[Apologetics] Vatican Considering Union Request From Anglicans & Cardinal to Anglicans: Church Teaching Is Scriptural

[Dianne Dawson]

Vatican Considering Union Request From Anglicans
Cardinal Says Congregation Giving Proposal "Serious Attention"

VATICAN CITY, JULY 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
The Holy See is following with "serious attention" the request from the
Traditional Anglican Communion for "full, corporate, sacramental union"
with Rome.

This was affirmed by the prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada, in a July 5
letter to the primate of the Anglican group, Archbishop John Hepworth.

The
letter was written before the beginning of the Lambeth Conference, the
once-a-decade gathering of Anglican leaders that is under way in
England through Aug. 4. The Lambeth Conference is facing unprecedented
controversy, and some bishops boycotted it altogether. 

The
conflict within the
Communion has arisen over debate about the possibility of ordaining
homosexual bishops and blessing homosexual marriages. A synod decision
this summer to pave the way for the episcopal ordination of women has
further alienated some Anglican leaders, many of whom were in
disagreement with the Communion's decision to ordain women as priests.

According
to Cardinal Levada's letter, "over the course of the past year, the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has studied the proposals
which you presented on behalf of the House of Bishops of the
Traditional Anglican Communion during your visit to the offices of this
dicastery on Oct. 9, 2007."

"As the summer months approach, I
wish to assure you the serious attention which the congregation gives
to the prospect of corporate unity raised in that letter," the cardinal
added.

The Traditional Anglican Communion states that its aim is
"to recall Anglicanism to its heritage, to heal
divisions caused by departures from the faith, and to build a vibrant
church for the future based on powerful local leadership." By some
counts, it has about 400,000 faithful. If the request for "corporate
union" is deemed possible, it would imply the entrance of entire parish
communities into communion with Rome.

Cardinal
Levada acknowledged that "the situation within the Anglican Communion
in general has become markedly more complex" since the Traditional
Anglican Communion's request was originally made.

He affirmed
that "as soon as the congregation is in position to respond more
definitely concerning the proposals you have sent, we will inform you."

The Anglican primate received the letter via the apostolic nuncio in Australia last Friday. 

He immediately made public a note expressing his gratitude for the Vatican message.

"It
is a letter of warmth and encouragement," he said.
"I have responded, expressing my gratitude on behalf of 'my brother
bishops,' reaffirming our determination to achieve the unity for which
Jesus prayed with such intensity at the Last Supper, no matter what the
personal cost this might mean in our discipleship."

"This
letter should encourage our entire Communion, and those friends who
have been assisting us," Archbishop Hepworth added. "It should also
spur us to renewed prayer for the Holy Father, for Cardinal Levada and
his staff at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and for
all our clergy and people as we move to ever closer communion in Christ
with the Holy See." 

Cardinal to Anglicans: Church Teaching Is Scriptural

Laments "Step Backward" in Dialogue

CANTERBURY, England, JULY 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
The episcopal ordination of women will mean a "step backward" for
dialogue between Catholics and Anglicans, warned Cardinal Walter Kasper
at the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Conference.

The president of
the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity addressed today
the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican leaders, under way in England
through this weekend.

L'Osservatore Romano published an
Italian-language transcript of his address, which began with an
assurance of the spiritual closeness of Benedict XVI.

"I know
that many of you are worried, some deeply worried, by the threat of
fragmentation at the heart of the Anglican Communion," the cardinal
said. "We are profoundly in solidarity with
you.

"Our great desire is that the Anglican Communion be
united, rooted in this historical faith, which our dialogue and
relationships, over the course of four decades, have brought us to
believe is widely shared."

Cardinal Kasper directly addressed
the two issues that are causing conflict within the Anglican Communion,
and which brought some leaders to boycott the Lambeth Conference
altogether: the ordination of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex
marriages, and the ordination of women.

He assured his listeners that the Catholic Church believes its position on both issues is deeply rooted in sacred Scripture.

"In
light of the tensions of past years in regard [to questions on human
sexuality], a clear declaration from the Anglican Communion would offer
us greater possibilities to provide a common testimony on human
sexuality and matrimony, a testimony painfully necessary for the world
of today," Cardinal Kasper
suggested.

Regarding the ordination of women to the priesthood
and the episcopate, the Vatican official affirmed: "I have to be clear
concerning the new situation that has been created in our ecumenical
relations. If our dialogue has produced a significant accord on the
idea of the priesthood, the ordination of women to the episcopate
substantially and definitively blocks a possible recognition of
Anglican orders by the Catholic Church."

The cardinal recalled
Church teaching that the practice of ordaining only men comes directly
from Christ, and the Church is not in a position to change it.

He
was clear that the decision to go forward with the episcopal ordination
of women would have dire effects on ecumenical relations.

"We
desire the continuation of theological dialogue between the Anglican
Communion and the Catholic Church," he affirmed, "but this last step
undermines our objective and alters the level that we
are seeking in dialogue. Now it seems that full, visible communion, as
the objective of our dialogue, has taken a step backward, that our
dialogue will have less defined objectives and, therefore, its nature
will be changed.

"Though
this dialogue can still produce good results, it will not be supported
by the dynamism that comes from the realistic possibility of the union
that Christ demands of us or of the common participation at the table
of the one Lord, which we desire so ardently."


 
Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.
Ps 42:1


      
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