Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 5—June 5,1975
Reconciliation:Orthodox and Reformation Churches
Protestant-Catholic Ecumenism
(ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Father Avery Dulles, S.J.,
is a professor of theology at the Catholic University of
America. A member of the Woodstock College faculty
since 1960, he also taught at the Gregorian University,
Fordham University, Princeton Theological Seminary,
Union Theological Seminary and Weston College,
serving as visiting professor at the last three. He served
on the boards of directors of Georgetown and
Fordham Universities and as chairman of the Jesuit
Interfaculty Program Inquiry during the organization
of the theological studies program for all North x
American Jesuit theologates. Father Dulles is the
author of more, than 250 works. In 1970, he received a
Catholic Theological Society of America’s Cardinal
Spellman Award for his achievement in theology and
contributions to theological studies.)
BY REV. AVERY DULLES, S.J.
PART I - Why Separation Occurred
From the New Testament it is evident that
the Church, as viewed by Paul and by John, is
to be a sign of the unity of all those who
believe in Christ and confess His name. In our
time, however, this dream is a far cry from the
reality. Christianity is split by quarrels that
occurred many centuries ago. Even though the
issues over which the communities originally
separated are in some cases no longer vital, no
effective method of overcoming the inherited
divisions has yet been devised.
The present state of Protestant-Catholic
relations will be considered in this article. The
split goes back to the 16th century.
Protestantism, generally speaking, stems from
Martin Luther and from thinkers influenced by
him. Luther had no desire to found a new
Church, but he wished to reform the one
Church in which he had been raised. He
protested against certain abuses, such as the sale
of indulgences, and set forth some challenging
ideas concerning our relationship in faith to
Jesus Christ. On the basis of his reading of
Paul’s letters, he became convinced that we
were to be saved not by good works but by
grace alone, and that consequently the essential
was to make a firm act of faith in Christ as the
source of forgiveness. He argued, likewise, that
all Christian doctrines should be proved by
recourse to the Bible. In time, Lutheranism
came to be summarized in certain brief
formulas such as “grace alone,” “Christ alone,”
and “the Bible alone.” Because of their
doctrinal positions, the Luthem Churches came
to be separated from the Pope. Many of them
also organized themselves without bishops.
In the 16th and 17th centuries there were
bitter disputes over the theological issues raised
by Luther and his colleagues. The Catholic
Church rejected many of Luther’s teachings.
Some other Protestant groups -- such as the
Calvinists and the Anglicans -- accepted them
with modifications of their own. As a result of
new break-offs in the next few centuries,
Christianity in the West was transformed into a
tragic spectacle of hundreds of quarreling sects.
Early in the 20th century, primarily under
Protestant auspices, a movement of reunion was
launched. This “ecumenical movement,”‘as it
came to be called, resulted in the foundation of
the World Council of Churches (1948).
Hundreds of Protestant denominations, as well
as the Orthodox churches, belong to this body,
but the Catholic Church is not yet a member.
Pope John XXIII and Vatican Council II
(1962-65) committed the Catholic Church
officially to the ecumenical movement. The
Council’s Decree on Ecumenism calls upon
Catholics to abandon their defensive attitudes
and to join wholeheartedly with other Christian
groups in promoting the unity willed by Christ
for his Church. As a result of this mandate,
Catholic theologians in many parts of the world
have been working with their Protestant
counterparts to overcome the divisions brought
about by the Reformation.
For those who participate in the ecumenical
movement, the right attitudes are all-important.
The Council speaks of a “conversion of heart”
as being the “soul of the ecumenical
movement.” This change of outlook demands
in the first place that we should try to
appreciate whatever is good in communities
other than our own, thanking God for what the
grace of the Holy Spirit has done for them and
through them. Secondly, this ecumenical
conversion demands that we should be humble
about our own community. The Council freely
acknowledges that the Catholic Church, in its
actual history, has been very imperfect and has
been partly responsible for some of the
divisions within Christianity. “Christ summons
the Church, as she goes her pilgrim way, to that
continual reformation of which she always has
need, insofar as she is an institution of men
here on earth” (“Decree on Ecumenism,” 6).
