FROM ECUMENISM TO SILENT APOSTASY
Introduction
 |
1) The 25th anniversary of the election of John Paul II is an occasion to reflect upon the fundamental orientation that the Pope has given to his pontificate. In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, he has wished to place his pontificate under the sign of unity: "The restoration of unity of all Christians was one of the principal purposes of the Second Vatican Council (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio §1) and since my election I have formally committed myself to promote and execute its norms and its orientations, considering it as my primordial duty."1 For the Pope, this "restoration of the unity of Christians" is but one step towards a greater unity, that of the whole human family: "The unity of Christians is open to a unity ever more vast, that of all humanity."2
2) As a result of this fundamental choice:
● John Paul II has deemed it a duty to "take once again into our hands the Magna Charta of the Council, that is, the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium"3 which defines the Church as a "sacrament–a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men."4 This "taking in hand" was "not merely in order that the vital communion in Christ of all who believe and hope in him should be accomplished, but also in order to contribute to bringing about a fuller and closer unity of the whole human family."5
● John Paul II has consecrated the essence of his pontificate to the fulfillment of this unity through repeated interreligious meetings, acts of repentance, and ecumenical gestures. This has also been the principal reason behind his many voyages: "Papal journeys have become a regular occurrence, taking in the particular Churches in every continent and showing concern for the development of ecumenical relationships with Christians of various denominations."6
● John Paul II named ecumenism as the characteristic marking the Jubilee year 2000.7
In all truthfulness, "it can be said that the whole activity of the local Churches and of the Apostolic See has taken on an ecumenical dimension in recent years."8 Twenty-five years have passed and the Jubilee is over; the time has come to judge them by their fruits.
3) For a long time, John Paul II believed that his pontificate would be a new Advent,9 permitting "the dawn of this new millennium [to] break upon a Church that has regained her full unity."10 Then the "vision" of the Pope would be realized: "all the people of the world were walking from different places of the earth to gather in front of the one God as a single family."11 But the reality is completely different: "The age we are living in...can seem to be a time of bewilderment [in which] men and women seem disoriented."12 There reigns over Europe a "sort of practical agnosticism and religious indifference" to such a degree that "European culture gives the impression of 'silent apostasy.'"13Ecumenism was not without its influence in creating this situation. A close analysis of the thought of John Paul II (Chapter 1) will oblige us to realize, not without a profound sadness, that ecumenical practices are rooted in a way of thinking that is foreign to Catholic doctrine (Chapter 2) and lead to a "silent apostasy" (Chapter 3).
Chapter 1
Analysis of Ecumenical Thought
The Unity of the Human Race and Interreligious Dialogue
Christ, united to every man
 |
4) The foundation of the Pope's notions on ecumenism is the affirmation according to which "the Christ 'has united himself in a certain way to all men' (Gaudium et Spes § 22), even if these men are not aware of it."14 John Paul II explains that the Redemption wrought by Christ is universal not only in the sense that it is superabundant for the entire human race and that its fruits are offered to each and every one of its members, but above all in the sense that it is effectively applied to all men. If, therefore, on the one hand, "In Christ, religion is no longer a 'blind search for God' (cf. Acts 17:27) but the response of faith to God who reveals himself... a response made possible by that one Man...by whom each individual person is enabled to respond to God," the Pope adds that on the other hand, "in this Man all creation responds to God."15 Indeed, "each [man] is included in the mystery of the Redemption and with each one Christ has united himself for ever through this mystery....That is, man in all the fullness of the mystery in which he has become a sharer in Jesus Christ, the mystery in which each one of the four thousand million human beings living on our planet has become a sharer from the moment he is conceived."16 Thus "in the Holy Spirit, each person and all peoples have become, by the Cross and resurrection of Christ, children of God, participants in the divine nature and heirs of eternal life."17
The Meeting at Assisi
5) The concrete application of John Paul II's "universal Redemption" is the manner in which he conducts the relations between the Catholic Church and other religions. If the nature of the unity described above "is tied to the creation and the redemption and is therefore in a certain way 'divine,' then the differences and the divergences [cited above], be they religious, are tied rather to some 'human invention'"18 which ought to be "left behind in our progress toward the realization of the magnificent decree of unity that presided over creation."19 Interfaith meetings are a logical consequence, such as that of Assisi on October 27, 1986, through which the Pope wanted to glimpse "in a visible way the fundamental but hidden unity which the divine Word...has established amongst all men and women of this world."20 By these acts, the Pope wishes to proclaim to the Church that "Christ is thus the fulfillment of the yearning of all the world's religions and, as such, he is their sole and definitive completion"21
The Church of Christ and Ecumenism
The unique Church of Christ
6) The Church, defined as a communion, is therefore considered under a double aspect: her divine unity remains intact while the historical divisions come from that which is human. Thus John Paul II distinguishes the Church of Christ, which is a divine reality, from the different churches, the fruit of "human divisions."22 The contours of the Church of Christ are fairly ill-defined as they overflow the visible limits of the Catholic Church.23 The Church of Christ is an interior reality.24 The Church includes at the very least all those that are Christian,25 no matter what ecclesial loyalties they may claim: all are "Christ's disciples,"26 "we all belong to Christ";27 "The faithful are one because, in the Spirit, they are in communion with the Son and, in him, share in his communion with the Father."28 The Church of Christ is thus the Communion of saints, above all divisions: "The Church is a Communion of the saints."29 In reality, "the communion in which Christians believe and hope is, in its most profound reality, their union with the Father by the Christ, in the Holy Ghost. Since the day of Pentecost, this union is given and received in the Church, Communion of saints."30
The divisions in the Church
7) According to John Paul II, the ecclesial divisions that have arisen over the course of history never affected the Church of Christ, that is to say they have left inviolate the fundamental unity among Christians: "By God's grace, neither what belongs to the structure of the Church of Christ nor that communion which still exists with the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities has been destroyed."31 These divisions are in reality of another order; they only concern the manifestation of the communion of saints, that which makes it visible: the traditional bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, and the hierarchical communion. In refusing one or more of these bonds, the separated Churches only affect the visible communion with the Catholic Church, and this only partially: their communion with the Catholic Church is susceptible of lesser or greater degrees according to the number of ties that have been preserved. Thus we can speak of an imperfect communion between the separated Churches and the Catholic Church, while the communion of all men in the unique Church of Christ remains intact.32 The term "sister Churches" is often used.33
