May 06, 2008
Protestant or Catholic: Anglicans must decide
Ruth Gledhill
London Times
Hard words for Anglicans from the head of the Council for Christian
Unity in Rome. Cardinal Walter Kasper has told the Catholic Herald that
now, with Lambeth approaching, is the time for Anglicans to decide
whether they are Catholic or Protestant. 'Ultimately, it is a question
of the identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong?' he said.
'Does it belong more to the churches of the first millennium -Catholic
and Orthodox - or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of the
16th century? At the moment it is somewhere in between, but it must
clarify its identity now and that will not be possible without certain
difficult decisions.' The genius of Anglicanism has always been its
ability to straddle the divide, but maybe the Cardinal is right and the
Communion's present difficulties reflect the impossibility of continuing
to do this.
His comments coincided with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams'
'friendly' meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. This is the Pope who, as
Cardinal Ratzinger, delivered a strong message of sup****t to an early
meeting of a group of conservative Anglicans in Plano.
I wonder how much the Catholics understand, however, that the
Anglo-Catholics who might be the ones most naturally tempted towards
Catholicism are not really where the present dissent stems from. Most of
those who were going to go over have already gone, over women priests.
For the rest, go to:
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/05/protestant-or-c.html
--
Charles Hohenstein (to reply, remove Gene Robinson)
"The sad huddle of affluent bedwetters, thumbsuckers,
treehuggers, social climbers, homophiles, quavery ladies,
and chronic petition signers that makes up the current
Episcopal Church . . ." -‹Thomas Lipscomb
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