Ties that bind (& knot.) (Report on Ecumenism - I)

Ecumenism has arrived at a new stage, unforeseen thirty years ago. Catholics have reached agreement in virtually all essential areas of doctrine with the Orthodox, but the two are stalemated about various bureaucratic disciplines. In fact, following the disintegration of the Iron Curtain, ecumenical relations may have taken a turn for the worse. The Orthodox resent and resist attempts by Catholics to regain churches and monasteries that were confiscated by the Soviets. In much of Eastern Europe, they proselytize Catholics and other Christians but are critical of efforts by Catholics and others to evangelize or even catechize members of non-Orthodox churches.

With the mainline Protestant churches, Catholics have achieved basic agreement in faith, but a radical disagreement exists about morals and discipline: abortion, women's ordination, birth control. Even the area of agreement, however, is complicated by the erosion of the faith among Christians because of classic liberalism and the individualism springing from the Enlightenment. Whereas mainline Protestant churches do not proselytize, they readily welcome Catholics who have become disaffected with their own church's official teachings on morals and discipline.

With evangelicals, Catholics agree on morals and the essentials of the faith, but not on discipline or on institutional structures. Fundamentalists, sects, and cults, differ from Catholics in faith, morals, and discipline. Both fundamentalists and evangelicals actively proselytize marginal (that is, occasionally practicing) and dormant (that is, nonpracticing) Catholics. This may be healthy, if people are led closer to God and Christ; but it may also reflect fideism, individualism, and a rejection of the social responsibility espoused by Catholics and mainline Protestants.

New religions (for example, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Sokka Gakkai Buddhism) regularly try to proselytize Christians, and exert economic, social, and religious pressure (for example, threats of hell to all nonmembers).

There are, of corse, dramatic variations on these themes in different parts of the world, but they indicate that, when it comes to ecumenism, the Catholic church faces a radically different situation than it did following Vatican Council II. What attitudes should we adopt in dealing with these developments? What can we do?

First, we must try to reach agreement with others on the basic human right to religious freedom, so eloquently described in Vatican II's "Declaration on Religious Freedom." People should be free from all physical, psychological, sociological, economic, and political coercion when choosing and practicing their faith. Agreement with other religious groups will not be easy, for many groups survive not because of their inner strengths but because they prevent other groups from effectively proclaiming a different faith.

Second, ecumenism is best served when faith is understood as an assent to God's revelation as personally perceived, and when a church or religion is seen as a community of believers organized to help people perceive and respond to God's revelation in creed, code, and cult. Avery Dulles has pointed to three essential elements of faith: conviction, trust, and commitment, the latter linked to participation in the struggle to improve the world. Shifting away from an "objective truth" approach toward the personal and communal elements of trust and commitment, feeling and choice, opens up lines of communication which may be more ecumenically frutitful.

Third, rather than raid one another's membership, Christian churches should try to help one another in the task of renewal, reform, and evangelization. But if a church resists reform or neglects evangelization, we may not put the security fo a church above the spiritual well-being of persons. In terms of the spiritual life, it is better for someone to be fervently responding to God's revelation than to be a merely marginal or dormant adherent of some religious group.

Both nominal (dormant) and marginalized Catholics need evangelization. They have been affected by "Catholic culture" but have not made it their own. Both groups need to hear the good news proclaimed in such a way that it brings about an "encounter with Christ, conversion of heart, and experience of the Spirit in the community of the church," as the 1977 Roman synod put it. But it is best that such Catholics be evangelized by the Catholic church. Thus Pope John Paul II's call for a new evangelization. Catholics must work with other churches toward renewal, but if large numbers of our own household are not being effectively reached by Catholic evangelization, then these individuals' growth in the spiritual life takes precedence over membership in Roman Catholicism. Let the other Christian churches serve their spiritual needs. I rejoice at the evangelistic efforts of Billy Graham. He encourages all who make a commitment to Christ to become active in their own churches, but he puts commitment to Jesus ahead of denominational adherence.

What of the fundamentalist churches? Their membership is steadily growing, often among those who are afraid of cultural trends, feel marginalized, and prefer to hand over responsibility to others. This is a cognitive problem, but it has affective overtones. Fundamentalists appeal to the emotions; their devotion to Jesus is strong and sincere; they form small communities which offer support and fellowship. Yet their understanding and presentation of the gospel is often so distorted and even truncated that while their initial evangelization may be fruitful, subsequent catechesis and growth in the faith can be hampered. The individualism reinforced by some fundamentalists can deafen them to the social gospel and its call to corporate responsibility for sinful economic, political, and social structures. Can we legitimately encourage anyone to join them? If so, under what circumstances? We can and should encourage people to say yes to God, confident that all "elements of holiness and truth possess an inner dynamism toward Catholic unity," as Vatican II taught. In this regard, the church counsels us to be generous and patient. The journey to full union with God may have many windings.

The "new" religions pose a more serious problem. Vatican II recognized that other religious traditions may be vehicles of God's revelation and called upon Christians to recognize, preserve, and promote the spiritual and moral goods contained in them. But can we legitimately encourage any Christian, even the dormant or marginalized Christian, to leave Christianity for another religion? (Historically, we have seen what happens. Many Christians joined Islam for economic or political reasons. It has been virtually impossible to reconvert their descendants.)

Once again, Christians should encourage everyone to follow God's will as he or she perceives it. But we must also proclaim, in season and out, that Jesus is the full revelation of God. Instead of simply discouraging people from joining other religions, we must make Christianity attractive by letting the Spirit of Jesus radiate through our own lives.

People should be Christians because they want to be. Too many adults, teen-agers, and ethnic groups have heard the message but have not found it to be good news. The church is not meeting their needs for identity, for a healthy self-concept, for a religious experience which transforms their lives, or for a community where they feel at home, supported, and spiritually challenged. The affective aspect of catechesis has been neglected.

In summary, we live and pray and work in a very diverse, complicated world. We Catholics are competing for members with other Christian churches and the new religions. We must respect the revelation found in all of them yet remain confident that Jesus alone is the completion of creation and the one mediator for the salvation of the whole human race. Our efforts to evangelize must be made with full awareness that the most important goal is not to boost Catholic statistics but to draw all people into loving union with God in Christ.