CENTRO PRO UNIONE N. 62 - Fall 2002 ISSN: 1122-0384 semi-annual Bulletin In this issue: Letter from the Director ...................................................p. 2 The Roman Catholic Presence in the Faith and Order Movement Paul A. Crow, Jr...................................................p. 3 The Ecumenical Scope of Methodist Liturgical Renewal Geoffrey Wainwright................................................p. 16 Common Words and Common Worship: Praying Together and Apart Donald Gray......................................................p. 27 Liturgical Renewal, Separated Sisters, and Christian Unity Teresa Berger.....................................................p. 33 Centro Pro Unione - Via S. Maria dell'Anima, 30 - 00186 Rome, Italy A Center conducted by the Franciscan Friars of the AtonementDirector's Desk Dr. Paul A. Crow, Jr. Presented a very stimulating lecture on the presence of the Catholic Church in the Faith and Order Movement at the Centro in the Spring of this year. We are very pleased to be able to offer the text of his lecture in this issue. Together with this text our readers will find several of the lectures that were held in our Spring lecture series entitled “Liturgical Renewal: A Way to Christian Unity”. These include Geoffrey Wainwright’s lecture “The Ecumenical Scope of Methodist Liturgical Renewal”, Canon Donald Gray’s “Common Words and Common Worship: Praying Together and Apart” and Teresa Berger’s “Liturgical Renewal, Separated Sisters, and Christian Unity”. We are pleased to be able announce that other lectures given in this series will appear in a book that gather’s all of the conferences to be published by The Liturgical Press. The program continues this Autumn with talks to be given by Dr. Tom Best, “Christian Unity and Christian Diversity: Lessons from Liturgical Renewal”; Dr. Gordon Lathrop, “Conservation and Critique: Principles in Lutheran Liturgical Renewal as Proposals toward the Unity of the Churches”; Msgr. Giulio Viviani, “Le liturgie ecumeniche celebrate dal Santo Padre a Roma e nel mondo” and Prof. Ermanno Genre “Polifonia e sinfonia: liturgie protestanti in cantiere”. These conferences will appear in a later issue of the Bulletin as well as in the collection of essays which will be translated into Italian and published as a volume of the Centro’s Corso breve in ecumenismo. The Fall lecture series is rounded out by the Paul Wattson-Lurana White lecture. Prof. Robert Taft, SJ will give this year’s lecture on December 12, 2002. His theme will deal with the implications of the recent document concerning the validity of the ancient Eucharistic anaphora of Addaï and Mari. As is our custom, we continue our celebration on the following evening, with a concert offered by our good friend, Maestro Serguej Diatchenko and the Orchestra of the Academy “ART MUSIC”. I wish to end this issue by welcoming two members to our staff at the Centro. Fr. Brian Terry, SA has completed his license work in sacramental theology at the Pontifical Ateneo Sant’Anselmo and is beginning his doctoral research. He will join us on staff working on various research projects and some technical dimensions of the Centro’s day to day running. He will likewise represent the Centro at diverse academic meetings. Dr. Teresa Francesca Rossi will join us in the capacity of research assistant and will help in the further development of programs for the Italian public that frequents the Centro. Teresa Francecsa is professor of ecumenism at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Urbe and vice dean of theology as well as being a member of the Joint Working Group between the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church. I hope many of you will stop by and get to know our new staff persons who will collaborate in the ministry of the Centro. I hope that you will enjoy the contents of this issue. Please remember that this Bulletin is sent to you free of charge but we always welcome a sign of your appreciation by making a donation to help us cover the expense of printing and mailing. Peace and all good! This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database, published by the American Theological Library Association, 250 S. Wacker Dr., 16 th Floor., Chicago, IL 60606 (http://www.atla.com). For more information on our activities, visit us at: http://www.prounione.urbe.it James F. Puglisi, sa DirectorN. 62 /Fall 2002Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 3 Centro Conferences CCCC The Roman Catholic Presence in the Faith and Order Movement Paul A. Crow, Jr. Retired President, Council on Christian Unity, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the USA and Canada Member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (1968-1998) Standing Commission/Executive Board (1975-1998) and Vice-Moderator (1992-1998) (Conference held at the Centro Pro Unione, Tuesday, 15 May 2001) INTRODUCTION Among all the developments of twentieth-century Church history none has been more providential than the modern ecumen- ical movement. Rooted in the will of Jesus Christ and the biblical vision of Christian unity, ecumenism is a calling, a vision, a life, a theology, and a hope that re-presents the will of God and the mandate of Christ that the church is visibly one and a sign and sacrament of God’s reconciling love for all humanity. The instruments of this unity are theological dialogue, prayer, eucharistic worship, common witness and mission, diaconical service, and witness to justice and peace. 1 Within the ecumenical movement a central place belongs to the Faith and Order Movement whose fundamental purpose, as defined in its constitution, is “to proclaim the oneness of the Church of Jesus Christ and to call the churches to the goal of visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and in common life in Christ, in order that the world may believe.” 