In the month of January, the Church celebrates the week of prayer for Christian unity.
We inaugurate this blog with an article written by Sr. Laura Díaz Barco (In Dialogue n.3, August 2020), convinced that in our being missionaries, the charism for evangelization, allows us to participate in the mission of the Spirit, Who unites the Father and the Son and Who is the source of unity among believers.
UT UNUM SINT and the Quest for Ecumenical Unity.
The Reflection on Ecumenism, including the historical perspective of the path of the churches, allow us to know the dialogue attitude of the Catholic Church towards the other Christian denominations. Questions are offered on how to be related to Christians of other churches; challenges for the Church and the evangelizing mission are also indicated. The analysis of the encyclical letter Ut Unum Sint / That They May Be One, will follow the structure of the encyclical, which is divided into three chapters. The first chapter examines the Second Vatican Council’s ecclesiological insights, which constitute a turning point in the path towards ecumenical unity. The second chapter presents the steps taken by the Catholic Church in the ecumenical journey after the Council. The third chapter discusses the main areas which need further theological studies in order to achieve greater consensus, and also analyses the role of the Bishop of Rome.
Chapter I: The Catholic Church Commitment to Ecumenism
Ut Unum Sint, published on 25th May 1995, is necessarily read through the lens of the communion ecclesiology which influenced the final documents of the Second Vatican Council on Ecumenism. John Paul II draws from the ecumenical spirit of the Council, quoting from the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church Lumen Gentium (LG) and from the Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio (UR). The official position of the Catholic Church on ecumenism stated in the two previous encyclicals: Satis Cognitum (SA) (1896) by Leo XIII and Mortalium Animos (MA) by Pious XI (1928), is based on the exclusive identification of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church. The ecumenical endeavour can only be understood as a one-way street: the return to the fold of the lost sheep, ‘for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it’ (MA 10). The Second Vatican Council represented an ecclesiological turning point, which, as Cardinal Walter Kasper explains, has transformed the ecumenism of ‘return’ into an ecumenism of ‘common return’ or ‘common conversion in Jesus Christ’ (2004:67). One of the major breakthroughs of the Council is found in Lumen Gentium,
‘The one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic […] subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity’ (LG8).
The key of the paradigm shift in the ecumenical relations is the verb ‘subsists’. The Church of Christ is no longer exclusively identified with the Catholic Church, even if fully present in it.
On the one hand, Cardinal Kasper clarifies that the verb ‘subsists’ implies that unity is a reality in the Catholic Church but not yet fully realized since it is wounded by divisions (2004:67). On the other hand, the ‘elements of sanctification and of truth’, which are present outside the Catholic Church, are recognized as ecclesial, since they ‘belong to the Church of Christ’. In John Paul II’s words: “it is not that beyond the boundaries of the Catholic community there is an ecclesial vacuum” (UUS 13). What is more, ‘these separated churches and communities’ are ‘means of salvation’ because the Spirit of Christ is at work in them, even to the extent of martyrdom (12).
Despite the official ecumenical journey of the Catholic Church, when interpreting and explaining the divisions of the Church throughout history, Catholics tend to regard other Christians, as “the others”, as those who have left us, the “one true Church of Christ”. Yet, Unitatis Redintegratio reminds us that ‘men of both sides were to blame’ (3). It is usually in socio-ecclesial contexts where the Catholic Church is a minority with little or no cultural or political influence, in which we might come to terms with the existence of other Churches and other Christian, and Catholic, ways of worshipping, celebrating the Mass and understanding the Mystery of Christ.
Does the presence of other Christian communities touch and challenge our missionary endeavour? Ut Unum Sint affirms that ‘unity stands at the very heart of Christ’s mission.
[…] It belongs to the very essence of this [the disciples] community’ (9). Promoting Christian unity is not just some sort of “appendix” added to the Church’s traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, consequently must pervade all that she is and does’ (20). The spirituality of en-counter poses us beyond dualistic binaries, between us and them. As missionaries, if we are willing to genuinely encounter the other, we are first called to explore our inner prejudices and fears and then to humbly make a step towards their world. Read more
Laura Diaz Barco, cms, In Dialogue August 2020
Missionary in Ethiopia
