Praising What Even Protestants Condemn

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        "Ecumenism" — whatever that means — gets loonier by the day. There is no keener observer of its looniness than John Vennari, the Editor of Catholic Family News. In a piece entitled "Building a Civilization of Love with Lunatics" (CFN, April 2003), Vennari makes a very telling point about the Vatican’s recent disgusting praise for the "enthronement" of the so-called Anglican "Archbishop" of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, a pro-homosexual layman in a bishop’s costume who is the most liberal Anglican "prelate" to date. (As Catholics know, Pope Leo XIII taught infallibly that Anglican clergy are not priests because they do not have a valid sacrament of holy orders.)

        As Vennari points out, Williams "has knowingly ‘ordained’ active homosexual men to the Anglican clergy. He believes that homosexuals should be ordained, and argues that homosexual relationships are legitimate. He is also on record to favor lowering the ‘legal age’ of consensual sodomy to sixteen." This is the man the Vatican congratulates in the midst of the Catholic Church’s homosexual priest scandal!

        After noting that Rowan’s "enthronement" ceremony in the cathedral at Canterbury (which Henry VIII stole from the Catholic Church) was attended by "Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikha and Buddhists leaders," Vennari adds that "the Vatican’s Cardinal Walter Kasper, who also attended the event, no doubt felt right at home." And then Vennari makes one of those points that is so "obvious" only a very astute observer would notice it:

        Yet not everyone in the Protestant world is happy with Rowan Williams. A small group of Protestant clergymen staged a protest outside the Cathedral during William’s installation…. Tim Chapman from All Saints Church at Little Shelfold, Cambridgeshire, led a small group of concerned ministers all wearing black armbands. Chapman accused Williams of encouraging people "to go against God, not least in the area of sexual morality". The Vatican’s Cardinal Walter Kasper wore no such black arm-band to the installation ceremony, but rather, wore his best ecumenical grin. So did Cardinal Cormac-Murphy O’ Conner, the Archbishop of Westminster and leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, who not only attended the Canterbury fiasco, but was scheduled to conduct one of the readings. So picture the scene. A group of Protestant ministers stage a protest outside of the Canterbury cathedral, particularly because of Williams’ advocacy of homosexuality. As they stand outside the Church, they watch the Vatican’s Cardinal Kasper ignore them and walk into the Cathedral ceremony in a show of support for Williams. They see Cardinal Murphy-O’Conner ignore them and walk into the Cathedral in a show of support for Williams.

        What more needs to be said about the utter fraudulence of "ecumenism"? In the name of "ecumenical progress" the Vatican apparatus now applauds what even the more conservative Protestants condemn as an offense to God. Sad to say, the praise from the Vatican includes the Pope himself, who congratulated Williams on his "enthronement" and gave him a pectoral cross, delivered by Cardinal Kasper. If this is not the "diabolical disorientation" remarked by Sister Lucy, then words have lost their meaning. Yet this is the same Vatican apparatus we are supposed to trust when it tells us (to recall the infamous words of Cardinal Sodano) that the prophecies of Fatima "belong to the past." That’s what they would like us to believe.