2 My purpose in this lecture is to sketch the presence and interaction of the Roman Catholic Church vis-a-vis the Faith and Order Movement from its beginning in 1910 until today (2001). This presence for more than nine decades can be charted by three distinct positions of the Roman Catholic Church: (1) opposition, (2) charitable reluctance, and (3) full participa- tion. This story is a theological saga of magisterial negativity matched by the heroic witness of theologians whose writings, prayers and diplomacy brought the Catholic Church into full partnership within the Faith and Order Movement. PHASE ONE: 1910-1948 Faith and Order’s original vision was to gather together in a united Church “all Christian bodies throughout the world which confess our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.”3 In the minds of the American founders—such as Bishop Charles H. Brent (Episcopal Church in the United States), Peter Ainslie (Disciples of Christ), and Newman Smyth (Congregational Church)—this vision included all historic Protestant churches, the Orthodox Church (Eastern and Oriental) and the Roman Catholic Church. 4 Indeed, in 1911 at the first meeting of the Committee on Plan and Scope the aim articulated was “to bring about as the next step towards unity, a Conference for the consideration of questions of Faith and Order, to be participated in by representatives of the whole Christian world, both Catholic and Protestant.” 5 In no sense was the new theological movement for unity conceived as a “pan-Protestant” movement, but rather as a foreshadowing of the fullness of the whole Church of Christ. The evidence of this comprehensive hope can be seen in Faith and Order’s activities of the early years. In 1911 Robert H. Gardiner (1855-1924), a Boston lawyer, Episcopal lay person and the first executive secretary of Faith and Order, sent more than 100,000 letters of invitation throughout the world, inviting the churches to participate in the new movement. In concert with Faith and Order’s wider vision this letter was intentionally sent to all Roman Catholic bishops and cardinals in the world. Gardi- 1 See P. A. CROW, Jr., “Ecumenism,” in Encyclopedia Britannica, (London/Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1989) 7:358-361 and ID., “The Ecumenical Movement,” in C.H. LIPPEY and P.W. WILLIAMS, eds., The Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988) 2: 977-993. 2 “By-laws of the Faith and Order Commission,” appendix V, in T.F. BEST and G. GASSMANN, eds., On the Way to Fuller Koinonia.Official Report of the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order, Faith and Order Paper, 166 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1994) 309. 3 Joint Commission Appointed to Arrange for a World Conference on Faith and Order, Faith and Order Paper, 1 (Boston: Merrymount, 1910) 3. In later Faith and Order texts the reference was changed to “all Christian communions throughout the world.” 4 See P.A. CROW, Jr., “The Faith and Order Movement,” in The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2001) 2:274-281. 5Report of the Committee on Plan and Scope, April 12, 1911, Faith and Order Paper, 3 (s.l., 1911) 3-4.4 Bulletin / Centro Pro UnioneN. 62 /Fall 2002 ner’s prolific correspondence also included exchanges with early 20 th century Roman Catholic ecumenists such as Abbé Paul Couturier of Lyons, Abbé Fernand Portal and Cardinal Desiré Joseph Mercier of the famed but unsuccessful conversations in Malines (Belgium) between Anglicans and Roman Catholics; and Cardinal Nicolò Marini, the Vatican’s first secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Church. All communicated a strong interest in the emerging movement. 6 Gardiner’s most significant correspondence—in Latin—was with Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, the Vatican’s Secretary of State under Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) in which the Catholic Church was invited to participate in the first World Conference on Faith and Order.7 The most aggressive overture by Faith and Order to the Catholic Church came in the spring of 1919, when the Protestant Episcopal Church—acting on behalf of Faith and Order—sent a delegation of their bishops and priests to the Vatican. (Other delegations, including other Faith and Order churches, were sent to Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox centers in Great Britain and Europe.) Upon the delegation’s arrival in Rome Archbishop Cerretti, the Secretary for Extraordinary Affairs, arranged on May 16 th for the delegation to meet with Cardinal Gasparri and have a private audience with Pope Benedict XV. Fr. Thomas F. Stransky, the eminent Paulist ecumenist and member of the first staff of the Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity, points to the significance of this meeting as “the first face-to-face contact between a post-Reformation pope and the bishops of another church.” 8 In advance of their audience the delegation conveyed to the Holy Father a formal invitation to the World Conference and a statement about the nature and issues of Faith and Order. “Substantially all of Christendom except the Roman Catholic Church,” they reported, “has indicated a readiness to take part in the World Conference.” In the face of the world crisis of the post- World War I years this conference presented “a strategic missionary opportunity to the Roman Catholic Church.” During the audience they were graciously received by Cardinal Gasparri and Benedict XV, who listened with utmost cordiality to their appeal. As the Faith and Order delegation was leaving the audience, the pope’s official response—evidently drafted before the delegation arrived in Rome—was given verbally by Benedict and written copies handed them. The official response said: “The Holy Father, after having thanked them for their visit stated that as the successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ he had no greater desire than that there