Vatican Welcoming Only the Right?

October 27, 2009

Pope Benedict's latest initiative toward Anglicans who want to rejoin the Catholic Church has caused quite a stir.

Although Archbishop Rowan Williams and other Anglican leaders have said that it will not hurt Anglican-Catholic relations, more liberal voices in the Anglican Church, especially in the U.S. and Britain, have seen it as a crass attack on a weakened Anglican communion.

Many ecumenists on both sides see it as a repudiation of years of dialogue with the Anglicans and the adoption of "uniatism" in the Latin-rite or Western part of the Catholic Church. Uniatism refers to the pre-Vatican II strategy of trying to woo Orthodox Christians to join the Eastern-rite Catholic churches whose spirituality, liturgy and traditions are similar to the Orthodox, including a married clergy.

The Vatican does not see it that way. Rome has agreed to no longer attempt to convert Orthodox Christians, but it has not abandoned the Eastern Catholic churches, which have been part of the Catholic Church for centuries. Nor has Rome ever agreed to turn away any from the East or West who want to join. If religious freedom means anything, it means that people have a right to join any church they want.

As a supporter of the "big tent" concept of the Catholic Church, I cannot oppose Benedict's attempt to welcome into the church Anglicans who have left the Anglican Communion. Likewise I do not object to negotiations between the Vatican and the conservative Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre. My only concern is that the right side of the tent being constructed by the Vatican has a big "Welcome" sign while the left side has an "Exit Only" sign. Can't we have a welcome sign on both sides of the tent?

About the Author

Thomas Reese

Father Thomas Reese, S.J., is a senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter. He previously was editor-in-chief of America magazine from 1998 to 2005, having served as associate editor from 1978 to 1985. A senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center from 1985 to 1998 and 2006 to 2013, during the first period Reese wrote three books: Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church (1989), A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (1992), and Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church (1997). Inside the Vatican has been translated into Dutch, German, Polish, Korean, and Portuguese. In May 2014 Reese was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which he currently chairs. He has a M.A. in political science from St. Louis University, a M.Div. from the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.