Fr. Chadwick on the Primate's upcoming pastoral letter

Archbishop Hepworth is visiting with Fr. Anthony Chadwick in France:

In particular, our Archbishop is working on a pastoral letter to all the clergy and faithful of the TAC on the theology of Anglicanorum coetibus. In all the discussions about practical implementation and interpretations, it is easy to neglect the profound theological and biblical issues need to be discussed. In particular, we need to reflect on the teaching found in the major documents of Vatican II: ecumenism, ecclesiology based on community and communion. We need to make that much more effort to understand the mind of the Holy Father as described, for example, by Tracey Rowland’s Ratzinger’s Faith, published just a couple of years ago.

As he thinks out the new pastoral letter, Archbishop Hepworth will be bringing out the essential notions of the nature of communities and corporate life in the Catholic Church and in communities that are still separated in terms of canon law. Certainly, we are asked for conversion, but conversion comes in different “grades” and kinds, between people with no religion, of non-Christian religions, monotheistic, polytheistic or pantheistic. Missionaries always made huge distinctions when evangelising in different places and cultures. Pope Benedict XVI understands these matters very profoundly, but that understanding is not always shared by bishops and priests in the Church. It is also frequently forgotten that conversion is not simply a one-off decision to embrace Christ or make a transition from one institutional religion to another, rejecting the first totally and embracing the second as the one true way outside of which there is believed to be no salvation. The Saints often tell us that conversion is a task facing each of us every day, every time we repent of our sins, make our confessions and turn back to Christ. It is continuous.