should be one fold and one shepherd. His Holiness added that the teaching and practice of the Roman Catholic Church, regarding the unity of the visible Church of Christ, was well known to everybody and it would not be possible for the Catholic Church to take part in such a Congress as the one proposed. His Holiness, by no means wishes to disapprove of the Congress in question for those who are not in union with the Chair of Peter; On the contrary He earnestly desires and prays that, if the Congress is practicable, those who take part in it may, by the grace of God, see the light and become reunited to the visible Head of the Church, by whom they will be received with open arms.”9 This ceremonial cordiality did not mask the force of the negative answer. In its later report the delegation drew a contrast between the Pope’s demeanor while in their presence and the nature of his official reply. His personal disposition was “irresistibly benevolent” while his official response was “irresistibly rigid.” 10 The Catholic policy toward unity required that Christian unity could be achieved only if “the separated brethren” would leave their Christian traditions and “return” in penitence to the “true” church. Such a position would effectively end the ecumenical movement, the delegation later replied. Despite the painful disappointment of that experience, it is fair to observe that the delegation’s frustration was undoubtedly heightened by the unrealistic optimism these Americans brought to the encounter. Another attempt was made to invite the Catholic Church to participate in the Faith and Order movement when in 1926--during the pontificate of Pius XI--the ailing Bishop Brent made an unsuccessful visit to Rome to extend his personal invitation to the Lausanne Conference. In August, 1927 the first World Conference on Faith and Order met in Lausanne, Switzerland. Protestants, Anglicans, and Orthodox from all parts of the world engaged in theological dialogue and labored in optimism to transform their divided existence into a unity-in-diversity. The theological agenda focused on the themes of God’s call to unity, the Gospel as the Church’s message to the world, the nature of the Church, the common confession of faith, the ministry, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the forms of unity to be sought. Fifty years later (1977) when in the same Swiss city the Lausanne conference was celebrated, Karl-Christophe Epting, an ecumenical historian, observed that in a real sense the first World Conference on Faith and Order marked the birthday of a truly ecumenical theology: 6 See Robert Gardiner’s letter (June 1, 1917) to Episcopal Bishop C.P. Anderson, Faith and Order Archives, World Council of Churches Library, Geneva, Switzerland. See also O. ROUSSEAU, “Trois lettres inédites de R. Gardiner, premier secretaire de «Faith and Order» au cardinal Marini en 1917,” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 65, 2 (1970) 489-494. 7 Gardiner and Gasparri’s letters were published in an appendix to M. PRIBILLA, SJ, Um kirchliche Einheit: Stockholm-Lausanne- Rome (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1929). The original letters are in the Faith and Order Archives in Geneva and the Robert H. Gardiner Papers at General Theological Seminary, New York, N.Y. 8 T.F. STRANSKY, CSP, “A Basis Before the Basis; Roman Catholic/World Council of Churches Collaboration,” The Ecumenical Review 37, 2 (1985) 214. This article brings fresh insights into the emerging relationship between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. 9Report of the Deputation to Europe and the Near East, 1919, Faith and Order Pamphlet, 32 (s.l., 1919) 12. 10 Ibid., 11. See O. ROUSSEAU, “Le grand voyage œcuménique des fondateurs de Foi et Constitution,” Irénikon 43, 3 (1970) 325- 361, especially 340-341.N. 62 /Fall 2002Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 5 “Lausanne showed for the first time that it was possible for representatives of the churches to talk about agreements and disagreements in matters of faith and order without hurling anathemas at each other.” 11 The churches learned that authentic ecumenism begins when the anathemas are silenced. By the time of the convening of the Lausanne Conference all churches painfully understood that the Roman Catholic Church would not participate in any ecumenical conferences. Almost a month before (July 8, 1927) the Vatican’s Holy Office (today known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) had issued a decree forbidding Catholics from attending any ecumenical conferences. The Faith and Order officers however sent an invitation to Monsignor François Charrière, the Bishop of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, who in response sent greetings to Bishop Brent and the conference and offered his prayers for its success. 12 Providentially one Roman Catholic theologian was present with ecclesiastical permission. Josef Max Metzer (1887- 1944), a German theologian who founded the ecumenical Una Sancta movement in Germany and later was hanged by the Nazis, came at the behest of his bishop. After Lausanne several Catholic journals—Irénikon (Amay-sur-Meuse, Belgium), Una Sancta, Études (Paris), and Oecumenica—published articles that interpreted Faith and Order’s deliberations, thus beginning an interpretative tradition even when official contact was not possible. A defining moment came on the Feast of Epiphany (January 6, 1928) when Pope Pius XI issued the Encyclical Mortalium animos (“On Fostering True Religious Unity”).13 This encyclical was the first official papal—and the most harsh—Catholic response to the modern ecumenical movement, mandating that no Roman Catholics could attend any ecumenical conferences, and deeming it unlawful for Catholics even to offer encouragement or support of any kind. To do so would be “giving countenance to a false Christianity quite alien to the one Church of Christ.” The ecumenical movement, said the encyclical, is “pan-Christian” (a derogatory label) for several reasons: it is founded on the assumption that the Church of Christ is not identical with the Roman Catholic Church, but must be brought into existence; the ecumenical movement promotes a false view that reunion can be achieved without doctrinal unity; it envisions an untenable unity that involves the federation of independent churches without one teaching authority; it infers that the Catholic Church is only one of many communions in Christ’s Church. In essence, Mortalium animos charged that the ecumenical movement represents relativism in doctrine, modernism in theology, and indifferentism in ecclesiology. 