Jeg skrev nylig om møtet møtet i Vatikanet mellom pave Benedikt og Olav Fykse Tveit i Kirkenes verdensråd. Vårt Land hadde signalisert at de ville skrive mer om innholdet for møtet i lørdagens papirutgave, men det gjorde de vel knapt. Så langt vet vi vel egentlig ikke hva som kom ut av møtet, bortsett fra at det vare en hyggelig møte, der paven bl.a. fikk et par selbuvotter – VL og Aftenposten. (Bildet er fra Aftenposten)
Vårt Land skriver at den norske generalsekretæren i Kirkens Verdensråd møtte pave Benedikt og andre sentrale personer i Vatikanet fredag – og at de vil skirve mer om møtet i lørdagens papirutgave:
Det blir jo gjerne sagt at årene vi har bak oss, har vært en «økumenisk vinter», hvor spørsmål knyttet til homoseksualitet og kvinnelige biskoper bidrar til å forsterke utfordringene vi står overfor i den økumeniske dialogen. Alt dette ønsker jeg å snakke så åpent som mulig om med pave Benedikt, sier Fykse Tveit til Vårt Land.
Han skal også møte kardinal Kurt Koch, som leder det pavelige råd for fremme av kristen enhet. Koch har nylig uttalt at krisen i økumenikken skyldes «dyptgående ulik mentalitet» mellom protestantiske og katolske kirker når det gjelder synet på kirkens vesen. … …
the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) har følt seg litt tilsidesatt de siste månedene; det var de som aller tydeligst spurte pave Benedikt om hjelp, men så har de kommet litt i skyggen av «moderkirken» i Engalnd. Fra Catholic Culture:
The leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) has disclosed that over 150 clerics in his group, including 17 bishops, hope to enter ordinariates within the Catholic Church in the coming year.
Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth, in a message to members of the TAC, expressed high hopes for the success of the ordinariates—although he revealed that the past year’s negotiations have not always proceeded smoothly.
“There have been exquisite difficulties this year,” Archbishop Hepworth conceded. “We have discovered how little detailed knowledge we have of the way the Catholic Church does things, and Catholic officials have discovered, I believe, their need to acquire a better and more profound knowledge of contemporary Anglicanism.” …
Erkebiskop Hepworth skriver selv følgende:
The creation of the first Ordinariate for Anglicans under the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Benedict XVI has been announced. As anticipated, for a host of symbolic and historical reasons, the first Ordinariate will be in England. ….
Wlliam Oddie skrev i går et nytt innlegg om dette, kalt: Why we waited 15 years for an Ordinariate: the inside story. Her er noe av det han skriver:
….. appeared in my book The Roman Option some time after the whole thing had been torpedoed by the opposition of certain English Catholic bishops, as a result of which Cardinal Hume – who in the negotiations had been entirely supportive of the Anglican negotiators – lost his nerve and withdrew his support. The scheme foundered and sank, some thought without trace. In Rome, Cardinal Ratzinger asked “what are the English bishops afraid of?” Pope John Paul asked the former Bishop Leonard: “Why are the English bishops so unapostolic?”
(several years later) …. One day, I received a phone call from Rome. It was from a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose former prefect was now Pope. I was asked for an undertaking to mention to nobody either the name of my interlocutor or, at that time, even the fact that the conversation had taken place. Things were at an early and delicate stage, he said: but there was a real possibility of movement along the lines of the former negotiations. They had read my book. Could we talk?
I told them that I wasn’t as closely in contact with the Anglican side as I had been, for obvious reasons. But there was one thing I was sure of: that the whole thing would be sunk unless the English bishops were kept firmly out of the loop: they should be told nothing. There was a silence. “Your remarks are noted,” he said. But it was clear to me that if the English bishops hadn’t been told yet, that was a decision that had already been made.
Time passed again, though less of it, this time. To the astonishment and dismay of some Catholic bishops Anglicanorum coetibus was published. …
… I have explained in previous blogs why I think this is an entirely desirable development. I just have one question. Why could this not have happened 15 years ago? And what is the answer to Pope John Paul’s and the then Cardinal Ratzinger’s questions: What [were] the English bishops afraid of? And, a tougher question: why [were] the English bishops so unapostolic?
Perhaps things are different now. We must all earnestly pray that they are.
«De har gitt opp økumenikkens opprinnelige mål», sier vatikanets nye leder av Rådet for kristen enhet – som ble kardinal idag. Les fra han sier (fra the Tablet):
Cardinal-elect Kurt Koch, the new president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), has accused Protestants of renouncing the original goal of ecumenism. They have succumbed to a relativistic view of ecclesiology based on shared communion between separate Churches, he said this week, and in doing so have abandoned the proper ecumenical aim of genuine unity.
