From the standpoint of Catholic teaching, there is no way the November action of the Episcopal Church U.S.A. in ordaining as its new bishop of New Hampshire a man living in an open homosexual relationship with another man, having abandoned his wife and family, could ever be condoned. Indeed, Pope John Paul II plainly said as much to the archbishop of Canterbury in person when the two met in Rome in October.

Catholics are not alone in deploring the ordination, however. It has been severely criticized and condemned by most of the provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion itself. Large numbers of Episcopalians similarly find themselves opposed to the ill-advised action of their communion. The Episcopal Church is currently in utter turmoil over the issue as its members attempt to try to deal with an unprecedented situation.

Catholics can only be saddened by the spectacle of what the Episcopalians are currently going through. The Catholic Church, after all, has hardly been internally free from agitation in favor of so-called homosexual rights. One of the prime casualties of this kind of turmoil, though, besides the scandal of so-called homosexual marriage itself and the ordination of a man in an immoral relationship, has been what we might call “the degradation of discourse.”

At a recent meeting in Virginia, the Episcopal bishop of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Peter Lee, in a statement that it is hard to believe could ever have been issued from the lips of a Christian bishop, illustrated the depths to which the contemporary degradation of discourse can descend. “If you have to make a choice between heresy and schism,” Bishop Lee told the gathering attempting to deal with the crisis in their religious communion, “always choose heresy.”

“Choose heresy”? Most Christians adhering to the historic creeds of Christianity prior to the present confused age would surely never have imagined there could ever be any such thing as a “choice” between heresy and schism. The Episcopal bishop of Virginia was quite serious, however, and he tried to explain what he meant: “For as a heretic,” he told the Virginia Episcopalians, “you are only guilty of a wrong opinion. As a schismatic, you have torn and divided the body of Christ. Choose heresy every time.”

One scarcely knows where to begin to react to such a statement as this, delivered to the world, incredibly, by a man ordained to be a bishop in the 70-million-strong Anglican Communion. What the statement meant to convey, of course, was that those Episcopalians who think homosexual acts are immoral and contrary to Scripture and to the Christian tradition have somehow now adopted a “wrong opinion”; and if they act on that “opinion,” they are guilty of tearing and dividing the body of Christ! Nothing is said about the totally un-Christian innovation introduced into their communion.

Bishop Lee actually dared to continue using the figure of “the body of Christ” to describe a body that has now officially opted to go contrary to Christ's Gospel. Meanwhile, he seemed totally at sea concerning the further, and much more important, point that Christ declared so clearly to Pontius Pilate: “For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37). What the good bishop does not seem to understand is that commitment to Christ necessarily entails commitment also to Christ's truth. What Christ revealed, and what his Church necessarily teaches following him, is truth. It is not “opinion”; it is truth.

If we were to ask what the possible Scriptural basis for the bishop's position might be, we would surely have to reply that his position seems to be nothing else but that of Pontius Pilate himself: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). What indeed? Pilate, too, no doubt considered that truth was nothing more than mere “opinion.”

The Christian truly committed to Christ, however, also has to be committed to his words and has to embrace his truth. There is no “choice” between heresy and schism; the Christian, necessarily, has to be against both. The Episcopal bishop of Virginia, however, on the evidence of his own words, apparently believes that what Christ's Church teaches are mere “opinions.” Members of the Church may evidently hold a variety of views on what has been taught in Scripture and the Christian Tradition. Christians in the Anglican tradition have sometimes disclaimed Protestant “private judgment,” but it is hard to imagine a plainer example of private judgment than the one espoused by Bishop Lee.

Is this a new problem for the Episcopal Church? If we look at the famous Thirty-Nine Articles, which constitute the doctrinal foundation of the Church of England and the communions that have issued from it, we find that one of these articles states that the popes have erred in teaching Christian doctrine; another article states that the general councils of the Church have erred. What is left? If the magisterium, or teaching authority, of Christ's Church, according to the Anglican tradition, has erred — and thus can err — then what is left? Is heresy, or denial of fundamental truths revealed by Christ, mere opinion after all?

Catholics can only be thankful for the Church's magisterium!

Kenneth D. Whitehead is the author of One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Early Church Was the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press).