibliography3 works
Piero Chiminelli