8) According to this conception, that which unites the different Christian Churches is greater than that which separates them:34 "This common spiritual space is larger than many of the denominational barriers that still separate us."35 This spiritual dimension is in fact the Church of Christ. If this Church only "subsists"36 "in a unique subject"37in the Catholic Church, she keeps at the least an "active presence" in the separated communities in reason of the "elements of sanctification and truth38" which are present in them. This alleged common spiritual dimension John Paul II wished to ratify by the publication of a martyrology common to the churches: "Perhaps the most convincing form of ecumenism is the ecumenism of the saints and of the martyrs. The communio sanctorum speaks louder than the things which divide us."39
Neither Absorption Nor Fusion, But Reciprocal Giving
9) From this, "the ultimate goal of the ecumenical movement" is simply "to re-establish full visible unity among all the baptized."40 A unity so conceived will no longer be realized by the "ecumenism of return"41: "We reject it as a method for the search for unity....Pastoral activity in the Catholic Church, Latin as well as Oriental, no longer aims at having the faithful of one Church pass over to the other."42 In fact this would be forgetting two things:
● Both parties are responsible for these divisions, which Vatican II analyzes as a breach of charity43: "Speaking of the lack of unity among Christians, the Decree on Ecumenism does not ignore the fact that 'people of both sides were to blame,' and acknowledges that responsibility cannot be attributed only to the 'other side' (Unitatis Redintegratio, §3)."44
●Ecumenism is also an "exchange of gifts"45 between the churches: "Communion is made fruitful by the exchange of gifts between the Churches insofar as they complement each other."46
This is the reason why the unity desired by John Paul II "is neither absorption nor fusion."47Applying this principle to the relations between the Catholic Church and members of the Orthodox Church, the Pope develops this idea: "Today, the two sister Churches of East and West understand that without a mutual acceptance of the profound reasons underlying their own understanding of what characterizes each of them, and without a reciprocal giving of the treasures of insight that they bear, the Church of Christ cannot manifest the full maturity of the form she received in the beginning, in the Upper Room."48
The Recomposition of the Visible Unity
10) "Just as in a family the eventual discords ought to give place to the reconstruction of unity, so also one should do the same for the vast family of the whole Christian community."49 Thus, the Pope's methodology is to look past human dissensions toward the reconstruction of visible unity. This methodology must be applied to the traditional three bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, and the hierarchical communion, since these are what make this unity visible.
Unity of the Sacraments
11) One knows how Paul VI has applied this method in the sacraments: in the successive liturgical reforms which applied the conciliar decrees, "the Church has been guided...by the desire to do everything to help our separated brethren on the way to union, taking away the stones that could be even the shadow of a risk of stumbling or displeasure."50
12) Having thus eliminated the obstacle of a Catholic liturgy expressing too much dogma, there still remains the problem posed by the liturgies of the separated communities. The reform thus gives place to recognition: the Assyrian anaphora (Nestorian) of Adai and Mari was declared valid by a document clearly approved by John Paul II, in spite of the fact that it does not contain the words of consecration.51
Unity in the profession of Faith
13) In matters of faith, John Paul II considers that "intolerant polemics and controversies have made incompatible assertions out of what was really the result of two different ways of looking at the same reality. Nowadays we need to find the formula which, by capturing the reality in its entirety, will enable us to move beyond partial readings and eliminate false interpretations."52This demands a certain liberty with respect to the dogmatic formulas used by the Church up until that point. One must resort to historical relativism, in order to make dogmatic formulas depend on their epoch: "The truths which the Church really understands to teach by her dogmatic formulas are without a doubt distinct from the changing conceptions proper to a determined epoch; but it is not impossible that they still be formulated, even by the Magisterium, in terms which carry some traces of such conceptions."53
14) Two applications of these principles are often pointed out as examples. In the case of the Nestorian heresy, John Paul II judges that "the divisions brought about in this way were due in large part to misunderstandings."54 In reality, if the principle is clear which states that, "In the first place, with regard to doctrinal formulations which differ from those normally in use in the community to which one belongs, it is certainly right to determine whether the words involved say the same thing,"55 its practical application is ambiguous. Thus the recognition of the Christological faith of the Assyrian Church of the East without any requirement that they adhere to the formula of the Council of Ephesus, that Mary is the Mother of God, makes light of earlier condemnations, ignoring the fact that they are infallible.56 Even more characteristic is the common declaration with the World Lutheran Federation. Its concern was not to state the faith and to stay clear of error, but only to find a formulation suitable to escape the anathemas of the Council of Trent: "Like the dialogues themselves, this Joint Declaration rests on the conviction that in overcoming the earlier controversial questions and doctrinal condemnations, the churches neither take the condemnations lightly nor do they disavow their own past. On the contrary, this Declaration is shaped by the conviction that in their respective histories our churches have come to new insights."57 Cardinal Kasper summarized it simply with the commentary: "Where we had at first sight a contradiction, we can now see a complementary position."58
The Hierarchical Communion
15) As far as the Petrine ministry is concerned, the desires of the pontiff are manifest: to find, in harmony with the pastors and theologians of different Churches, "the forms in which this ministry may accomplish a service of love recognized by all concerned."59 Thus the overriding notion of necessitas Ecclesiae60 comes into play, understood today as the realization of the unity of Christians, to palliate that which in the exercise of the Petrine ministry could become an obstacle to ecumenism.
16) According to Cardinal Kasper, this manner of proceeding does not suffice. The obstacles present in the separated communities must be overcome, for example the decree of invalidity of Anglican orders.61 To eliminate these obstacles, he proposes a redefinition of the concept of Apostolic succession, no longer "in the sense of an historical chain of laying on of hands running back through the centuries to one of the apostles; this would be a very mechanical and individualistic vision," but rather as a "collegial membership in a collegium, which as a whole goes back to the apostles by sharing the same apostolic faith and the same apostolic mission."62
Chapter 2
The Doctrinal Problems Posed by Ecumenism63
17) The ecumenical practice of this pontificate is based entirely upon the distinction between the Church of Christ and the Catholic Church. This division permits the assertion that, if the visible communion has been injured by ecclesiastical divisions, the communion of saints, considered as the sharing of spiritual goods in a common union with Christ, remains unbroken. However, this affirmation is not compatible with the Catholic faith.
