Jesus prayed “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that Thou has sent Me.” The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, sets forth principles for the way in which the Church is striving to answer the prayer of Jesus that all may be one.
Guidelines for Ecumenical Dialogue
In this effort, the Church lays down certain guidelines so that true ecumenism is not transformed into false ecumenism. The council denounces efforts of unity that abdicate Catholic doctrine. In Unitatis Redintegratio the Church “wishes to set before all Catholics guideline, helps and methods, by which they too can respond to the grace of this divine call” for Christian unity. Specific dialogue guidelines must be followed in carrying out true ecumenism. The guidelines that follow are interspersed with quotations from this document, a close and careful reading of which I heartily recommend to every reader of this article.
The Catholic Church has the fullness of God's revelation as being the Church that Christ founded and protected by the Holy Spirit. All efforts towards unity are to be permeated with the drive to reconcile other Christian communities back into the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The Church recognizes that those “who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in some, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church…. The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome these obstacles” preventing full communion.
The Church recognizes that Christians separated from the Catholic Church can posses certain gifts of the Holy Spirit that can aid in a life of grace. However, they are not blessed with the fullness of grace that Christ wants for His followers.
Our separated brethren…are not blessed with that unity which Jesus Christ wished to bestow on all those to whom he has given new birth into one body…. For it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help towards salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained.
The Catholic Church alone has the fullness of means of salvation, and thus all efforts of the ecumenical movement are to be directed towards full reconciliation with the Catholic Church.
Efforts at unity must be marked with charity and faithfulness. The ecumenical movement is to proceed in an ordered process.
First, every effort to avoid expressions, judgments and actions which do not represent the condition of our separated brethren with truth and fairness and so make mutual relations with them more difficult.
For example, it would be counterproductive us to make statements to the effect that Protestants are damned to hell and Protestantism is under the influence of the devil. Similarly, it would not be helpful to demand of someone that “you need to convert to Catholicism before we talk to you” nor should we be denying that our separated brethren are Christians. Such statements would be impediments towards unity.
The next step in the process is to begin
“dialogue” between competent experts from different Churches and communities…. [E]ach explains the teaching of his communion in greater depth and brings out clearly its distinctive features. Through such dialogue everyone gains a truer knowledge and more just appreciation of the teaching and religious life of both communions.
This dialogue can help to dispel misconceptions of what the other really believes and teaches. It also challenges each participant to examine his own teachings in light of the other's teachings.
Mutual cooperation in working for the common good is another practice praised to assist mutual understanding.
Finally, all are led to examine their own faithfulness to Christ's will for the Church and, wherever necessary, undertake with vigor the task of renewal and reform.
The prayer of Jesus that all may be one is to be pondered by all in light of the diversions among Christians and their separation from the Catholic Church. These actions of ecumenical dialogue must be carried out under the direction and approval of bishops. This is a slow but eventually fruitful process towards unity. It will not happen overnight. Yet
the results will be that, little by little, as the obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical communion are overcome, all Christians will be gathered, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, into the unity of the one and only Church, which Christ bestowed on His Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, 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.
The eventual outcome of the ecumenical movement, as the Council sees, is the unity of all Christians in the Catholic Church. Dialogue is key to the ecumenical movement. The working assumption is that there are many false perceptions on both sides. Those involved in the ecumenical movement are to “enter into a discussion.” Most of us are not the competent experts who hold such talks with representatives of other communions. Our conversations with friends, family or co-workers are informal, but we can still use these principles that remind us to listen respectfully before we speak.
Rather than approach the other person with a preconceived idea of what he thinks, let him explain to you what he thinks. Before you begin to answer him, state back to him what he said and ask him if you have understood him correctly. You may find that some areas of seeming disagreement evaporate and you end up realizing that on this or that point you were saying the same thing — just using different words. This is how dialogue with other Christians can clear up misunderstandings. As doctrines are presented and explained, certain points of agreement are recognized that become building blocks of unity.
While the competent experts are formally dialoguing and we are conversing with other Christians, we lay people can carry out the mutual work for the common good that the Church commends to us. We find that such work often breaks down barriers to unity. The prime example in recent times is seen in pro-life activity, where Protestants of several denominations, Orthodox and Catholics work successfully should to shoulder.
Preserving Essentials, yet Having Liberty
In order that this effort is fruitful, certain truths must be remembered at all times.
While preserving unity in essentials, let everyone in the Church…preserve a proper freedom in the various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in the variety of liturgical rites, and even in the theological elaborations of revealed truth. In all things let charity prevail.
