Problems with Anglican-Catholic Dialogue

I realise it has been a while since I've written anything but I have finally come up to operating on about 90% which is far better than where I have been the last several days. Anyhow, I found something interesting in some reading recently that I thought might bring some discussion on the way ARCIC III may be heading.

In Ratzinger's (Benedict XVI) book Church, Ecumenism & Politics, we can clearly see how the present Pope thinks about the ongoing dialogues between Anglicans and Catholics. He finds prospects and problems (the former we are seeing most recently in Anglicanorum Coetibus) in the dialogue. The problem in earlier discussions for Ratzinger was what many Anglicans viewed as "traditions". For many, tradition was often reduced to "customs". At the heart of this problem was what was lurking behind the new concept of tradition, which was the absence of the question concerning Truth. This is the source of divide at its deepest point and since writing of these problems and having seen the recent history of Anglicans, one must conclude that Ratzinger is unequivocally justified in his remarks with regards to the problems in the ongoing dialogue. For me, what the ecumenical movement ought to really be about, once again, is man's great struggle for finding Truth. Ecumenism cannot and must not be reduced to a "lowest common denominator catechesis." That simply will not do for the search for truth in this relativist world we live in currently in the west.

One major theological/ecclesial problem that Ratzinger had was with a "conciliarity" model of expressing the oneness of the universal Church. But what happens when tradition disappears?

When the common agent of tradition disappears and the idea of development thereby becomes untenable and actual traditions become the sole bearer of Christian reality, one finds oneself on a different plane that is neither that of the Reformers nor that of the Catholic Church.

The danger for the Church when ecumenical talks lose the marker as the search for truth we have missed the point of any ecumenical discussions at all. For even the C16 was able to maintain the identity marker of the search for truth in spite of its disputes. Ecumenism must be deepened and extended but not without markers as to why dialogue takes shape. I believe this will be the BIG issues of ARCIC III and all signs point to the fact that without the search for truth and authority hope is missing for not facing up to the dangers. Ratzinger concludes,

But we must see to it that in so doing we do not silently make ourselves the absolute rulers of our faith and thus by pressing on thoughtlessly destroy the living thing that we cannot create but can only cherish. It is good that the traditions have entered into the ecumenical scene. But if we cannot link them with Scripture in a single principle, we have lost ground from under our feet. Every hope bears its own danger within it. It remains hope only if we do not refuse to face up to the danger.