An American Lion

Will Ancient Egyptians be Invited Back into the Catholic Church, Too?

If you've been watching the Tudors, and I know I haven't, you get the impression that religion used to be a big deal. Henry VIII, King of England, broke from the Catholic church and went and formed his own church, one based out of England that allowed him to get divorced and do all sorts of things that were in his own best interest. Recently, the the Catholics struck back, and hard, against this daring act:

The Vatican launched an historic initiative Tuesday to make it easier for disgruntled Anglicans worldwide to join the Roman Catholic Church. The church said the move was not a swipe at the Anglicans but it could nevertheless result in hundreds of thousands of churchgoers unhappy with openly gay and female clerics defecting to Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval to a new framework to bring back into the fold Anglicans who oppose their church's liberal stance on gay marriage and the ordination of women priests and gay bishops while allowing them to retain some of their separate religious traditions.

The move comes nearly 500 years after Henry VIII's desire for a divorce led him to break with Rome and proclaim himself as the head of the newly formed Church of England in 1534. The framework is the Vatican's most sweeping gesture toward any schismatic church since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the Thirty Years' War that followed it in the 17th century. That war ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which acknowledged the right of monarchs rather than the Vatican to determine their national faiths, prompting Pope Innocent X to declare the document "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time."

Over the centuries, relations between the various Christian faiths have improved and both Anglican and Catholic leaders were at pains on Tuesday to say that warming relations between the two churches will not be affected by the new plan. But both churches have been struggling to retain adherents in recent years, particularly in the developed world, with poorer countries their only growth spots.

The Catholics are merely getting revved up. With no vast areas of the globe filled with savage, backwards people to convert, the idea of going into England and trying to win over a wealthier, more educated demographic of converts seems strange, until you consider this: people who convert to Catholicism also give money to the church they attend.

The widely-held perception was, no matter what happened, the new Catholics wouldn't donate any money. Someone in the Vatican woke up and said, wait a minute, that's nuts. Now they can stave off bankruptcy by opening up a new revenue stream--how nifty is that? Plus, they don't have to go after any Scientologists--it just leads to lawsuits and a harsh buzz.

The lesson here is simple--when your membership dwindles, lower your standards and beg your enemies to help you.