There are some in the Anglican Continuum who say they want Christian unity, too, but in order for it to happen either the Roman Catholic Church must repent and/or be willing to accept into full communion (or "inter-communion") churches that do not hold the dogmata that were defined after split between East and West. We are seeing this point of view also expressed now in the unfortunate backtracking of some of the bishops in the Anglican Church in America.
They perhaps see the position now taken by the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) bishops who are faithful to their solemn declaration in 2007 and their signing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) perhaps as capitulation or a surrender of Anglican identity.
I see it differently. I think it had everything to do with Archbishop John Hepworth's call for all of us, from the bishops on down, to examine our hearts and minds to make sure there was nothing in us that forms a stubborn impediment to the unity that Jesus Christ prayed for.
What happens when you lay aside your "rights" to any particular doctrine or stance and you approach God with a naked desire for the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth without the blinders of prejudices or stiff-necked assumptions?
What if you pray that the Holy Spirit will tear down every lofty thought and every imagination that holds itself up against the knowledge of God?
Does He not promise us in Scripture that if we seek, we will find; that if knock, it shall be opened unto us? Will He not shed a light on our path, and show us the direction we must go?
I believe it is in that kind of humility that the faithful TAC bishops have approached Christian unity. They have prayerfully studied what the Church says and how the Catholic Church sees herself. Through the power of the Holy Spirit that have come to see that Her understanding of Herself is true.
They have come to see that She cannot depart from this view of herself as the Church founded by Jesus Christ and on the primacy of Peter, because to do so would be a violation of her mission and her very essence.
Some can only hear the Catholic Church's claims as a kind of triumphalism or prideful supremacy. I see this reaction as similar to the way people react to the Jews being referred to as the Chosen People. Some hate the Jews for that, as if they are lording it over everyone else, but Jews themselves might see that designation as as a terrible burden and responsibility to be lived out.
The Church cannot be except what She is, even if the reaction against this is totally negative, as it was when Dominus Iesus was published 10 years ago. Can you remember the worldwide huffing and puffing as various Christian "ecclesial communities" reacted hotly against being described as "defective"?
But it could have been either Bishop Carl Reid (then Fr. Carl) or Bishop Robert Mercer, who calmly accepted the description of the TAC as defective. "Because we don't have the pope," one or the other said.
It is sad that, for whatever reason — as a journalist I hesitate to impute motives — some who either signed the 2007 letter and Catechism of the Catholic Church or were ordained as an ACA bishop after the fact, have backed away from this. I am thankful that in Canada we have bishops who are putting their very ability to continue as priests on the line as a sign of their willingness to be obedient to Holy Mother Church. That's why I remain under their authority.
Here is a passage from Dominus Iesus that those of us who stand at the threshold of the Catholic Church have realized is true.
4. The Church's constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure (or in principle). As a consequence, it is held that certain truths have been superseded; for example, the definitive and complete character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the nature of Christian faith as compared with that of belief in other religions, the inspired nature of the books of Sacred Scripture, the personal unity between the Eternal Word and Jesus of Nazareth, the unity of the economy of the Incarnate Word and the Holy Spirit, the unicity and salvific universality of the mystery of Jesus Christ, the universal salvific mediation of the Church, the inseparability — while recognizing the distinction — of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, and the Church, and the subsistence of the one Church of Christ in the Catholic Church.
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"They have come to see that She cannot depart from this view of herself as the Church founded by Jesus Christ and on the primacy of Peter, because to do so would be a violation of her mission and her very essence."
Truer words have seldom been said in this matter.
Bravo!
"Dominus Iesus" was a remarkably charitable document, given its complete willingness to admit that many are yet being saved outside of explicit membership in the Catholic Church, if so by reason of ignorance. Taking Fr. Karl Rahner's notion of the "Anonymous Christian" to its final application, all those destined to be received into the Kingdom of God have some relationship to Christ and His Church, even if that relationship is implicit; the exact words of the document are "mysterious union" with Christ and His Church.
I'd dare say, hastening to add, that most of those involved with the TAC are not likely to be able to fall under the implicit, "mysterious union" category in the future when it comes to a salvific relationship with the Lord and his Body, a designation generally applicable to those who truly have not had opportunity to consider the full claims of the Church that proclaims the Gospel of Christ. I think there are, sad to say, those who DO understand the claims of the Barque of Peter, but who choose to deny or suppress them for personal, and not truly substantial, reasons. Only God can judge here, but I for one don't want to end up on the wrong side of that divide!