Ordinariate Watch: Christian unity beyond politics

This article is a good example of how the Roman Catholic Church is spinning the Personal Ordinariates created under the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus (Groups of Anglicans). We can expect to hear and read these same talking points repeated over and over again in articles, interviews, and other public statements. What the Roman Catholic Church is doing is engaging in spreading and promoting a myth - an imaginative tale that describes or accounts for its latest ecclesiastical adventurism under the guise of ecumenism. It is presenting its interpretation of the creation of the Personal Ordinariates, an interpretation that the Vatican is hoping will become the prevailing interpretation of this development

Uniting Christians who have separate practices and church governments is humanly impossible.

Since the divisions were caused by human weaknesses, politics cannot give solutions. Unity is a gift of God. With the grace of God, attempts have been made right from the first centuries.

In 1839 Father George Ignatius Spencer, an Anglican clergyman who later converted to Roman Catholicism, began a prayer campaign for the unity of Christians. Through his Oxford movement, John Henry Newman greatly supported Spencer to engage the Anglican Church.

In 1908, Reverend Paul James Wattson, an Episcopalian clergyman in New York State, began to observe a week of prayer for Christian unity. Wattson too converted to the Roman Catholic Church. His efforts were recognized by Pope Pius X.

The increased awareness of the prayer for Christian unity inspired the Fathers of Vatican Council II to urge the work of ecumenism to all Christians. A full-fledged pontifical council for promoting Christian unity was established in Rome.

It jointly organizes the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with the World Council of Churches (WCC). WCC is a worldwide fellowship of 349 non-Catholic churches seeking unity, common witness and Christian service. It officially began in 1948.

At the end of Vatican Council II a very important gesture of mutual forgiveness took place between the Greek Orthodox (Constantinople) and Roman Catholics. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was also instituted.

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