Catholic Church and ecumenism

Dialogue between the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations

The Catholic Church has engaged in the modern ecumenical movement especially since the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the issuing of the decree Unitatis redintegratio and the declaration Dignitatis humanae. It was at the Council that the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was created. Those outside of the Catholic Church were categorised as heretics (in reference to Protestantism) or schismatics (as in the case of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches), but in many contexts today, to avoid offence, the euphemism "separated brethren" is used.

Ecumenism, from the Greek word "oikoumene", meaning "the whole inhabited world" (cf. Acts 17.6; Mt 24.14; Heb 2.5), is the promotion of cooperation and unity among Christians. The Union of Christendom is a traditional Catholic view of ecumenism; the view is that every non Catholic Christian ecclesial community is destined to return to the unity of the Catholic Church, from which it has broken. As the original Church founded by Jesus Christ according to Catholic doctrine, the Church sees itself as "the one true church". "The search for Christian Unity was one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council". This was attested to even from the moment the council was announced, by Pope John XXIII, during the vespers closing the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity on 25 January 1959, at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. "The Catholic Church is committed to working for the reunion of all Christians, but the exuberant spirit following Vatican II has been tempered. Sober minds realize that the road to full unity will be long and arduous. One of the principal ecclesiological tasks is to discern the relationship between the Churches." Underlying the Catholic Church's pursuit of ecumenism is its recognition that elements of sanctification and truth are found in other churches, that, in some sense, these are Christians and Particular Churches or ecclesial communities, and that common baptism itself impels those toward greater unity, since Baptism is a gift which "belongs" to the Catholic Church as one of the Sacraments which Christ endowed it with. It can be said that the "ecumenicity" of the Church is another way of expressing her "radical catholicity and/or universality". The Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism states that bishops of the Catholic Church, "individually for their own dioceses, and collegially for the whole Church, are, under the authority of the Holy See, responsible for ecumenical policy and practice". At the Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1438–42), in which some bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Churches participated, reunion formulas were worked out that failed to win acceptance by the Eastern Churches. The Catholic Church, even before the Second Vatican Council, always considered it a duty of the highest rank to seek full unity with estranged communions of fellow Christians, and at the same time to reject what it saw as premature and false union that would mean being unfaithful to or glossing over the teaching of Sacred Scripture and Tradition. But the main stress was laid on caution, as exemplified in canon 1258 the 1917 Code of Canon Law:
It is illicit for the faithful to assist at or participate in any way in non Catholic religious functions. For a serious reason requiring, in case of doubt, the Bishop's approval, passive or merely material presence at non Catholic funerals, weddings and similar occasions because of holding a civil office or as a courtesy can be tolerated, provided there is no danger of perversion or scandal.

The Catholic Church recognizes 21 Ecumenical or General Councils: Nicaea I (325), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople III (680–681), Nicaea II (787), Constantinople IV (869–870), Lateran I (1123), Lateran II (1139), Lateran III (1179), Lateran IV (1215), Lyons I (1245), Lyons II (1274), Vienne (1311–1312), Constance (1414–1418), Florence (1438–1445), Lateran V (1512–1517), Trent (1545–1563), Vatican I (1869–1870), Vatican II (1962–1965). Of these, the Eastern Orthodox Church of Byzantine tradition accepts only the first seven, the family of "non Chalcedonian" or "pre Chalcedonian" Churches only the first three, and the Assyrian Church of the East only the first two. In spite of this, dialogue has shown that even where divisions have lasted longer than previous communion – as with the schisms rooted in the Christological controversies at the Council of Ephesus (431) and the Council of Chalcedon (451) – the few doctrinal differences often but not always concern terminology, not substance. In fact, as little as a decade of dialogue has done more to heal the divisions than fifteen centuries of apologetics, stereotypes, and suspicion.

