Vatican ecumenist: ARCIC document on Mary could help reconciliation

Published: 2005-05-23

ROME (CNS) -- The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission's new document on the Blessed Virgin Mary can be "an instrument of reconciliation," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican's ecumenical efforts. "What is needed now is a wide-ranging reflection on the document itself," so that Anglicans and Catholics can say together that it expresses their beliefs about Mary, the cardinal said in a message. Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, prepared a homily for a May 22 ecumenical evening prayer service at Rome's All Saints Anglican Church. He was ill, so Bishop Brian Farrell, council secretary, read his homily. The ARCIC document, "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ," was released May 16 in Seattle. "As it is read and studied, it must be our profound hope and prayer that it will serve as an instrument of reconciliation, providing further theological foundations upon which relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church can be strengthened," the cardinal's homily said.

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