Catholic and Anglican officials have spent four decades working toward shared Communion.

Mincing no words, Kasper said that goal of restoring full relations "would realistically no longer exist" if Anglicanism's mother church in England were to consecrate female bishops.

In the New Testament and in church history, Kasper said, bishops have been "the sign and the instrument of unity" for dioceses and Christianity worldwide. Thus, female bishops would be far more damaging than England's female priests.

This centrality of bishops also explains why within world Anglicanism there's more upset about U.S. Episcopalians' consecration of a gay bishop than ordinations of gay priests.. But Kasper didn't repeat Rome's equally fervent opposition to gay clergy.

The cardinal said female bishops should be elevated only after "overwhelming consensus" is reached with Catholicism and like-minded Eastern Orthodoxy.

Anglicans cannot assume Catholicism will someday drop objections to female priests and bishops, Kasper said. "The Catholic Church is convinced that she has no right to do so."

Why? Onlookers might suppose Catholicism's stance is simple sexism, but Kasper cited theological convictions.

The Vatican first explained its opposition to female priests in 1975, the year the Anglican Church of Canada authorized female priests, followed by U.S. Episcopalians in 1976.

Pope Paul VI said the ban honors "the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held" this fits "God's plan for his church."

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