REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 50, 12 April 1895, Page 16

REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM .

tAFDINAL VAUGHAN and Lord Halifax have gone to Rome to interview Leo XIII on the question of the Reunion of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches 1 His Holiness intends to publish 8 letter at Easter, containing an appeal to members of the Church of England to return to allegiance to the Apostolic See ! These, substantially, are cable messages received from Europe during the last few days. Who is Lord Halifax ? What are his Lordship's views on the reunion of Christendom ?

Lord Halifax is President of the English Church Union. He is a gentleman who is " not afraid to speak plainly of the possibility, of the desirability of a union with Home." I\c is m loyal son of the Church of England but a firm believer in the idea that no one can do as much as the Pope in dispelling the " misunderstandings and prejudices of the lost three centuries." The feeling of a large and increasing number of Anglican clergymen and laymen was recently voiced by Lord Halifax in a notable speech in Bristol on the relations of Canterbury and Rome. His Lordship looks upon it as certain that " the Pope desires nothing so much as to take the first steps for the reunion of the Church, and by means of a united Christendom to find the solution for the political, social, and religious difficulties of the time." " Surely it is our duty," he continues, " to do our utmost to farther such wishes. Surely there was never a period in the history of Christendom when there was a more favourable opportunity for the realization of such desires. The unprecedented intercourse of all nations with one another has tended to create a just appreciation of all that is good in each ; old animosities and jealousies, old suspicions and prejudices are dying away, old barriers of estrangement are being brought down. There is a real and honest desire on all sides to seek truth for the truth's sake." Lord Halifax does not go to Rome with Cardinal Vaughan with deeply prejudiced mind. The man who •' longs for the day when the Church of England shall be again united in the visible bonds of union with the Apostolic bee " cannot be very far from the entrance of the Fold . The President of the English Church Union, in the speech alluded to, clearly states the aim of his Association. — L'nion with Rome but " sincere and loyal allegiance to the Anglican Communion." The recognition of Anglican Orders and Sacraments by the Holy See seems to be a sine qua non for Corporate Unionists, who complain bitterly that they are not able to make their confessions and communions abroad as they do at home ! " What we cannot do," says this spokesman of his party, " is to make any surrender inconsistent with truth and justice. If then we are asked to acknowledge, not formally but in effect, that we have neither priest nor sacraments, the reply ie clear — that our present Episcopate is in all respects the true and lineal descendant of the Apostolic mission in this land . If we are requested to renounce communion with the Church of -England on the ground that she is heretical, we reply again that there is nothing in her authorised teaching which is not taught in the pulpits and catechisms of the Roman Church itself." Clearly the Anglican advocates of union want reunion on their own terms. It is not surprising that Anglican clergymen do not wish to abandon the claim to valid orders. Rome, in speech and action, will be kind, but the loss of even a prospective Catholic nation will not change the nonpossumus demanded by truth and fact. We have no doubt that the present agitation for re-union and the present visit to Leo XIII. of the distinguished Pnsident of the English Church Union will prepare the way for a calm and favourable consideration of the facts which, in the proposed Pastoral Letter, the Sovereign Pontiff will place before a people whose forefathers were cheated out of their faith. It behoves Catholics, even in these distant lands, to correctly inform themselves on the subjects on which they and their separated Anglican brethren join issue. The pronouncement of the Pope will no doubt cover much ground and supply the deßired information. The wish to be considered Catholics and " members of one of the branches of the great Catholic Church " is growing, even at the Antipodes. It is significant tbut the Anglican Bishop and Dean of Dunedin were this year announced to preach sermons on £t Patrick on the feast of Ireland's Saint. The discourses were not reported, but previous utterances of at least one of the speakers show that in New Zealand there is some kind of idea and wish for the re-union of Christendom. We doubt very much if England, as a nation, will ever return to the bosom of Catholic unity. The present prominence of the question, and the conciliatory though unbending attitude of the Pope, will help much to lead multitudes of individual Anglicans, at Home and abroad, to the altars of the Catholic Church.