PLEA FOR CHURCH UNITY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18497, 19 February 1930, Page 9

PLEA FOR CHURCH UNITY.

Cardinal Mercier’s Appeal

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, February 17. The original documents, edited by Viscount Halifax, of the Malines conference between Anglicans and Catholics, have just been published. They include a remarkable memorandum submitted by the late Cardinal Mercier, who argued that the Anglican Church absorbed by Rome and separated from Rome were equally inadmissible. His conception of the middle course was an Anglican Church united to Rome, following on concessions by Rome. The memorandum suggested that the internal autonomy .of the Church of England should be safeguarded; secondly, that the Archbishop of Canterbury should be invested by the Pope as the Patriarch of England with the right to nominate and consecrate bishops; thirdly, no imposition of Canon Law; and fourthly, freedom from the rule of ecclesiastical celibacy. The memorandum also suggested the creation of a new order of Cardinal Patriarchs, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury would be one, ranking after the Pope with the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch. The papers show that agreement was reached on important points of doctrine. The Anglicans were willing to admit the primacy of the See of Rome, without definitely carrying the matter further. The chief points of disagreement turned on the powers claimed by the Pope.