The Church of Christ Is the Catholic Church
18) One cannot distinguish the Church of Christ from the Catholic Church as this ecumenical practice presupposes. By the very fact that the Church is considered as an interior reality, this "Church, Body of Christ," really distinct from the Catholic Church, rejoins the Protestant notion of a "Church invisible to us, visible only to the eyes of God."64 This notion is contrary to the invariable teaching of the Church. For example, Leo XIII, speaking of the Church, affirms: "precisely because it is a body is the Church visible."65 Pius XI speaks in the same terms: "Christ our Lord instituted His Church as a perfect society, external by nature and perceptible to the senses."66 Pius XII therefore concludes: "Hence they err in a matter of divine truth, who imagine the Church to be invisible, intangible, a something merely 'pneumatological' as they say, by which many Christian communities, though they differ from each other in their profession of faith, are united by an invisible bond."67
19) The Catholic faith thus obliges us to affirm that the Church of Christ and the Catholic Church are one and the same reality. Pius XII thus identifies "the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ" with "this true Church of Jesus Christ–which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church."68 Before Pius XII, the Magisterium had declared that: "No other Church is Catholic except the one which, founded on the one Peter, grows into one 'body compacted and fitly joined together' [read: visible] (Eph. 4:16) in the unity of faith and charity."69 Lastly, let us call to mind the exclamation of Pius IX: "There is only one true and holy religion, founded and instituted by Christ, Our Lord. Mother and cultivator of virtue, destroyer of vice, liberator of souls, guide to true happiness; her name is: Catholic, Apostolic and Roman."70 Relying upon the constant and universal magisterium of the Church, the first preparatory schema of Vatican I intended to put forward this condemnatory canon: "If anyone says that the Church, who has received the divine promises, is not an external and visible society of the faithful, but only a spiritual society of the predestined or of the just known only to God, let him be anathema."71
20) Consequently, the proposition of Cardinal Kasper which states: "The true nature of the Church–the Church in so far as it is the Body of Christ–is hidden and can only be grasped by the faith72" is certainly heretical. To add that "this nature perceived only by the faith is realized under visible forms: in the proclaimed Word, by the administration of the sacraments and in the ministry of Christian service"73 is insufficient to account for the visibility of the Church: "to be made visible," and this merely by certain acts, is not "to be visible."
Belonging to the Church by a Triple Unity
21) Since, therefore, the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church, it is not possible to assert, as do the supporters of ecumenism, that the triple union of faith, sacraments, and hierarchical communion is merely necessary to maintain the visible communion of the Church, if by this statement one means that the absence of one of these bonds, though manifesting a rupture in the visible communion of the Church, does not signify a vital separation from the Church. On the contrary, one must affirm that these three bonds are constitutive of the unity of the Church, not in the sense that possessing even one of these elements implies union with the Church, but rather due to the fact that if even one of these three bonds is lacking in re vel saltem in voto,74 one would be separated from the Church and would not benefit from her supernatural life. This is what the Catholic faith obliges us to believe, as the following will show.
Unity of the Faith
22) If the necessity of the faith is accepted by all parties,75 it yet remains to be seen what precisely is the nature of this faith which is necessary for salvation and thus constitutive of membership in the Church. The faith is not "a certain interior sense, originating in a need of the divine" denounced by Saint Pius X,76 but rather is that described by the First Vatican Council: "that supernatural virtue by which, through the help of God and through the assistance of His grace, we believe what He has revealed to be true, not on account of the intrinsic truth perceived by the natural light of the reason, but because of the authority of God Himself, the Revealer, who can neither deceive nor be deceived."77 For this reason, whoever refuses even one of the truths of the faith known to be revealed entirely loses that faith indispensable for salvation: "he who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith, since he thereby refuses to honor God as the supreme truth and the formal motive of faith."78
Unity of Government
23) "To preserve forever in his Church the unity and doctrine of this faith, Christ chose one of his apostles, Peter...": thus Pius IX introduces the need for unity around the chair of Peter, "this dogma of our religion [which] has been unanimously and unceasingly declared, defended and insisted upon in synods by the Fathers of the Church."79 Citing the Fathers, the Pope continues: "'from [the chair of Peter] the rights of the venerable communion are extended to all';80 ...'He who deserts the Church will vainly believe that he is in the Church';81 'whoever eats of the lamb and is not a member of the Church, has profaned.'"82 Whence this celebrated sentence of St. Augustine addressed to the schismatics: "That which belongs to you, is your impiety in separating yourselves from us; for if, in all other things, you think and you possess the truth, yet in persevering in your separation...you lack that which lacks in him who has not charity."83
Unity of the Sacraments
24) "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."84 By these words of our Lord, all recognize that the unity of the Church requires that its members be one not only in faith and in the end that they seek, but also that they be "one in the participation of the means adapted to the attainment of the end":85 the sacraments. Such is the "Catholic Church [which Christ established], won by His Blood, as the one 'Church of the living God,'...the 'one body' steadfast and alive with 'one Spirit,' one faith, one hope, one love joined and firmly held together by the same bonds of sacraments, religion, and doctrine."86
Conclusion
25) The necessity of this triple bond thus obliges us to believe that "if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered–so the Lord commands–as a heathen and a publican (Mt. 18: 17). It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit."87
Outside of the Church There Is No Salvation
Are non-Catholics members of the Church?
26) In consequence of that which has been said, the following proposition must be closely examined, namely that "those [born outside of the Catholic Church and whom therefore 'one cannot charge with the sin of separation'] who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in some, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church" such that "justified by faith in baptism [they] are incorporated into Christ [and] have a right to be called Christian, and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church" even though "the differences that exist in varying degrees between them and the Catholic Church–whether in doctrine and sometimes in discipline, or concerning the structure of the Church–do indeed create many obstacles, sometimes serious ones."88 If this proposition is meant to refer to those who continue in these differences knowingly, it is contrary to the Catholic faith. The clause affirming that "one cannot charge them with the sin of separation" is rash at the very least: as long as they remain externally in dissidence, nothing indicates that they reject the separation of their predecessors; the appearances imply rather the contrary. It is not possible to presume their good faith,89 as Pius IX states: "For, it must be held by faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved;...but, on the other hand, it is necessary to hold for certain that they who labor in ignorance of the true religion, if this ignorance be invincible, are not stained by any guilt in this matter in the eyes of God. Now, in truth, who would arrogate so much to himself as to mark the limits of such an ignorance...?"90
Are there elements of sanctification and truth in separated communities?
27) The affirmation that "many elements of sanctification and truth are found outside the confines [of the Church]"91 is equivocal. This proposition implies in effect that the means of salvation materially present in the separated Communities possess a sanctifying power. However, such an assumption calls for certain distinctions. Among the elements present in other religions, those which do not require a specific disposition on the part of the subject–the baptism of a child, for instance–are indeed salutary in the sense that they efficaciously produce grace in the soul of the one baptized, who thereby becomes a full member of the Catholic Church until he has attained the age of reason.92 As for the other elements, those that require a proper disposition on the part of the subject in order to be efficacious, one must affirm that they are salutary only in the measure in which the subject is already a member of the Church by his implicit desire. This is what the councils have affirmed: "It [the Church] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims...that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation."93 Yet, insofar as they are separated, these communities are an obstacle to this implicit desire that would render the sacraments fruitful. Thus one cannot say that these communities possess elements of sanctification and truth, except materially.