“It is decisively in this postmodern mentality characterised by pluralistic and relativistic tendencies that is found the great challenge to the search for visible unity of the Church of Jesus Christ,” the Swiss archbishop said on Monday at the opening of the PCPCU plenary assembly in Rome marking the fiftieth anniversary of the pontifical council. In a theologically dense address to his first PCPCU plenary since becoming president last July, he said this mentality was found among not only Protestants but also “many Catholics”.
The PCPCU president, who is to be made a cardinal in today’s consistory, said the current crisis of ecumenism boiled down to what he called the two “profoundly different mentalities” that shape the way Catholics and Protestants describe the nature of the Church.
“The Churches and ecclesial communities born of the Reform have renounced the original objective of ecumenism as visible unity and have substituted it with the concept of mutual recognition as Churches,” he said.
Cardinal-elect Koch said the Churches of the Reform were marked by the “grave phenomenon of ecclesial fragmentation” and had thus adopted an “ecclesiological pluralism”. He said this sees the goal of ecumenism as “reconciled diversity” of many Churches rather than the reconstitution of visible unity (while accepting diversity) in one Church. The cardinal-elect claimed that Protestant “pluralism” among different confessional Churches “contrasts with Catholic conviction that the true Church of Jesus Christ ‘subsists’ in the Catholic Church, in other words that she is already an existing reality”. “It is clear that there is a profound difference between this Protestant view and the Catholic and Orthodox interpretation according to which the ecumenical objective cannot be inter-communion but ‘communion’, within which eucharistic communion also finds its place,” he said. …
Mange lurer sikkert på hva det betyr at anglikanerne vil få beholde litt av sin liturgiske tradisjon når de blir katolikker. Bildet over viser litt av hva det innebærer – og forklarer også hvorfor noen (moderne) katolikker ikke liker det som nå er i ferd med å skje.
På nettesidene til en av disse menighetene ( i Texas) beskrives også messen slik: «THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS Sunday: 7:30 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (The Sunday morning Masses are according to The Book of Divine Worship, Rite I, and the Sunday evening Mass is celebrated in Latin according to the Missal of Paul VI).» Og menighetens historie beskriver slik:
Our Lady of the Atonement Church is a Roman Catholic parish of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, and is the first of several “personal parishes” erected in the United States for the Anglican Use Liturgy. This parish has no affiliation with the so-called “Continuing Anglican Movement,” nor with any branch of the Episcopal or Anglican churches. Rather, its members, many of whom are converts from the Episcopal Church, have been granted permission to retain some elements of the Anglican liturgical heritage while being fully Roman Catholic. Throughout the world the Catholic Church has numerous liturgical rites all under the authority of the Roman Pontiff, and the Church has always taught that there can be legitimate diversity in unity. While the liturgy used at Our Lady of the Atonement Parish is not a separate Rite, it is the only approved variation of the Latin Rite in the United States.
Pope John Paul II greets Fr. Phillips The creation of the “Anglican Use” parishes stemmed from the statement made by Pope John Paul II in 1980, as a result of a proposal from the bishops of this country to develop terms under which former Episcopal clergymen and other members of the Episcopal Church could be admitted to full communion in the Catholic Church while still retaining some elements of their liturgy, tradition and devotional life. On August 15, 1983, a small group of converts from the Episcopal Church was received into the Roman Catholic Church by the Most Reverend Patrick F. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio, in the Cathedral of San Fernando. At the same ceremony, the Reverend Christopher G. Phillips, also a convert to the fulness of the Catholic Faith, was ordained by the Archbishop to be their pastor. These eighteen people were the founding members of Our Lady of the Atonement Parish. For the first time in the history of the Western Church a group of Protestants was welcomed into the bosom of Holy Mother Church with a Pastoral Provision which includes the right to seek the establishment of Personal Parishes under the authority of diocesan bishops, a unique liturgical use, particular devotional practices, and a married clergy on a limited basis. …
Det skrives mye om anglikanere i England som nå er i ferd med å bli katolikker, men det fins mennesker også i mange andre land som er i ferd med å gjøre det samme – i USA for eksempel. Og i USAhar man i 30 år hatt såkalte «Anglican use» menigheter, som har beholdt en del av sin liturgiske arv i alle disse år. Det har vært få menigheter, og de har vært fullt ut plassert i et vanlig katolsk bispedømme. Nå vil det bli mange flere, og de vil også løsrives vanlig vanlige bispedømmer og få sin egen (noemer frittstående) ordinarius:
For more than 30 years, groups of American Anglicans have prayed, labored and sacrificed to come home to Rome and live out their Catholicity within the Bark of Peter. A crack in the door was opened when Pope John Paul II created the Pastoral Provision, which allowed for married Episcopal priests to convert to Roman Catholicism. Following more theological training, they could then be ordained Catholic priests and live out their lives and ministries in the Catholic Church.
