If, like me, you grew up Catholic long ago, you might well have hated England’s King Henry VIII for having taken his nation away from the Church of Rome in the sixteenth century. You probably would have backed the pope who refused to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, an action that ultimately led to the fateful division.
Most likely, you would have also bewailed Henry’s subsequent crimes against the Catholic Church, such as despoiling the monasteries, seizing Catholic properties, and executing his onetime favored administrator Thomas More. Like me, you might have regarded the king’s founding of the Anglican Church, over against the Roman one, as one of the greatest tragedies of history.
That history swept through my mind recently on the occasion of the state visit to England and Scotland by the current pope, Benedict XVI. Before the late 20th century, such a visit would have been unthinkable. Any pope would have been thoroughly persona non grata to the British people and their government.
Even now, some groups organized against the papal visit and made clear their disdain for this pope. Authorities at first feared that Benedict’s arrival would touch off widespread opposition in the streets and elsewhere. To their relief, however, the demonstrators proved to be a small and generally peaceful minority of the population and public response was largely favorable.
The pope was received very graciously by Queen Elizabeth and many other British dignitaries, a reception unthinkable until changes that began in the 1960s. Leaders of the Anglican Church also welcomed Benedict warmly; Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, joined the pope in praying in Westminster Abbey, that celebrated shrine of British religion and patriotism.
At one point, the pope was seen to shake hands with a female Anglican priest. The Roman Church, of course, holds that the ordination of women is invalid but, on this occasion ecumenical good feeling overwhelmed such niceties.
Even when he took an action that could have roused resentment, namely the beatification of Cardinal Newman, most British people took it in stride. Newman, a great literary and religious figure of the nineteenth century, entered the Catholic Church after having been an Anglican divine. In declaring him blessed, Pope Benedict did something risky but he carried if off gracefully.
The good will stirred by Benedict’s visit was an important enough value in itself. After all, it showed the decline of the hostility that had for so long marked relations between Anglican London and Catholic Rome. Now the two religious communities could attempt to live together with close and harmonious relations.
Of course, many years ago I gave up my own negative feeling toward the Anglican Church in Britain, the Episcopal Church in the United States, and their allied churches in other parts of the world. I confess that historical figures like Henry VIII still stir a certain residual enmity in me, but that certainly does not carry over to their religious descendants.
Change in me has happened largely because of the ecumenical movement starting in the 1960s. Then a new spirit of cooperation had swept over these churches, a spirit that has lost some of its power since.
But earlier, so much of my schooling focused on the culture of England that it disposed me to think well of Britain. Many favorite writers such as the English divine John Donne and the great novelist Jane Austen gave me a love of that culture which offset religious issues.
In summing up the meaning of the papal visit, British Catholic writers go further than improved relations. They see it as an event with real substance. At a time when relatively few people in England attend any church, and the culture has become highly secularized, Benedict preached the importance of the values supported by religion.
In his speech to 600 leaders at historic Westminster Hall, the pope pointed to the mutual help that can be provided by religious and secular thought. He suggested that “the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.”
Benedict also emphasized the importance of international development and celebrated the way the United Kingdom and the Vatican have collaborated to help the poor of the world. Emphasizing that collaboration, Prime Minister David Cameron, in bidding farewell to the pope at the Birmingham airport, spoke of the need “to continue to help the poorest even in difficult economic times” and to work to prevent “the yawning gap between rich and poor.”
Whether what the pope said about religion can spark any notable change among the mainline British people remains uncertain. But, at least, many of them heard what most of them no longer go to church to hear. Religion retains its importance even when large numbers of people have given it up.