Pope Warns Anglicans on Women Priests

Pope John Paul II has warned Archbishop of Canterbury Robert A. K. Runcie that the prospect of the ordination of women as Anglican priests poses “an increasingly serious obstacle” to unity between the two churches.

The warning, in an exchange of letters between Runcie and the Vatican published Monday, comes just days before the general synod of the Church of England is to debate the issue at its meeting at York University.

At a press conference Monday, senior representatives of both churches were careful to play down the significance of the timing of the release of the correspondence, noting that the final letter in the series had not been written until June 17.

The Pope’s first letter to Runcie, written in December, 1984, spoke of the “progress toward reconciliation between our two communions.” But he also reaffirmed the stand taken by Pope Paul VI, who told Runcie’s predecessor, Lord Coggan, that the issue posed “an element of grave difficulty” in the Catholic-Anglican dialogue.

Runcie consulted Anglican primates throughout the world about the Pope’s letter. In his reply, he explained that those Anglican churches that admitted women priests had done so “for serious doctrinal reasons.”

Last month, Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, president of the Vatican secretariat for promoting Christian unity, wrote Runcie agreeing that the matter should be considered by the body set up to discuss the question of unity. But he also set out the theological reasons why the Roman Catholic Church is opposed to the idea of women as priests. He said priests represent Jesus in his work on Earth and that church teaching holds that “we can never ignore the fact that Christ is a man.”