Pope Leo XIV meets with Sarah Mullally, Archbishop of Canterbury

On April 27, Pope Leo XIV welcomed and prayed with Sarah Mullally, the first woman to be named Archbishop of Canterbury, the position that serves as the sign of unity among the worldwide Anglican Communion. The two prayed Daytime Prayer together, part of the Liturgy of the Hours, in the Chapel of Pope Urban VIII. Each made a statement regarding their visit, which took place during Mullally’s four-day trip to Rome.

Pope Leo was gracious, while at the same time recognizing the reality of “new problems” that have arisen over recent decades that make dialogue toward achieving unity more difficult. “While much progress has been made on some historically divisive issues,” Pope Leo said, “new problems have arisen in recent decades, rendering the pathway to full communion more difficult to discern. I know that the Anglican Communion is also facing many of these same questions at this time. Nevertheless, we must not allow these continuing challenges to prevent us from using every possible opportunity to proclaim Christ to the world together.”

The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was formed in 1969-70, after the historic 1966 visit between Pope St. Paul VI and Abp Michael Ramsey, then Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s goal is to find common ground between Catholics and Anglicans for the purpose of continued good relations between the churches and, though it seems a pipe dream at this point, eventual grounds for inter-communion. Pope Leo said it would be “a scandal if we did not continue to work towards overcoming our differences, no matter how intractable they may appear.”

What are some of those “new problems”? Well, one of them is represented by Mullally herself, and that is the ordination of women. The Catholic Church does not and will not recognize the priesthood as a charism intended for women. It is a charism intended uniquely for men, a doctrine Pope Leo affirmed once again only last month. That is not going to change. While the ordination of women to the priesthood was adopted by the General Synod of the Church of England in 1992, the Anglican Communion remains divided over the matter, with some Anglican groups, such as the Global Anglican Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON), questioning the validity of ordaining women as priests and bishops. After the election of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, GAFCON announced that it was breaking with Canterbury and the Church of England. GAFCON, which represents about 80% of worldwide Anglicans, said it would not longer participate in meetings convened by Mullally or contribute financially to the support of the Anglican Church. It seems the schism is formal.

Another “new problem” that has arisen in recent decades is the question of the Church’s relationship with LGBTQ+ Christians. While Pope Francis, according to his words, allowed for the blessing of individuals in same-sex and other irregular relationships, he insisted that these blessings must be spontaneous and can not be done in such a way as to cause confusion over the essential difference between a same-sex relationship and a marriage. Marriage, Francis insisted, can only be between one man and one woman. Pope Leo has since reiterated this Catholic teaching and rebuked Cardinal Reinhard Marx and the bishops of Germany in his response to the German Catholic Church’s decision to create liturgical formulas to bless same-sex couples. Pope Leo said, “The Holy See has made it clear that we do not agree with the formal blessing of couples, in this case, same-sex couples … or of couples in irregular situations, beyond what Pope Francis has specifically permitted by saying that all people should receive a blessing.” While this doesn’t strike me as a particularly strong affirmation of Pope Francis’ stance on blessing same-sex couples, it represents pretty strong words coming from our current pontiff. For their part, the 2023 General Synod of the Church of England voted to approve blessings for same-sex couples who have entered a civil marriage, though the Anglican Church still does not recognize same-sex marriage. This has only caused further divisions in the Anglican Communion.

