NEW CATHOLIC DOGMA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27523, 18 October 1950, Page 7

NEW CATHOLIC DOGMA

Criticism By Anglican Archbishops

“ REFLECTION OF DEEP ENVY ”

NZPA Special Correspondent^

Rec. 7.30 p.m. , LONDON, Oct. 17. Speaking from the pulpit at Westminster Cathedral, the Rev. Dr J. C. Heenan, superior of the Catholic Missionary Society, expressed the belief that “ deep envy ’ of the Roman Catholic Church lay behind the Anglican Archbishop’s criticism of the proposed dogma—that the body- of the Virgin Mary was taken up to heaven and reunited with her soul—to be proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on November 1.

Dr Heenan said the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had seen fit to declare that the Pope’s,act was an affront to Protestantism throughout the world, and that the definition of the Assumption was to make the union of Christendom more and more difficult. “I am certain that tne certain erroneous views they expressed are the result of sincerity,” he continued, “ but they have no right to accuse the Pope of fostering disunion any more than they have the right of alleging that the Church of England is in any sense the Church that was in England before the spiritual revolution so oddly called the Reformation.” Dr Heenan said: “It is a pity that English history is so little known by the English people. What do Englishmen know about King Alfred except that he burned some cakes? He aid something more than that—in the Anglo-Saxon Church he decreed < that the Assumption of Our Lady should be a public holiday.”

Dr Heenan said the definition of the dogma was not the real reason why the Anglican archbishops had attacked the authority of the Catholic Church. The real reason was this: “ There could scarcely be a more obvious mark of the authority of the Catholic Church than that, when this doctrine is defined, nearly 400,000,000 people throughout the world will immediately and gladly give their obedience. This is the day when religious authority outside the Catholic Church is almost finished. I believe that behind this criticism there is deep envy.”