I remember after the Church of England voted to ordain women Pope John Paul II came out with Ordinatio Sacerdotalis in which he concluded with the very terse statement: “Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

At that point poor old George Carey said, “Umm. We would like clarification on this statement.” Seemed crystal to me.

Now it is Cardinal Kasper’s turn. He has spoken very clearly to the Anglican bishops stating that their present course has pretty much blocked all chances of either recognition of Anglican orders or re-union with Rome. Wish I could have been there to hear the response of the Anglicans. I know the response of many of them: “We never wanted to be Catholic anyway. Let Kasper go be a friendly ghost somewhere else.”

Anyhow, Fr Jeffrey Steel provides highlights of Cardinal Kasper’s address to the Lambeth conference here, and links to the full text of Cardinal Kasper’s address.