Cue the Fat Lady…

In an interview given to Vatican Radio on Wednesday morning, Msgr. Mark Langham, the former administrator of Westminster Cathedral and now the head man for Catholic—Anglican dialogue for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, revealed that the third — and likely final — phase of the ARCIC process will begin next year.

According to Msgr. Langham, the “starting point” of the talks would be "the broader question of the relationship between the universal church and the local church" with the divisive issues of women's ordination (and that of practicing homosexuals) and same-sex marriage being discussed — despite the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury, during his visit to Rome last week, characterized these as "second order" issues that should be downplayed in ecumenical dialogue.

This last phase of ARCIC (Anglican—Roman Catholic International Commission) is nothing more than a formality, Rome having lost faith in the Anglican Church as genuine ecumenical partner long ago.  As late as the Lambeth Conference last year, Cardinal Kasper called for the Anglican Communion to “clarify its identity,” warning that the church must make “certain difficult decisions” to determine whether it belongs to the Catholic and Orthodox Churches of the first millennium or the Protestant Churches of the 16^th century.  This ultimatum came two decades too late, of course, but the Anglican Church has made it decision.  As Fr. Geoffrey Kirk put it at the recent FiF UK National Assembly, "The Anglican Communion must be the only institution in the history of the world, willfully and deliberately, to call down plagues upon its own head."  The personal ordinariates provided by Anglicanorum Coetibus are the closest thing to "corporate reunion" as can now be achieved.  We remain profoundly grateful to the Holy Father for the Apostolic Constitution, but the same time, faithful Anglicans everywhere are deeply grieved to witness the ignominious end of the once glorious Church of England and her Communion of sister Churches.  O what might have been!