That’s a good question, and depending who you ask, you will get a different answer!
What we now call Anglo-Catholicism comes to us specifically through ecclesiastical movements in England during the 19th Century, including the Oxford Movement, which ushered in the “Catholic Revival” in Anglicanism.
“Catholic” as a word comes from the Greek katholikos, meaning “universal”. A claim to be described by the word “catholic” is to say that what Anglicans do is universal: that we are inheritors of and participants in the tradition and teaching passed down from the Apostles.
Proponents of these movements worked hard to reclaim the Catholic heritage of the Church of England, which had been eroded and rendered bland through centuries of political and religious change. Through the writing of the Tracts, the “Tractarians” argued for Catholic understandings of English Church doctrinal statements, including the famous Tract 90 by The Rev’d John Henry Newman (who later became Roman Catholic and since Canonized as a Saint).
Many “Anglo-Catholic” English clergy faced persecution and imprisonment for violating the predominant interpretations of rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer and the Canons of the Church of England. These “ritualists” or “papists” believed that worship was enhanced by the involvement of all the senses: through sight, smell, hearing, and movement. Moreover, beautiful Medieval architectural styles were reborn because they inspired awe, pointed to God’s transcendence, and appealed to people who maybe couldn’t understand formal theology, but could seek refuge in the beauty of the Church as it contrasted to their daily lives.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, certain Ritualist societies began to directly incorporate parts of the Tridentine Roman Catholic Mass into the context of the English Book of Common Prayer. This had the result that, to the person sitting in the pew, they were experiencing a mostly-conforming Mass that followed the order of the Prayer Book, but added several prayers and dedications by the priest that resembled closer the Roman Catholic usage of the time. With changes to the Roman Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council, some Anglo-Catholics have adopted forms similar to the “new Mass”, while others have held on to long-cherished traditions.
The fact that most Anglican churches worldwide now use liturgical colours, or celebrate the Eucharist weekly, is a testament to the significant impact the Catholic revival has had on the wider Church.
Father Charles Frederick Pashler, Rector of St. Bartholomew’s, Toronto, 1925-1959 (and friend of SMAA), said:
“We do not think of ourselves as a foreign, alien group on the edge of Anglicanism, but as believing, teaching, and doing those things which the Church herself intends. We do not believe that Roman Catholics are the only Catholics, but that Anglicans are Catholics too.
From that, all those things which puzzle some people – the beauty of our worship, our teaching about the seven sacraments, our love and reverence for our Lord’s Mother and the Saints – all these stem from our conviction that when in the creeds we assert our belief in the Catholic Church, our prayer book means exactly what it says.”