Did Papal Visit Signal an End to the English Reformation? I Pray So!

Edward Pentin writes the following post on the end of the English Reformation. I have believed for some time that the English Reformation is coming to an end as we see the shipwreck that Protestantism taken to its logical conclusion has on the Faith once delivered to the saints. I say that as a former Protestant who has come to see the importance of ecclesial communio that looks to the Successor of St Peter for hope and unity. The prior statement is in no way a personal attack to my Protestant friends (I still have family members I deeply love who are Protestants) but an academic response to what is happening before our eyes in Church history.

For the first time, a ruling English monarch allowed the Successor of Peter to address her Parliament, attend a liturgy in the church of her Coronation, and even to pray with her archbishop at the tomb of the Royal Family’s patron saint. Her government also hosted unprecedented formal bilateral talks with Holy See officials.

It was a kind of surrender, a giving up of the Reformation and all it had stood for in terms of rebellion against the papacy. But this shouldn't be seen as a defeat for the Crown; rather the opposite. It was as if the Queen had finally come to the realization that Rome was right after all, that the Catholic Church offers something which her subjects need – even “thirst for” in the words of Benedict – and which her own church and state are failing to provide....

Today that’s no longer quite the case. Some say that Anglicanism has run its course. The advent of the new Ordinariates and their expected long term popularity is a consequence of its decline (though leaving behind a distinct patrimony that still has much to offer the universal Church). Benedict XVI called the new structure for receiving large numbers of Anglicans into the Church a “prophetic gesture” during the visit, one that will restore “full ecclesial communion.”

A corner has therefore surely been turned and a new chapter of Christianity in Britain, and possibly globally, may be beginning.

Elizabeth I was the English sovereign who gave momentum to the English Reformation (what Chesterton called the “shipwreck of Christendom”) that would last half a millennium.

Elizabeth II may well go down in history as the monarch who – with the help of a Pope passionate about Christian unity – didn’t quite end it but has courageously helped draw it to a close.

This turn of events will produce much more fruit than we can possibly imagine. I believe that the Protestant Reformation is coming to its end and a realignment of the Church Catholic is now underway. As Anglicans prepare to come into the fold as Catholics and prayers and talks between East and West continue as radical secularism continues to try and suck the life-blood out of Western society, the Church will rise to the occasion and give the only hope that any of us have and that is the hope found in our Lord Jesus Christ united in one visible body.