More than 100 Anglican and Episcopal priests took the Pope up on his unique offer. Within three decades several vibrant Anglican Use Catholic parishes were established and continue to grow in numbers.
Last year, another Roman pontiff, Benedict XVI, kicked the Vatican doors wide open to Anglicans when he announced Anglicanorum Coetibus calling for the worldwide establishment of Anglican Ordinariates. This news not only sent shock waves throughout the heart of Anglican England, it brought forth a tide of Anglican priests and their bishops who are willing to be fully united with their Apostolic roots and be the bedrock foundation of a yet-to-be-established English ordinariate.
This is entirely new ground. All Anglican Ordinariates, no matter where they are established in the world — England, the United States, Canada, Australia, Africa or elsewhere — are being developed from scratch without a blueprint in hand except, perhaps, for the few and flourishing Anglican Use parishes in America.
«I have thought for a long time that we, in this country, are perhaps more ready than any other,» Fr. Christopher Phillips, pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Anglican Use Catholic Church, told a Becoming One gathering of American Anglicans Wednesday evening. «We have sizable parishes already in full communion with the Holy See.»
Fr. Phillips was referring not only to Our Lady of the Atonement, but also Our Lady of Walsingham Anglican Use Catholic Church in Houston and St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Use Catholic Church in Arlington. All three Texas-based Anglican Use parishes have been in existence for more than a quarter of a century and have been thriving Catholic congregations within their respective Catholic dioceses. At the same time, they have successfully maintained their own unique Anglican patrimony. … ….
Les mer om dette her. – Les også mer om hva som skjer i USA på dette feltet.
I går publiserte de katolske biskopene i England og Wales et brev der de ganske konkret beskriver hva som vil skje med anglikanere som nå ønsker å bli katolikker: De fem anglikanske biskopene vil bli ordinert til katolske prester før fasten begynner neste år, anglikanske prester (ca 50) vli bli ordinert til katolske prester til pinse, de troende vil bli opptatt i Kirkens fulle fellesskap til påske.
Dette er mye raskere enn vanlig, Hovedregelen er at en protestantisk prest skal vente minste tre år før han bli ordinert til katolsk prest, og er han gift (som vel de fleste av disse er), kan det ta mye lenger. Men vår Kirke kommer til å følge den gamle regelen som sier at en gift mann ikke kan bli biskop (og jeg tror alle de fem aktuelle anglikanske biskopene er gift).
It is expected that the retired former Anglican Bishops whose petitions to be ordained are accepted by the CDF, will be ordained to the Catholic Diaconate and Priesthood prior to Lent. This will enable them, together with the Ordinary and the other former Anglican Bishops, to assist with the preparation and reception of former Anglican clergy and their faithful into full communion with the Catholic Church during Holy Week.
Before the beginning of Lent, those Anglican clergy with groups of faithful who have decided to enter the Ordinariate will then begin a period of intense formation for ordination as Catholic priests.
At the beginning of Lent, the groups of faithful together with their pastors will be enrolled as candidates for the Ordinariate. Then, at a date to be agreed between the Ordinary and the local diocesan Bishop, they will be received into the Catholic Church and confirmed. This will probably take place either during Holy Week, at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday or during the Easter Vigil. The period of formation for the faithful and their pastors will continue to Pentecost. Until then, these communities will be cared for sacramentally by local clergy as arranged by the diocesan Bishop and the Ordinary.
Around Pentecost, those former Anglican priests whose petitions for ordination have been accepted by the CDF will be ordained to the Catholic Priesthood. Ordination to the Diaconate will precede this at some point during Eastertide. Formation in Catholic theology and pastoral practice will continue for an appropriate amount of time after ordination. …
Jeg følger følger ganske godt med på hva som skjer i Den norske kirke, og da jeg så at Svein Arne Lindø stod på valg til ny kirkeårdsleder, og senere også ble valgt, fulgte jeg ekstra godt med. Da jeg begynte svært ung, usikker og blyg på Bryne gymnas i 1971, var Svein Arne nemlig min mentor og veileder, leder av ei bibelbruppe i skolelaget – og betydde nok mer for meg enn han selv vet.
Jens Petter Johnsen har vært kirkerådsdirektør noen år nå, og han betydde mye for meg mine første år som ung student i Oslo, fra 1975. Jeg var med ham som hjelpeleder på 3-4 nyttårskonferanser som skolelaget arrangerte på Sagavoll folkehøyskole i Gvarv i Telemark, og jeg traff ham også ofte i Oslo disse første studentåra, mens han var ledertreningssekratær og assisterende generalvikar i Laget.
