Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples head, Cardinal Ivan Dias, has described turmoil in the Anglican Communion as "spiritual Alzheimer's" and "ecclesial Parkinson's", angering charities working with sufferers of those conditions.
Cardinal Dias was speaking at a plenary session of the 650 bishops attending the ten yearly Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, Kent, the Times Online says.
The conference, at which the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is praying for a miracle to save his Church from its most serious rupture since the Reformation, is in its third official day.
Although he did not name any province in his speech, his words were interpreted as criticism of the US and English Churches, the Times says.
"Much is spoken today of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. By analogy, their symptoms can, at times, be found even in our own Christian communities," he said.
"For example, when we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer's.
"And when we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any coordination with the head or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson's."
Cardinal Dias, who is the most senior Catholic delegate invited to the Anglican Lambeth Conference was careful not to single out the Anglican church, referring instead to "Christian communities", the Guardian adds.
However, the Cardinal's unequivocal language laid bare his disapproval of the chaos sweeping through the world's third biggest Christian denomination, the Guardian says.
He told Anglican bishops that the battle to bring Christ to the world must be placed in the "wider context of spiritual combat" with Satan. "If this context is ignored in favour of a myopic world vision, Christ's salvation will be conveniently dismissed as irrelevant."
This "spiritual warfare" had continued since the fall of Adam, raging "aided and abetted by well known secret sects, Satanic groups and New Age movements" that revealed the "many ugly heads of the hideous anti-God monster."
These works of the devil were, he added, "secularism, which seeks to build a godless society; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the Gospel".
"We Christians and bishops can ill afford to remain on the sidelines as passive spectators," he warned.
Reacting to Cardinal Dias' comments, the British Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's Disease societies criticised the Cardinal for comments which they said would "reinforce negative stereotypes" about those suffering with the conditions.
"Seeing the day to day challenges faced by people with Parkinson's disease or dementia trivialised by comments from such a prominent public figure is demoralising," the statement said.
"People with dementia and Parkinson’s disease face the challenge of coping with a physical condition which slowly robs them of their lives. These comments only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes surrounding these two devastating conditions."
Although making no comment on the Alzheimer's or Parkinson's analogies, David Beetge, an Anglican South African Bishop and co-chair of an ecumenical group that produced a recent report on how the Catholic and Anglican churches can work more closely together, agreed that the Anglicans had to take notice of tradition.
"Part of our life is the tradition," he said. "Tradition is one of the voices that has to come to the table where we decide what is right for us to do. So often we are just taking the present context into account." He said the cardinal was "a voice we have to listen to."
SOURCE
Cardinal accuses Anglican Communion of 'spiritual Alzheimer's' (Guardian, 23/7/08)
Cardinal Ivan Dias: Anglican Church suffering spiritual Alzheimer's (Times Online, 23/7/08)
LINKS
Cardinal Ivan Dias (Wikipedia)
Lambeth Conference