Pope skips language of love in Anglicans manifesto
On November 4 each year Australian Anglicans and Roman Catholics pray for one another. It was also when Benedict XVI issued the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (‘Groups of Anglicans’).
Writing when it was first announced, I noted that its wording would matter:
Phrased in overly-confident ‘Romanista’ style … it will communicate an institutional, bureaucratic message about unity. It will reinforce the suspicion that ecumenical endeavour means ‘return to Rome’, rather than the vision of every Christian tradition being converted to the unity which Christ wills.
Written with humility … it may just be a sign of the pro-visional which ecumenical endeavour, and this aching world, so desperately needs.
So – which way does Anglicanorum coetibus fall?
It gets off to an undiplomatic start: 'The Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition' such a move. No criteria for this maximum-volume claim are given – why not ‘Guided by Divine Providence …’ or ‘In the grace of humility …’ or just ‘Christians identifying themselves as Anglicans … ’? And it was disrespectful for Benedict XVI to describe as ‘groups of Anglicans’ those who are mostly not so.
The Constitution sets out a 13-point ‘normative structure’ for Personal Ordinariates, with brief ‘Complementary Norms’ from the Congregation for the Defence of the Faith (CDF). Few surprises, though understanding the detail requires close checking of the Canon Law references. Even so, I could not determine whether re-confirmation or re-deaconing will be required.
I came to this document looking for signs of a ‘pro-visional’ approach. Whatever one makes of the 13 points and the Norms, it is the language of the introduction which sets out ‘ecclesiological principles’ which dashed my hopes.
The Anglican Communion accepts that in a re-united Church the distinctive ministry of the Bishop of Rome will be needed. Yet the language of Anglicanorum coetibus presents such a ‘blatant’ view of the papacy, and such a quantitative view of the unity of the visible Church catholic, as to make dialogue near pointless. In particular, key Roman documents on the church such as Lumen Gentium (LG) are not cited from the official English texts, but re-translated from the Latin in ways that shift their meaning – a disturbing trend.
The second sentence, for example, speaks of 'the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate', citing LG 23 and CDF’s Communionis notio (CN) 12; 13. But LG 23 says nothing about ‘guarantee’: it concerns the collegiality of the bishops in mission around the Bishop of Rome, and CN 12-13 addresses the powers ‘interior’ to each local church.
The second paragraph states, 'The Church … was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ as "a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people."’ The quotations marks are in the original, referenced to LG 1, which describes the Church as 'in Christ, like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit communion with God and of the unity of the whole human race'. The abbreviated translation may seem innocuous, but moves the language towards a less intimate, tighter view of the Church.
This shift to a tighter understanding continues in the next paragraph: 'It is the Holy Spirit, the principle of unity, which establishes the Church as a communion'. Again, seemingly innocuous wording, and ‘communion’ is familiar ARCIC ground – but it is another step towards the conclusion that the visible ‘Church’ equals Rome. LG 13 and CN 4 are referenced in support: yet LG 13 is about the diversity of ‘genius’ and ‘charisms’ given by God for a ‘catholic unity’ embracing all ‘members of the people of God’, while CN 4 concerns the Church having an ‘open’ sacramentality.
LG 8 is cited with a crucial change of wording: Church as ‘visible society’ and ‘spiritual community’ are not separate, but one complex reality “formed from a two-fold element, human and divine”. LG 8 structures this sentence differently, in a qualitative rather than quantitative manner: 'which coalesces from a divine and human element', avoiding a false understanding of the Christological analogy which would ascribe divinity to the Church.
I could go into more detail, but conclude by noting the most disturbing re-translation, that of the famous subsistit clause of LG 8. The official English version reads:
This is the one (unica) Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after his Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd … This Church, constituted and organised in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and truth are found outside its visible structure (compaginem). These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.
Anglicanorum coetibus abbreviates, re-arranges and re-translates this as follows, as its conclusion of the ‘ecclesiological principles’ upon which the Constitution rests:
This single Church, which we profess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, 'subsists in the Catholic Church which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts belonging properly to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling toward Catholic unity.'
If a student cited a primary text with such meaning shifts in an essay, questions would be raised about academic integrity.
This Constitution moves the pastoral openness of Lumen Gentium – recognising the distinctive place of the ‘successor of Peter’ – towards a ‘Rome is right’ mentality that is disturbing and dangerous, not only for Anglicans, but for Roman Catholics.
For a text seeking to set forward unity in Christ, Anglicanorum coetibus is mind-bogglingly undiplomatic, disrespectful and uncatholic.
Charles Sherlock, an Anglican theologian, is assistant curate to the Bishop of Bendigo. He is involved with a range of educational/pastoral ministries, based in Bendigo. He was an ARCIC member from 1991–2005.
Topic tags: Charles Sherlock, Anglican, Roman Cathoilc, ecumenism, dialogue, ARCIC, pope, Anglicanorum coetibus