14 “There is but one way in which the unity of Christians may be fostered,” the encyclical concluded, “and that is by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it.” Protestant and Eastern Orthodox responses to this encyclical ranged from deep regret to anger. Obviously those who drafted Mortalium animos had no understanding of Faith and Order’s working principles or the ranges of its theological work, especially the official reports from Lausanne. Rome engaged in caricature rather than in any valid criticism.15 W. A. Visser t’ Hooft, at the time a young Dutch Reformed theologian who later would become the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches, later reflected in his Memoirs: “These were indeed black years in the relations between the ecumenical Movement and the Roman Catholic Church . . . .That the Roman Catholic Church, given its conception of the church, felt obliged not to participate in ecumenical meetings was one thing, but that it should misinterpret the motives of the ecumenical leaders in such an irresponsible manner was another thing . . . .We realized that we had to overcome the bad habit of judging each other without having really listened to each other.” 16 At the end of the day it was providential that most Orthodox, Protestant, and a goodly number of Catholic theologians refused to accept Mortalium animos as the final word or a permanent barrier to ecumenical relations with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1937 the Second World Conference on Faith and Order at Edinburgh, Scotland, gathered a new generation of Christian leaders. The conference’s subthemes were central to Faith and Order’s original agenda: the meaning of grace, the Church of Christ, and the Word of God (including the first reference in a Faith and Order document to “Holy Scripture and Tradition”); the communion of saints, a theme introduced by the Orthodox; ministry and the sacraments; and the church’s unity in life and worship. William Temple, the Anglican Archbishop of York (later to become the Archbishop of Canterbury), was the presiding officer. The year before the conference (1936) he had written to the Most 11 K.-C. EPTING, “Lausanne 1927 The First World Conference on Faith and Order,” The Ecumenical Review 29, 2 (1977) 180. 12 See O.S. TOMKINS, “The Roman Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Movement, 1910-1948,” in R. ROUSE and S.C. NEILL, eds., A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954) 686. 13 For the full text of Mortalium animos in English, see G. K. A. BELL, ed., Documents on ChristianUnity: A Selection from the First and Second Series, 1920-1930 (London: Oxford University Press, 1955) 188-200. For the original Latin text, see Acta ApostolicaeSedis (AAS) 20 , 1 (1928) 5-16. 14 G. WEIGEL, A Catholic Primer on the Ecumenical Movement (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1957) 44. 15 See S.C. NEILL, Rome and the Ecumenical Movement: Peter Ainslie Memorial Lecture (Grahamstown, Rhodesia: Rhodes University, 1967) 7. J.-M.-R. TILLARD, OP, gives a partially positive interpretation of this phase of Roman Catholic ecumenism in his essay, “The Roman Catholic Church and Ecumenism,” in T.F. BEST and T.J. NOTTINGHAM, eds., The Vision of Christian Unity: Essays in Honor ofPaul A. Crow, Jr. (Indianapolis: Oikoumene Publications, 1997) 179-197. 16 W. A. Visser ‘t HOOFT, Memoirs (Philadelphia/London: The Westminster Press/SCM Press, 1973) 65-67.6 Bulletin / Centro Pro UnioneN. 62 /Fall 2002 Reverend Andrew MacDonald, OSB, the Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, to reissue Faith and Order’s invitation to the Catholic Church to send official representatives. MacDonald kindly declined, but did send a letter conveying his prayers for the conference and allowed five unofficial observers—four priests and a lay person—to attend.17 Determined to have some mention of the Roman Catholic Church in the proceedings of the Edinburgh Conference, Temple included a paragraph in his opening sermon saying: “We deeply lament the absence of the collaboration of the great Church of Rome, the Church which more than any other has known how to speak to the nations so that the nations hear.”18 Also among the greetings read to the conference was a communique from the Prior of the Benedictine monastery at Amay-sur-Meuse, and later Chevetogne, Belgium. In a promising omen the bookshop at the Edinburgh conference had on sale a book that represented a new departure for Roman Catholic ecumenism. The title was Chrétien désunis: principes d’un œcuménisme catholique (1937) by French Dominican M.-J. [Yves] Congar, who would become arguably the most influential Roman Catholic ecumenist in the twentieth century. W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft later spoke of him as “the father of ecumenism in the Catholic Church.”19 The poorly translated English text of Congar’s book was entitled Divided Christendom: A Catholic Study of the Problem of Union. Chrétien désunis became, as Methodist theologian Paul Minus judges, “the Magna Charta of Catholic ecumenism in the years before Vatican II.” 20 While faithful to the boundaries of Catholic teaching, including Mortalium animos, whose spirit he defended, Congar made clear that the Roman Catholic Church has always had a commitment to the reunion of the Church. “However, this church gives a categorical refusal to any definition of ecumenism that implies that the one Church of Christ does not exist in the world. This is the Church that lives in visible continuity that by grace and the gifts of the Spirit link her with the historic Incarnation and redeeming work of the Lord,” said Congar. 