Does the Holy Ghost use the separated communities as a means of salvation? The so-called "sister churches"
28) One cannot affirm that "the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them [the separated communities] as a means of salvation."94 St. Augustine affirms: "There is but one Church, which alone is called Catholic, and it is she who begets by virtue of that which remains her property in those sects who are separated from her unity, no matter who possesses them."95 The only thing that these separated communities can realize by their own power is the separation of these souls from ecclesial unity, to cite again St. Augustine: "It [baptism] does not belong to you. That which is yours are your bad sentiments and sacrilegious practices, and that you have the impiety to separate yourselves from us."96 To the extent that this assertion of the Council throws doubt upon the affirmation that the Catholic Church is the unique possessor of the means of salvation, it approaches heresy: if, by according a "significance and importance in the mystery of salvation"97 to these Churches, it grants them a quasi-legitimacy–implied by the expression "sister Churches"98 –this assertion is opposed to the Catholic doctrine because it denies the unicity of the Catholic Church.
Is that which unites us greater than that which separates us?
29) This statement is materially true in the sense that all of the elements of Catholicism that separated communities possess are so many references that could eventually serve as a basis for discussions undertaken in view of bringing them back to the fold. Nonetheless, if these same communities do not formally possess elements of sanctification and truth, as explained above, the proposition stating that "what unites the Catholics to dissidents is greater than that which separates them" cannot be formally true, which is why St. Augustine says: "In many things they are with me, in a few things not with me; but in those few things in which they are not with me the many things in which they are will not profit them."99
Conclusion
30) Ecumenism could only be likened to the "branch theory"100 condemned by the Magisterium: its "foundation...is of such a nature that it makes the divine establishment of the Church of no consequence," and its prayer for unity, "polluted and infected as much as possible with heresy, can in no way be tolerated."101
Chapter 3
The Pastoral Problems Posed by Ecumenism
31) Aside from the fact that it depends on heterodox theses, ecumenism is harmful for souls because it relativizes the Catholic faith indispensable for salvation, and it turns men away from the Catholic Church, the sole ark of salvation. The Catholic Church no longer acts as the beacon of truth that enlightens hearts and dissipates error, but rather submerges humanity in the fog of religious indifferentism, and sooner or later into the darkness of "silent apostasy."102
Ecumenism Begets Doctrinal Relativism
It minimizes the rupture caused by heretics
32) Ecumenical dialogue dissimulates the heretic's sin against the faith–the formal reason for the rupture–in order to call attention to a sin against charity, imputed indiscriminately to the heretic and to the child of the Church. It ultimately denies the sin against the faith that constitutes heresy. Thus John Paul II, speaking of the monophysite heresy, affirms that: "the divisions brought about in this way were due in large part to misunderstandings,"103 adding that: "the doctrinal formulations which differ from those normally in use...say the same thing."104 Such affirmations are so many denials of the Magisterium that condemned these heresies-a Magisterium that nonetheless remains infallible.
33) Even if the Second Vatican Council specifies the nature of the "enrichment" brought by dialogue, carefully choosing its words–"a truer knowledge and more just appreciation of the teaching and religious life of both communions"105 –the ecumenical practice of this pontificate distorts this affirmation into an enrichment of the faith. The Church abandons a partial view in order to grasp the reality in its fullness: "Intolerant polemics and controversies have made incompatible assertions out of what was really the result of two different ways of looking at the same reality. Nowadays we need to find the formula which, by capturing the reality in its entirety, will enable us to move beyond partial readings and eliminate false interpretations."106 Thus "communion is made fruitful by the exchange of gifts between the Churches insofar as they complement each other."107 If these affirmations presuppose that the Church is not definitively and integrally the guardian of the treasure of the faith, they are not in conformity with the traditional doctrine of the Church. This is why the Magisterium warned against this false valorization of the supposed riches of the other Churches: "In coming back to the Church, they lose nothing of the good which by the grace of God is realized in them up till now, but rather by their return this good will be completed and led to perfection. Nonetheless one will avoid speaking of this in such a way as to imply that on coming back to the Church they imagine giving an essential element to her that was missing until now."108
It relativizes adhesion to certain dogmas of the Faith
34) The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has certainly reorganized the supposed "'hierarchy' of truths" in Catholic doctrine109: "This hierarchy means that some dogmas are founded on other dogmas which are the principal ones, and are illuminated by these latter. But all dogmas, since they are revealed, must be believed with the same divine faith."110 Yet the ecumenical practice of John Paul II does not seem bound by this authentic interpretation. For example, in his address to the Evangelical "Church," he underlines "that which is important": "You know that during several decades, my life was marked by the experience of the challenges launched by atheism and unbelief against Christianity. I have all the more clearly before my eyes what is important: our common profession of Jesus Christ...Jesus Christ is our salvation, for all of us....By the power of the Holy Spirit, we become His brethren, truly and essentially sons of God....Thanks to the reflection on the Confession of Augsburg and to numerous reunions, we have reached a new awareness of the fact that we believe and profess all of this together."111Leo XIII had only condemnation for this sort of ecumenical practice, which finds its apotheosis in the Declaration on Justification: "For they contend that it is opportune, in order to work in a more attractive way upon the wills of those who are not in accord with us, to pass over certain heads of doctrine, as if of lesser moment, or to so soften them that they may not have the same meaning which the Church has invariably held....Few words are needed to show how reprehensible is the plan that is thus conceived."112
It permits a "permanent reform" of dogmatic formulas
35)We have already remarked the liberty that the ecumenical practice assumes in the interpretation of dogmatic formulas. We have yet to explain the importance of this procedure in the ecumenical process: "The increase of fellowship in a reform which is continuous and carried out in the light of the Apostolic Tradition is certainly, in the present circumstances of Christians, one of the distinctive and most important aspects of ecumenism...The Decree on Ecumenism (UR §6) mentions the way of formulating doctrine as one of the elements of a continuing reform."113 Such a procedure has been condemned by Pius XII: "In theology some want to reduce to a minimum the meaning of dogmas; and to free dogma itself from terminology long established in the Church and from philosophical concepts held by Catholic teachers....It is evident...from what We have already said, that such tentatives not only lead to what they call dogmatic relativism, but that they actually contain it.... Every one is aware that the terminology employed in the schools and even that used by the Teaching Authority of the Church itself is capable of being perfected and polished....It is also manifest that the Church cannot be bound to every system of philosophy that has existed for a short space of time. Nevertheless, the things that have been composed through common effort by Catholic teachers over the course of the centuries to bring about some understanding of dogma are certainly not based on any such weak foundation...Hence it is not astonishing that some of these notions have not only been used by the Ecumenical Councils, but even sanctioned by them, so that it is wrong to depart from them."114