Vår egen biskop var på Den norske kirkes kirkemøte i går, og snakket varmt om de menneskelige relasjonene så nå fins mellom katolikker og lutheranere i Norge:
… Jeg forlot Den norske kirke i 1977, og efterhvert forlot jeg også Norge, for godt trodde jeg selv. Da jeg kom tilbake, noe forbauset, var det ikke bare et gjensyn med egne trosfeller og til nye oppgaver med dem; det var til noe mer enn et høflig gjensyn med Den norske og lutherske kirke: Til et liv og, langt på vei, felles mål med dere. Å overse den kristne tradisjon som samler det store flertall av folket, ville være dumt og arrogant; det skjønte jeg faktisk av meg selv.
Det som overrasket meg var at de par prosent av befolkningen jeg representerte, var verd mer enn positiv oppmerksomhet fra deres side. Jeg opplevde sterk kollegialitet og mennesklig støtte – langt utover hva høflighet skulle tilsi – om det var med biskop Kvarme eller den nyss avgåtte preses, Skjevesland, eller hvem det nå var av biskoper, andre geistlige eller lege. Jeg ble nesten urolig av å føle meg så hjemme blant dere. – Da min forgjenger, biskop J. W. Gran, oppsøkte sine lutherske kollegaer tidlig i 1960-årene, ble han høflig mottatt, men på et par unntagelser nær hadde han følelsen av at de ikke helt skjønte hva han ville.
Den mennesklige side av dette er viktig nok, men viktigere var erkjennelsen av å komme til noe felles. Det katolske er ikke lenger uten hjemstavnsrett, noe som i verste fall kunne forstyrre en protestantisk og nasjonal kirkelig tradisjon ved kunstnere og akademikeres konversjoner. Det virker som om dere håper at katolisismen kan gi dere mer enn prosesjonskors og votivlys uten at de lutherske prinsipper rokkes. …
Sitatet er fra biskop Eidsvigs hilsen på møtet, som kan leses her (pdf). Og her kan man lese mer om møtet.
Én av de fem anglikanske biskopene som har annonsert at de vil konvertere, forteller at det var pave Benedikts brev Angecalorum Cætibus som forandret situasjonen:
The Anglican Bishop of Richborough, Keith Newton, told his flock that he plans to become Catholic because Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic constitution “completely changed the landscape” for Anglo-Catholics and he now believes that he must lead the way to union with the Universal Church. … …
… Bishop Newton explained that although the issue of the ordination of women as Anglican bishops has been an important factor in his decision, it is “not the most significant.”
Noting the “surprise” of the Pope’s action on Anglican-Catholic relations, he said that most Anglicans have prayed for union with the Catholic Church. However, this union has seemed less likely because of “the new difficulties concerning the ordination of women and other doctrinal and moral issues affecting the Anglican Communion.”
“Although we must still pray for sacramental and ecclesial unity between our Churches that now seems a much more distant hope,” Bishop Newton said. The ordinariates provide an opportunity for “visible unity” and Anglicans are able to retain “what is best in our own tradition which will enrich the Universal Church.”
“I hope you will understand that I am not taking this step in faith for negative reasons about problems in the Church of England but for positive reasons in response to our Lord’s prayer the night before he died the ‘they may all be one’,” the bishop continued.
While expressing sympathy with the position that Anglicans with traditional views need leadership at a “vital” time, he rejected the example of a leader who should “stay to the bitter end like the captain of a sinking ship.” Rather, he noted the scriptural image of the shepherd, who must lead his flock from the front rather than follow it from behind.
La meg begynne med et eksempel som ligner en del: Når ortodokse kirker ønsker fullt fellesskap med paven og Den katolske Kirke, så må de forandre sine synspunkter på pavens plass, hvordan Kirken ledes, og underlegge seg dens struktur og disiplin. Men de kan beholde 100% av sin liturgiske tradisjon, teologi og sine biskoper. Når protestanter søker enhet med Den katolske Kirke (og nå tenker jeg mest på anglikanere og lutheranere), må de selvsagt oppgi en hel del mer, men det skulle også være mulig å la dem få beholde mye fra sin egen tradisjon.
Etter Vatikankonsilet var det samtalene med anglikanerne (bildet over er fra 1966) som kom raskest i gang (og man må nok i dag kunne si at man var overoptimistiske), mens samtalene med lutheranere kom mer gradivis, men ble etter hvert svært fruktbare. Og til noen anti-økumener som av og til kommeneter på denne bloggen: Man misforstår nok pave Paul VI når man tolker hans uttrykk «united but not absorbed» som noe annet enn det jeg har skrevet over – at man på alle punkter godtar den katolske lære, men samtaidig kan få beholde tradisjoner som er forenlige med denne lære.
