Thirty clergy from the Fulham episcopal area of the Diocese of London held their triennial clergy conference in Rome this week, including a Eucharist celebrated at St John Lateran Cathedral with the Rt. Rev. Jonathan Baker, Bishop of Fulham, presiding.
The Anglican service at the primatial cathedral of the papacy has prompted criticism from some Roman Catholics who object to “Protestants” worshipping in their buildings. The Fulham clergy are based at the Villa Palazzola and attending a lecture given by the principal in the chapel of the Venerable English College – the oldest English-language seminary in Rome. The clergy met with the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and were personally greeted by Pope Francis after his weekly general audience on 19 April 2023.
Traditionalist Catholic liturgist Dr. Peter Kwasniewski on Facebookk objected to the Fulham group’s use of St John Lateran.
“I am not by any means rabidly ‘anti-Anglican.’ … But it is absolutely inappropriate for the pope (or someone acting with his clearance) to grant permission to Anglicans to “have Mass” in the Lateran Basilica, the Bishop of Rome’s cathedral, when Rome’s own venerable rite has been hounded out of churches and driven from the side altars of St. Peter’s. Will the absurdity never end?
Dr. Kwasniewski added that he did “not believe in any intercommunion between ecclesial bodies that do not confess the same doctrine, priesthood, and morals. I am good friends with a number of Anglicans and Orthodox and Protestants, but we do not share the same altar and the same vessels.”