It refuses to teach without ambiguity the Catholic Faith in its entirety
36) The ecumenical axiom stating that "The manner and order in which Catholic belief is expressed should in no way become an obstacle to dialogue with our brethren"115 finds its realization in joint declarations that are solemnly signed but remain equivocal and ambivalent. In the Joint Declaration on Justification, for example, the infusion of sanctifying grace116 in the soul of the just is never clearly taught; the only sentence that makes some allusion is so awkward that it could lead one to believe the opposite: "Thus justifying grace never becomes a human possession to which one could appeal against God."117 Such practices no longer respect the duty to teach the Catholic faith whole and entire, without ambiguity, as something "to be believed": "Catholic Doctrine must be proposed integrally and in its entirety; one must not pass over in silence or hide in ambiguous terms that which the Catholic truth teaches on the true nature and the stages of justification, on the constitution of the Church, on the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, on the true union by the return of separated Christians to the unique true Church of Christ."118
It puts on an equal level the authentic saints and the supposed "saints"
37) In publishing a common martyrology of the different Christian confessions, John Paul II puts on an equal level the authentic saints and the supposed "saints." He is forgetting the words of St. Augustine: "If, remaining separated from the Church, he is persecuted by an enemy of Christ...and this enemy of Christ says to him who is separated from the Church of Christ: 'Offer up incense to idols, adore my gods' and kills him because he refuses, he could shed his blood, but not receive the crown."119 If the Church hopes piously that the separated brother dies for Christ with perfect charity, she cannot affirm this. She is entirely within her rights in presuming that the obex, the obstacle of visible separation, was an obstacle to the act of perfect charity that is the essence of martyrdom. She therefore cannot canonize him nor inscribe him in the martyrology.120
It therefore leads to a loss of the faith
38) Relativist, evolutionist and ambiguous, this ecumenism directly provokes the loss of the faith. Its first victim is the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kasper himself, when he affirms, for example, on the subject of justification, that, "Our personal worth does not depend on our works, whether they are good or bad: even before acting, we are accepted and we have received the 'yes' of God";121 again, concerning the Mass and the priesthood, that "it is not the priest who works the transubstantiation: the priest prays to the Father in order that He become present by the operation of the Holy Spirit....The necessity of the ordained ministry is a sign that suggests and gives a taste of the gratuity of the Eucharistic sacrament."122
Ecumenism turns souls away from the Church
39) Not only does this ecumenism destroy the Catholic faith; it also turns heretics, schismatics and infidels away from the Church.
It no longer demands the conversion of heretics and schismatics
40) The ecumenical movement no longer searches for their conversion and their return to the "one fold of Christ in a spirit of docility and unity, a spirit clearly absent from those who are not joined with this Holy See of Peter."123 This is clearly stated: "we reject [uniatism] as method for the search for unity....Pastoral activity in the Catholic Church, Latin as well as Oriental, no longer aims at having the faithful of one Church pass over to the other."124 As a result, the ceremony of abjuration for a heretic returning to the Catholic Church has been suppressed. Cardinal Kasper goes far in his affirmations of this type: "Ecumenism is not accomplished by renouncing our own faith tradition. No Church can practice this renouncement."125He adds as well: "We can describe the 'ethos' proper to ecumenism in the following fashion: the renouncement to every form of proselytism whether open or camouflaged."126 This is radically opposed to the constant practice of the popes throughout the centuries, who have always worked for the return of dissidents to the unique Church.127
It begets egalitarianism among Christian confessions
41) The practice of ecumenism leads to egalitarianism between Catholics and other Christians, as illustrated by the joy of John Paul II in seeing that "the very expression separated brethren tends to be replaced today by expressions which more readily evoke the deep communion–linked to the baptismal character....There is an increased awareness that we all belong to Christ....The 'universal brotherhood' of Christians has become a strong ecumenical conviction."128 Graver still, the Catholic Church herself is practically put on equal footing with the separated Communities: we have already alluded to the expression "sister Churches"; John Paul II rejoices also that "the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism refers to the Communities to which these Christians belong as 'Churches and Ecclesial Communities that are not in full communion with the Catholic Church'....Consigning to oblivion the excommunications of the past, Communities which were once rivals are now in many cases helping one another."129 To rejoice over this change is to forget that "to consider in the quality of a Church the schism of Photius and that of the Anglicans...favors religious indifferentism...and stops the conversion of non-Catholics to the true and unique Church."130
It humbles the Church and makes haughty the dissidents
42) The ecumenical practice of repentance turns infidels away from the Catholic Church by the false manner in which she represents herself. While it is indeed possible to bear in the sight of God the faults of those who have preceded us,131 nonetheless, the practice of repentance such as we know it implies that it is the Catholic Church as such who is the sinner, seeing that it is she who asks pardon. The first to believe this is Cardinal Kasper: "The Second Vatican Council recognized that the Catholic Church was responsible for the division of Christians and underlined that the re-establishing of unity presupposed the conversion of each and every one of us to the Lord."132 The texts justifying her apologies are therefore meaningless: the ecclesial mark of holiness has been tarnished, once so powerful in attracting wandering souls to the one fold. These repentances are thus gravely imprudent, because they humiliate the Catholic Church and make haughty the dissidents. This is the reason for the warning issued by the Sacred Office: "They [the bishops] will keep careful guard, and with a real insistence, that those who teach the history of the Reform and the Reformers not exaggerate the defects of Catholics and hide the faults of the Reformers, or emphasize certain rather accidental elements to such an extent that one scarcely sees or perceives that which is essential, the defection from the Catholic faith."133
Conclusion
43) Considered from a pastoral aspect, we are forced to conclude that the ecumenism of the last decades leads Catholics to a "silent apostasy" and dissuades non-Catholics from entering into the unique ark of salvation. One must therefore deplore "the impiety of those who close to men the gates of the Kingdom of heaven."134 Under the guise of a search for unity, ecumenism disperses the flock; it does not carry the mark of Christ, but that of the divider par excellence, the devil.