21 By their baptism and faith Protestants qualify as “incomplete” members of the true Church. They “are Christians not in spite of their confession but in it and by it.” Therefore, these Christians should not be called heretics but “separated brothers” or “dissidents.” In this sense, continues Congar, “ecumenism begins when it is admitted that others, not only individuals but ecclesiastical bodies as well, may also be right though they differ from us; that they too have truth, holiness and gifts of God even though they do not profess our form of Christianity.” 22 As Père Congar would say more articulately in a later book, the hope of reconciliation among the churches lies in a deeper understanding of unity and catholicity where diversity is embraced in communion. 23 A few years after the publication of Chrétien désunis Congar was placed under heavy ecclesiastical restrictions. He was forbidden to teach; all of his writings had to be approved by readers in Rome; he could publish nothing about the ecumenical movement. The Master of the Dominican Order warned him against any “false eirenicism” which might be construed as indifference to Catholic doctrine. The Vatican’s displeasure with his ecumenical vision represented in Chrétien désunis and other writings became his personal Cross. He suffered deeply for his vision of Christian unity. Père Congar’s patient suffering was slowly lifted when Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli became Pope John XXIII and the winds of the Holy Spirit moved the Catholic Church towards the Second Vatican Council.24 PHASE TWO: 1948-1968 During the Second World War work toward the formation of the World Council of Churches proceeded amid the difficulties of travel and the logistics of meetings. Several years prior to the WCC’s inaugural assembly the Provisional Committee received a cordial message from Msgr. Charrière, the Catholic Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg. Read publicly by his good friend Dr. Ingve Brilioth, the moderator of the Faith and Order Commission and the Swedish Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, it said: “While you are met together in Geneva to concern yourselves with the essential problem [of Christian unity], my prayer goes up with yours, in union with the one which Jesus prayed on the eve of His passion.” 25 This simple greeting kept alive the spiritual reality that in the mystery of God’s plan Protestants, Orthodox and Roman Catholics are called to a common unity. An incredible flowering of hope came to the ecumenical movement in August, 1948 when the Faith and Order and the Life and Work movements came together to form the World Council 17 For Archbishop MacDonald’s written greeting to the Edinburgh Conference, see L. HODGSON, ed., The Second World Conference on Faith and Order, held at Edinburgh, August 3-18, 1937 (New York: The MacMillan Co , 1938) 40 See also G.K.A. BELL, The Kingship of Christ:The Story of the World Council of Churches (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1954) 69. 18 L. HODGSON, ed., The Second World Conference...,op. cit., 20. 19 W.A. Visser ‘t HOOFT, Memoires..., op. cit., 319. 20 P. MINUS, The Catholic Rediscovery of Protestantism: A Hist- ory of Roman Catholic Ecumenical Pioneering (New York: Paulist Press, 1976) 99. This is a very competent study of early 20 th century Catholic ecumenism. 21 M.-J. [Yves] CONGAR, OP, Divided Christendom: A Catholic Study of the Problem of Union (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1939) 139. 22 Ibid., 135. 23 Y. CONGAR,OP, Diversity and Communion (Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1985). 24 Congar’s sustaining witness to ecumenism is best understood in his Une passion: l’unité. Réflexions et souvenirs, 1929-1973, Foi vivante, 156 (Paris: Cerf, 1974). 25 Bishop Charrière’s message—his second to Faith and Order—was quoted by Father Maurice VILLAIN in the pre- Amsterdam Assembly study volume The Universal Church in God’s Design (New York: Harper and Row, 1947) 171.N. 62 /Fall 2002Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 7 of Churches. Some Faith and Order leaders feared that in the new council the centrality of Faith and Order would be pushed to the periphery. At that time, however, the skeptics were proven wrong. In a dramatic stoke the member churches of the WCC adopted the basis of the Faith and Order movement as the basis of the new ecumenical fellowship, affirming the World Council as “a fellowship of churches which accept the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.” While they could not officially attend the WCC’s first assembly at Amsterdam, Holland, Roman Catholic theologians did contribute to the preparatory studies for the churches. The first preparatory volume, with the title of The Universal Church in God’s Design, contained two encouraging articles about the importance of the Roman Catholic Church being on the WCC’s screen. One was written by the Danish Lutheran theologian Kristen E. Skydsgaard and the other by French Catholic ecumenist Maurice Villain, SM. As a member of the Faith and Order Commission Dr. Skydsgaard alerted the churches in the WCC to a new ecumenical spirit he perceived in the Roman Catholic Church. “The new hope in the situation today,’ said Skydsgaard,” is that a Catholic-Protestant discourse is now possible as a real theological and ecclesiological discourse . . .that which takes place quietly may someday break through and be of an importance at which we at this moment cannot guess.” 