Dialogue more difficult

“We hope we shall not be put to one side and can continue to have a serious dialogue on the quest for full unity, so that the world may believe”: with this heartfelt appeal for the continuation of dialogue, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, began his address to the Lambeth Conference at Canterbury on 30 July. His audience included Anglican bishops and primates from all over the world, who have been meeting since 16 July (the Conference will end on 4 August) in the bid to find a solution to the “grave and complex” crisis that has opened in the last decade around the question of the ordination of women and homosexuals as bishops. We give a résumé of the long and theologically complex address of Cardinal Kasper, published in its entirety by the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Homosexuality. In his address, Cardinal Kasper reviewed the most important stages in the relations between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion in recent years and presented a magisterial dissertation on the ecclesiology to which many of the problems afflicting the Anglican Communion at the present time refer. In the final part of his speech the cardinal dwelt on the “two questions at the centre of the tensions”: the ordination of women and human sexuality. “The teaching of the Catholic Church on human sexuality, in particular on homosexuality – said the cardinal – is clear and expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We are convinced of the fact that this teaching is firmly based on the Old and New Testament and hence that what is at stake here is fidelity to Holy Scripture and to the apostolic tradition”. Citing a declaration of ARCIC (Life in Christ), the cardinal recalled that Anglicans and Catholics agreed on the fact that “homosexual activity is irregular” but differed on “the moral and pastoral counsel we would offer to those who pursued it”. “In the light of the tensions of recent years in this regard – concluded Kasper -, a clear declaration on the part of the Anglican Communion would give us greater opportunities of offering a common witness on human sexuality and marriage, a witness that is sadly necessary in the contemporary world”.Ordination of women. The cardinal pointed out that “with regard to the ordination of women to the priesthood and to the episcopate, the Catholic Church has clearly expounded its teaching ever since the start of our dialogue”. On this question Kasper himself had intervened in his address to the House of Bishops of the Church of England in 2006. At Canterbury, the cardinal repeated that as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, “the decision to ordain women implies an abandonment of the common position of all the Churches of the first millennium, in other words, not only the Catholic Church, but also the Oriental and Orthodox Churches. It seems to us that the Anglican Communion is drawing ever closer to the Protestant Churches of the 16th century and is assuming a position that those Churches only adopted in the second half of the 20th century”. Kasper further pointed out that at the present time there are 28 Anglican provinces that ordain women to the priesthood and that, although only four provinces have so far ordained women as bishops, a further thirteen provinces have approved the legislation that permits the female episcopate. In short, “the Catholic Church must now take cognizance of the fact that the ordination of women to the priesthood and to the episcopate does not just regard isolated provinces, but increasingly corresponds to the Communion’s position”.Ecumenical implications. Cardinal Kasper did not mince words on the ecumenical implications of such decisions and clearly spelt out the situation of Catholic/Anglican dialogue. “Although our dialogue has led to a significant agreement on the idea of priesthood, the ordination of women to the episcopate – said the cardinal – substantially and definitively blocks any possible recognition of the Anglican Orders on the part of the Catholic Church”. “It now seems that full and visible communion as the goal of our dialogue has taken a step backwards, that our dialogue will have less definitive objectives, and therefore that its character will be altered as a result”. But Kasper was equally clear that as far as the Catholic Church is concerned the ecumenical process will not stop. And he concluded as follows: “Our acute consciousness of the greatness and considerable depth of Christian culture of your tradition only increases our concern for you in relation to your current problems and crises, but it also gives us the confidence that, with God’s help, you will find a way out of these difficulties and that in a new way we shall be strengthened in our common pilgrimage towards the unity that Jesus Christ wishes for us and for which he prays”. Then, citing a letter sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury in December 2004, the cardinal declared: “In a spirit of ecumenical friendship and collaboration we are ready to support you in any appropriate or necessary way”.