Det er det jeg har har introdusert så langt, som William Oddie skriver om i et innlegg i The Catholic Herald:
Some cradle Catholics still just don’t get it. Why do they want their own little enclave: if they want to be Catholics, why don’t they just join? What is this stuff about an Anglican “patrimony”? Isn’t that just what they want to get away from?
The first thing to say about the usage of Anglican “patrimony” is that it wasn’t coined by an Anglican, but by Pope Paul, in the days before the aspiration of an eventual corporate reunion of Canterbury and Rome (always, with the benefit of hindsight, an impossible dream) had been rudely shattered by the Anglicans’ unilateral decision fundamentally to redefine their orders in a way impossible for Catholics ever to accept.
But in those days, the ordination of women seemed a very distant – and unlikely – possibility which many (I was one of them) chose to ignore. The way forward to reunion seemed to be open; the pace seemed to be quickening. At the beatification of the English and Welsh martyrs in 1970 (which offended many Anglicans at the time), Pope Paul went out of his way to make an overture to the Anglican tradition (of which he was a genuine admirer: he used to listen to LPs of Anglican church music in moments of relaxation). “There will,” he said, “be no seeking to lessen the legitimate prestige and usage due to the Anglican Church when the Roman Catholic Church … is able to embrace firmly her ever-beloved sister in the one authentic communion of the family of Christ…” He made it clear that what he called the “worthy patrimony” of Anglicanism would be preserved in a united Church. A few years later, he said that he believed that “these words of hope ‘The Anglican Church united not absorbed’ are no longer a mere dream”.
Alas, he was wrong. The wholesale reunion of Canterbury and Rome was always a mere dream; and soon it was brutally shattered. But Pope Paul’s vision of an Anglican “patrimony” united with the Catholic Church but (like the Eastern Catholic patrimony) not wholly absorbed, were not forgotten, either in Rome (where Cardinal Ratzinger remembered them) or by those Anglicans who for nearly two decades have been talking, firstly to him at the CDF, and then to his successors at the CDF who have remained in charge of the process throughout: it was their decision, entirely justified, that the English bishops should not be consulted, since they would have done everything they could to wreck it, as they had once before in the 1990s.
Dr. William Oddie skriver i The Catholic Herald og ga i 1997 ut en bok som heter The Roman Option, som forteller om hva som skjedde etter at hundrevis av anglikanske prester i England ble katolikker (og mange av dem deretter katolske prester) i 1992. Skulle disse måtte glemme alt de hadde gjort tidligere i livet og fra første stund bli helt vanlige engelske katolikker (også sosialt og liturgisk), eller skulle man i større grad ønske velkommen deler av den anglo-katolske tradisjonen (ting som ikke bryter med katolsk lære)? Jeg leste boka da den var ganske fersk, og den gjorde ganske sterkt intrykk på meg siden jeg opplevde lignende ting selv i Norge fra 1994.
Vatikanet, representert først og fremst ved kardinal Ratzinger vil gjerne være generøse, og ville la disse personene ta med seg fruktbare ting fra sin egen tradisjon. I England virket det som bare kardinal Hume støttet en slik holdning, men han måtte gi seg da nesten alle andre biskoper og katolske prester i England ikke var enige. Og det er med denne historiske kunnskapen i bakhodet at Dr. Oddie skriver om det som nå holder på å skje i England for andre gang – med veldig mange nye konvertitter.
På Amazon kan man lese mer om denne boka, og bl.a. se denne anmeldelsen:
… … The book actually has quite a different object: to discuss the circumstances in which bodies of Anglo-Catholics might move collectively to Rome rather than having to convert one by one. In Oddie’s view there were serious possibilities of such collective conversions following 1992 but the opportunity was lost, mainly through the timidity of English Roman Catholics. The great appeal of this book is the nuanced way in which Oddie sketches the many and various versions of, and perspectives on, the so-called «Roman Option»; he keeps all the balls in play with considerable skill, using them to form a narrative that gradually builds (as the Roman Option appears more and more likely) before reaching an impasse that the reader knows from the start will eventually block further progress. To maintain our interest in a somewhat arcane subject matter when the denouement is thus predetermined would be impossible were Oddie’s writing not commendably precise and energetic at the same time.
It helps, of course, that his real story moves quickly away from the specific issue of women’s ordination to embrace such central issues as authority within the church and such questions as the meaning of Catholicism itself. That Oddie is so helpful on these huge topics, whilst keeping their coverage within bounds as a framework for his main narrative, is another tribute to his skills.
