Vatican offers talks on reunification

[Stan]

John Hooper in Rome

Friday May 13, 2005

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1483204,00.html

The Vatican yesterday surprised Anglican leaders by announcing it was

ready to resume talks on unity despite the formidable barriers now

separating the Church of England from Roman Catholicism.

A statement by the Vatican office that deals with other Christian faiths

offered the first real evidence that Pope Benedict XVI is as keen as he

has insisted to re launch moves towards Christian reunification. Praising

the way Anglican leaders dealt with the crisis over gay clergy, the

Vatican said: "They have offered new hope that our dialogue can continue

to make progress toward the full communion."

Until yesterday, the Anglican leadership's handling of the gay priests

issue was seen as the reason for the deadlock between Rome and

Canterbury. Talks were suspended in 2003 after the Episcopal church in

the US, which is part of the worldwide Anglican communion, agreed to the

consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The then pope, John Paul II, warned that the decision would cause

"serious difficulties". Yesterday's move suggested that, despite his

reputation as a doctrinal hardliner, his German successor, the former

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was prepared to put such differences aside and

stress the positive.

The statement declared that the work of the joint Anglican-Catholic

committee on unity would resume. It confirmed that a document due to be

issued on the Virgin Mary, which was put off because of the crisis, would

be presented next Monday in Seattle.

As the Vatican's doctrinal overlord before his election, Pope Benedict

was responsible for drafting documents that branded other Christian

denominations "deficient", and homosexual acts "intrinsically

disordered".

But he is the first pontiff since the Reformation to be chosen from the

country that gave birth to the Reformation, and is painfully aware of the

cost to Christianity of its continuing division.

Since being elected, Pope Benedict has stressed his concern for

ecumenism. In his first sermon after being chosen to succeed Pope John

Paul, he vowed to pursue "open and sincere" discussions with other

Christian churches, saying he would work "tirelessly" for the full and

visible unity of all Christians.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, attended the

inauguration of his papacy and met the Pope afterwards. But remarks Dr

Williams made during his visit to Rome last month gave the impression

that he was not expecting early progress towards unity, which he likened

to a journey through "a huge, mysterious, great landscape where we cannot

see the final horizon".

[Gerr]

If and when the "separated brethren", or the wayward daughters, return to the mother church, guess who will change position?

Gerry