Anglicans
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
1 Nov 2009
Relationships between the Christian Churches in Australia have improved enormously during the last forty years, since the Catholic Church opened up to ecumenism.
The old Catholic versus Protestant bitterness which plagued Australia's history is almost gone. Just recently a Catholic chaplaincy team at a university told me they got on very well with all groups and especially the Moslems, but the Evangelicals were standoffish! Such Evangelical hostility is the exception.
Ecumenism starts by recognizing what is held in common and the overlap between Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox is enormous despite cultural divergences.
These happy developments are the background for the recent announcement in the Vatican and by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster in London of a new world-wide scheme for Anglicans who want to join the Catholic Church as groups.
This decision by Pope Benedict was preceded by formal and informal discussions and came in response to many Anglican expressions of interest. Cardinal Levada who led the Catholic negotiating team explained that twenty to thirty Anglican bishops have made initial approaches and we also have the enthusiasm of the Traditional Anglican Church leadership for the scheme. They claim a membership of 400,000 worldwide. I am not sure how many Anglicans in Australia might be interested.
In this scheme Anglican groups or parishes will be full members of the Catholic Church, but would continue with their own traditions of liturgy, spirituality and church life. Such groupings could be spread widely and haphazardly, but will have their own leader or bishop and be substantially independent of the local Catholic bishop as they co-operate together under the leadership of the Pope. A common faith and the acceptance of the teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be obligatory.
While many details are yet to be finalized married former Anglican clergy will be eligible for ordination as Catholic priests, but the Catholic and Orthodox traditions will be followed so that all bishops will be unmarried.
Ecumenical dialogue and co-operation will continue, although the Anglican and Catholic Churches are further apart because of the decision by Anglicans to ordain women and practising homosexuals. It is some of these Anglicans who cannot accept these departures from New Testament teaching who are investigating joining the Catholic Church.
All this could constitute one of the most significant developments since the tragic divisions under Henry VIII in the sixteenth century.