I have described the story of this book as being that of the Roman Option following the decision of 1992, but Oddie is at pains to place this story within the context of a broader «realignment of English-speaking Christianity»: one in which those of Catholic mind enter into full communion with Rome, but also one in which mainstream English non-conformism reunites with a Church of England that, in Oddie’s view, is now irreconcilably Protestant (if, for the moment, reluctant to see itself in such terms).
Den engelske teologen (og tidligere anglikaner), Dr. William Oddie, skrev i The Catholic Herald nylig om hvordan anglikanerne som nå konverterer kan regne med å bli mottat i Den katolske Kirke. Godt i Kirken som helhet, håper han og regner han med, men ikke så greit blant engelske biskoper og prester:
… We have in fact seen all this before, in the case of two parishes in the Anglican diocese of London and Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster. Until they were without notice brutally closed down, these Anglican convert parishes existed successfully for around two years in the early 90s, in the aftermath of the C of E’s original decision to ordain women; both stayed happily in their original church buildings.
The suddenness of – and total lack of consultation surrounding – the Archdiocese of Westminster’s suppression of these convert parishes was scandalous; it is a precedent, indeed, which does something to explain why the potential Anglican converts do not wish, this time, to be under the direct authority of the English hierarchy. They do not trust our bishops; and I do not blame them.
One of these parishes in particular, St Stephen’s, Gloucester Road, was pastorally immensely successful. Relations between the two congregations using the building were excellent. The new Catholic parish grew to over twice its original size; in the end, only about one third were members of the original parish. It had become an accessible way into the Church, not only for former Anglicans, but for lapsed Catholics to return.
I believe that this model could become normal; and my confidence that the Ordinariate will be an immensely fertile and creative pastoral enrichment of the life of the Church in this country is not based only on wishful thinking. It has happened before. And I am sure it will happen again, many times. The convert Anglicans have a great deal to learn, of course; that goes without saying. But they also have a great deal to teach. …
En av de fem anglikanske biskopene som nylig gjorde kjent at vil gå av og at han vil bli katolikk, biskop Keith Newton, skriver at han konverterer med en positiv begrunnelse – ikke negativ, ikke pga problemene i den anglikanske kirke:
… I am sure it will be said that I am leaving because of the issue of the ordination of women to the episcopate. While it is true that this has been an important factor in my thinking it is not the most significant factor. The publication of the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, just one year ago, came as a surprise and has completely changed the landscape for Anglo Catholics. Since the inception of the ARCIC process, set up by Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey in the 1960s, most of us have longed and prayed for corporate union with the Catholic Church; union which in our own time has seemed less likely because of the new difficulties concerning the ordination of women and other doctrinal and moral issues affecting the Anglican Communion.
Although we must still pray for sacramental and ecclesial unity between our Churches that now seems a much more distant hope. The creation of Personal Ordinariates within the Catholic Church provides an opportunity for visible unity between Anglicans and the Catholic Church now, while still being able to retain what is best in our own tradition which will enrich the Universal Church. This is a hope which has been expressed many times by Forward in Faith and many others within the catholic tradition of the Church of England So I hope you will understand that I am not taking this step in faith for negative reasons about problems in the Church of England but for positive reasons in response to our Lord’s prayer the night before he died the ‘they may all be one.’ …
Det blir stadig klarere at det vil bli en forholdsvis stor gruppe anglikanere som vil bli katolikker og kunne beholde noe av sin lturgiske tradisjon, slik pave Benedikt har tilbudt dem i dokumentet Anglicanorum Coetibis. I går ble en pressemelding fra fem anglikanske biskoper – Bishops Andrew Burnham (Ebbsfleet), Keith Newton (Richborough), John Broadhurst (Fulham), Edwin Barnes (assisant bishop, Winchester) and David Silk (assistant bishop, Exeter) – offentliggjort. Der sier de bl.a.:
Like many in the catholic tradition of Anglicanism, we have followed the dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics, the ARCIC process, with prayer and longing. We have been dismayed, over the last thirty years, to see Anglicans and Catholics move further apart on some of the issues of the day, and particularly we have been distressed by developments in Faith and Order in Anglicanism which we believe to be incompatible with the historic vocation of Anglicanism and the tradition of the Church for nearly two thousand years.
The Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum cœtibus, given in Rome on 4th November 2009, was a response to Anglicans seeking unity with the Holy See. With the Ordinariates, canonical structures are being established through which we will bring our own experience of Christian discipleship into full communion with the Catholic Church throughout the world and throughout the ages. This is both a generous response to various approaches to the Holy See for help and a bold, new ecumenical instrument in the search for the unity of Christians, the unity for which Christ himself prayed before his Passion and Death. It is a unity, we believe, which is possible only in eucharistic communion with the successor of St Peter.