The Catholic Church recognizes in the Assyrian Church of the East as one of the valid successor bodies of the ancient Church of the Mesopotamian valley, where Christianity had been established by around the year 150, though tradition traces apostolic origins with the Apostle Thomas and his disciples successors Addai and Mari. The division between the Church of the Persian Empire and the Churches of Rome and Constantinople goes back to the disputes over the legitimacy of the terms mother of God and mother of Christ for the Virgin Mary, that came to a head at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The Assyrian Church had adopted radical Antiochene Christology, as articulated by Nestorius and Theodore of Mopsuestia. They have been sometimes, erroneously, called Nestorian. This appellation is rejected by the Catholic Church. Dialogue began with a meeting of the Assyrian Patriarch (Catholicos) Mar Dinkha IV and Pope John Paul II in 1984, and the patriarch's participation in the first Assisi Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986. Nearly a decade of dialogue proved sufficient to resolve the disagreements over terminology in Christology, leading to the Common Christological Declaration Between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, signed by Pope John Paul II of the Catholic Church and Mar Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of the East in 1994. The Common Declaration recalls that the Assyrian Church of the East prays to the Virgin Mary as "the Mother of Christ our God and Saviour", and the Catholic tradition addresses the Virgin Mary as "the Mother of God" and also as "the Mother of Christ", fuller expressions by which each Church clearly acknowledges both the divinity and the humanity of Mary's son. The co signers of the Common Declaration could thus state: "We both recognize the legitimacy and rightness of these expressions of the same faith and we both respect the preference of each Church in her liturgical life and piety." Over the next six years, annual meetings of the dialogue came to a common understanding of sacraments, published in 2000 as the "Common Statement on Sacramental Life". It was hoped that this too would be raised to the level of a Joint or Common Declaration, while the dialogue moved on to practical ecclesiological, pastoral, and administrative questions for full communion. However, in 2004, on the eve of a formal common declaration, the Assyrian patriarch and bishops decided to suspend the dialogue, realizing that "all obstacles to restoring full communion with the Catholic Church had been proven to no longer exist". The following year the Assyrian synod suspended their chief ecumenist of twenty years, Mar Bawai Soro, who had led the dialogue with Rome. In 2008, Mar Bawai, along with six priests, thirty deacons, and about a thousand faithful, broke communion with the Assyrian Church and entered into full communion as part of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The personal tensions from these events further delayed the continuation of reunion talks. In March 2015, Mar Dinkha IV died. In September 2015, a new Catholicos Patriarch was elected, Gewargis III.

Since 2003, the Catholic Church has engaged with the entire communion of Oriental Orthodox Churches as a whole, rather than with each autocephalous church in independent dialogues.

The 1993 Balamand declaration of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church discusses ecclesiological principles and suggests practical rules for both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches to implement about improving relations by reciprocally avoiding interfering in each other's Churches and not using history in a polemical manner. efn|The report contains unofficial suggestions of the commission, "until the competent organs of the Catholic Church and of the Orthodox Churches express their judgement in regard to it." According to Cardinal Edward Cassidy, the report contains three principles: that individuals have the freedom to follow their conscience, that Eastern Catholic Churches have the right to exist, that uniatism is not the current method of full communion; The principle that "the inviolable freedom of persons and their obligation to follow the requirements of their conscience",

