A group of Roman Catholic and Anglican leaders studying the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, said Monday that after years of talks they have agreed that Catholic teachings on the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary into heaven are consistent with Anglican interpretations of the Bible.
The two sides issued a joint document, "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ," which will now be examined by the Vatican and the Anglican Communion. If the terms of the new accord are eventually accepted by top church officials - by no means a certainty - it would overcome one of the major doctrinal disagreements dividing the world's 77 million Anglicans and more than 1 billion Roman Catholics. Historically, the Anglican Communion has opposed the teachings because there is no direct account of them in the Bible.
Immaculate Conception refers to the Catholic dogma, pronounced in 1854, that Mary was born free of "original sin." The Assumption refers to the belief, defined in 1950, that Mary was directly received body and soul into heaven without dying. Anglicans have neither teaching. Both Catholicism and Anglicanism agree, however, in their belief in the virginal conception, meaning that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born.
But Anglican Archbishop Peter Carnley of Perth, Australia, co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, said the Catholic dogmas concerning Mary are "consonant" with biblical teachings about hope and grace. The only remaining question between the faiths is the authority on which those dogmas are based, he said - a question to be tackled in future discussions.
"For Anglicans, that old complaint that these dogmas were not provable by scripture will disappear," Carnley said during a news conference with the commission's other co-chairman, Catholic Archbishop Alexander Brunett of Seattle. The commission, which was founded in 1961 to stress the similarities between the faiths in hopes of reuniting them, spent five years developing the 81-page booklet, in a process sponsored by the Anglican Consultative Council and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
"This is really wonderful," said Susan Payne, 48, an Episcopalian student at Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry who attended the news conference. "It was always used as a negative thing to divide us from Catholics. Anything that will eradicate that false divide between us is a very good thing."
Bob Chapman, a reporter for the Episcopal publication Living Church, said there is a long Anglican tradition of honoring Mary - there is even a shrine to her in Walsingham, England - but the degree of devotion varies greatly within the faith.
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