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A key figure in this potential stale mate is Archbishop Runcie. He is probably willing to risk more for the sake of unity than any of his predecessors. In an exclusive interview with TIME, Runcie stuck to his view that "the Roman Catholic Church is overcentralized" but pointed to the usefulness of the papacy as "a focus for unity and affection" that was "given to Rome from the days of the early church." He believes Rome "can give a great deal to us in terms of doctrinal coherence." Runcie said that his central problem is this: "The idea [that] you have to go to Rome for ethical decisions, for doctrinal clarification, for liturgical permissions, for the appointments of leaders in different parts of the world, I find difficult, in fact impossible. We must come to some better understanding than that ... By Christian unity, I do not mean some kind of soft uniformity ... But it is not just a loose federation of people prepared to cooperate either. It is something deeper and more organic than that ... In the long term, [the best approach] may be a method of reconciling the churches by stages, so that the ministry and the sacraments are recognized—that will be a model of how unity might be achieved."
Perhaps underlying Runcie's long-term view for the future is a 1920s proposal by Belgium's Desire Cardinal Mercier that Anglicanism be "united, not absorbed." This would leave the Archbishop of Canterbury as patriarch of a group that would come under the papacy but retain control of its liturgy and canon law. Still, no sort of reunion—Runcie's flexibility aside—could occur without similar flexibility from Rome.
Nothing will happen, says one Vatican veteran, "until you get a Pope who is dead set on it." He adds: "Quite frankly, I do not think this Pope is that at all." Says another member of the Vatican staff:
"The Pope is so authoritarian that there is no possibility of unity with any other church in his lifetime." In the first encyclical of his reign, Pope John Paul II warned that "correct limits must be maintained" in the search for Christian unity, which "in no way [means] giving up or in any way diminishing the treasures of divine truth that the church has constantly confessed and taught." John Paul, with his well-publicized disciplinary policies regarding two progressive theologians, West Germany's Hans Küng and the Dominican Edward Schillebeeckx of The Netherlands, has probably slowed down the forward momentum, in the eyes of non-Catholic liberals, at least. Says W.A. Visser 't Hooft, 81, co-founder of the World Council of Churches: "Let's face it. The Pope remains a theological conservative. There are great differences between his image and reality. In a way, KRAFT the church is still scared by its own courage at Vatican II."