On the other hand, we should avoid the error
of idealizing other branches of Christianity and
demeaning our own. To preserve and defend
the good things in our heritage is a Christian
and ecumenical responsibility. Believers of any
denomination should seek to build on this
heritage rather than to dissolve it. It would be a
false ecumenism for Roman Catholicism or any
other Christian communion to abandon what is
sacred to it for the sake of unity. Whatever each
Church has of truth and holiness it holds in
trust for the good of all Christians and, in the
last analysis, for the good of the whole world.
PART II - Anglican-Roman Catholic and
Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogues
Following the directives of the Second
Vatican Council, many Catholic theologians
since 1965 have been seeking with their
Protestant counterparts to overcome, through
dialogue, the doctrinal differences that separate
their respective Churches. Among the many
dialogues we may single out for special
consideration, in this article, we shall focus on
the Anglican-Roman Catholic and the
Ldthefan-Roman Catholic. What are these
dialogues seeking to accomplish, and what have
they actually achieved?
The Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue,
through its International Commission, has
produced two remarkable consensus
statements, one on the Eucharist, the other on
Ministry and Ordination. As a result of their
common investigations, both the Anglican and
the Catholic members of the Commission have
stated their conviction that they could agree on
all essential points of doctrine in these two
areas, and that consequently there is no good
reason why the doctrines of the Eucharist,
Ministry and Ordination, so bitterly disputed
since the 16th century, should be obstacles to
full communion between these two major
traditions. This is not to say, of course, that
there are not other doctrinal barriers, such as,
perhaps, the papacy or Mariology. Thus
continued dialogue is needed, and is actually
occurring.
The Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation
in the United States has published important
consensus statements that either parallel or
comment upon those of the International
Commission. It has moved ahead of the
International Commission in producing a
general statement on the nature and conditions
of doctrinal agreement.
The Lutheran-Roman Catholic International
Study Commission produced in 1972, as a
result of five years’ work, a far-ranging report
entitled, “The Gospel and the Church.” This
report dealt primarily with the nature of the
Gospel and its authority over the Church, but it
also took up questions such as the mutual
recognition of ministries and the possibility of
allowing occasional acts of intercommunion
between the Catholic and Lutheran Churches.
The American Lutheran-Roman Catholic
dialgoue has produced since 1965 a series of
five volumes of position papers and common
statements. These volumes deal respectively
with the Nicene Creed as Dogma, with Baptism,
with the Eucharist, with the Ministry, and with
the Papacy. The dialogue is presently studying
the teaching authority in the Church and
particularly the question of papal infallibility.
In the issues so far treated, the dialogue has
succeeded in clearing up many longstanding
disagreements and reaching very significant
partial agreements.
The Lutheran-Catholic consensus statements
in the United States have sought to point out
not only the agreements reached but also the
issues on which, for one reason or another,
doctrinal differences seem to remain.
The Anglican-Roman Catholic and the
Lutheran-Roman Catholic conversations are
typical of many bilateral discussions now taking
place not only between Catholics and
Protestants but between other denominations.
The work of theological dialogue is slow, and
requires great patience. The whole enterprise
could be undercut by hasty agreements that
would later prove unsound or unacceptable to
the respective communions. It would be
unrealistic to expect that the centuries-long
heritage of misunderstanding and disagreement
could be overcome in a decade by a few
dedicated theologians. But it seems certain that,
if there is a general will to restore the broken
unity of the Christian Churches, these scholarly
efforts will prove crucially important.
The success of ecumenical theology could be
thwarted not only by the impatience and
carelessness of theologians but also by other
factors. For any practical results to follow, it is
necessary for the theological effort to be
supported by genuine eagerness on the part of
the official leadership of the Church and the
faithful themselves. Such eagerness is not easily
achieved. Only at certain rare moments, such as
the period from World War II to the end of the
Second Vatican Council, has ecumenism been
relatively popular. Very often the ecumenical
theologian must be resigned to the fact that he
will be regarded with mistrust and suspicion; he
will be suspected of seeking compromise at the
expense of truth. But ecumenism cannot let
itself be halted by such false suspicions.
Convinced that Christ wills the overcoming of
dissension among His followers, ecumenists will
doggedly pursue their efforts to heal and to
reconcile.
/
Eastern Orthodox Christians
s /
BY MARY MAHER
Three years ago I spent the summer in a New
York Episcopalian seminary with Eastern
Orthodox Christians. It was a good and
painfully insightful time. What I thought were
my liberal ecumenical gestures came under fire.
