On the "Path to Unity" with a Loon

by Christopher A. Ferrara

       When the loony Rowan Williams was designated the new "Archbishop" of Canterbury for the Anglican "Church," no less than Pope John Paul II sent him a letter of congratulations, in which His Holiness stated: "I am confident that with God's help, we can make progress along the path towards unity."

       The Pope’s confidence in Rowan has no foundation in any observable fact. In fact, Rowan is too liberal even for many Anglicans. As reported by English journalist Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent for telegraph.co.uk (September 26, 2002), "Prominent evangelicals in the Church of England raised the stakes over homosexuality yesterday by challenging the new Archbishop of Canterbury to renounce his liberal views or resign. Reform, the conservative evangelical network whose 1,500 members include more than 500 clergy and a bishop, said that it could not welcome the appointment of Dr. Rowan Williams to Canterbury because of his ‘non-biblical’ views."

       In particular, "the group said that unless Dr. Williams was prepared publicly to affirm the Church's traditional teaching that all sex outside heterosexual marriage was sinful he should withdraw from the post ‘for the sake of the Church's gospel witness and unity’."

       Rowan, who has admitted ordaining an active homosexual, has also declared, according to the Petre article, that "he is 'not convinced that a homosexual has to be celibate in every imaginable circumstance.’" The Reform group has publicly challenged Rowan to "endorse the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution that described homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture. It asked him to affirm and defend the teaching that church members ‘abstain from sexual relations outside holy (heterosexual) matrimony’, to support ‘appropriate discipline’ where necessary and to ordain only those who uphold and live by this teaching."

       According to the article, "Friends close to Dr. Williams said he was ‘deeply saddened’ that Reform had taken up this position, adding that he could not accept that the issue of sexuality had the prominence or centrality that Reform gave it." And this is the man the Pope thinks will be able to make "progress along the path towards unity"?

       It is completely obvious that the meandering "path toward unity" - which has replaced the Church’s constant teaching that the dissidents must simply return to Rome - leads further from unity and closer to total apostasy with each passing day. The appointment of Rowan as "Archbishop" of the decrepit debating society that calls itself the Anglican Church is but one more piece of evidence that "ecumenical dialogue" is an exercise in futility and a great disservice to souls who are lost in error. What it will take for the Vatican to admit that "ecumenism" is nothing but a grotesque failure? The only charitable thing to do is to implore the Anglicans to leave their false Church now. Indeed, in human terms, many Catholics could benefit from the example of militancy shown by the Reform group that opposes the appointment of Rowan. To these members of the Anglican Church we can only say, with utmost urgency, come home to the Catholic Church of all time.