General Conclusion
44)As attractive as it may seem at first glance, as spectacular as its ceremonies may appear on television, and as numerous as the gathered crowds may be, the reality remains: ecumenism has made of the Holy City that is the Church a city in ruins. Pursuing a Utopian ideal–the unity of the human race–the present Pope has not realized to what extent this ecumenism for which he has so labored is truly and sadly revolutionary: it inverts the order willed by God.
45) Ecumenism is indeed revolutionary, and it proclaims itself as such. An imposing number of texts follow one upon the other to remind us of this fact: "The increase of fellowship in a reform which is continuous...is certainly one of the distinctive and most important aspects of ecumenism."135 "Taking up an idea expressed by Pope John XXIII at the opening of the Council, the Decree on Ecumenism mentions the way of formulating doctrine as one of the elements of a continuing reform."136 At times this affirmation is adorned with ecclesiastical unction, transforming itself into a "conversion." In the case in point, there is very little difference. In the two cases, that which existed before is rejected: "'Convert.' There is no ecumenical reconciliation without conversion and renewal. There is no conversion from one confession to another....Everyone must convert. We must not ask firstly 'what is wrong with the other,' but rather 'what is wrong with us; where should we begin to clean house?'"137Typical of its revolutionary characteristic, ecumenism makes an appeal to the people: "In ecumenical work, Catholics...[will] make a careful and honest appraisal of whatever needs to be renewed and done in the Catholic household itself."138 Truly, in the euphoria of aggiornamento, the head must be overtaken by the members: "The ecumenical movement is a somewhat complex process, and it would be an error to wait, from the Catholic side, that everything be done by Rome....The intuitions, the challenges must also come from local Churches, and much must be done on a local level before the universal Church makes it her own."139
46) In these sorrowful circumstances, how can we not hear the cry of the Angel at Fatima: "Penance, Penance, Penance"? Our change of course must be radical, away from this march toward Utopia. We must return to the wise experience of the Church, summarized here by Pope Pius XI: "The union of Christians can only be furthered 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."140 Such is the true and charitable pastoral action toward those who err; such ought to be the prayer of the Church: "We desire this unceasing prayer to rise to God from the whole Mystical Body [that is to say, the whole Catholic Church], that all the straying sheep may hasten to enter the one fold of Jesus Christ."141
47) Awaiting the blessed hour of a return to reason, we cling for our part to the sage advice and the firm wisdom that we have received from our founder: "We wish to be in perfect unity with the Holy Father, but in the unity of the Catholic faith, because it is only this unity that can unite us, and not a sort of ecumenical union, a sort of liberal ecumenism; because I believe that the crisis in the Church is best denned by this liberal ecumenical spirit. I say liberal ecumenism, because there does exist a certain ecumenism that, if it is well defined, could be acceptable. But liberal ecumenism, such as it is practiced by the present Church and especially since the Second Vatican Council, includes veritable heresies."142 Adding to this our prayers to heaven, where we implore Christ for His Body which is the Catholic Church, saying: "Salvum me fac, Domine, quoniam defecit sanctus, quoniam diminutae sunt veritates a filiis hominum. Vana locuti sunt unusquisque ad proximum suum: labia dolosa in corde et corde locuti sunt. Disperdat Dominus universa labia dolosa et linguam magniloquam."143
Angelus Press dedicated 40 man-hours to locate authorized English sources and translations for as many of the 143 footnotes as possible, most of which are very substantial and add tremendously to the scholarship of this work.
1. John Paul II, Allocution to the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, Nov. 18, 1978. La Documentation Catholique (DC), No. 1753, Dec. 3, 1978, p. 1017. [Translator's note: References to French publications indicate our translation; official English translations have been used wherever possible.]
2. John Paul II, Angelus Message of January 17, 1982. DC, No. 1823, Feb. 7, 1982, p. 144.
3. John Paul II, First Message Urbi et Orbi, Oct. 17, 1978. L' Osservatore Romano (OR), Oct. 26, 1978, pp. 3-4.
4. Ecumenical Council Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, §1, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Documents, Ed. Austin Flannery, O.P. (Northport, N.Y.: Costello Publishing Co., 1998), I, 350.
5. John Paul II, First Message Urbi et Orbi.
6. John Paul II, Tertio Millenio Adveniente, §24 (Boston, Mass.: Daughters of St. Paul, 1994), p. 30. [Italics in the original English text.] Cf. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §42: "...the ecumenical celebrations...are an important part of my apostolic visits to various parts of the world."
7. John Paul II, Sermon for the Opening of the Holy Door of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Jan. 18, 2000, OR, Jan. 26, 2000, p. 6: "The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins today in Rome with the celebration that has gathered us together. I wanted it to coincide with the opening of the Holy Door in this basilica dedicated to the Apostle of the Gentiles, to stress the ecumenical dimension that should mark the Jubilee Year 2000."
8. John Paul II, Tertio Millennia Adveniente, §34, p. 39.
9. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, §1 (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1979), p. 4.
10. John Paul II, "Eucharistic Unity Is Our Goal," Homily of Pope John Paul II in the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Istanbul in the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantiople Dimitrios I, Nov. 29, 1979. The Pope Speaks: The Church Documents Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1980, p. 20.
11. John Paul II, Message for the 15th International Prayer Meeting for Peace, Sept. 4, 2001. Vatican text, from the website of Zenit–The World Seen from Rome.
12. John Paul II, Ecclesia in Europa, §7.
14. John Paul II, Discourse to the Cardinals and to the Curia of Dec. 22, 1986. "The Situation in the World and the Spirit of Assisi," DC, No. 1933, Feb. 1, 1987, p. l34.
15. John Paul II, Tertio Millennia Adveniente, §6, p. 13.
16. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, §13, pp. 41-42.
17. John Paul II, Message to the Peoples of Asia, Feb. 21, 1981. DC, No. 1804, Mar. 15, 1981, p. 281.
18. John Paul II, Discourse to the Cardinals and to the Curia of Dec. 22, 1986. "The Situation of the Church in the World and the Spirit of Assisi," p. 134.
21. John Paul II, Tertio Millennia Adveniente, §6.
22. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §42: "The very expression separated brethren tends to be replaced today by expressions which more readily evoke the deep communion–linked to the baptismal character–which the Spirit fosters in spite of historical and canonical divisions." (Boston, Mass.: Pauline Books & Media, 1995), p. 52.
