A 1993 essay by the late Fr. William Ralston, Rector of St. John’s Church, Savannah, from 1974 to 1999.
There has always been a yearning among some Anglicans for the great Roman communion. The odor of sanctity, the weight and depth of her spiritual life, the richness of her monuments in art and music, the calm authority of her teaching: all this has tempted more than one choice Anglican spirit to “swim the Tiber” and locate himself within the Pope’s household. John Henry (Cardinal) Newman is the most famous of these pilgrims to Rome. When he decided that Anglicanism was not and could not be his way, he planted unease and doubt in many AngloCatholics, whose minds and hearts have not been content to this very day.
I remember reading, back in seminary, Karl Adam’s The Spirit of Catholicism. It is the best apologia for the Roman Church that could be made. It impressed me mightily. The Roman Church was then immersed in the process of deciding whether or not the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary should be elevated from the status of doctrine (authoritative teaching) to that of dogma (essential to Christian faith and salvation). Karl Adam wrote an article. He argued that there was no necessity for such a proclamation; that there was no satisfactory scriptural basis for it; and that there was no authentic patristic tradition to support