As bishops, we have even-handedly cared for those who have shared our understanding and those who have taken a different view. We have now reached the point, however, where we must formally declare our position and invite others who share it to join us on our journey. We shall be ceasing, therefore, from public episcopal ministry forthwith, resigning from our pastoral responsibilities in the Church of England with effect from 31st December 2010, and seeking to join an Ordinariate once one is created. …
Professor Christopher Ruddy skriver en lang artikkel om økumenikken i tidsskriftet America, der han presenterer en ny vektlegging, et nytt fokus på dette viktige temaet:
… (Noen kritiserer pave Benedikt) … Others, of whom I am one, argue that the pope sees the primary contemporary ecumenical questions to be not ecclesial but cultural, philosophical, spiritual and, most radically, Christological. Holding that there is an ongoing realignment not only among, but also within Christian communities, he has centered his energies on causes that are transconfessional: a call for Christian communities to witness together to longstanding moral and cultural values in a time of upheaval, particularly in the West; insistence on the liberating and unitive power of truth over that liberalism of religion as subjective taste decried by John Henry Newman upon his creation as a cardinal; and, above all, a renewed ecumenism and evangelism centered on a personal encounter with the risen Christ. One sees this Christocentric commitment in the time he has devoted as pope to completing the two volumes of Jesus of Nazareth, in his celebration of the Year of St. Paul and even in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s shift of activity from the ecclesiological and ethical disputes of the 1970s and 1980s to the Christological debates of the 1990s and the 2000s.
One need only recall Pope Benedict’s insistence, in the introduction to “Deus Caritas Est,” that “being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” So, too, are ethics and doctrine ecumenically central but not primary. The encounter with the person of Christ is the primary ecumenical reality. It gives direction to still-necessary ethical and doctrinal dialogues. One might speak of the “audacity of Pope” in fostering this recentering on the person of Christ, both within Catholicism and in Christianity as a whole. ,,,
I kapittel 10 i sin bok fra 1949 skriver biskop Johannes Wember om fortjeneste og gode gjerninger, og han begynner slik:
Uttrykkene «fortjene seg himmelen, fortjene seg Guds velvilje» o.fl. er ofte blitt og blir fremdeles misforstått av mange som ikke kjenner den katolske troslære. I det følgende er det tale om overnaturlig fortjeneste. Fortjeneste i ordets egentlige forstand er en ytelse til beste for en annen som gir krav på lønn. En slik fortjeneste kan mennesket av seg selv ikke «prestere». Mennesket har ikke krav på nåden og kan heller ikke fortjene den. Dette er den katolske kirkes uttrykkelige lære som har fått form av en trossetning. – Det kan også tilkomme en ytelse en viss lønn etter rimelighet; her er det da tale om en kvasi-fortjeneste. Mennesket har heller ikke krav på nåden og kan heller ikke fortjene den på grunn av en kvasi-fortjeneste. Også dette lærer den katolske kirke i form av en trossetning. Selve begrepet «nåde» sier jo at den er en gave som blir gitt helt uforskyldt; den blir av Gud gitt ene og alene for Jesu Kristi fortjenesters skyld. Men «lønn for gode gjerningers skyld» er et bibelsk begrep. Etter saligprisningene i bergprekenen som betyr Jesu program for menneskene, sier Jesus: «Gled og fryd dere, for deres Iønn er stor i himmelen» (Matt. 5, 12). Cf. også Matt. 19, 29; 24, 45 og flg.; 25, 34 og flg. At det her ikke er tale om «gjerningenes rettferdighet», framgår av det som er blitt sagt om rettferdiggjørelsen. Jesus dømmer nokså skarpt fariseernes «gjerningenes rettferdighet». Det er ikke de ytre gjerninger som sådanne som får lønn, men de gode gjerninger som blir gjort ved nåden – den rettferdiges gode gjerninger er jo også Guds gaver – og av kjærlighet til Gud og som er frukter av den levende tro. Denne tankegangen er også helt bibelsk. Paulus sier (Rom. 2, 6 og 7): «Han vil gjengjelde hver og en etter hans gjerninger, med evig liv dem som holder ved i god gjerning og søker etter herlighet og ære og uforgjengelighet.» Og i 1 Kor. 3, 8 heter det: «Hver især skal få sin egen lønn etter sitt arbeide.» Cf. Kol. 3, 23 og 24; Hebr. 6, 10; Hebr. 10, 35 osv.
Man må også være klar over at fortjenesten – som den blir forstått her – er helt og holdent avhengig av Guds anordning; vi får den bare fordi Gud i sin nåde har lovet det og fordi det er så viktig, skal det en gang til gjentas – for Jesu Kristi fortjenesters skyld og under den forutsetning at vare gjerninger er slik og blir gjort slik som Gud vil de skal være og bli gjort. Den Hellige skrift lærer nemlig for det første at mennesket av seg selv ikke er i stand til å fortjene noe hos Gud. …. ….
