This Autumn Christians will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the
Protestant Revolution.
Pope Francis has already traveled to Lund in
Sweden to mark the beginning of the commemorative year, and the question
of Protestants receiving the Eucharist at Catholic Mass has again
bubbled to the top of the ecumenical slow cooker.
In 2015 Pope Francis himself pushed the boundaries when he told a
Lutheran woman asking about receiving Communion with her Catholic
husband to “go forward” guided by individual conscience.
The rumors of a
change in discipline were furthered recently when Cardinal Walter
Kasper expressed hopes that the pope’s “next declaration opens the way
for shared Eucharistic communion in special cases.”
The pressure is also coming from the Lutheran side. In an essay on
the reformation in Sweden, Professor Clemens Cavallin observes that the
official Church of Sweden webpage states, “What we foremost wish is that
the common celebration of the Eucharist will be officially possible.
This is especially important for families where members belong to
different denominations.”
As a convert from Anglicanism, I understand from first hand
experience what it is like to have family members who belong to
different denominations. There is genuine pain when the non-Catholics
are not invited to receive communion when they attend Mass with us.
However, the whole discussion requires some compassionate common
sense. When the subject comes up in the family, the more blunt speaking
Catholics say to the non-Catholics, “You can receive communion in the
Catholic Church. All you have to do is become Catholic.”
When they demur, the Catholic then says cheerfully, “If you don’t
want to be Catholic, why do you want to receive communion in the
Catholic Church? If you don’t believe what we believe why do you want to
be a public hypocrite and use our Mass to pretend you do?”
While a bit more of this common sense would add astringency to the
ecumenical dialogue, it is probably not the best way to move forward.
The fact of the matter is that emeritus Pope Benedict has already
provided the most practical, positive and pro-active ecumenical move
ever taken by a pope.
It is called the Anglican Ordinariate.
The Anglican Ordinariate is similar to an Eastern Rite church
inasmuch as it is an autonomous ecclesial structure in full communion
with the Catholic Church.
The Anglican Ordinariates provide a way for Christians from the
Anglican tradition to be in full communion with Rome while maintaining
their own historic patrimony.
The Ordinariates have their own bishop or
ordinary. They may have their own seminaries, their own liturgy, their
own religious orders and their own property.
To date there are three Anglican Ordinariates: The Ordinariate of Our
Lady of Walsingham in England, the Ordinariate of the Chair of Peter in
the United States, and the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern
Cross in Australia.
When considering the long and somewhat fruitless ecumenical progress
over the last fifty years, the Anglican Ordinariates are the first real,
positive, substantive, corporate step towards church unity. The
ordinariate offers at last a concrete model for genuine unity while also
maintaining the distinctive cultural and historical gifts of the
English church.
One of the best results of the establishment of the ordinariate is
that both the Catholics and Anglicans have been able to come to see a
clear end point. While theologians from both sides still meet for
fraternal discussion, the existence of the ordinariate looms large.
Its mere existence says to Protestants who are toying with becoming
Catholic, “Here is a way for you to do so while still cherishing your
Anglican traditions. We have made this available to you. The door of the
ordinariate is open. We welcome you.”
The ball is therefore in their court. Individually and corporately they may apply to join the ordinariate.
If Christians on both sides of the dialogue really want church unity,
then in this 500th anniversary of the Luther’s sad separation from the
Catholic Church, why not replicate the ordinariate model for the
Lutherans?