Rome's plans for the Anglicans

Friday, August 1, 2008
Damian Thompson

The presence of three cardinals at the Lambeth Conference has not attracted the attention it deserves. Rome is keeping its cards close to its chest with regards to the Anglican Communion. But something is going on, and the future shape of the Church of England may depend on it.
We can, perhaps, discount the presence of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor at Lambeth. He's an old-style, glad-handing ecumenist, still wedded to the vision of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), whose proceedings ran into the ground about 15 years ago. One of these days, someone is going to have to break the news to Cormac.

Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelisation, is made of sterner (not to say ruder) stuff. He told the Lambeth bishops that they were in danger of suffering from spiritual Alzheimer's and ecclesial Parkinson's. That is the sort of language that plays well with spiky Anglo-Catholics who have given up on the C of E and are hoping to transfer as soon as possible to the Catholic Church.

The surprise came from Kasper, the Vatican's head of ecumenism, who is German but not a close ally of the Pope. He said yesterday that the decision to ordain women bishops had closed the door on any hope of Rome recognising Anglican orders. He also spoke cryptically of his hopes that a "new Oxford movement" would arise within Anglicanism, based on a true understanding of the priesthood and sacraments. the rest