I kapittel 9 i sin bok om katolisismen skriver biskop Wember om rettferdiggjørelsen. Etter at han først snaker om behovet for å bli rettferdige for Gud, etter Adams fall, skriver han dette om problemet rundt rettferdiggjørelsen på reformasjonstida:
… … Den katolske lære om rettferdiggjørelsen har fått uttrykk i «Dekretet om rettferdiggjørelsen» som ble gitt på kirkeforsamlingen i Trient 1545-63). Den protestantiske kirke. og dogmehistoriker professor von Harnack sier om det i «Dogmengeschichte» III, s. 605: «Dekretet om rettferdiggjørelsen er i flere henseender utmerket utarbeidet; ja, man kan tvile på om reformasjonen ville ha utviklet seg, hvis dette dekret var blitt gitt f. eks. på Laterankonsilet (1512-17) og virkelig var gått over i kirkens kjøtt og blod.» Hovedinnholdet av dekretet skal her gjengis for å forklare den katolske kirkes lære om rettferdiggjørelsen som altså etter prof. Harnack kanskje kunne ha hindret reformasjonens utvikling hvis man hadde hatt virkelig kjennskap til denne læren.
Hele læren om rettferdiggjørelsen kan fattes sammen i den hellige Augustins ord: «Den som har skapt deg uten din medvirkning, rettferdiggjør deg ikke uten din medvirkning.» Det er Gud som rettferdiggjør mennesket, men ikke uten dets medvirkning. Adam og alle hans etterkommere kunne som følge av arvesynden ikke selv gjøre noe for å bli frelst. Bare Gud kan frelse dem; derfor sendte Gud sin enbårne Sønn som mellommann og frelser. For menneskene er det nødvendig at de blir «gjenfødt» i Kristus og for hans fortjenesters skyld. Denne gjenfødelsen skjer i det Nye testament ved dåpens sakrament. For barn (umyndige, som ikke har nadd fram til fornuftens bruk) er mottagelsen av dette sakrament nok. For de voksnes vedkommende må deres egen vilje være med, og den må vende seg bort fra synden og hen til Gud. Men den menneskelige vilje står her ikke for seg selv; for seg alene kan den ikke gjøre noe som er rettet på frelsen eller rettferdiggjørelsen. Den menneskelige viljes verk er her at den medvirker med Guds nåde som opplyser forstanden og tilskynder viljen.
Det er nåde og frihet som her virker sammen – Guds nåde og menneskets frie vilje, og begge er Guds gaver til mennesket. Ved sin (forutgående) nåde kaller Gud på mennesket, og tilskynder og hjelper det sa til å kunne tro og til virkelig å tro. Mennesket kan på grunn av den frihet Gud har gitt dets vilje, si både nei og ja til Guds «kallen»; mennesket kan vise nåden fra seg eller medvirke med den. Går mennesket med på Guds nåde (for å være helt klart, skal det en gang til framheves at det er Gud som gjør dette mulig), sa holder det ved denne troen fast og urokkelig for sant alt som Gud har åpenbart og lovet. Denne tro er altså mer enn tillit; den inneholder og omfatter mer enn tilliten om at Gud for Jesu Kristi skyld og av faderlig kjærlighet ikke mer vil tilregne mennesket synden. Troen omfatter al t som Gud har åpenbart og lovet og inneslutter derfor også troen på at Gud for Jesu Kristi sonings og fortjenesters skyld ved sin nåde og helt uforskyldt rettferdiggjør menneskets sjel. Denne tro er autoritetstro: mennesket tror fordi det er Gud som har åpenbart troens innhold og som har gitt sine løfter.
Men det er ikke «troen alene» som fører til rettferdiggjørelse. Det finnes ikke et eneste skriftsted som sier det. …
Jeg har møtt anglikansk biskop John Broadhurst 3-4 fire ganger i Norge, han har vært leder av Forward in Fath i flere år, og han sier nå at han vil bli katolikk – fra Damian Thompson:
Bishop John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham in the Anglican diocese of London, is to resign his post later this year to join the Pope’s Ordinariate. The Catholic Herald’s Anna Arco broke the story, also revealing that Bishop Broadhurst will stay as chairman of Forward in Faith, which he says is “not a Church of England organisation”. It sounds as if traditional Anglo-Catholicism is undergoing a major shift (or crisis) of allegiance, because FiF, though not representative of everyone in that constituency, was the main body for Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England opposed to women bishops and priests. Now it seems to be heading towards Roman Catholicism. …