We got to levels of strenuous dialogue that
made my former ecumenical ventures, such as
drinking coffee with persons of varying
traditions, seem rather cosmetic. I believe that
it was the truth about our differences during
that time together that made us genuinely love
one another.
Yet the similarity between Eastern Orthodox
and Roman Catholics is great. By and large, we
do not differ theologically on most doctrinal
matters. They stress a sacramental, liturgical life
as we do, but obviously Within the needs of
their culture. Their canon law, especially
regarding marriage and celibacy, differs from
ours in Roman Catholicism. Their liturgies are
more solemn than ours, yet the rite is very
similar. Their use of incense, golden vessels and
richly decorated vestments makes liturgy most
majestic. During Mass they do not share a great
deal communally with each other; the rite is
centered on God beyond and therefore its tone
is very transcendant.
The Eastern Christians have an ikon
spirituality that is very full of hope. This
spirituality presents man as a likeness (ikon) of
his creator. Man is made and redeemed in the
image in God. Ikons which are liturgically
important in their churches are more than art;
they are not to be confused with Western
statues. They are believed to be participations
in the victory of Jesus which remind man of his
glory and his salvation. There is a jubilant sense
of real victory in Eastern Christianity. The
mission of Jesus was not a touch-and-go affair,
partially complete. He did all; it was man who
has been less than faithful in his response to the
Lord.
It is difficult for us who are Westerns to
grasp the full implications of the Eastern
Christian belief in man. We have long stressed
the intellectural side of man as that which is his
greatest faith support. How often we use the
following questions interchangeably: “What do
you think?” and “What do you believe?”
Eastern Christians tend to be realistic about
faith involving the whole man - his feelings,
anguishes, joys as well as his mind. Affection is
an essential part of their faith process.
The major area of difference between
Orthodox and Roman Catholics centers around
belief in the Pope. They do not hold the Pope
to be the supreme pontiff of the Catholic
churches. They hold that the Bishop of Rome is
the patriarch of the West, not the Bishop over
bishops. Each church is subject to its local
bishop, the main see is Constantinople, known
as “the first among equals.” This theological
issue is so deeply mixed with political
considerations through the centuries that it is
enormously difficult to know when the
churches were using the state or vice versa. The
ecumenical venture of sifting out the religious
and cultural implications of our differences will
not be as easy as sorting apples from oranges. It
will ask much effort (already advanced) on the
part of theologians and Christian neighbors
alike. It will ask an understanding of
differences, I suspect, that is not unlike that
between two persons before marriage.
The greatest part of ecumenism will be
healing the feelings that have widened the
separation from our Orthodox brothers more
than doctrine ever could. It may be time, as
Pope John suggested, to ask forgiveness for not
having understood the free choice of other
men. The hopeful words of Kyr Maximos, who
wrote as patriarch of Antioch, will help us
along: “We believe that Christians would love
one another more if they knew one another
better, that their mutual antagonisms are the
fruit more of ignorance than of ill-will.”
KNOW
YOUR
FAITH
(All Articles On This Page
Copyrighted 197S by N.C. News Service)
< ■
“POPE JOHN XXIII and the Vatican
Council II (1962-65) committed the
Catholic Church officially to the
BY LEONEL L. MITCHELL
(Father Leonel L. Mitchell is an assistant professor
of liturgy in the Department of Theology of the
University of Notre Dame. He is a priest of the
Episcopal Church and serves as a Canon of St. James
Cathedral (Episcopal) in South Bend, Ind. At Notre
Dame he is the chairman of the theology and liturgy
summer sessions. Father Mitchell is a frequent
contributor to “Worship,” “Studia Liturgia,” and
“Anglican Theological Review. ” His latest book is
“Liturgical Change: How Much Do We Need?”
published by Seabury Press.)
Every Sunday literally millions of Christian
people throughout the world join in the ringing
affirmation of the Nicene Creed, “We believe in
one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,” yet
they are not themselves obviously members of a
single Church. Many of those who profess their
faith in the One Church of Jesus Christ will be
Roman Catholics, many others will be members
of one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, still
others will be Lutherans, Anglicans, or
members of the Reformed or Presbyterian
Churches, yet all consider themselves members
of the Holy Catholic Church of Jesus Christ. It
is only because we have grown up with this
situation that we do not consider it both
paradoxical and absurd.
For many centuries Christians faced the
problem of Christian disunity by ignoring it.
