Word: paule
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...grandly symbolic site of England's Canterbury Cathedral, the mother see of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Pope John Paul II in 1982 joined Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie in launching a bold venture. Following 16 years of ecumenical talks, the two church leaders inaugurated a second round of negotiations to examine whether Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism could come to recognize each other's priests and bishops. Such recognition would end 4 1/2 centuries of separation between two major wings of Christianity and pave the way for reunion...
Meeting in Larnaca, Cyprus, last week, the primates who lead the 27 independent branches of world Anglicanism released a letter that the Pope had sent to Archbishop Runcie last Dec. 8. In it, John Paul responded to decisions at the 1988 Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade meeting of the world's Anglican and Episcopal bishops. Basically, Lambeth had adopted a live-and-let- live approach to the question of women in the hierarchy. Seven of the ; Anglican branches allow women priests, and the diocese of Massachusetts last February toppled the final sex barrier by installing a woman, Barbara Harris...
Apparently, female bishops are the last straw for John Paul. Referring to the talks begun in 1982, he declared that the Anglican move to women priests and bishops "appears to pre-empt this study and effectively block the path to the mutual recognition of ministries." Though the Pope's opposition to women in the clergy is well known, this was his chilliest statement on the ecumenical implications...
...John Paul's letter reiterated the Vatican's view, set forth in a 1977 decree, that ordination of women is "a break with tradition of a kind we have no competence to authorize," since Jesus chose only male apostles and only men have been ordained since. The Pope criticized the Anglicans for plunging ahead without giving sufficient attention to "the ecumenical and ecclesiological dimensions" of the innovation. The need for such consideration, he stated, is now "urgent" to "prevent a serious erosion of the degree of communion between us." The women's issue, says one Vatican expert, constitutes "a grave...
...only a matter of straight speaking between friends that can help the dialogue go forward." In England, Margaret Orr Deas, of the Movement for the Ordination of Women, complained that "the Roman Catholics are not giving anything away" in the negotiations, and she expects no concessions because John Paul is "an unrelenting man and firmly entrenched in his views." The Pope's stern letter by no means ends ecumenical discussions or such friendly contacts as Runcie's Vatican visit planned for next September. But reunification now seems far more remote than before -- if not downright impossible...