Ecumenism - what hope?

FR. DANIEL CALLAM, CSB 

The growing coolness among Catholics towards dialogue between Christians is obvious. However strongly Church officials promote it, the rank and file have come to view the whole process with suspicion, a suspicion that is strongest among those who are most committed to their faith. One reason for this is a change in attitude among what we may call "professional ecumenists."

Relationism

What alarms us is the appearance of a religious relativism among some Catholics engaged in the ecumenical movement. Consider A Survival Guide for Ecumenically Minded Christians, a book published a few years ago by Father Tom Ryan, CSP, who was then the director of the prestigious Centre for Ecumenism in Montreal, an institute sponsored by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. In it we read, "... the noun is OEChristian; OEAnglican, OEOrthodox, OEProtestant, and OERoman Catholic are merely adjectives."

Some would go further; not only are all forms of Christianity considered as equivalent "flowers in a vase" or "rooms in a house," to use Father Ryan's metaphors, but the religions of the world constitute many paths to the same divine reality.

Another difficulty is the dismay we Catholics feel at what our "separated brethren" are saying about doctrine and morality. The highly publicized denial of the divinity of Christ by the moderator of the United Church, Reverend Bill Phipps, is merely a notorious version of a view which has been commonplace among liberal Protestantism for decades. Then there is the staggering decline in Protestant moral teaching over the last century to the point that easy divorce, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, and active homosexuality are not merely tolerated but actually promoted. What common ground is there for fruitful dialogue in the midst of this religious and moral confusion?

Quest for unity

Nevertheless, the bishops and, especially, the Holy Father himself continue to insist that the search for unity among Christians is crucially important, a task incumbent upon the entire Church. His last encyclical, Ut unum sint (That They May Be One), issued on 25 May 1995, makes the point unequivocally: the quest for unity is "a duty which springs from the very nature of the Christian community" (no. 49). The Pope justifies his statement from the prayer of Jesus from which the encyclical takes its name: "May they be one, Father, even as we are one" (Jn 17.11), and furthers the ecumenical imperative by calling attention to the documents of Vatican II, especially the Decree on Ecumenism which he quotes in seventy of the encyclical's 162 footnotes. To these weighty arguments is added the practical necessity of Christian unity for a Church committed to evangelization, for nothing hinders an effective proclamation of the Gospel more than the spectacle of Christians competing with one another for converts or bickering among themselves.

No one could criticize any of these statements; they are simply fact. But the difficulties which I mentioned at the beginning continue to nag. It is all the more important, therefore, to examine John Paul's presentation of an ecumenism that would base Christian unity on the sole foundation capable of sustaining it, the fullness of truth: "Full unity will come about when all share in the fullness of the means of salvation entrusted by Christ to his Church" (no. 86); and again: "[unity] can be attained only by the adherence of all to the content of revealed faith in its entirety. In matters of faith, compromise is a contradiction with God who is Truth" (no. 18; cf. no. 70).

Existing unity

One element of this "revealed faith" is the existing unity of the Church. The Petrine office preserves the unity of the universal Church as the ministry of the local bishop assures the unity of the diocesan Church. The Pope, however, goes beyond the fact that from its founding by Christ, the Church "has been preserved in unity, with all the means by which God wishes to endow his Church" (no. 11).

In an almost startling way, he claims that, as Peter's successor, he is "the visible sign and guarantor of unity" for the whole Church, including the churches and ecclesial communities lacking full communion with the Roman See: "whatever relates to the unity of all Christian communities clearly forms part of the concerns of the primacy [of the pope]" (no. 95). In this remarkable statement the Holy Father demonstrates how unity is essential to the mission of the Church and, even more, how unity can only be achieved by a recognition of the means by which Christ Himself established the unity of his Church by selecting Saint Peter to be the first pope.

This is the context in which John Paul adopts an approach to Christian dialogue that has characterized the ecumenical movement from its inception: emphasis is now primarily placed on what Orthodoxy and Protestantism have preserved, rather than on what they have abandoned. Once again, the Pope can startle by the lengths he is willing to go in his desire to encourage a fruitful discussion with other Christians. Not only are there "the elements of sanctification and truth" in these other churches and ecclesial communities (no. 11), but some aspects of the Christian mystery have at times been more effectively lived in them than in Catholicism.

It is not difficult to come up with examples. Think of the reverence and beauty of Orthodox worship and the respect for and love of Scripture among Evangelical Protestants. For the Holy Father, however, these aspects of Christianity (baptism, in particular) cannot help being directed to their proper end - full communion with the Catholic Church - for ". . . by their nature [they are] a force for the re-establishment of unity" (no. 49). Among the signs of this movement towards unity the Pope cites a growing interest in liturgy even among Protestant communities, many of whom, for example, make use of our revised lectionary. More dramatic are the agreements signed between some of the ancient churches of the East who broke communion with Rome during the debates about the person of Christ in the fifth century. Nevertheless, extensive differences remain, especially between Catholicism and Protestantism. To the disagreements about Church, sacraments and ministry which characterized the Reformation period, the Pope must now add another, about "moral principles of the Gospel and their implications" (no. 68).

New developments

One must ask why, in spite of these seemingly insurmountable difficulties, the Pope remains optimistic. The simple answer to this question is implied in virtually every line of the encyclical: it is that the Pope is convinced of the power of truth to attract and to convince those who come into contact with it. Jesus identified Himself as "the truth," so that for John Paul the fullness of revelation, found only in the Church, will exert an irresistible attraction on anyone of good will.

The Pope's openness to the good things found among Christians outside the Church has guided certain recent developments, one of which has attracted wide attention, the other virtually unknown, even in Canada. The former case concerns the difficulties of those Anglicans who were distressed by the decision to ordain women in its implications for the exercise and meaning of religious authority. The result has been a number of group conversions in England and the United States although, given the fragmented state of Anglicanism, there was no real corporate reunion, and each Anglican was required to make his individual confession of faith. The Holy Father's slogan "Unity in Diversity" has been applied intelligently in this delicate situation.

Less attended to but perhaps more significant is the growing interest in Catholicism among Evangelical Protestants which has led to a number of conversions. Like the Anglicans, although without any special arrangements, these converts bring their strong points with them into the Church, in this case an appreciation of the power of Scripture and a zeal for proselytizing. In the Canadian West, a group of students at the University of Saskatchewan have dramatically demonstrated just how valuable these qualities can be. The group, Catholic Christian Outreach, has adopted some of the techniques that have made the Evangelicals popular among young people: an experience of conversion that leads to a radical and recommitment to Jesus as one's personal Saviour; an ongoing and faith-filled study of Sacred Scripture; a public witnessing to the change that allegiance to Christ has effected in the individual's life; and a pledge to follow the strict Christian moral code. To all these is joined an absolute loyalty to the Church and especially to the Holy Father. Daily Mass and Holy Communion are common among these students, and they have worked in close co-operation with the local bishop.

Admittedly, there are dangers in this daring approach to renewal, and they have been continually pointed out by harsh critics within the Church. But the openness of the group to directives from the hierarchy and the invitation of the Bishops of Ottawa and Vancouver to establish the new apostolate among their university students should be assurance enough that the Holy Spirit, who alone can bring about unity in the "fullness of truth," is at work. The virtues that the Pope praised in our separated brethren, in these cases, at least, have found their proper setting in the Catholic Church.

Fr. Daniel Callam, C.S.B., is a priest of the Congregation of St. Basil. After many years of teaching religious studies in Saskatoon he is now professor of theology at St. Thomas University, Houston, Texas.