The Archbishop of Canterbury's website has the full text ofCardinal Kasper's address on women bishops as well as Archbishop Rowan Williams' response. In that address, Cardinal Kasper mentioned the ordination of women priests as well as the consecration of women bishops, an issue presently being considered by the Church of England.
The ordination of women was the starting point for the Cardinal's explanation, followed by a careful analysis of the issue of women bishops, beginning with this:
"Doubtless, historically conditioned views at times had some influence on this tradition. There are some arguments belonging to the past that we do not reiterate today. We should of course be aware that our contemporary
views are also historically contingent in many respects, and that presumably
only future centuries will be able to measure just how greatly we have been conditioned by our times; they will presumably chuckle over many things which we take for granted today, just as we do over many ideas of the ancient or medieval world. On the other hand, it can be academically demonstrated that the rejection of the ordination of women within the tradition was not predicated on
contemporary concepts alone but in essence on theological arguments. Therefore it should not be assumed that the Catholic Church will one
day revise its current position. The Catholic Church is convinced that
she has no right to do so.
II
“Following this brief review of the discussion regarding the ordination of women to priesthood I would like to turn now to the current question of the ordination of women to the episcopal office. At first glance it seems to be a virtually unavoidable consequence of the first step, the ordination of women to the priesthood. The sacrament of ordination is one single sacrament, and access to one step in principle also opens the way to the next step. The reverse conclusion then must be that if women cannot be admitted to the priesthood, then they obviously cannot be admitted to episcopal office either. Nevertheless, in the ecumenical context the ordination of women to episcopal office confronts us with a new situation relative to the ordination to the priesthood, and represents a considerable further escalation of the problem. Why? The answer to this question derives from the nature of the episcopal office, which according to the early church as well as to the current understanding of the Catholic Church, is an office of unity. As such it is particularly relevant to ecumenical concerns and aims.”
Cardinal Kasper's address with Rowan Williams' response is posted on the Archbishop of Canterbury website.
It contains a substantial theological discussion of the role of a bishop in Scripture and in the writings of the Church Fathers, especially St. Cyprian of Carthage, and of how that view is expressed in the present day Church.
He also mentioned that past discussions over changing the Catholic position on the nullity of Anglican orders (which dates back to 1896) had cooled as a result of the increasing ordination of Anglican women.
With regard to that issue, as one of several, it is bishops who ordain priests, and the consecration of female bishops creates a situation in which the validity of some male priests’ ordination depends upon the validity of the bishopric of the female bishop who ordained them. It creates a situation in which it is increasingly difficult to judge the validity of orders, even if the Church decided to revise its view of Anglican orders as a whole.
In addition to that, the movement toward more female priests and bishops shows that the Anglican Communion, as a whole, is moving in a direction away from unity with the Catholic Church on essential issues, and not toward it.
There is discussion on several other blogs, including:
Insight Scoop
Pontifications
Meam Commemorationem
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