That They All May Be One

The recent publication of 'Fr. Jerome's' A Catholic Plea for Reunion was unfortunate. It put forward, with great persuasiveness and candour, an unusual view of the Anglican problem, in a way calculated to rouse bristling hostility in those for whom Anglicanism is coloured by the prejudices of upbringing, and not likely to win acceptance even from those who have any real inside knowledge of the Church of England. Apart from its appearance without ecclesiastical sanction, 'Fr. Jeroine's' book showed considerable misapprehension of the religious situation in England, and in particular of the nature of the Church of England itself; it made at least one dangerous suggestion in regard to matters of Faith; moreover, its writer betrayed a disgruntled outlook, the result of some purely personal grievance, and this had the effect of discounting the value of much that he had to say.So A Catholic Plea for Reunion was seized upon by the reviewers and commentators, much of it was justly, though perhaps over-violently, torn to shreds, and an unusual and even fruitful approach to the problem of Anglicanism was swamped in a flood of indignant condemnation.The pages that follow are an attempt to restate 'Fr. Jerome's' main contention in a modified form and, it is hoped, without his misapprehensions of the situation. Ignorance of the nature of the Anglican problem can hardly be urged as an excuse for an explanation of the opinions of the present writer. He was born and brought up in the strictest of Anglican circles, and had passed through every phase of Anglo-Catholicism, from moderate High-Churchism to the most extreme pro-Romanism, before he saw by God's Grace that the religion he believed had only one divinely authorized Teacher on earth

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