The Press MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1966. Rome And Canterbury

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31020, 28 March 1966, Page 14

The Press MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1966. Rome And Canterbury

The historic meeting between Pope Paul and the Archbishop of Canterbury—the first official meeting between the heads of the two churches since the Reformation—served rather to emphasise the differences between the two churches than to raise hopes that the differences would soon be resolved. Anglican hopes that the vexed question of mixed marriages would be negotiated in Rome were dashed by the Vatican’s ruling on mixed marriages issued four days before Archbishop Ramsey’s arrival. The ruling does not admit that marriages in non-Roman Catholic ceremonies are valid; a concession on this point—even if accompanied by a reservation that such marriages were not lawful in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church—had been hoped for by Protestant church leaders. The ruling does not abolish the requirement of the non-Roman Catholic partner to a mixed marriage that he or she should promise that the children of the marriage should be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith.

The ruling makes no concession to the practice, more frequent in countries with a Roman Catholic minority, of bringing up the children of mixed marriages in different faiths, the boys following their fathers’ religion, the girls their mothers’. The practice has never been condoned by Rome, but the Vatican must be mindful of the consequences of too strict an enforcement of its requirements: the desertion of the Roman Catholic faith by one parent and all the children of a mixed marriage. Roman Catholic opinion, lay and clerical, has not been prepared for major concessions on mixed marriages. It may have been this consideration which persuaded the Vatican to release its ruling before the Primate arrived in Rome. Archbishop Ramsey showed his displeasure at the removal of this item from the agenda, but withheld publication of his comments until he had left Rome.

There need be no doubt of the-deep conviction shared by Pope Paul and Dr. Ramsey of the need for unity among Christians. Tolerant members of the great churches they represent will applaud their intention to inaugurate a “ serious dialogue ” with the aim of leading to unity between the two churches. The unsolved differences over mixed marriages, however, illustrate how much ground must yet be covered before the aim of unity appears practicable.