There have been minimal complaints within the Catholic Church of Pope Leo’s visit with Sarah Mullally. I suppose Catholics figure that the pope meets with international leaders, both secular and religious, and that includes whoever is named Archbishop of Canterbury. The Catholic Church has not recognized Anglican orders since Pope Leo XIII declared them “absolutely null and utterly void” in his 1896 document Apostolicae Curae. This was based on changes made to the ordination rite during the 16th century under King Edward VI of England. Leo XIII’s reasoning is that those changes broke apostolic succession. So, even as popes have met with Archbishops of Canterbury since the mid-60s, they do not recognize them as genuinely ordained priests, even the male ones. If an Anglican or Episcopalian priest converts to Catholicism and desires to become a Catholic priest, he is ordained again by the Catholic Church. Of course, women priest who convert to Catholicism are not eligible to be ordained Catholic priests. Pope Leo’s meeting with Sarah Mullally acknowledged her as having been selected by her church as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. It does not signify the pope’s recognition of the validity of her ordination.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI created the Anglican Ordinariate, a way for former Anglicans to worship using their historical liturgies while being in full communion with Rome. There is an Anglican Ordinatriate Catholic parish here in Knoxville called St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church. It is pastored by Fr. Jeff Baker, a former Anglican priest who is now a Catholic priest. If you would like to attend Sunday Mass there, bring supplemental oxygen and a note from your doctor that you do not suffer from enochlophobia (intense fear of crowds), because the place is packed front to back and wall-to-wall!

I, personally, don’t see much hope for full communion between the Catholic Church and the Anglicans. The Anglican Communion has gone too far in their adoption of the culture and priorities of the world. Most people, in my experience, see the ordination of women and recognition of same-sex marriage as matters of justice. They are not. Like all Christian doctrine, the are matters of God’s revealed truth. Has God revealed that He wants women ordained to the priesthood, or that He wants the Church to recognize and bless same-sex marriages? There is not one shred of evidence that He has. These are new doctrines that come to these communions by way of secular influence, not internal revelation. The Anglican Communion that has adopted these new doctrines has suffered enormous decline, while those churches in the Anglican tradition, such as GAFCON, are stable or growing.

Critics, of course, will point out that Catholic parishes are not full the way they once were. But the decline in Mass attendance in the Catholic Church is also largely a Western phenomenon, and it is no where close to the decline of the Anglican Communion. A lot of this has to do with numbers. There are about 72 million Catholics in the US. Roughly 29% attend Mass every Sunday. That comes out to about 20.88 million people. There are roughly 2.7 million Episcopalians/Anglicans in the US, with an average Sunday attendance of about 574,000. 90% of Episcopal churches in the US report weekly Sunday attendance of fewer than 100 people. The Catholic Church and the Anglican churches in the Global South continue to grow. But the bottom line is, it is very possible that, within 50 years, there will be no Episcopal/Anglican parishes in the West, or very few. The Catholic Church is not in danger of this sort of catastrophe, barring all-out persecution of the faith, such as that suffered by the Church in north Africa centuries ago.

The Catholic Church is not going to ordain women to the priesthood. There’s an outside chance that women may be ordained to the diaconate, but even that isn’t looking good any time soon. Pope Leo just hasn’t the interest in going there. And the Catholic Church is not going to bless or recognize same-sex marriages. Yes, there are a handful of bishops, and even cardinals, who favor both. But, again, these are mostly consigned to the West and, while the influence of the West is disproportionate to their numbers active in the Church compared to the East and the South, that influence is diminishing, not growing. Germany is the outlier, not the vanguard. German Catholics and their bishops thought they were the vanguard, that they would lead the rest of the Church in a new and glorious direction. Much to their surprise, I think, the rest of the Church didn’t follow and, in fact, rebuked Germany for their going it alone and breaking the unity of the Church. The German Catholic Church is essentially in schism, for all practical purposes. It remains to be seen how Pope Leo will handle the mess they’ve created. But it’s clear he has no intention of following them in that direction. That is true for the rest of the Church, as well, even what remains of the Church in Europe.

So, if the pope and the archbishop want to sit down together and pray together, I think that’s fine. Christians should pray together. It’s better than burning each other as heretics! But let’s not expect much from this. In fact, it manifests as much or more the differences between the Anglicans and the Catholic Church than it manifests what is held in common. Still, what is held in common is important. We can hold on to that and celebrate together and pray together based on what we hold in common. The sadness of divisions in the Body of Christ is nothing that will be solved any time soon, especially if some traditions are more interested in following the way the wind blows rather than the way the Spirit moves.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.