Catholic World News News Feature
Irish Anglican bishop's wife joins Catholic Church October 15, 2007
The wife of an Irish Anglican bishop has entered the Roman Catholic Church, with her husband's public support.
Anita Henderson was received into the Catholic Church by Bishop John Fleming of Killala. Her husband, Bishop Richard Henderson of the Church of Ireland, attended the ceremony.
The two bishops, Catholic and Anglican, issued a joint statement after the ceremony, indicating that Anita Henderson's religious affiliation was a matter of private conscience that "deserves the respect of us all."
"This is a time of unprecedented hospitality, friendship, and collaboration between our local churches," the joint statement continued. The bishop said that ecumenical advances have helped make believers "increasingly aware of how much we have in common, and yet how distinctive the different traditions remain; how much in their variety they are especially suited to some, but not to others."