Essential doctrines must be maintained in all ecumenical efforts. However, different means of expression and theological thought are allowed and encouraged as long as they do not go against the deposit of faith. Although the ecumenical movement is a hierarchical concern, it is not limited to just the hierarchy of the Church. “The concern for restoring unity involves the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike. It extends to everyone, according to the talent of each.”
At the very heart of unity is the faithfulness of all the faithful.
There cannot be ecumenism worthy of the name without interior conversion…. The faithful should remember that they promote union among Christians better, that indeed they live it better, when they try to liver holier lives according to the Gospel.
For the ecumenical movement to be fully realized, all of the faithful must strive to live holy lives. Catholics need to heed the maxim of St. Francis: “Preach always, use words when necessary.” The living of holy lives by the faithful is in and of itself an effective means of drawing others to the unity of Christ and His Church.
Guarding against False Ecumenism and Indifferentism
In carrying out the noble task of the ecumenical movement, everyone needs to be mindful of the duty to expound fully the Catholic faith. Any ecumenical effort that is against the clear teaching of the Catholic Church is rightly called false ecumenism. Although the eventual goal is to have common worship of all Christians, that is not a reality today.
Yet worship in common (communicatio in sacris) is not to be considered as a means to be used indiscriminately for the restoration of unity among Christians. There are two main principles upon which the practice of such common worship depends: first, that of the unity of the Church which ought to be expressed; and second, that of the sharing in the means of grace. The expression of unity very generally forbids common worship. Grace to be obtained sometimes commends it.
Common worship must be approved by proper local Episcopal authority or by the Holy See. Common worship when unity is not truly present is a false unity and degrades the purpose that is supposed to be achieved in common worship. Common worship without the proper approval can mislead the faithful or others to the false notion that doctrine is not important.
Another manner in which false ecumenism presents itself is in the denial or minimizing of true Catholic doctrine in dialogue with other Christians.
The manner and order in which Catholic belief is expressed should in no way become an obstacle to dialogue with our brethren. It is, of course, essential that the doctrine be clearly presented in its entirety. Nothing is so foreign to the spirit of ecumenism as a false irenicism which harms the purity of Catholic doctrine and obscures its genuine and certain meaning. At the same time, Catholic belief must be explained more profoundly and precisely, in such a way and in such terms that our separated brethren can also really understand it.
It is false ecumenism to withhold or disguise true Catholic doctrine in order to attempt to achieve unity when it in fact is not achieved. False ecumenism in practice leads to the indifferentism and modernism. The blending of all Christians without reference to doctrine, known at times as “pan-Christians,” is false ecumenism that was condemned by Pope Pius XI and is incompatible with the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism.
Pope Pius XI, in reference to efforts of religious unity without due considerations to doctrine, warns that “unity can only arise from one teaching authority” (Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XI, 6 January 1928, Section 9). If one fails to acknowledge that, one goes down the slippery slope towards indifferentism. As Pius XI went on to explain:
We do know that from this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or indifferentism and to modernism, as they call it. Those who are unhappily infected with these errors, hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute but relative, that is, it agrees with the varying necessitates of time and place and with the varying tendencies of the mind, since it is not contained in immutable revelation, but is capable of being accommodated to human life.
The idea or practice of promoting ecumenism without agreement in regards to doctrine is false ecumenism.
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.” (Ibid, Section 10)
Denying Catholic doctrine in the name of ecumenism or unity is clearly against the clear teachings of the Catholic Church throughout history and against the Decree on Ecumenism.
The Second Vatican Council gives us clear guidelines the must be followed in pursuing the answer to Christ’s prayer that “all may be one.” The interior conversion of all the faithful to conform to the Gospel is an effective means for promoting Christian unity through our charity to all. Ecumenical dialogue is to be sought with the various communities of our separated brethren. In those dialogues, the Catholic faith is to be clearly and genuinely communicated to our separated brethren. Points of agreement are to be built upon as steps towards unity. Step by step, the dialogue process is to be used to reconcile all Christians back into the Church. Plurality in non-essential expressions and disciplines are granted full freedom. Essential doctrines must be adhered to with faithfulness lest those efforts fall into the error of false ecumenism. St. Augustine summed up the process very succinctly when he said, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”
© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange
Matthew Vetter graduated from West Point and is currently serving in the Army. He is currently working on a Master's Degree in Theology. He and his wife Jennifer are certified teachers in Natural Family Planning through the Couple to Couple League. They live in Missouri with their son.