26 Villain concurred with his Danish colleague’s assessment: “A convergence between the Roman Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Movement is not only possible but is gradually taking place.” This new climate is encouraging a “different behavior that will call forth a vital reintegration (not an absorption, not a submission pure and simple) of the Christian churches.” 27 This gradual change in official Roman Catholic attitudes and policies began to take place after the Amsterdam Assembly. The Holy Office’s letter Ecclesia Catholica (December 20, 1949 only published on March 1, 1950) recognized that the ecumenical movement “derives from the aspiration of the Holy Spirit” and is “a source of holy joy in the Lord” to be taken seriously in prayer and charity by all Christians. While continuing to proclaim the Roman Church as “the one true Church,” all Catholic should be glad that the other churches are seeking church unity. On June 5, 1948, the same Holy Office issued a “monitum” concerning the ecumenical movement. However, the year after the Amsterdam assembly the Holy Office issued a more comprehensive and constructive Instructio concerning the ecumenical movement.28 Commonly referred to as Ecclesia Catholica (or De Motione Oecumenica), this pronouncement represented a dramatic positive shift by the Vatican, in sharp contrast to Pius XI’s Mortalium animos. For the first time hope was acknowledged in the “growing desire amongst many persons outside the Church for the reunion of all who believe in Christ.” Such ecumenism “may be attributed to the Holy Ghost . . . but above all to the united prayers of the faithful.” Ecclesia Catholica permitted Roman Catholics to participate in ecumenical meetings with other Christians in order to discuss matters of faith and morals, provided appropriate ecclesiastical permission is granted. Among bishops, priests, dioceses and all Catholics ecumenism “:should daily assume a more significant place within the Church’s universal pastoral care.” While the Instructio continued to affirm that an authentic unity will require the return of “dissidents” to the Holy See, a new day was given to those who yearned for Catholic participation in the ecumenical movement. In 1960 George Tavard, the noted Catholic ecumenist who for twenty years taught theology at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, designated this Instructio as “the official charter, so far, of Catholic ecumenism whose promulgation encouraged the development of a theology of ecumenism.” 29 Faith and Order leaders also took a hopeful stance. The new freedom given by Ecclesia Catholica brought a flowering of individual ecumenical initiatives and led to a productive dialogue between Faith and Order and the Roman Catholic Church. One development was especially providential. In 1952 Jan G. M. Willebrands and Frans Thyssen, two Dutch priests, formed—in consultation with Augustin Bea and Charles Boyer in Rome—the Catholic Conference on Ecumenical Questions (CCEQ). Its primary purpose was “to promote harmony, collaboration and a common spirit among Catholic ecumenists and to keep them widely informed on the progress of the ecumenical movement.” 30 Willebrands attracted a company of younger Dutch, French and German theologians who would eventually become prominent Catholic ecumenical theologians. Among the new circle were the names of Yves Congar, Charles Moeller (a scholar at Louvain), Jérôme Hamer (later Secretary of 26 K.E. SKYDSGAARD, “The Roman Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Movement,” in The Universal Church in God’s Design: An Ecumenical Study Vol. I, The Amsterdam Assembly Series (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1947) 155-168. 27 M. VILLAIN, SM, “A Supplemental Note by a Roman Catholic Writer,” ibid., 169-176. 28 For the text, see G.K.A. BELL, ed., Documents on Christian Unity: Fourth Series, 1948-1957 (London/New York: Oxford University Press, 1958) 22-27. Also it may be found in the Congregation of the Holy Office’s, “Instructio: De Motione oecumenica,” The Jurist [Washington, D.C.], 10 (1950) 201-213. Actually this document was issued on December 20, 1949, but was not published until March 1, 1950. For an interesting commentary, see Father M. BÉVENOT, “The Recent Instruction on the ‘Œcumenical Movement’,” Eastern Churches Quarterly 8, 6 (1950) 357-364. See also B. LEEMING, SJ, The Church and the Churches, 2 nd ed. (London/Westminster, MD: Darton, Longman and Todd/The Newman Press, 1963) 264-267. 29 G. TAVARD, AA, Two Centuries of Ecumenism (London/Notre Dame, IN: Fides Publishers, 1960) 230-231. 30 Y. CONGAR, OP, Dialogue Between Christians: Catholic Con- tributions to Ecumenism (London/Dublin: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966) 41.8 Bulletin / Centro Pro UnioneN. 62 /Fall 2002 the Secretariat for Christian Unity and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), Christophe-Jean Dumont (Dominican director of the Istina Centre in Paris), Karl Rahner (distinguished German Jesuit theologian), Pierre Duprey (beloved White Father and later Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) and Emmanuel Lanne (Benedictine monk at Chevetogne and major Faith and Order voice). One of Mgr. (later Cardinal) Willebrands’ early acts was to contact W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft of the World Council of Churches and leaders of the Faith and Order Commission. In the CCEQ’s annual meetings held between 1952-1963 their theological studies embraced a number of ecumenical events and Faith and Order themes. 