Pope, Runcie Pledge Search for Unity

Pope John Paul II and Anglican leader Robert A. K. Runcie pledged today to search for unity but noted that the Anglican ordination of women remains an obstacle to healing the churches’ 400-year-old schism.

“We solemnly recommit ourselves and those we represent to the restoration of visible unity and full ecclesial Communion,” said a declaration they signed at the end of Runcie’s first official visit to the Vatican.

Runcie, who as archbishop of Canterbury is spiritual head of the state Church of England and leader of the world’s 70 million Anglicans, said the commitment to continue talks on unification with the 850 million Roman Catholics should not be dismissed as “a pure academic exercise.”

Runcie told a news conference that his four-day trip allowed him to build trust with Vatican officials.

Vatican officials also promised to respond soon to a 7-year-old report by an Anglican-Catholic commission outlining possible theological agreements between the churches, he said. Anglican bishops have accepted the report.

Vatican and Anglican officials have been holding talks since 1966 on unifying their churches, which split four centuries ago over the Pope’s refusal to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

The new declaration noted problems raised in recent years by the ordination of women in some of the Anglican Communion’s 27 self-governing provinces, including the U.S. Episcopal Church.

“The question and practice of the admission of women to the ministerial priesthood in some provinces of the Anglican Communion prevents reconciliation between us even where there is otherwise progress toward agreement in faith on the meaning of the Eucharist and the ordained ministry,” the declaration said.