A Pope for Anglicans?

Pope Paul VI himself has said it: his own office is "unquestionably the most serious obstacle on the path of ecumenism." A significant step toward overcoming that obstacle was taken last week when an official commission of Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians announced their agreement that "in any future union a universal primacy" should be held by the "see of Rome."

Neither the Pope nor the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. F. Donald Coggan, endorsed the agreement; they simply approved its publication for discussion. Not until the 1980s is the commission expected to draft its final proposal for ending the split, which began 4% centuries ago when King Henry VIII rejected the authority of Pope Clement VII so that an autonomous Church of England would grant an annulment of his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

It is traditional Roman Catholic doctrine that Jesus Christ appointed Peter as the first Pope ("You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church"), and that the papal succession has continued unbroken ever since. The 20-member commission's statement, completed at a meeting last summer in Venice, skirts the dogmatic problem by describing the papacy as a position of leadership that evolved to meet the needs of a growing church. It says that the see of Rome originally became "prominent" because both Peter and Paul died in that city, and it "eventually became the principal center in matters concerning the Church universal."

The "Venice statement" discreetly proposes certain limits on papal authority. It argues that a chief bishop of a church, whether regional or worldwide, should consult with other bishops before speaking on matters of faith and should only "on occasion" take a personal initiative. An ecclesiastical primate "respects and promotes Christian freedom" and "does not seek uniformity where diversity is legitimate or centralize administration to the detriment of local churches." The statement's main conclusion: to unite all Christians, primacy "needs to be realized at the universal level. The only see which makes any claim to universal primacy and which has exercised and still exercises [it] is the see of Rome."

Even if both communions move that far toward reunion, problems will remain. The Venice statement acknowledges that Anglicans have great difficulties with the doctrine of papal infallibility and dogmas about Mary. Anglicans also fear that the Pope's universal jurisdiction over church affairs is open to "illegitimate or uncontrolled use"; the statement, however, also notes that Catholicism is trying to overcome the "juridical outlook" of the past. It avoids such specific obstacles to union as the Catholic ban on contraception or the recent decision by Anglicans in some countries to ordain women priests.

More Zest. By coincidence, the Church Times, semiofficial voice of the Church of England, last week underscored the remaining gap over the papacy. It ran an editorial urging the 79-year-old Pope Paul to resign and "make the way clear for a younger man with more zest." Anglican reaction to the Venice statement, however, was modestly hopeful, and Pope Paul told an audience, "We are all potentially brothers."

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