Edward Pentin on the ‘Scandal’ of the Vatican Reception of Sarah Mullally, ‘the first female Anglican archbishop of Canterbury’

In a wonderful essay entitled, The Vatican’s Feting of the First Female Archbishop of Canterbury, the seasoned English Vaticanist, Edward Pentin, respectfully points out the genuine scandal attendant upon the enthusiastic reception of Sarah Mullally in Rome. The tagline summarizes Pentin’s point: “Rather than aiding Christian unity, Rome’s exuberant welcome of Sarah Mullally is likely to be a stumbling block to reaching it.”

After explaining what a “scandal” is and how both Popes Francis and Leo have spoken of the divisions among the baptized in terms of it, Pentin points out another real scandal, one “arguably more serious in the quest for Christian unity: portraying something as true that is evidently not, and trumpeting it from the rooftops.”

He goes on:

Mullally, like all her Anglican predecessors, does not possess valid orders. She leads a community separated from Rome that has drifted further from Catholic teaching, particularly over the past sixty years since the historic meeting of Paul VI and her predecessor Michael Ramsey. Her recent appointment as the first female archbishop of Canterbury only reinforces the judgment of Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae (1896), which declared Anglican orders “absolutely null and utterly void.”

Yet throughout her visit, Rome received Mullally — who has described herself in the past as “pro-choice rather than pro-life” and supports blessings for same-sex couples — with an enthusiasm that conveyed precisely the opposite impression. From the moment she arrived, Vatican officials rolled out the red carpet, extending courtesies that went well beyond diplomatic hospitality and included gestures laden with ecclesial significance.

At this point, Pentin enumerates the various instances of the red-carpet treatment extended to the chief lay-woman of Canterbury:

• She was allowed to give a blessing in the Clementine Chapel in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, at which Archbiship Flavio Pace bowed and blessed himself.
• She was welcomed at the major Roman Basilicas.
• She led a public “moment of prayer” with Pope Leo in the Chapel of Urban VIII in the apostolic palace office.
• She became the first “Archbishop of Canterbury” to officiate at Anglican liturgy (a Vespers service) in the church of St. Ignatius of Loyola — where Sts. Aloysius Gonzaga and Robert Bellarmine are Buried — even though the Anglicans have their own church in Rome.

Pentin concludes,

By publicly treating Sarah Mullally as a valid archbishop — allowing her to lead prayers with the Pope, bless a real archbishop in the Clementine Chapel, and officiate Anglican vespers in a historic Roman Church — the Vatican is serving to affirm her in her ecclesial “trans” identity and error.

But if unity is to be real, it must be grounded in truth. Without that foundation, even the most gracious encounters risk becoming, in the end, the very stumbling blocks Pope Leo warns against, rather than steps toward communion.

And I say, Amen!