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Pope to meet with Archbishop of Canterbury, addresses controversial outreach to Anglicans
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Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams from the Anglican Church
The Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury later this month, following a controversial declaration that the Church intends to ease the way for disenchanted Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism. Dr Rowan Williams is scheduled to visit Rome on November 20; according to the Vatican, the pope will meet with him the following day.
The Vatican is developing new structures that will allow Anglicans to convert, both in groups and individually, while retaining many of their traditions and even their clergy. According to the Holy See, this move comes in response to requests from Anglicans around the world 'who want to enter into full and visible communion.' In this new structure, married Anglican clergy may be ordained as Catholic priests; however, only unmarried clergymen may be ordained as bishops.
On November 1, celebrating All Saints' Day, Pope Benedict emphasized that he remained committed to ecumenical dialogue and 'full and visible' Christian unity. Benedict noted the tenth anniversary of a joint declaration between the World Lutheran Federation and the Catholic Church, which John Paul II had hailed as 'a milestone on the difficult road of reconstruction of the full unity among Christians.'
There has been tremendous controversy over the pope's outreach to the Anglican community. Those wishing to convert are largely conservative adherents who resent the Anglican Church's ordination of female and openly gay clergy. According to The Pilot, dissident theologian Father Hans Kung has charged the pope with 'fishing' for the most conservative Christian, calling his actions 'a nonecumenical piracy of priests.' In an October 28 editorial in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Father Kung described the pope's message as 'Traditionalists of all churches, unite under the dome of St. Peter's!'
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster, insisted the Vatican's decision should not be seen as an attempt to poach disillusioned Anglicans. Murphy-O'Connor, the former Catholic co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, stated 'this response of Pope Benedict is no reflection or comment on the Anglican Communion as a whole or of our ongoing ecumenical relationship with them.' He went on to explain that 'the repeated requests by many Anglicans...have necessitated a new approach, which is why I think that the personal ordinariates offered by the Holy Father can be seen not in any way unecumenical but rather as a generous response to people who have been knocking at the door for a long time.'
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