I congratulate ComplineSanFran on his/her informative post and I am very glad to know of this visit as I was not aware of it. I am delighted to read about it and to see the photos. I’ve had long standing close relations with the Centro Anglicano in Rome.
I’m afraid I also do not understand the expectation of certain posters that these people would not be graciously received at the Vatican. They are, after all, not Catholic women claiming to be Catholic bishops but women of the Anglican communion who are considered, if not by everyone, at least by a significant part of the communities that compose their communion, to be bishops. And it is as officials from the Anglican communion that they are received.
In Rome, we have the Anglican Centre, of which I wrote above, and among other functions it serves as the office of the personal representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See. For many years, it has been an important and fruitful presence in the eternal city and representatives from throughout the Anglican communion pass through Rome regularly.
These visiting officials are graciously received by the Holy Father and the heads of the dicasteries because of the cordial relations between Rome and Canterbury. Rome also has a vibrant presence of members of the Anglican communion abiding in it…at Saint Paul Within Walls (the American Episcopal parish) and All Saints (the Church of England parish) as well as the Anglicans from Africa who live in Rome. There are great interactions which regularly occur, also on matters of practical cooperation, that are very important for all the communities that participate.
That said, whether it is a priest or a bishop of the Anglican communion who asks to be received into full communion with Rome, either through the older pastoral provision or through the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus, these ministers have to be absolutely ordained, first as deacons and then as priests, by a Catholic bishop because their ordinations within the Anglican communion are not recognized by Rome. The bishops who come over from the Anglican communion are afforded privileges and prerogatives greater than the priests who come over but they must be ordained as Catholic priests and, if married, are not eligible for advancement to the episcopate.
Yes, the women are not seen by Catholics as bishops. But when one remembers the declaration of Leo XIII and Apostolicae curae, the male bishops are also not deemed validly ordained bishops either. This is the case also with the Swedish Lutheran Bishops – neither male nor female.
Fundamental disagreements over the validity of Order, and indeed the very nature of the sacrament of Order and of ministry, is one of the many reasons, beyond governance and the Petrine ministry, why we are and remain separated from joint exercise of ministerial acts.
And yet, simple etiquette expresses itself in receiving these officials with a decorum and cordiality that warmly expresses the ecumenical relations that exist whether between Rome and Sweden or between Rome and Canterbury. Thus, recently when Pope Francis met with Archbishop Antje Jackelén, the female head of the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden, she was welcomed warmly to the Vatican as an honored visitor.
What else would one expect? The theological mind of the Church is quite fully expressed in her documents about the validity or invalidity of the sacrament of Order in Churches and ecclesial communities outside of the Churches that are Roman or in communion with Rome – they are assuredly very well known to the clerics, both Roman and non-Roman, and the obstacles to full communion are quite well comprehended by clergy on both sides of the Tiber and the Thames.
Surely one would not expect the Pope to verbally reiterate the theological obstacles in every encounter? That would only compound the pain of the division we confront. We can assuredly pray together. We can acknowledge the many things in the patrimony of the faith upon which we do agree. We can work together in all the areas that do not directly touch upon matters for which accord is not possible.
Roman officials too, including the sovereign pontiff, regularly receive, with respect and a gracious deference, ministers and officials of the various Christian communities that lay no claim at all to apostolic succession or even to a form of ministry that is conformed to Catholic theology. No less true, high officials of various non-Christian religions also are graciously received by the Pope and other curial officials – but such an action is expressive neither of any sort of theological endorsement of them and the offices they hold nor of the theologies they represent. De facto, these men and women are religious leaders of their various congregants and are received as such and, at all the various levels, the Church seeks to cooperate with men and women of good will in the advancement of what is right, good, and true to the fullest extent opportunities permit.
) these people don’t see “eye-to-eye” with the Roman Catholic Church and yet, they showed respect to our Archbishop!