Når paven inviterer til enhet, mener han: «Kom til oss!»

Slik skriver Fr. Longenecker i et innlegg på sin blogg nylig. Han refererer mest til anglikanernes holdninger (siden han selv tidligere var anglikansk prest og kjenner dette kirkesamfunnet godt), men det han skriver gjelder egentlig flere. For anglikanerne er nå det spesielle at de kan få med seg en del av sin egen tradisjon inn i Den katolske Kirke, men for mange (konservative) anglikanere (de liberale ønsker jo ikke å bli katolikker) blir det likevel for vanskelig å ta imot pave Benedikts invitasjon til enhet. Her er starten på hans innlegg:

Our local vicar in the combox says, «When Pope Benedict talks to Anglicans about church unity what he really means is ‘Come and join us.'»

Of course this is true in a sense, but when he says «Come and join us.» Benedict is not expecting total conformity and uniformity in all things. That’s what the Ordinariate is all about. What he has in mind is a growing family of different small groups like Anglicans and the Eastern churches, coming into full communion while retaining their own patrimony of liturgy and customs and also being granted a measure of autonomy both materially and in matters of governance.

I hear Anglicans whine about this expectation that unity means coming into full communion with the See of Rome, but what on earth else could it possibly mean? They whine about this expectation we have, but they have never come up with any other model for unity, and re-buff any attempts Catholics make to call for unity.

What other model would there be? Shall we have a World Council of Churches? That’s a flop and was never more than a talking shop for liberal Protestant theologians. Shall we simply have intercommunion with all Christians? … …

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