Pope, through Cardinal Ratzinger, supports conservative Episcopal Gathering in Dallas

The following is a letter from a Roman Catholic priest...

Back to the Future: The Rebirth of Optimism.

by Fr Joseph F. Wilson

We live in hope, we Christians; the virtue of Hope is part of our
marching orders. But Hope is distinct from optimism, and it often seems
nowadays that optimism is hard to come by in the Church. My own Roman
Catholic Church as well as the Episcopal Church in America are beset
with problems, scandals and signs of institutional decline all too
familiar to anyone following the news.

But during this past week, something happened that hearkened back to an
earlier day, both hopeful and optimistic, a day thirty-six years ago,
which most people seem to have forgotten. In 1966, in an ancient church
in Rome, Saint Paul's Outside-The-Walls, the Pope of the Catholic
Church met the Archbishop of Canterbury, and they participated in a
prayer service. At its conclusion, just as they were to part, Pope Paul
VI stopped, hesitated, then took off his own Episcopal ring and placed
it on the finger of Michael Ramsey, the primate of All England and head
of the Anglican Communion.

It was a heady day, indeed a day of great optimism and deep hope which
seemed to promise further progress between two great churches towards
the realization of the Lord's prayer "that they may be one."

The dismal aftermath of that joyful encounter is a matter of recent
history. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation (ARCIC)
began, with great fanfare. Yet over the decades, the two churches,
rather than converging, have diverged sharply as Anglicanism made room
for remarriage in Church after divorce, the ordination of women to the
diaconate, then to the priesthood, then to the episcopate. The list of
controverted moral issues between the two churches has grown, with the
issue of the acceptance of homosexuality and the blessing of same-sex
unions the latest point of contention. The hope of that day in Saint
Paul's Outside-the-Walls has seemed much more distant than just thirty
six years - until this week.

What happened during this past week was that over two thousand faithful
Episcopalians, conservative believers gathering to witness to their
Faith and plan for the future in the face of the continuing apostasy of
their denomination, were brought to their feet in a demonstration of
joyous, thunderous applause in response to a letter of support from
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the chief aide to the Vicar of Christ, the
Holy Father, Pope John Paul.

The letter is a significant gesture, for the Faithful of both churches,
for a number of reasons.

For one, as has been noted already, the headquarters of the Episcopal
Church at 815 Second Avenue in New York City was bypassed, as Cardinal
Ratzinger chose to communicate directly with the Plano assembly. This
is unusual, doubly so as Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the
Episcopal Church is the Anglican co-chair of the official dialogue
between Anglicanism and the Roman Church.

For another, the letter is quite clear that Cardinal Ratzinger is
writing "on behalf of Pope John Paul II." This is not merely a private
initiative.

But, perhaps most significantly of all, it is a further sign of
something which has been increasingly evident in the past few years:
ecumenical dialogue is entering a more realistic phase. As the two
churches diverged more and more, the "official dialogue" proceeded and
issued optimistic statements; if the official communiquÈs were to be
believed, it seemed as though the two churches were growing steadily
closer as doctrinal and moral differences between them multiplied.
Successive Archbishops of Canterbury and Presiding Bishops of the USA
were ceremonially received by the Pope in Rome, all the while the
official Anglican establishment in Britain and North America was
getting loonier and loonier.

Meanwhile, within the Episcopal Church of the USA and the Church of
England, faithful traditionalist Anglicans were struggling to preserve
their heritage, and continuing Anglicans, having left the official
Anglican Communion to form their own bodies, were persevering against
immense odds. With all of these, the Holy See certainly had more in
common than with the Anglican Communion establishment with which it was
dialoguing.

But things have slowly been changing in the past few years. Bishops of
continuing Anglican churches have been cordially received at Rome, and
conversations quietly begun; and when those conversations encountered
obstacles among some in the Roman Curia, those obstacles were overcome.
Forward in Faith/UK, the traditionalist group in Britain, has been
engaged in serious, cordial conversations with Rome. And Rome itself
has said that it will no longer feel obligated to channel all of its
Anglican conversations through the official channels of the Anglican
Communion.

And now there is reason to hope that we return to the Lord Jesus, Who
is, after all, the Point of it all. We return to the Lord Jesus, Who
prayed that we might be One. We return to the Lord Jesus and to His
Gospel, remembering that the one thing needful is that we be faithful
to Him. We live in a day when it is not hard at all to find bishops who
will pretend that 'Unity" is the Most Important Thing, rather than the
Way, the Truth, the Life who should unify us; that Dialogue is more
important than witnessing to Truth. At Plano, they kicked off the
festivities with "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus." It's no accident; that
great old war horse has been out of fashion for years. Standing Up for
Jesus is coming back into style.

Plano was an interesting meeting in many ways; perhaps the most
interesting aspect of it was the quite evident feeling of participants
that the Presiding Bishop and his minions were now quite beside the
point. "Jesus Christ is Lord," was a common exclamation, and also
common in the reports from Plano were expressions of joy and calm.
Bishop Ackerman spoke powerfully when he said that they need have no
fear, that they already knew Who had written the last chapter and where
the victory would lie. Meanwhile, as far as 815 Second Avenue was
concerned, one got the distinct impression that the assembly was
saying, "Oh, rubbish! You have no power here. Now, begone! Before
someone drops a house on YOU!!"

Yes, it seems that, after so long, there's not just a future to hope
in, but to be optimistic about as well. Great things are about to
happen, great things done by the Lord. Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus!


Father Wilson is a Roman Catholic Priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn,
ordained in 1986. He is presently stationed at St Luke's Church in
Whitestone, Queens, where he is curate, director of education of the
school, and a keen observer of Anglican affairs.

 

I do predict that in the next decade, a relationship between Rome and Canterbury (at least the Anglican Catholics) will be made, similar to the one Rome has with the Eastern Catholics. The prayer of our Lord, "that they may be one..." is being answered before our very eyes!