On 3 July 2019, it was revealed that during a Vatican meeting with Orthodox Archbishop Job of Telmessos, who represented the Orthodox Church's Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, during the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on 29 June 2019, Pope Francis stated that unity rather than leveling differences should be the goal between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Pope Francis also gave Bartholomew nine bone fragments which were believed to have belonged to St. Peter and which were displayed at a public Mass which was held in the Vatican in November 2013 to celebrate the 'Year of Faith.' On 4 July 2019, however, it was confirmed that tensions still remained between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, with the Ukrainian conflict serving as a major cause of these tensions. Pope Francis has also declared support for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which has expressed opposition to Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue began over thirty years ago, and has consisted of eleven rounds of discussion. The most recent discussion has focused on doctrines associated with eternal life. The dialogue process has produced one major joint declaration, concerning the doctrine of justification, issued in 1999 called the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. On Reformation Day in 2016, Pope Francis of the Catholic Church travelled to Sweden (where the Lutheran Church is the national Church) to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation at Lund Cathedral, which serves as the cathedra for the Bishop of Lund of the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran church. An official press release from the Holy See stated:
An ecumenical service was presided over by Bishop Munib Younan, the president of the Lutheran World Federation, de, the General Secretary of the LWF, as well as Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church. Sr. Susan Wood, a Sister of Charity, who is a systematic theology professor and chair of the theology department at Marquette University and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, stated that "Since Vatican II, we have acknowledged an imperfect communion between Lutheran and Catholics" and that she personally believed that "there is no substantial difference in Lutheran and Catholic belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist". Wood claimed without evidence that in the near future she thought that intercommunion could happen in places "where people can't get out, like nursing homes and prisons."

In 1896 Pope Leo XIII issued Apostolicae curae rejecting the Anglo Catholic claims of the Oxford Movement and the Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral, such as apostolic succession. In it Leo XIII declared Anglican orders "absolutely null and utterly void." The official reply of the Archbishops of the Church of England was Saepius officio. The judgment remains in effect to the present. The judgment of nullity was reaffirmed in 1998 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, when it gave Apostolicae curae as an example of the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church.

Some attempts at dialogue began in 1915, when Pope Benedict XV approved a British Legation to the Vatican, led by an Anglican with a Catholic deputy. However, discussion of potential reunion in the Malines Conversations eventually collapsed in 1925. Continued efforts resulted in the spread of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in both churches (and others), and the visit of George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, to Cardinal Giovanni Montini of Milan in 1955.

Real rapprochement was achieved under the leadership of Pope John XXIII, whose foundation of the "Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity" encouraged Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher to make a historic, though not entirely official, visit to the Vatican in 1960. Subsequently, the Bishop of Ripon, John Moorman, led a delegation of Anglican observers to the Second Vatican Council. In 1966, Archbishop Michael Ramsey made an official visit to Pope Paul VI, and in the following year, the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) was established. Its first project focused on the authority of Scripture, and the commission has since produced nine agreed statements. Phase One of ARCIC ended in 1981 with the publication of a final report, Elucidations on Authority in the Church. Phase Two has been ongoing since 1983. The most recent agreed statement dealt with Marian theology, and was published in 2004. Paul VI went so far as to refer to the Anglican Church as "our beloved sister Church", though this description might not tie in with present thinking in the Vatican. Until recently it was used by the website of the Roman Catholic Ampleforth College (referring to Anglican pupils at that school). "Given the significant extent of our common understanding of the Eucharist and the central importance of the Eucharist to our faith," ARCIC wrote in a non authoritative statement, Growing together in unity and mission (GTUM), that "we encourage attendance at each other's Eucharists, respecting the different disciplines of our churches. "efn|GTUM (Growing together in unity and mission) refers to the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, which cites the Catholic Church canon law which defines the licit administration and reception of certain sacraments of the Catholic Church in normative and in particular exceptional circumstances contained within 1983 Code of Canon Law canon 844, which pertains only to the Latin Church, and the parallel 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches canon 671, which pertains to the other sui iuris Churches which collectively make up the Eastern Catholic Churches in the Catholic Church.

