Papal role defined in united church — report

Press, 1 March 1982, Page 9

Papal role defined in united church — report

NZPA ■ London Anglicans and Catholics have agreed on the future role of the Papacy in a ' united church, it was reported in London yesterday. The historic accord meant that the ending of more than centuries of dispute between Canterbury and Rome' was in sight, said the “Observer" in an exclusive report. Details of the agreement would be published this month as final preparations are being made for the Pope’s visit to Britain in May, it said. The blueprint for unity is contained in the final report of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. an official body with nine leading theologians from each Church who have been working for more than a decade on the questions which divide them.

The report, publication of

which had been delayed by Vatican opponents of the unity plan, .would show an unsuspected agreement, on the role of the Papacy, hitherto one of ‘the thorniest points of issue, the newspaper said. Professor Henry Chadwick, of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and a leading Anglican member of the commission, said last week that the final report was not “an agreement to differ — it is an agreement — we have agreed that the Papacy should be the focus of eucharistic communion of all the churches.”

Canon William Purdy, a member, of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Christian Unity, was quoted in the “National Catholic Reporter” as saying that the views of the two sides about the Pope’s role “show a quite remarkable degree of convergence.” Anglicans and Catholics are conscious that the com-

mission's report will stir controversy next month. The Archbishop of Canterbury (the Most Rev. Robert Runcie) gave a warning earlier this month that the Pope’s visit would produce “howls of no Popery” from predictable quarters. Referring directly to the commission’s document, Dr Runcie said in an address to the Anglican Synod: “A report on such a contentious area could not fail to be controversial, but I believe that the commission has made real progress in clarifying and reconciling the two traditions.”

The report has irritated some hard-liners in Rome. They are believed to be unhappy at the possible dilution of the Papal position. The Vatican newspaper, “I’Osservatore Romano,” has been notably cool towards the process of ecumenism. Among the difficulties which still have to be resolved are the question of

marriages between Anglicans and Catholics, the willingness of some parts of the Anglican communion to accept women priests, and the insistence of the Vatican that its clergy in the Latin rite, though not in the Oriental Catholic rites, must remain celibate.

The "Observer” said that the pace of advance towards final reconciliation between the two churches would depend in great measure on the attitude the Pope publicly adopted towards the report. His decision to join Dr Runcie in an ecumenical service in Canterbury Cathedral on May 29 is seen as a sign of his desire for an end to divisions between Anglicans and Catholics.

If he wholeheartedly backs the report, progress on reconciliation could be swift, But there are many powerful figures in the Vatican who want to put their foot on the brake