23. Vatican II, Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §3, Flannery, op. cit., p. 455: "Moreover, some, and even very many, of the most significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the unique Catholic Church... .All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ." For this reason the document Lumen Gentium (§8) says that the Church of Christ "subsists in" the Catholic Church, and not that she "is" the Church of Christ. See the commentary of Cardinal Ratzinger, "Ecclesiology of the Constitution on the Church, Vatican II, Lumen Gentium," conference of Feb. 27, 2000, reprinted in OR, Sept. 19, 2001: "With this expression, the Council differs from the formula of Pius XII, who said in his Encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi: 'The Catholic Church "is" (est) the one mystical body of Christ.'... The difference between 'subsistit' and 'est' however contains the tragedy of ecclesial division. Although the Church is only one and 'subsists' in a unique subject, there are also ecclesial realities beyond this subject–true local Churches and different ecclesial communities."
24 This affirmation follows directly from the manner in which Lumen Gentium (§§7, 8) presents the Church. Before this document, the Magisterium speaks of the Church according to the analogy of St. Paul in which the Church is the body of Christ and therefore visible: "precisely because it is a body is the Church visible." (Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, §3, in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII [Rockford, Ill.: TAN Books and Publishers, 1995], p. 352). Yet the Council refuses to draw this conclusion: it considers separately the Church as the Body of Christ (LG §7) and the visibility of the Catholic Church (LG §8). In this way it implies that the Church, Body of Christ [the Church of Christ] is not of itself something visible. Certainly, LG §8 affirms the necessary union of the Church of Christ and of the organic Church: "The society structured with hierarchical organs [the Catholic Church] and the mystical body of Christ [the Church of Christ], the visible society [the Catholic Church] and the spiritual community [the Church of Christ], the earthly Church [the Catholic Church] and the Church endowed with heavenly riches [the Church of Christ], are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality." But this affirmation is not sufficient: the union of two distinct things–the Church of Christ and the organic Church–is not an affirmation of the unity proper to the Church. On the contrary, this unity is rejected with the statement that the Church of Christ "subsists in the Catholic Church": the relation between the container and the contents is not that of identity, especially when it is affirmed that the Church of Christ makes itself actively present elsewhere than in the Catholic Church, which is perfectly contained therein. As a result of this affirmation and following the logic of LG §15, John Paul II often states that a person who is baptized, whatever may be his ecclesial membership, is and remains united to Christ, incorporated with Him. This theory of the interiority of the Church is so widespread that cardinals as different as J. Ratzinger and W. Kasper refer to it as evident: '"The Church awakens in souls': this sentence of Guardini has been nurtured for a long time. In fact, it shows that the Church has been finally recognized and lived as something interior, which does not exist as some sort of institution facing us, but rather living in ourselves. If, up until then, the Church had been considered primarily as a structure and an organization, we have finally become aware that we ourselves are the Church. She was much more than an organization: she was the organism of the Holy Ghost, something vital, in the depths of our conscience. This new understanding of the Church finds its linguistic expression in the concept of the 'Mystical Body of Christ.'" (J. Ratzinger, "Ecclesiology of Vatican II," conference given Sept. 15,2001, on the occasion of the opening of the Pastoral Congress of the Diocese of Aversa); "The True nature of the Church–the Church as the Body of Christ–is hidden, and can only be perceived by faith. But this nature, perceived uniquely by faith, is actualized under visible forms." (W. Kasper, "The Ecumenical Commitment of the Catholic Church," conference given Mar. 23, 2003, to the general assembly of the Federated Protestants of France, (Ecumenisme Informations, No. 325, May 2002, and No. 326, June 2002).
25. "At least," because Karol Wojtyla goes further in reality, for example on the occasion of the retreat that he preached at the Vatican when he was still a Cardinal: "God of boundless majesty....This God is professed in silence by the Trappist or the Camaldolite. It is to him that the desert Bedouin turns at his hour for prayer. And perhaps the Buddhist too, wrapt in contemplation as he purifies his thought, preparing the way to Nirvana. God is his absolute transcendence....The Church of the living God gathers together all men, who in one way or another share this marvelous transcendence of the human spirit." (Karol Wojtyla, The Sign of Contradiction [New York: The Seabury Press, 1979], pp. 16-17.)
26. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §42, p. 52.
29. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Concerning Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion, 6; DC, No. 2055, Aug. 2, 1992, p. 730. [English text from the Vatican website.]
31. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §11, p. 22.
32. Vatican II, Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §3, pp. 455-56: "For men who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in some, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church. Without doubt, the differences that exist in varying degrees between them and the Catholic Church–whether in doctrine and sometimes in discipline, or concerning the structure of the Church–do indeed create many obstacles, sometimes serious ones, to full ecclesiastical communion. The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome these obstacles." After speaking of this partially broken visible communion, the decree adds, in order to show the permanence of invisible communion: "But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church....The brethren divided from us also carry out many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. In ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or community, these liturgical actions most certainly can truly engender a life of grace, and, one must say, can aptly give access to the communion of salvation."
33. Cf. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §§56, 57, and 60; Allocution in the Basilica St. Nicolas of Bari, Feb. 26, 1984, given in the presence of the Metropolitan of Myre, Konstantinidis (Patriarchat of Constantinople). DC, No. 1872, April 15,1984, p. 414; Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, Nov. 11, 1994, available on the website of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, www.cired.org; Sermon pronounced in presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Dimitrios I, Nov. 29, 1979, at Istanbul, www.cired.org: "I urge you to pray fervently during this Eucharistic sacrifice for the full communion of our Churches....Ask [the Lord] that we who are the pastors of sister Churches may be the best instruments we can be of His plan, since His providence has chosen us to rule these Churches at this historical hour, that is, to serve them as the Lord wishes and, thus, to serve the one Church which is His body."
34. Cf. John Paul II, Tertio Millennia Adveniente, § 16, p. 23.
35. John Paul II, "Address of the Holy Father to the President of the Lutheran World Federation, Dec. 9, 1999," available on the Vatican website.
36.Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, §8; Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §4; Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, §1.
37. Cardinal Ratzinger, "Ecclesiology of the Constitution on the Church, Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, op. cit.
38. Vatican II, Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §3; John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §11.
39. John Paul II, Tertio Millennia Adveniente, §37, p. 44.
40. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §77, p. 87.
41. One understands the term "ecumenism of return" as Pius XI in his encyclical Mortalium Animos §15, (p. 13): "The union of Christians can only be furthered 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. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all."
42. Declaration of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, June 23, 1993, also called the Balamand Declaration, §§2 and 22. Available on the Vatican website. This citation only concerns "uniatism," but Cardinal Kasper gives more a systematic formulation: "The old concept of the ecumenism of return today has been replaced by that of a common journey, which directs Christians towards an ecclesial communion understood as a unity in reconciled diversity." (W. Kasper, "The Common Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Reason for Hope," DC, No. 2220, Feb. 20, 2000, p. l67.)