Despite the productivity of these discussions, dialogue is strained by the developments in some provinces of the Anglican Communion of the ordination of women, of permissive teaching on abortion, and of the ordination of those in public same sex sexual relationships as priests and, in one case, a bishop (Gene Robinson). More progress has been made with respect to Anglican churches outside the Communion. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, warned that if the Church of England was to ordain women as bishops, as the Episcopal Church has done, then it could destroy any chance of reuniting the Anglican and Catholic Churches. Although ARCIC had completed a major document on Marian theology in 2003, John Paul II temporarily called off all future talks between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion after the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop. John Paul II made Pastoral Provision for Anglican congregations which as a whole wish to enter into full communion with the Holy See. There has been only a small number of Anglican Use parishes, all of which are in the United States. These are Roman Catholic parishes which are allowed to retain some features of the Book of Common Prayer in worship. Additionally, one of the Continuing Anglican Churches attempted to achieve the recognition of Rome without abandoning its liturgical traditions, as the Anglican Use parishes have done. According to canon 844 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law of the Latin Church, Catholics should not receive communion from an Anglican minister and Catholic ministers could administer to an Anglican the sacraments of Eucharist, Penance and Anointing of the Sick only in danger of death or some other grave and pressing need, and provided the Anglican in question cannot approach an Anglican priest, spontaneously asks for the sacrament, demonstrates the faith of the Catholic Church in respect of the sacrament and is properly disposed (canon 844 §4).

In October 2009, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced Pope Benedict XVI's intention to create a new type of ecclesiastical structure, called a personal ordinariate, for groups of Anglicans entering into full communion with the see of Rome. The plan created the personal ordinariate structures for former Anglicans within the Catholic Church independent of existing Latin Church dioceses. It would allow them to preserve elements of Anglican liturgy, spirituality and religious practice, including married priests but not married bishops. Anglicanorum coetibus was issued on 4 November 2009. "The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is equivalent to a diocese, created by the Vatican in 2012 for people nurtured in the Anglican tradition who wish to become Catholic."

Some elements of the Roman Catholic perspective on ecumenism are illustrated in the following quotations from the Second Vatican Council's 1964 decree on ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio (UR) and John Paul II's 1995 encyclical, Ut unum sint (UUS). Every renewal of the Church is essentially grounded in an increase of fidelity to her own calling. Undoubtedly this is the basis of the movement toward unity There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without a change of heart. For it is from renewal of the inner life of our minds, from self denial and an unstinted love that desires of unity take their rise and develop in a mature way. We should therefore pray to the Holy Spirit for the grace to be genuinely self denying, humble, gentle in the service of others, and to have an attitude of brotherly generosity towards them. The words of St. John hold good about sins against unity: "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us". So we humbly beg pardon of God and of our separated brethren, just as we forgive them that trespass against us. (UR, 6 7)
Christians cannot underestimate the burden of long standing misgivings inherited from the past, and of mutual misunderstandings and prejudices. Complacency, indifference and insufficient knowledge of one another often make this situation worse. Consequently, the commitment to ecumenism must be based upon the conversion of hearts and upon prayer, which will also lead to the necessary purification of past memories. With the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord's disciples, inspired by love, by the power of the truth and by a sincere desire for mutual forgiveness and reconciliation, are called to re examine together their painful past and the hurt which that past regrettably continues to provoke even today. (UUS, 2)
In ecumenical dialogue, Catholic theologians standing fast by the teaching of the Church and investigating the divine mysteries with the separated brethren must proceed with love for the truth, with charity, and with humility. When comparing doctrines with one another, they should remember that in Catholic doctrine there exists a "hierarchy" of truths, since they vary in their relation to the fundamental Christian faith. Thus the way will be opened by which through fraternal rivalry all will be stirred to a deeper understanding and a clearer presentation of the unfathomable riches of Christ (UR, 11)
The unity willed by God can be attained only by the adherence of all to the content of revealed faith in its entirety. In matters of faith, compromise is in contradiction with God who is Truth. In the Body of Christ, "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6), who could consider legitimate a reconciliation brought about at the expense of the truth? Even so, doctrine needs to be presented in a way that makes it understandable to those for whom God himself intends it. (UUS, 18 19)
When the obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical communion have been gradually overcome, all Christians will at last, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, be gathered into the one and only Church in that unity which Christ bestowed on His Church from the beginning. We believe that this unity subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time. (UR, 4)