Total Catholic

Divisions within the worldwide Anglican Communion impoverish all of Christianity, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has told the governing body of the Church of England.

In a speech to the General Synod of the Church of England on Monday, the cardinal said difficulties within Anglicanism were a "source of concern to all."

Catholics and Anglicans "cannot give up" their goal of unity "even if it still seems so distant," he said.

However, he reiterated remarks by other Catholic leaders, including Vatican officials, that the Church of England's decisions on matters such as the episcopal ordination of women or the priestly ordination of sexually active homosexuals would affect "how our relationship is going to develop."

"If we are to make progress through dialogue we must be able to enter into solemn and binding agreements with each other," said the cardinal, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and a former co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.

"We want to see a deepening, not a lessening, of communion in each other's own ecclesial life," he said. "In the end our ecumenical journey has to be a journey toward fuller communion.

"Let me be frank," he added. "Your struggles with issues on communion which deeply affect the unity of the Anglican Communion affect us all. Divisions within any church or ecclesial community impoverish the communion of the whole church."

He said that Catholics "cannot be indifferent to what is happening to our friends in the Anglican Communion and in particular in the Church of England."