Mary Kenny“Rome wasn’t built in a day, reconciliation and unity must take time as well”, writes Mary Kenny
Could we really be moving towards the day when the Catholic and Anglican Churches are so wholly reconciled that they achieve full unity? That was the suggestion that came from Canterbury sources last week when Archbishop Justin Welby formally visited Pope Francis to celebrate the 50th anniversary, in 1966, of the first meeting between a Pope and the head of the Anglican Church since the Reformation.
That initial meeting had been between Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI and Dr Welby said it launched “50 years of closer and deeper relations” which are leading to the prospect of eventual full union.
Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin joined in a service together at San Gregorio al Cielo, which has a historical resonance well before 1966. The first Archbishop of Canterbury was St Augustine, who was sent to evangelise England in 597: he had been the prior of the monastery of San Gregorio. As the Sistine Chapel choir and the choir of Canterbury Cathedral joined voices, it was a sound reaching back to the earliest roots of Christianity.
But if Rome wasn’t built in a day, reconciliation and unity must take time as well. There are still many differences in theological dogma and in practices such as the ordination of women, and it would be superficial to suggest they can be papered over with goodwill alone.
Similarities
Yet, there’s a great saying often invoked at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: ‘Identify with the similarities, not the differences’, and that, surely could be a guideline in Catholic-Anglican reconciliation.
Moreover, we can learn a lot from them: and they can learn a lot from us. Blessed John Newman, as a former Anglican, brought back into the Catholic Church a sense of the primacy of conscience – and we have to give Martin Luther some credit for that too. Anglicans can learn from Catholics that devotions to the saints often bring a real sense of holiness into people’s everyday lives. We should sing more hymns. They should venerate more saints.
There are practical reasons, too, why Anglicans and Catholics should share their Christian heritage. In England alone there are 2,000 mediaeval churches with fewer than 10 regular worshippers, according to Sir Simon Jenkins, who has written the authoritative book on English churches. There are “8,000 more which can barely muster 20”. These churches are often exquisite historic works of architecture and cannot be allowed to be destroyed or decay. So, he suggests, they should be given away to anyone who will use them.
Surely, where they can be shared, they should be – like whatever else that can be shared from our common heritage. Including the urgent common defence of Christians in the Middle East – and most acutely, in Pakistan, where a Christian mother, Asia Bibi, has been sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
The French ‘model’ of abortion
A Cistercian priest, Eoin de Bhaldraithe, has written an article saying that “Ireland should follow French abortion law”: this, claims Fr de Bahldraithe, would protect the life of the unborn child.
His article, published in the Irish Times, is, if I may say so, under-informed.
France currently has 229,000 abortions a year, and the number has been steadily rising annually since 1994. This is despite the fact that contraception is very widely available and easily accessed.
Difficult
It is true that later abortions have been more difficult to procure in France, and people talk about ‘taking the train to Amsterdam’ for an abortion after 12 weeks.
But the law in France has gradually adjusted to allow for more liberal interpretation of exceptions, and it is moving towards termination on demand – the ideology favoured by President Hollande’s socialist regime.
Comedy and consequences
A new American comedy show about divorce – simply called Divorce and starring Sarah Jessica Parker – has been hailed as a hit, and was to be shown on the Sky Atlantic channel this week (before we went to press).
It’s been written by the Irish comedy screen writer, Sharon Horgan, who grew up “on a turkey farm in Co Westmeath”, and now lives in London, with her husband and two children.
Sarah Jessica Parker plays a woman hitting 50, who suddenly decides she wants to split up with her husband, saying “I want to save my life while I still care about it. I don’t love you anymore. I want a divorce.”
Many a person has hit 50 with similar sentiments. An urge to change your life dramatically is often a deep part of the famed mid-life crisis.
Sharon Horgan writes comedy, but with a ‘bleak’ and ‘icy’ side to the laughs, too.
I haven’t seen much mention of the feelings of and consequences for children among the ups and downs of a divorce comedy. But aren’t they the most important consideration?