Mass Accord

The Roman Catholic Church has taught for centuries that at the moment of consecration in the Mass, the bread and wine undergo "transubstantiation," becoming the actual substance of Christ's body and blood, even though they keep the same appearance. The Thirty-Nine Articles, established by the Church of England after its 16th century split with Rome, said that transubstantiation was "repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions." Thus the difference in the way they look on the rite of Communion is one of the major barriers in reuniting the two churches.

The Latest Step. Last week a joint theology commission released a paper reporting a "substantial agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist," which, they added portentously, was "the most important statement for Anglicans and Roman Catholics since the Reformation." The international commission, which grew out of the 1966 meeting of Pope Paul VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury, worked for two years on the new 1,500-word document, which they completed last September. The Pope and the Archbishop have only now agreed to release the statement, but simply as a basis for further study--not as church teaching. Nonetheless, the commission report implies that any remaining theological differences on the central issue of the Eucharist are not major enough to forestall interCommunion which some observers expect within the decade.

This is only the latest in a series of quiet, significant steps in ecumenical theology. In recent years, while the Anglican Communion has been down grading its Thirty-Nine Articles, many Catholic scholars have been reinterpreting the doctrine of transubstantiation. Last week's accord leaps over all the Reformation rhetoric and states simply that Communion presupposes Christ's "true presence, effectually signified by the bread and wine, which, in this mystery, become his body and blood." But the document does not use the term transubstantiation except in a footnote that carefully affirms Christ's presence and the "radical" change that occurs, but notes that modern Catholic theology does not define how this happens.

As for the Catholic belief that the Mass re-enacts Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, the statement describes the Eucharistic service as an "anamnesis," or representation, of God's reconciling act in Christ's sacrifice. Answering longstanding Protestant objections that this view of the Mass downgrades Christ's sacrifice on Calvary, the new statement adds that "there can be no repetition of or addition to" what Christ accomplished "once and for all" on the Cross.

For churchgoers enthusiastic about ecumenism, all this is good news. But the general agreement on the nature of the Eucharist raises the question of who has the power to bring about the radical change that occurs in the bread and wine. Thus the next logical matter for the international commission of scholars to consider is the validity of Anglican priestly orders, which Rome has never conceded. A step toward some form of Catholic recognition of the orders of other churches has already been taken in theological talks between Catholics and Lutherans in the U.S., based on their earlier agreement on the Eucharist.

Such agreements from like-minded theologians have taken many years to reach, but even they are far easier to achieve than official church action. The Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, was in no hurry even to mention last week's "substantial agreement," and at week's end Britain's 1,300-member Catholic priests' association called for its total rejection.

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