THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDECH A Defence of ... - Rore Sanctifica

Chapter V
The Anglican-Catholics
Most readers will know something of the Anglo-Catholic Party in the Church of England. Anglo-
Catholic clergy believe that they are priests with valid orders, intent upon restoring Catholic
doctrine and practice to the Church of England; some are also dedicated to achieving reunion with
Rome. Since Vatican II we have seen the emergence of an Anglican-Catholic Party within the
Catholic Church. This Anglican-Catholic Party is motivated by the belief that the most urgent task
of the Catholic Church is to achieve visible unity with the Anglican Communion. It would be more
accurate to speak of an obsession rather than a belief, and it is an obsession to which any Catholic
doctrine or tradition must be sacrificed if it is an impediment to unity. Official discussions to
achieve visible unity have been conducted by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International
Commission, which has produced the three notorious Agreed Statements. As the Catholic members
of this Joint Commission clearly adhere to the Anglican-Catholic Party, it would be more accurate
to term it the Anglican/Anglican-Catholic International Commission. Matters could, in fact, be
simplified by doing away with all pretence and calling it the Anglican International Commission,
since the Agreements it produces consist of straightforward Anglicanism. Father Edward Holloway
has remarked, apropos the Windsor Agreement on the Eucharist:
In the Agreed Statement of the Commission no evidence whatever can be found of a convergence
of doctrine which has any definite meaning. Nothing in it can be found which would distinguish
Roman Catholic from Anglican doctrine, or either of these from Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or
Congregationalist doctrine for that matter. To speak therefore of a "substantial agreement" which
would satisfy Roman Catholic Eucharistic doctrine is totally an illusion. One does not wish to use
the stronger words which come to mind. Good intentions and earnest desires are not a substitute for
honest theology or for spiritual integrity. 1
Fr. Holloway considers that the fact that the Agreement does not affirm the Eucharist to be a
sacrifice constitutes
a betrayal of the Catholic Faith, and hence also a betrayal to our Anglican brothers of that sincere
portrayal of the essential Eucharistic Faith of the Roman Catholic Church, which the Catholic
delegates, and especially the bishops concerned, were accredited to present. 2
One of the bishops concerned is Bishop Alan Clark, joint Chairman of the International
Commission. In an interview on Independent Television on 17 July 1977, he made public his most
ardent desire. "I look forward," he said, "to the day when I can call myself an Anglican-Catholic."
Bishop Clark is also Chairman of the Catholic Truth Society, which now appears more concerned
with propagating Agreed Statement ecumenism than Catholic Truth. Bishop Clark has not hesitated
to ban from sale in the C.T.S. bookshops books or journals which do not toe the ecumenical line. It
appears that a book is no longer judged by its truth or orthodoxy but by whether it will promote or
impede ecumenism. If the truth is likely to impede ecumenism then it must be suppressed. It is no
small irony that the present policy of "openness, pluralism, and tolerance" needs to be enforced by a
policy of repression and rigid censorship.
The facilities of the C.T.S. were put at the disposal of Fr. Edward Yarnold, S.J., who has produced a
pamphlet entitled: Anglican Orders-----A Way Forward? Fr. Yarnold is, like Bishop Clark, a
member of the joint International Commission and an ardent ecumenist.
Incredible as it may seem, Father Yarnold has unearthed some of the most out-of-date arguments
used by Anglo-Catholics in an effort to prove that they have valid orders. Time and again these
arguments have been shown to be quite untenable by Catholic, scholars, not least in C.T.S.