Other Christians officially did not exist. They
were false disciples, heretics, schismatics,
idolators, wicked perverters of the Faith and of
the faithful. If they could not actually be
eliminated, they could at least be
geographically segregated - Catholic Italy,
Orthodox Greece, Lutheran Sweden, Anglican
England.
From the very beginning, however, the
United States has had to deal with members of
almost every conceivable Christian Church
living side by side in the same country. Often
our very proximity has served only to harden
differences and breed distrust. It has also forced
us to work together on a number of practical
local concerns.
The establishment of the World Council of
Churches in 1947 marked the institutional
fruition of the Ecumenical Movement. Even
those who joyously participated in its founding
recognized that there was real incongruity in a
World Council of Churches which did not
include the two largest Christian Churches, the
Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox. In the
1960s the Roman Catholic Church, through the
action of Pope John XXIII and Vatican Council
II, officially committed itself to the Ecumenical
Movement, although without joining the World
Council. This has inaugurated a new and
radically different day on the ecumenical scene.
Today, not only are Christian churches
working together on common social action and
community concerns, they are beginning to
wrestle at all levels with the hard theological
questions raised by divisions of the Church.
National and international theological
commissions meet to deal “head on” with the
theological issues separating Christians. It is not
simply that Roman Catholics are talking
theology with Protestants. There are
Catholic-Orthodox, Anglican-Orthodox,
Lutheran-Re formed, Lutheran-Anglican
dialogues. There are also discussions between
the Eastern and the Oriental Churches which
have been out of communion since the fifth
century.
ecumenical movement.” A portrait of
Pope John. (NC Photo)
If this were all that was happening, it would
be significant, but it is only one aspect. Local
congregations and individual Christians have
begun to talk with their opposite numbers in
other Churches. If their conversations are not
always productive, there is no need for
discouragement. At least they are talking! The
separation of Eastern and Western Christendom
has lasted 900 years, the separation caused by
the Reformation over 400 years. Deep inherited
feelings are involved. The attitudes of many
generations, even more than theological
differences, keep us apart.
My own situation as an Episcopal priest
teaching in the theology department at Notre
Dame and writing for Roman Catholic
newspapers and magazines is a visible
fruit of the new understanding that exists-
among Christians of different Churches. Still,
that very statement exposes the heart of the
problem. We all believe that there is and can be
only One Church, the Catholic Church of the
Creeds, yet we are confronted with the
existence of many Churches, whose members
we recognize as brothers and sisters in Christ. It
was the prayer of Christ at the Last Supper that
we might all be one, as He and the Father are
one. It is toward this goal that we all must
press.
Full participation in the Ecumenical
Movement does not mean that we believe that
the differences between Christian Churches are
trivial, nor that “it doesn’t matter what you
believe.” It means that we are willing to work
together in love with our fellow Christians,
whenever this is possible, and that we will try
to understand what it is that keeps us apart in
other areas.
We cannot do this by seeking a least common
denominator, by abandoning everything upon
which we cannot agree, nor can we negotiate
our differences on the model of a labor
contract. Catholics cannot, for example, give up
belief in the Eucharistic sacrifice if Lutherans
will accept the Papacy. To state this so baldly is
to show its impossibility. What we can do is to
look at the riches of Christ preserved and
shown forth in other churches and share with
them the riches of our own tradition.
Certainly Protestants have much to leam
from the Catholic tradition: the liturgy, the
sacraments, the joy of the Christian life. On the
other hand Catholics can leam from 400 years
of Lutheran and Anglican experience with a
vernacular liturgy and Communion in both
kinds. Baptists and Methodists have much to
contribute in the field of preaching and
extempore prayer. We can all leam from the
Eastern Churches about the prayer of the heart
and the life of the spirit. The list' can be
endlessly multiplied.
Perhaps, the agenda of the present generation
of theologians is to strip away the irrelevencies,
so that we can expose what are the real
divisions which keep us from being one in
Christ. Certainly, our agenda as Christians must
be to create the environment of love and trust
in which we can work together. The
magnificent thing is that in this century God
has removed the scales from our eyes so that we
can see the working of the Spirit among
Christian brethren with whom we are not
visibly united, and He has put it into our hearts
to work together to tear down the walls we
have built between us.
f v
\ ✓ -
Tearing Down Walls
< • ' ^