c. 1999 Religion News Service

ROME _ Cardinal Edward Cassidy, who heads the Vatican’s Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, likens the ecumenical dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics to climbing a mountain.

In the early stages, he says, you are scaling the foothills, which is easy. But as time goes on you reach the final peaks, the steepest and most difficult part of the climb.

At the final peak is where the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) stands today as it prepares to issue the conclusions of its talks on the key question of who is in charge: the pope or the bishops.”The whole dialogue is centering around the word `authority,'”said the Rev. Bruce Ruddock, the representative in Rome of the archbishop of Canterbury and all the primates of the Anglican Communion.”To put it simply, the Roman Catholic Church believes that we Anglicans have too little authority. The Anglican Communion thinks that authority in the Roman Catholic Church is too centralized in the pope,”he said.

As part of his role in Rome, Ruddock serves as director of the most visible sign of Anglican commitment to ecumenical dialogue, the Anglican Center.

To underscore that commitment at this crucial time in the talks, the center has moved to new and far grander quarters, which Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey will formally open on Friday (Feb. 12).

Carey will also have a private audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on Saturday and later meet at the center with Irish President Mary McAleese, who is also visiting Rome.

The original Anglican Center opened 33 years ago, with the blessing of both Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, at a heady time of ecumenical enthusiasm stirred by the Second Vatican Council, which met between 1962 and 1965.

Its role is to foster mutual understanding. Students, Catholic seminarians, priests on sabbatical and laity of all denominations use its 11,000-volume library of Anglican theology, the largest in mainland Europe. It holds seminars and a summer school and issues a newsletter on the progress of Anglican-Roman Catholic relations.”I hope,”Carey said on a visit to the pope in December 1996,”that Anglicans throughout the world will see the center as representing them and their vocation to the full visible unity of God’s Church.” Despite its formidable assignment, the center’s quarters under the eaves of the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in the center of Rome had a makeshift look to it. Books were stacked precariously on tables because the floor could not bear the weight of more shelves; the roof leaked, and the small, rickety elevator often got stuck on its way to the top floor.

The new center is located in the 15th century main wing of the palazzo, one floor above the gallery housing the Doria Pamphilj family’s important art collection and its state rooms. The rent, as for the previous apartment, is minimal because Princess Orietta Doria Pamphilj is a strong supporter of ecumenical dialogue.

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Decorated in dark green, deep red and yellow ochre, the new apartment is fit for a cardinal. The library is assembled in one large, beautifully proportioned room with coffered ceilings and a gallery running around three sides. The rest of the apartment contains a reading and lecture room with facilities for portable computers, a chapel, a reception room, the director’s living quarters, offices for the director and administrator and space for a receptionist and, if funds permit, a librarian.

The investment in the new center is considerable for an entity that depends to a large degree on donations. The move and renovations cost $350,000, in addition to the $160,000 a year the center needs for normal operations.

The funds came from bishops, religious communities, parishes, cathedrals, trusts and individual Anglicans and Roman Catholics throughout the world. Members of the U.S. Episcopal Church were among the major contributors.

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Anglicans and Roman Catholics, divided by decree of King Henry VIII more than four and a half centuries ago, are still far from their goal of returning to full communion, but their dialogue has made considerable progress.”ARCIC has done an immense amount of valuable work in agreeing what we have in common,”Ruddock said.”We agree on the eurcharist although not on who celebrates it and with what authority,”he said.”We agree on the subject of justification by faith, a main breaking point of the Reformation. We, like Martin Luther, believe that getting straight with God is achievable by faith alone and doesn’t need indulgences. We have also established that there is communion of some sort between us, that we are one in Christ.” Authority, however, is a difficult issue. The world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics are subject to the pope’s supreme and, when he chooses, infallible authority. The 70 million Anglicans belong to a communion of 36 self-governing provinces, each with its presiding bishop or archbishop. The archbishop of Canterbury exerts only moral authority, maintaining unity through bonds of affection and shared belief.”The Roman Catholics ask us, `Who’s running your church?'”Ruddock said.”In the Anglican Communion authority is dispersed as it was in the early church, and it is still coming into being. We think that in the Roman Catholic Church, authority is too centralized. There is insufficient collegiality, and we don’t like that word `infallible.'”Anglicans can accept a universal primacy, but it is the way it is exercised that we want more debate on,”he said.

The ordination of women within the Anglican Communion, the current move by some Anglicans in Sydney, Australia, to allow laity to celebrate the eucharist, and the recent decision by the pope to return to the custom of granting indulgences during next year’s holy year celebrations are also considerable impediments to unity.

ARCIC’s role is to establish principles of agreement and flag areas of disagreement. To take effect, its agreements must be approved both by the pope and by the Lambeth Conference _ the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican bishops.

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Before reaching the pope, the reports go to Cassidy’s Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who may ask for clarifications. On the Anglican side, they are presented to each province for comment.

All this is a lengthy process. To date, for example, only”The Final Report”issued in 1981 by what is now known as ARCIC I has been accepted fully by both Anglicans and Roman Catholics. It established the groundwork for future dialogue.

ARCIC II grew out of a declaration John Paul and then Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie signed during the pope’s visit to England in 1982. ARCIC II produced a report,”Salvation and the Church,”dealing with justification by faith in 1986. In 1990 came”Church as Communion,”which moved from Reformation issues to questions of communion, and in 1994,”Life in Christ: Morals, Communion and the Church,”which shifted from doctrinal debate to moral issues.”The Gift of Authority”is expected later this year.

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ARCIC has still to tackle two other major issues.

One is the theological basis for what Roman Catholics call the magisterium and what constitutes it. The magisterium is the collection of what the church considers its divinely appointed teachings.

Also unresolved is the issue of the Marian dogmas _ beliefs surrounding the mother of Jesus. Anglicans do not accept the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary although they do, like Roman Catholics, keep a feast each Aug. 15 celebrating her bodily assumption into heaven.

Ruddock sees three Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogues in process today.”There is the exchange of courtesies at the highest level, starting with meetings between the pope and the archbishop of Canterbury,”he said.”Then there is the theological dialogue in the ARCIC talks and finally grassroots dialogue.” The Anglican Center, he said, works to foster all three.

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