Not Like Canterbury!

This morning MSNBC was performing a postmortem on the papal election.  One panelist, a priest on the law faculty at Notre Dame, said he had listened as news anchor Chris Matthews described what the new pope ought to be and do.  "Matthews wants Pope Francis to be something like an Archbishop of Canterbury," the priest said.

That comment, as I heard it, was dismissive, as if to say, "Oh, what a silly idea!  The Catholic Church would never have a senior primate like that!"

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

A wild idea, indeed!  Imagine what might become of the Roman Catholic Church if its Pope was like the Anglican Church's Archbishop of Canterbury — a senior primate who was elected to preside over a worldwide collection of regional and national churches, some with radically differing ideas about faith and order; who had to preach the gospel while dealing with all manner of theological and bureaucratic food fights; and who then, after a few years, retired in order to spend his golden years in prayer and study.  No, that could never happen in the Catholic Church!

By the way, our new Archbishop is Justin Welby, who was appointed November 9, 2012, and will be enthroned this coming Thursday, March 21.  Among his weighty responsibilities will be one I had never heard of until now: serving as Patron of The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks.  This is one of the Guilds of the City of London, a kind of trade association for parish clergy.  Very English! •••