Given that the Vatican has put the welcome mat out for Anglicans, we need a hymn to celebrate their return. In your best John Sebastian voice, you may sing the following lyrics to the theme song from “Welcome Back, Kotter”:
Welcome back, your beliefs were your ticket out.
Welcome back, to that great Catholic Church you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around, but our beliefs are the same since you’ve been around.
The pope reached out to ya (The pope reached out to ya)
To bring ya where we need ya (To bring ya where we need ya)
We dialogued so much, aren’t you glad we stayed in touch?
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
Catholic quote to note: Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, regarding former Anglicans coming into the Catholic Church: “We are not fishing in the Anglican lake; proselytism is not the policy of the Catholic Church. But if there are people who, obeying their consciences, want to become Catholic, we cannot shut the door.”
