Roman Catholic Message on Homosexuality and the Church Remains Clear

Two recent messages from the Roman Catholic Church should be received loud and clear at Lambeth Palace and 815, although past history would suggest that any comprehension on the part of Anglican and Episcopalian leadership will be sorely lacking.

Friday, Pope Benedict firmly re-stated the Church's position:  "The union of love, based on matrimony between a man and a woman, which makes up the family, represents a good for all society that can not be substituted by, confused with, or compared to other types of unions."    Per the Reuters News Service, The Pope referred to marriage as an inalienable right of the traditional family  "founded on matrimony between a man and a woman, to be the natural cradle of human life."  Although the Pope made no mention of the California Supreme court decision on same-sex marriages, the timing of his message was unmistakable.

Religious Intelligence also reported last week on an interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council on Christian Unity.  Cardinal Kasper's message to the Anglican Communion was quite clear; RI reports:

"The dividing lines which have unfortunately become evident on ethical issues since the latter half of the last century are therefore not secondary or irrelevant for an understanding of the nature of the church," he said, as in “touching on holiness, they touch on the essential nature of the church itself.”

The decision by some Anglican Churches to ordain gay clergy and bless same–sex unions in the belief that they are prophetic actions that demonstrate God’s love and acceptance to all people, was not in conformity with the faith of the Gospel and the early church, he said. "We should not imagine that we possess more of the Holy Spirit today than the church of the early church fathers and the great theologians of the Middle Ages," he said.

By posing the question of what constitutes Anglicanism’s core, Cardinal Kasper asked the Communion whether it can be an ecumenical partner with the Roman Catholic Church. The goal of ecumenism, Cardinal Kasper told the Durham Conference was “a spiritually renewed church, in which the church in its concrete form becomes to the fullest degree that which in its undeveloped nature it always has been and always remains: the one, holy church we profess together in the Apostles' Creed."

If Anglicanism cannot add to the Catholic Church’s fullness by speaking with a common voice on hitherto universally agreed ethical standards, its value as an ecumenical partner was questionable, he said.

Cardinal Kasper urged Anglicanism to quickly put its house in order: "The Roman Catholic Church would “work and pray” for clarity from the Anglican Communion on the divisive issues of doctrine and discipline that were dividing the church, he said. He urged this summer’s Lambeth Conference, where he will address the gathered bishops, to settle its disputes over homosexuality as it was “not sustainable to keep pushing decision-making back because it only extends the crisis.”

The Anglican response, voiced by Canon Gregory Cameron, Deputy General Secretary of the ACC, was the typically, arrogantly Anglican "we can have it both ways":  “most Anglicans have come to believe that it is part of the spirit of Anglicanism to be faithful both to the ancient tradition of the undivided Church and to the insights of the Reformation.  In every age, there have been those who have challenged us to come down on one side or the other. We need to take those challenges seriously because they point to real tensions arising from the quest for such a balance.” In other words, Anglicans such as +Cameron and more particularly the liberal leadership of TEO, do believe they are more invested with the Holy Spirit than the historic churches of the middle ages and that they possess a preternatural ability to span the ages and be all things to all people.  Humility, thy name is NOT liberal Anglicanism.

There can be little mistake in reading the messages Roman Catholicism is trying to send to the Anglican Communion and TEO.  Pope Benedict's "Shot Across the Bow" sermon in New York City coupled with these and many other statements and gestures should be perceived that the Catholic Church is losing patience with Anglicanism's and TEO's liberal bent, and that it will soon cut off any talk of ecumenism between the two churches.  Roman Catholicism, as embodied in Pope Benedict, is well aware of its need to maintain a strong and consistent message to overcome its troubles of recent decades.  This consistency has served it well and will continue to do so as other denominations fall away from their historic faith and theology in the throes of unbridled arrogance to believe that we in the 21st Century are smarter and more attuned to the Holy Spirit than any of our predecessors.

A tip o' my kepi to Fr. Matt Kennedy and Commenter Paula at Stand Firm for linking these stories.

Comments

[Cranmer]

It is curious indeed to read that it is the Anglicans you find arrogant, when the dogmatic assertion and confrontational challenge is coming from the Vatican.

How do you think infallible pontificating sounds to an Anglican?

How do you think an Anglican feels when he is told by the Pope that his church is 'not a church in the proper sense', but a mere 'ecclesial community'?

It is hardly the stuff of humilty or a spirit of ecumenism. Toleration is a wonderful attribute, and love is patient. Anglicans may be woefully deficient, in your opinion, but there are ways of correcting one's brother without alienating him.

[Cranmer]

PS

His Grace agrees with His Holiness on this matter, by the way, just in case you should think this Anglican to be morally deficient.

[Trimble]

Mr. Cranmer, thank you for your comment but I fear we will have to agree to disagree on this one. While often I do find the Roman Catholic Church to be overly dogmatic, which is why I have not and will not "swim the Tiber," in this instance the point is the increasing disfavor and distaste with which Anglicanism is finding itself from the so-called "Mother Church." The old joke that Anglicanism is "Catholic Lite - All of the Liturgy, None of the Guilt" bears some truth in the relational sense that Anglicanism has always seemed to me to crave some recognition from Roman Catholism as if it were a child seeking priase for having done something good, i.e., "we broke away a long time ago, and see, it is a good thing." It has come to this point, though, that now Anglicanism believes it can stand astride being both an historic faith, and an innovation which rejects the historic faith in many material respects. Believing that any entity can be so glaringly, inconsistently all things to all people is where I see the arrogance. By contrast, Roman Catholicism has stolidly plodded along through time, holding on to its theology and dogma against all comers. While there is much to criticize in Rome, consistency, in this case, is a virtue.

[Anglican Mom]

Hello...I've been lurking for some time and wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoy your blog and this post in particular. I am an Orthodox Anglican in Kentucky ( formerly a member of a Central KY parish under the Sauls regime). I, like you, am not quite ready to swim the "Tiber" and the RC church has certainly had it's share of problems but I have the highest respect for its unyeilding faithfulness to theology and its constancy. I have found great joy and the Lord's peace in a Central Kentucky Anglican parish under the Godly Leadership of Archbishop Henry Orombi. There is a movement underway in the Gospel believing portions of the Anglican communion and it will be a revival like none other.