Topic of women priests avoided in Rome talks

ARCHBISHOP Donald Coggan of Canterbury told a Press conference in Rome that he and Pope Paul did not discuss the ticklish question of women's ordination during their recent private meeting, He would not comment further on the issue, or on the private discussions.
Pope Paul and Archbishop Coggan have exchanged letters on the question of women's ordination — a proposal flatly rejected by the Vatican while the practice is becoming more widespread within the 70million-member Anglican Communion.
Despite the Archbishop's denial, one well-informed Anglican source insists that the two leaders did discuss women's ordination: but confirmation for that claim could not be found.
At the Press conference Archbishop Coggan said that the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, proclaimed by Popes Pius IX and XII, still presented "great difficulty" for the Anglicans.
"Anglican doctrines are based on Holy Scripture and confined within Scripture," he said. "No statement in Scripture points to either one of those doctrines."
Asked if he was disappointed that no Vatican response to his call for inter-communion had yet been given, the Archbishop said that "one can't expect a quick comeback overnight" on such an issue.
Archbishop Coggan said that during his stay in Rome he stressed the importance of dealing with the problem of Holy Communion in mixed marriages.
He described the "tragedy of children of a mixed marriage when they see that their parents both practising Anglicans or Catholics, cannot receive Communion together."
Asked about the statements on the Eucharist, Ministry and Authority in the Church, issued by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, the Archbishop said the commission would meet next September to review the documents and would probably put them into a form "presentable to the Catholic World Synod of Bishops and the
Anglican Lambeth Conference."
The World Synod of Bishops which will meet in Rome in October, is a consultative body to the Pope.
The Lambeth Conference, a general assembly of all bishops of the Anglican Communion, 'meets next year under the presidency of Archbishop Coggan. A joint declaration by Pope Paul and Archbishop Coggan praised and encouraged the A RCIC dialogue. It said further that "the moment will shortly come when the respective authorities must evaluate the conclusions" of the ARCIC group. It was not immediately clear in Rome what role, if any, the world Synod of Bishops would have in the official review of the documents.
• Bishop James Rausch of Phoenix, Arizona, speaking, at a meeting of the Religious Newswriters' Association, said that a decision to ordain women to the priesthood would cause the biggest Church schism in history. He described the problems standing in the way of women's ordination as insurmountable.
• The ordination of women in sonic parts of the Anglican Communion was creating tensions, the Anglican Bishop of London, Dr Gerald Ellison, said when he spoke at the centennial banquet of the diOcese of West Virginia at the beginning of a visit to the United States of America last week.