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Ecumenism in a Time of Transition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2017
Extract
To assess the present state and future possibilities of personal and ecclesial ecumenism between Protestant and Catholic Christians is a difficult task. On the one hand, the diversity among Protestants is so great few generalities hold for all of them. The challenges involved in Catholic relations with the Church of England are quite different than those involved in relations with the Southern Baptist Convention, and different in yet other ways from those involved in relations with a Pentecostal church in South Africa. In a broad sense, one can think of a spectrum of Protestant churches, some with whom Catholic relations might be close, and then a series of churches at a greater distance from Catholicism with whom relations would be more limited. That picture is only partially true, however. On many social issues, Catholics can work more closely with Evangelicals, with whom there are deep differences over sacraments and ecclesiology, than they can with more socially liberal representatives of, say, the Lutheran or Anglican traditions. In this brief reflection, I will be concerned with the Protestant communities with whom the greatest possibilities of a wide spectrum of closer relations seem to exist, such as the Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed churches.
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References
24 A 1949 instruction from the Holy Office stated that meetings of Catholics and Protestants could end with a joint recitation of the Our Father. Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, “Ecclesia Catholica: Instruction to Local Ordinaries on the Ecumenical Movement (1949),” in Documents on Christian Unity: Fourth Series 1948–57, ed. Bell, G. K. A. (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 26Google Scholar.
25 Pius XI, “Mortalium Animos: On Fostering True Religious Union,” in Documents on Christian Unity: Second Series, ed. Bell, G. K. A. (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), 61Google Scholar.
26 I say that this answer is only an implicit no because the Council never says which Western churches are churches in a theological sense and which are ecclesial communities. Since the title of chapter 2, part 2, of UR speaks of “churches” in the plural, there must be more than one Western community that is truly a church. The logic of UR §22, however, with its emphasis on the sacrament of order, taken in conjunction with the official denial of the validity of Anglican orders and the reordination of Lutheran pastors who become Catholic priests, would indicate that few, if any, Protestant communities would be labeled “churches” by the Council.
27 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, §§40–41.
28 See the analysis in Walter Kasper, Harvesting the Fruits: Basic Aspects of Christian Faith in Ecumenical Dialogue (New York: Continuum, 2009).
29 See Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the U.S.A., “Ecclesiology and Moral Discernment: Seeking a Unified Moral Witness,” 2014, http://www.usccb.org/news/2014/14-066.cfm; Roman Catholic/United Church of Canada Dialogue, Marriage: Report of the Roman Catholic/United Church Dialogue, October 2004–April 2012, 2012, https://ecumenism.net/archive/dialogues_ca/2012_rc_ucc_marriage_en.pdf. For a survey of ecumenical dialogues dealing with ethical questions, including these two recent dialogues, see Root, Michael, “L’éthique dans les dialogues oecuméniques: Étude et analyse,” Istina 60 (2015): 147–77Google Scholar.
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31 Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 4th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gould, Stephen Jay, Punctuated Equilibrium (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007)Google ScholarPubMed.
32 Paul, John II, Ut Unum Sint: On Commitment to Ecumenism (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995), §3Google Scholar.
33 Although I do not find it convincing, the best recent text arguing for such intercommunion is from the Centre d’Études Oecuméniques (Strasbourg), Institute für Ökumenische Forschung (Tübingen), and Konfessionskundliches Institut (Bensheim), Abendmahlsgemeinschaft ist Möglich: Thesen zur Eucharistischen Gastfreundschaft (Frankfurt a.M.: Otto Lembeck, 2003)Google Scholar.