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Catholic World News News Feature

Vatican encouragement for Anglican traditionalists July 28, 2008

A traditionalist Anglican group has received strong Vatican encouragement for its hopes of "corporate unity" with the Catholic Church.

Archbishop John Hepworth, the head of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) has received a message from Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), promising "serious attention" to the proposals that the TAC submitted to the Vatican last year. In a visit to the CDF last October, Archbishop Hepworth explored the possibility that the TAC might be received into communion with the Holy See.

Reporting to TAC members about the letter from Cardinal Levada, which was dated July 5, the Australian Anglican leader called particular attention to the fact that the Vatican official had specifically mentioned the prospect of "corporate unity," including that suggestion among the proposals that the Vatican is now actively considering. Archbishop Hepworth reminded his readers that this possibility-- incorporating entire Anglican parishes and even dioceses into the Catholic Church-- would be "a pathway seldom traveled in the past." In his letter to the TAC leader, Cardinal Levada hinted that the Vatican might be willing to consider dramatic new approaches to Anglicans seeking a return to Rome. Without mentioning the sharp disputes that have threatened to split the worldwide Anglican communion, the cardinal did observe that "the situation within the Anglican communion has become markedly more complex" since Archbishop Hepworth's October talks with the CDF.

The Anglican prelate said that he had written promptly to thank Cardinal Levada for his encouragement, "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."

Meanwhile, as most of the world's Anglican bishops continued their discussions at the Lambeth Conference, England's leading Catholic prelate assured his Anglican counterparts that he took "no pleasure at all to see the current strains in your communion." Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster said that he was hopeful the Lambeth Conference could resolved internal disputes over issues such as homosexuality and the ordination of women as bishops. "Our future dialogue will not be easy until such fundamental matters are resolved," he said.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor also made a gentle reference to the difficulties involved in ecumenical dialogue with the Anglican communion today, saying that the process is marked by "the challenge that your treasured diversity can sometimes bring to the table." The English cardinal's reference to "treasured diversity" might be interpreted as a signal of support for efforts to hold together the Anglican communion in spite of serious doctrinal differences.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, also spoke indirectly about "internal tensions" in a sermon broadcast by BBC on Sunday. He said that a peaceful resolution of the conflicts is essential to the future of Anglicanism, because the world expects the Christian churches to provide "a place where people seem to live in a larger, more joyous and hopeful atmosphere." That atmosphere, he continued, is not readily apparent in a church that is "divided and fearful and inward-looking."