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The Mind of a Shepherd
by Father Dominic Legge, OP 

What goes through your mind when you are elected Pope?

A few days after his election, the new Pope Benedict said to a group of German pilgrims that “when the trend of the voting led me to understand that, to say it simply, the guillotine was going to fall on me, my head began to spin.” Sitting in the chair of Peter is an awesome responsibility indeed, and one that no man is ready for or capable of without the help of grace.  But setting aside Cardinal Ratzinger’s personal trepidation in the conclave, what did Pope Benedict XVI, having become the “servant of the servants of God,” have first on his mind? In his very first formal statement as Pope, at Mass on the first full day of his pontificate, this is what he said:

With full awareness, therefore, at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome which Peter bathed in his blood, Peter’s current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ’s followers. This is his ambition, his impelling duty.

These words reveal that the Holy Father must have been profoundly conscious of the singular responsibility of Peter’s see.  In a way unlike any other pastor, the whole of the flock is entrusted to Peter.

This brings us to the latest Vatican announcement: the creation of a new canonical structure for the “corporate reunion” of groups of former Anglicans and Episcopalians, permitting them to “enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.”

Some might view this as “poaching” or “sheep-stealing,” a blow against ecumenical dialogue, or even as an “audacious” bid to “capitalize on deep divisions within the Anglican Church to attract new members at a time when the Catholic Church has been trying to reinvigorate itself in Europe,” as the New York Times claimed. The reality, however, is that it manifests the extraordinary openness and generosity of a pope who clearly feels a pressing responsibility to restore the shattered unity among Christians.

What the New York Times barely mentioned is what prompted the Vatican announcement. For the past few years, groups of Anglican and Episcopalian clergy and faithful have formally petitioned Pope Benedict seeking full communion with Rome. For a pope so conscious of his charge to preside over the unity of the flock, could he ignore a concrete proposal for unity coming from a segment of the fractured body of Anglicans? Could he reject their appeal for full communion because it might alienate other Anglicans who have themselves already charted a course away from Rome (by, for example, the controversial decision of some Anglican groups to abandon the tradition of reserving Holy Orders to men, and their departure from common biblical teaching on homosexual conduct)?

In fact, shepherd that he is, Pope Benedict has steered a careful middle course. He is ready to welcome those Anglican groups into full communion who have sought it, making clear that this is simply a response to their initiative. At the same time, the Vatican has reiterated its commitment to ongoing ecumenical dialogue with the Anglican Communion, and its hope that this process will eventually realize the full and visible unity of all Christians. 

The pope’s decision may well mark the opening of a new and promising stage in the search for Christian unity. Should it succeed, it could become the model for reunion between Rome and the Orthodox Churches, as well as with other groups in the West. Certainly this is a goal close to the pope’s heart. It could even turn out to be the defining mark of his pontificate.

 

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)