31 The first study focused on the concept of vestige ecclesiae (marks of the Church) which was central to the 1950 Toronto Statement which defined the nature of the WCC vis-a-vis the member churches. Other papers were prepared on themes of the Evanston Assembly (1954), particularly the main theme “Christ---The Hope of the World” and Faith and Order’s focus “Our Oneness in Christ and Our Disunity as Churches.” Prior to the New Delhi assembly (1961) a paper was produced on “Mission and Unity.” Preparatory to the Fourth World Conference on Faith and Order (1963) at Montreal representatives of the CCEQ and Faith and Order jointly reviewed the preparatory studies on the conference’s subthemes: Christ and the Church, Tradition and Traditions, Worship, and Institutionalism. There can be little doubt that the Catholic Conference on Ecumenical Questions served, among its other purposes, as an unofficial Faith and Order group among Catholic theologians. By the time the call for the Second Vatican Council was proclaimed a company of extraordinary Catholic theologians had experienced ecumenical formation and were ready to focus their theological expertise upon the theological mandate and issues related the Christian unity. The Third World Conference on Faith and Order at Lund, Sweden, in late August 1952, was the first Faith and Order conference to which the Roman Catholic Church sent official accredited observers. Arising from the friendship between Bishop John Muller, the Catholic Apostolic Vicar of Sweden, and Lutheran Archbishop Yngve Brilioth, three Swedish priests and a layman were appointed to the conference. C.-J. Dumont was appointed by the Dominican Order. Oliver S. Tomkins, Anglican Chairperson of the Working (Executive) Committee of the Faith and Order Commission, later said that the presence of these official observers was “an important sign that the great Church of Rome is not indifferent to what is being done [by Faith and Order] in order to further a better understanding between Christians of different traditions, and that an amity of souls can exist in spite of ecclesiastical barriers that appear insurmountable.”32 As had become the custom, the theological voices of Roman Catholics were involved in the preparatory volumes for the Lund conference. In the volume on Intercommunion Yves Congar wrote an essay stating that while intercommunion, a common sharing of the Eucharist, is often considered by Faith and Order as an issue of sacramental discipline, it is fundamentally a matter of ecclesiology. Hence, in Catholic theology the unity of the Church is envisaged as communion (koinonia). 33 On this point Congar was anticipating the concept of the Church and its unity that would be articulated by the WCC’s assembly at Vancouver (1983) and the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order (1993) at Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In a unique development another preparatory book for Lund, under the title of Ways of Worship, contained essays on the role of Mary, the Mother of God, in the Christian tradition. Theologians from four traditions addressed this theme: French Reformed Frère Max Thurian of the Taizé community; Anglican Thomas M. Parker, a fellow at University College, Oxford; Vladimir Lossky, famed Orthodox professor at Paris; and Father Conrad Pepler, an English Dominican priest. This was undoubtedly a unique moment in ecumenical history, the first time in Faith and Order that a theological consideration had been given to the role of Mary in the economy of salvation. 34 As avant garde as these essays seemed at the time, there is little evidence that the Lund conference gave much attention to the theme. Another sign of increased Catholic presence in the Faith and Order movement was evident at the North American Faith and Order Conference at Oberlin, Ohio, in September, 1957. The theme was “The Nature of the Unity We Seek.” Two popular American Catholic priests were appointed by Bishop John Wright of the Diocese of Worcester (Massachusetts): Fr. John B. Sheerin, CSP, editor of The Catholic World, and Fr. Gustave Weigel. SJ, professor at Woodstock Theological Seminary in Maryland. In his reflections afterwards Weigel identified what he perceived as a theological weakness at Oberlin, namely “a strongly volunteristic unconcern for doctrine” by American Protestants. Yet he would later confess “Defacto there is a visible unity binding these churches together.”35 The year 1960 signaled an accelerating relationship between the Catholic Church and the Faith and Order movement. In August of that year the WCC invited the Catholic Church to send 31 See J. GROOTAERS, “Jan Cardinal Willebrands: The Reception of Ecumenism in the Roman Catholic Church,” One in Christ 6, 1 (1970) 24-25 and T.F. STRANSKY, “Catholic Conference on Ecumenical Questions,” in N. LOSSKY, et ali., Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1991) 134. 32 O.S. TOMKINS, “World Conference on Faith and Order [Lund,1952],” Church Times [London], August 22, 1952. 33 Y. CONGAR, “Amica Contestatio,” in D. BAILLE and J. MARSH, Intercommunion (London: SCM Press, 1952) 141-142. 34 See P. EDWALL, E. HAYMAN, and W.D. MAXWELL, eds., Ways of Worship: The Report of a Theological Commission on Faith and Order (London: SCM Press, 1951) 256-323. 35 Weigel’s evaluative comments were quoted in P.W. COLLINS, Gustave Weigel: A Pioneer ofReform (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1992) 187-192. See also G. WEIGEL, SJ, “Faith and Order at Oberlin,” America, 98, 3 (1957) 67-71N. 62 /Fall 2002Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 9 official observers to meetings of the Faith and Order Commission and the Central Committee at St. Andrews, Scotland. René Beaupère, Jérôme Hamer and Bernard Leeming participated in the Faith and Order meeting, while Bishop Willebrands and Leeming were present at the Central Committee. Far more significant however, 1960 launched the preparations for the Second Vatican Council, first announced by Pope John XXIII on December 25, 1959. The Pope took another highly strategic ecumenical action on Pentecost, 1960, by establishing the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (SPCU), along