John Paul's Ecumenical Warning

By Richard N. Ostling

At the grandly symbolic site of England's Canterbury Cathedral, the mother see of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Pope John Paul II in 1982 joined Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie in launching a bold venture. Following 16 years of ecumenical talks, the two church leaders inaugurated a second round of negotiations to examine whether Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism could come to recognize each other's priests and bishops. Such recognition would end 4 1/2 centuries of separation between two major wings of Christianity and pave the way for reunion.

Since 1982 the joint panel of theological negotiators has reached a deft compromise on the question of faith vs. works, which split Europe during the Reformation. In August the group will turn to thorny matters of church authority and such moral issues as birth control and divorce. But it has become obvious that such discussions are now largely academic. The problem, in a word: women.

Meeting in Larnaca, Cyprus, last week, the primates who lead the 27 independent branches of world Anglicanism released a letter that the Pope had sent to Archbishop Runcie last Dec. 8. In it, John Paul responded to decisions at the 1988 Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade meeting of the world's Anglican and Episcopal bishops. Basically, Lambeth had adopted a live-and-let- live approach to the question of women in the hierarchy. Seven of the ; Anglican branches allow women priests, and the diocese of Massachusetts last February toppled the final sex barrier by installing a woman, Barbara Harris, as bishop. Canada and New Zealand are prepared to follow suit.

Apparently, female bishops are the last straw for John Paul. Referring to the talks begun in 1982, he declared that the Anglican move to women priests and bishops "appears to pre-empt this study and effectively block the path to the mutual recognition of ministries." Though the Pope's opposition to women in the clergy is well known, this was his chilliest statement on the ecumenical implications.

John Paul's letter reiterated the Vatican's view, set forth in a 1977 decree, that ordination of women is "a break with tradition of a kind we have no competence to authorize," since Jesus chose only male apostles and only men have been ordained since. The Pope criticized the Anglicans for plunging ahead without giving sufficient attention to "the ecumenical and ecclesiological dimensions" of the innovation. The need for such consideration, he stated, is now "urgent" to "prevent a serious erosion of the degree of communion between us." The women's issue, says one Vatican expert, constitutes "a grave setback."

A special report prepared for the Cyprus sessions noted such messy problems within Anglicanism as opponents' refusing to recognize either women priests or priests ordained by female bishops. As for the Pope's letter, Archbishop Runcie soothingly characterized it as "only a matter of straight speaking between friends that can help the dialogue go forward." In England, Margaret Orr Deas, of the Movement for the Ordination of Women, complained that "the Roman Catholics are not giving anything away" in the negotiations, and she expects no concessions because John Paul is "an unrelenting man and firmly entrenched in his views." The Pope's stern letter by no means ends ecumenical discussions or such friendly contacts as Runcie's Vatican visit planned for next September. But reunification now seems far more remote than before -- if not downright impossible.

With reporting by Cathy Booth/Rome and Alex Efthyvoulos/Larnaca