Bonfire of the Vanity

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        For quite some time this column has documented the utter absurdity of the past 40 years of "ecumenical dialogue" with assorted heretics who cannot even apply the Fifth Commandment correctly. What sense does it make to discuss various theological issues with people who think that murder in the womb is permissible? Hell-OOOO?!

        Nowhere is the absurdity of "ecumenical dialogue" more apparent than in a recent article by Archbishop Alexander Joseph Brunett, appointed head of the Archdiocese of Seattle in 1997 by Pope John Paul II. The article, entitled "Celebrating the Work of Ecumenism," is positively giddy over the huge pile of documents that have been produced by the "ecumenical dialogue" between the Catholic Church and that rotting corpse of a human institution that calls itself the Anglican Church, aka, the Church of England. The Archbishop enthuses that "for more than 30 years ARCIC (the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) has produced many excellent documents and agreed statements."

        In case the Archbishop hasn’t noticed, after 30 years of document production the Catholic Church and the Anglicans really don’t agree on anything. And while this incessant "dialogue" was going on, the Anglicans approved abortion (when really, really necessary), the ordination of women and practicing homosexuals, and just recently the divorce and remarriage of Anglicans with the blessing of the Anglican "Church." Today’s Anglicans believe things and do things that would have horrified King Henry VIII in the midst of his worst excesses. Yet the Archbishop oohs and ahhs over the pile of documents he and his Anglican "dialogue partners" have produced. Hell-OOOO?!

        The Archbishop is absolutely delighted that ARCIC will now be joined by a new commission for "dialogue" between Catholics and Anglicans, known as IARCCUM (International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Ministry). The Archbishop has invited the members of ARCIC to join the members of IARCCUM in Seattle, perhaps to produce more documents and agreed statements. Or perhaps they can be melded into one organization to be called ARCICIARCCUM — pronounced ark-ICK-ee-ark-um. (Who knows how many words we can make out of those letters. How many can you find?)

        One of the subjects the Archbishop has been discussing very intently with his Anglican partners is what to do about the Virgin Mary. As the Archbishop puts it, "for the past five years, ARCIC’s work has been focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary — one of the issues that has the potential to divide our two communions." In "ecumenical dialogue," you see, Mary is an "issue." So is every other Catholic belief that does not meet with the approval of the pro-abort, pro-homosexual, pro-women’s ordination, pro-divorce, pro-contraception Anglicans and assorted other heretics with whom the Vatican dialogues and dialogues and dialogues without ceasing.

        Notice that the Archbishop views the Blessed Virgin Mary as an "issue" that has merely the "potential" to "divide our two communions" — as if the Catholic Church and the Anglicans were not already separated by a vast moral and doctrinal chasm, beginning with the murder of innocent children in the womb. Will someone shake this man and wake him from his ecumenical stupor?

        Is the "work of ecumenism" at least directed toward getting the Anglicans and other protestant heretics finally to accept Catholic doctrine in its entirety? Not on your life. Speaking of the "dialogue" over the "issue" of the Virgin Mary, the Archbishop looks forward to yet another useless "agreed statement" — this time concerning Mary — in which the Anglicans put their own spin on Catholic doctrine without actually accepting it. The Archbishop says that once this agreed statement is hammered out, "we will then be able to present an agreed statement to our churches." And so what? The Anglicans will go on aborting, contracepting, divorcing, ordaining women and homosexuals, and adamantly refusing to submit to the authority and truth of the Holy Catholic Church.

        I have a modest proposal for the Archbishop and the rest of his fellow ecumenical dialoguers in the Catholic hierarchy, who are jet-setting around the globe wasting our time and money, while allowing non-Catholic souls to languish in their damnable errors. I propose that the Archbishop supervise the collection of all the documents produced by ARCIC, together with all the documents produced by IARCCUM, and that he build a great ARCICIARCUM bonfire in Seattle with all of that worthless paper — a bonfire of the vanity of "ecumenical dialogue."