with the eleven preparatory commissions for the forthcoming council. Now ecumenism was at the supreme official level of the Roman See. The Secretariat’s primary purpose was “to manifest in a special way our love and goodwill towards those who bear the name of Christ, yet who are separated from the Apostolic See, and to find more easily the path by which they may arrive at that unity for which Christ prayed.”36 Appointed as president was Augustin Cardinal Bea, the eminent Jesuit biblical scholar at the Pontifical Institute for Biblical Studies, confessor to Pius XII, and a friend of W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft, the WCC’s first general secretary. Bea providentially chose Willebrands, someone already au courant with Faith and Order and other dimensions of the WCC, as the Secretary. Others who made up the SPCU’s original staff were Thomas F. Stransky, gifted ecumenical strategist and omnipresent host to all ecumenical guests to the Secretariat; and Mgr. Jean-François Arrighi, a Corsican priest with many years of experience in Rome and the Curia and in the Eastern Churches. After Vatican II, the mandate of the SPCU included the publication of pastoral documents which interpreted the ecumenical tasks to the local church; the appointment of theologians to various international bilateral dialogues with world communions such as the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed and the Disciples of Christ; the sending official observers to the assemblies of various churches and ecumenical bodies; the partnership with the Faith and Order Commission, including the preparation of the materials for the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25) and co-sponsoring the Forum on Bilateral Dialogues. In all its work the SPCU/PCPCU and the Faith and Order Commission have been close partners. When John Paul II restructured the Roman Curia in 1989 the SPCU’s status was enhanced to that of a pontifical council and renamed the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. It is impossible to over-estimate the competency of the PCPCU and its worldwide respect among all churches. One of the providential ecumenical decisions made by John XXIII, aided by Bea and Willebrands, was the invitation to Orthodox and Protestant churches to send theological observers to Vatican II. That these observers were given such a visible and influential role was an expression of the sincerity of Catholic ecumenism. Their active presence provided “indispensable leverage for moving the Catholic episcopate—and through them the whole church—along the ecumenical way already marked out in precept and example by Pope John.” 37 As Tom Stransky observes, “Without this group—which the bishops slowly learned to trust—some bishops would have been afraid to accept, for instance, many affirmations of the Decree on Ecumenism, one of the most decisive documents of the Second Vatican Council.” 38 A review of the list of the official observers at Vatican II reveals a veritable Who’s Who list of Faith and Order leaders of that generation. They included Lukas Vischer (director of the Faith and Order Commission), Nikos A. Nissiotis (Greek Orthodox and future Moderator of the Faith and Order Commission), Archpriest Vitaly Borovoy (Russian Orthodox Church), Kristen E. Skydsgaard (Lutheran Church of Denmark), Edmund Schlink (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany), Albert C. Outler (United Methodist Church, USA), José Miguez- Bonino (Argentine Methodist), Douglas Horton (Congregationalist and former moderator of Faith and Order), Walter Muelder (United Methodist and co-moderator of the Faith and Order study on Institutionalism), J.K.A. Reid (Church of Scotland), Patrick C. Rodger (Anglican bishop of Oxford and Faith and Order executive director), Emerito Nacpil (Methodist professor and later bishop in the Philippines), Max Thurian (Reformed sub-prior of the Taizé Community and the coordinator and one of the drafters of Baptism, Eucharistand Ministry. Among these participants Lukas Vischer became a leading strategist and interpreter of WCC-Roman Catholic relations. From the perspective of many Protestants, Anglicans and Orthodox, Vatican II was a Faith and Order gathering writ large. The fundamental partnership between Faith and Order and the PCPCU continues to this day. The leadership of Bishop Pierre Duprey, M.Afr. (1971-1983) and Mgr. John A. Radano (1983- ) as liaison officers serving on the Faith and Order Commission has kept this relationship firm and productive. Equally visible has been the eager commitment of a succession of presidents of the PCPCU: Johannes Cardinal Willebrands (1968-1989), Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy (1989-2001) and Walter Cardinal Kasper (2001). Upon his recent appointment by Pope John Paul II Cardinal Kasper became the first President of the PCPCU to have been a member of the Faith and Order Commission and a valued theologian in its studies on the Apostolic Faith. The interaction between Faith and Order and the Catholic Church at the Fourth World Conference on Faith and Order at Montreal, Canada in 1963 proved to be another notable landmark. Montreal was the first major conference where Roman Catholic representatives were present in large numbers. Five Roman Catholic official observers were appointed by the Vatican: Gregory Baum (Canada), Godfrey Diekmann, OSB (American liturgical scholar), Jan C. Groot (Netherlands), Bernard Lambert (Canada), and George H. Tavard (USA). Johannes Cardinal 36 See T.F. STRANSKY, CSP, “The Foundation of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity,” in A. STACPOLE, ed., Vatican II by Those Who Were There (Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1986) 62- 87 37 M. NASH, The Ecumenical Movement in the 1960s (Johannes- burg: Ravan Press, 1975) 110. 38 T.F. STRANSKY, CSP, “A Basis Before The Basis...,” op. cit., 189-190.Next >