Earlier this week the Holy See ( the Vatican) announced an imminent Papal document that might well represent the single greatest advance in the cause of Christian unity in decades. At least I think so. And oddly enough, not in the way many early “ecumenists” or even some present-day Catholics might have imagined, or even want.
It involves one of the most well-known partners in ecumenical dialogue: the Anglican Communion.
“The Anglican Communion” is the term for the (increasingly loose) union of all the “daughter churches” of the Church of England under the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The branch in this country is known as the Episcopal Church.
As you might remember, King Henry VIII set himself to receive a dissolution of his marriage to his then wife and Queen: Catherine of Aragon. She was the daughter of the famous pair Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and had proved a devoted and obedient wife; and a Queen popular for her piety and almsgiving to the poor. However, she proved unable to bear a son.. A combination of a perceived need to have a male heir to his throne ( his daughter Mary Tudor was regarded as not good ruler material due to her gender) and a burning sexual attraction for a Court lady, Anne Boleyn ( the younger sister of a former mistress) led him to insist that he needed to be free of Catherine, and marry Anne. By the 1530’s, it was obvious that the Pope would not agree, and Henry simply declared the “Ecclesia Anglicana” ( or “English Church”) separated from Rome with himself as “Supreme Head” of the Church. He destroyed all the Religious Orders and their houses in England, and embarked on a violent legal coercion of all in England in accepting the end of the Papacy in England. There were martyrs ( Saints Thomas More, John Fisher are the most well-known) but the change was made.
Henry was personally attached to most Catholic doctrines and the Liturgy; so he retained the Mass, the Sacraments, and the Catholic hierarchical system of bishops, priests, and deacons. He even retained for himself and his successors the title Defensor Fidei ( “Defender of the Faith”) given to him years before by the Pope whom he now repudiated.
However, as the years and centuries went by the Catholic elements waned and the Church of England proudly called itself “Protestant”.
In the 19th century into the 20th the Anglican Communion restored some Catholic elements of worship, doctrine, and appearance. However it was a “Catholicism” without being “Catholic.”
Pope Leo XIII in 1898 definitively declared that Anglican Holy Orders could not be considered valid in the Catholic sense due to the lapse of centuries of Catholic doctrine and practice in what was essentially a Protestant Church.
Nonetheless it was ( and often still is) a rather impressive style of worship, often referred to as “High Church”.
Oddly enough, as the ecumenical movement gained steam in the past few decades a strange (in my opinion) phenomenon occurred: instead of the Churches growing closer in doctrine, an odd “exchange” occurred.
The Roman Catholic Church dropped its traditional Latin Liturgy, Rites, sacred music, and atmosphere and adopted often Protestant vernacular hymns, an emphasis on the Bible, and even removed or demoted crucifixes and statues; while the Anglican Churches retained an external style often more traditionally “Catholic” than our own.
Beneath the surface however, teachings once held in common strained, and then broke.
The inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures; the literal truth of the historic Creeds; the male priesthood; the indissolubility of marriage; the nature of sexual and marital morality could no longer be assumed to be held in common.
Indeed these same issues often divide Catholics despite the Church’s clear teaching on these matters.
However, they essentially tore the Anglican Communion, already loose, apart.
Another phenomenon can be noted.
While the Catholic Church maintained a scrupulous respect and sympathy for Anglican and Episcopalian existence to the point of down-playing convert-making ( there were even grass roots incidents of discouraging or muting notable conversions to the Catholic Church from Anglicanism); this restraint was not reciprocated in some recent instances.
One example was the recent defection of a noted Cuban-American Catholic “media priest” in Miami ( a Father Cutie, NOT pronounced “cutie”, though it is tempting) and his girlfriend to the local Episcopal diocese where they were received with great publicity and ceremonial pomp. Another was the recent election as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island of the Rev. Lawrence ( Larry) Provenzano, another Catholic priest who left the Church and is an outspoken proponent of “gay marriage”, ordination of homosexuals, etc.
What the Holy Father is proposing is a way to facilitate the admission of traditional and orthodox Anglicans who seek entry into the Catholic Church. They may enter, it seems, as not mere individuals, but as groups and indeed parishes that will be allowed to retain the distinctively Anglican heritage of worship, tradition , married clergy, and ethos in union with Rome with their own organization. It seems to me a clear statement that it is not the job of the Catholic Church to preserve the institutional health of the Anglican Communion despite the clear desire of many Anglicans to entertain becoming Roman Catholics yet preserving their distinctively “English” style.
We will see what will become of it.
But as the son of a convert myself, I pray that this will do both justice to souls and invigorate the Catholic Church herself with their firm adherence to orthodox doctrine and beautiful dignified vernacular Liturgy.