Not all greeted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s election to the papacy warmly. Many in the secular media feared that during Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, dissenting theologians would be burned at the stake while the Swiss Guard would conquer Jerusalem on horseback, impaling infidels on its way.

However, Benedict’s recent decision to allow Anglicans to unite with Rome reveals the Bavarian pontiff’s tolerance and emphasis on diversity within the Church.

Some accuse the Pope of proselytizing among disaffected Anglicans. Most Anglican clergy in Africa and many in the United States and Australia have become alienated by their British counterparts’ stray from orthodoxy. Is “Anglicanorum coetibus,” the apostolic constitution that allows Anglicans to become Catholics, a way of pushing Rome’s rule on them?

It must be remembered that these Anglicans took the initiative, not Benedict, when they approached the Vatican two years ago. The constitution is remarkably tolerant.

It allows married Anglican priests and bishops to remain married after joining the Catholic Church, and lets Anglicans keep their liturgy, calling it valuable and rich.

This move will not be without precedent. Byzantine Rite Catholics likewise have some married priests and have a liturgy more Orthodox than Catholics.

Nor will this be a massive exodus. Creighton theology professor Dr. Russell Reno believes most traditionally oriented Anglicans will remain in communion with Canterbury and calls the number who will take up Catholicism “symbolic.”

Nonetheless, this small step is one of the greatest ecumenical moves by the Church since Vatican II. Most Christians dream of the day when all followers of Christ can worship at the same altar.

Ecumenism requires searching for common ground and taking risks. Making strides in the process of unifying the world’s Christians requires tolerance. Allowing Anglicans to keep their traditions is a prime example.

Four years after the “Panzer Cardinal” became pope, some still accuse him of intolerance. Yet Benedict’s ecclesiastical vision appears to be one of a diverse Church.

Some accused him of pushing the Church back to medieval obscurantism when he increased the availability of the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Mass.

But now he has proven that the faithful have the right to worship in any way that brings them closer to God, whether they accomplish that through the Latin Mass or through traditional Church of England hymns.