43. Vatican II, Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §3, (p. 455): "In subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared...for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame." From which the nature of conversion demanded by this document, §7 (p.460): "There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without interior conversion. For it is from newness of attitudes of mind, from self-denial and unstinted love, that desires of unity take their rise and develop in a mature way." Cf. Cardinal Kasper, Speech to the Ecumenical Conference of Churches of Berlin. DC, No. 2298, Sept. 21, 2003: "'Convert.' There is no ecumenical reconciliation without conversion and renewal. There is no conversion from one confession to another. This could happen in particular cases, but only for reasons of conscience–this merits respect and consideration. But there is no need for the others to convert, as conversion begins with oneself. Everyone must convert. We must not begin by asking 'what is wrong with the other,' but rather 'what is wrong with us; where should we begin to clean house?'"
44. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §11, p. 22; cf. §34.
45. Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, §13, op. cit., p. 365; cf. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §28.
46. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §57, op. cit., p. 68.
47. John Paul II, Allocution in the Basilica St. Nicolas of Bari, February 26, 1984, p. 414.
49. John Paul II, Angelus of Jan. 17, 1982. DC, No. 1823, February 7, 1982, p. 144.
50. A. Bugnini, "Modification to the Solemn Prayers of Good Friday," DC, No. 1445, Mar. 4, 1965, col. 603. Cf. G. Celier, La dimension oecumenique de la réforme liturgique (Editions Fideliter, 1987), p. 34.
51. Cf. L'Osservatore Romano, Italian edition, Oct. 26, 2001. "Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of East: Note and orientations of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity," DC No. 2265, Mar. 3, 2002, p. 214.
52. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §38, p. 48.
53. Ibid.,quoting the Declaration Mysterium Ecclesiae of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. DC, No. 1636, July 15, 1973, p. 267. Available at www.Saint-Mike.org, the St. Michael Cyberspace Scriptorium.
54.Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.
55. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §38, p. 47.
56. DC, No. 2106, Dec. 18, 1994, p. 1069. Cf. Enchiridion Symbolorum (DS), ed. Henry Denzinger and Adolfus Schonmetzer, S.J. (Rome: Herder, 1976), 251d and 252.
57. Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the World Lutheran Federation and the Catholic Church, signed Oct. 31, 1999, §7 (cf. §§5, 13, 40-42). Available on the Vatican website.
58. W. Kasper, "The Common Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Reason for Hope," DC, No. 2220, Feb. 20, 2000, p. 172.
59. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §95, p. 103.
60. "The Primacy of the Successor of Peter in the Mystery of the Church: Reflections of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," DC, No. 2193, Dec. 6, 1998, p. l018.
61. Leo XIII, Apostolic Letter Apostolicae Curae, Sept. 13, 1896.
62. Kasper, "May They All be One? But How? A Vision of Christian Unity for the Next Generation." [See "The Unsilent Apostate," pp. 22-29 in this issue.]
63. Limiting ourselves to the refutation of ecumenism, we will not study the teaching of John Paul II concerning the redemption accomplished de facto in each person and each nation. We will simply say that such a proposition is completely foreign to the Catholic faith and implies its destruction from top to bottom (for example, what becomes of the necessity of baptism?).
64. Calvin, Institutiones, Bk. 4, c. 4.
65. Leo XIII, Encyclical Satis Cognitum, p. 352.
66. Pius XI, Encyclical Mortalium Animos, p. 6.
67.Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis (Boston, Mass.: St. Paul Editions, s.d.), p. 12.
69. Letter of the Sacred Office to the Bishops of England, September 16,1864, DS 2888 [English translation from Denzinger's The Sources of Catholic Dogma (St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1957), p. 428, Dz. 1686.]
70. Pius IX, Allocution to the Consistory, July 18, 1861, Pontifical Teachings: The Church (Solesmes), Vol. 1, No. 230.
71. Second preparatory schema of Vatican I concerning the Church, Canon 4, Mansi, 53, 316.
72.W. Kasper, "The Engagement of the Catholic Church in Ecumenism," conference given to the General Assembly of French Protestants, March 23, 2002. (Ecumenisme Informations, No. 325 (May 2002) and 326 (June 2002)
74. This triple bond must, let us repeat, be possessed either in fact or at least "by a certain desire or unconscious wish" (Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, AAS 35(1943), p. 243, DS 3821). But the Church is not judge of this desire. In juridical matters–which is the case here–the Church cannot judge the interior realities of the conscience of each, but only of that which is evident: "Of the state of mind and of the intention, the Church does not judge, as they are interior; but in so far as they are apparent, she must judge them" (Leo XIII, Apostolic Letter Apostolicae Curae, Sept. 13, 1896, concerning the nullity of Anglican ordinations, ASS 29 (1896), p. 201. DS 3318). Therefore, even if, in her pastoral care, as a good mother, she is inclined to hope of an "at least unconscious desire" of belonging to her when she finds souls that are in danger of death (Dom. M. Prümmer, O.P., Manuale theologiae moralis, Vol. 1, No. 514, 3), nonetheless juridically, the Church does not presume this membership in normal situations. For this reason she demands, ad cautelam, their abjuration of schism or heresy when they return to the Catholic Church (CIC 1917, Can. 2314, §2). She has all the more reason not to presume the good faith of those same dissidents when they are considered as a constituted body in a community visibly separated from the Catholic Church, for which ecumenism allows. Our statements concerning the three elements necessary for membership in the Catholic Church presuppose external membership or the Church's judgment of good faith in the desire for that membership. Ignoring this requirement would mean entering the realm of the uncertain and the unreal.
75. Heb. 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible to please God."
76. St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis: "[F]aith, which is the basis and foundation of all religion, must consist in a certain interior sense, originating in a need of the divine...It is this sense to which Modernists give the name of faith, and this is what they hold to be the beginning of religion." Acta S. Pii X (1907). (DS 3477 does not cite this in its entirety). (Washington, D.C.: National Catholic Welfare Conference, 1963), p. 4-5. This brief description should be compared to the thought of Karol Wojtyla (The Sign of Contradiction, pp. 16-17): "God of boundless majesty....This God is professed in silence by the Trappist or the Camaldolite. It is to him that the desert Bedouin turns at his hour for prayer. And perhaps the Buddhist too, wrapt in contemplation as he purifies his thought, preparing the way to Nirvana. God is his absolute transcendence... .The Church of the living God gathers together all men, who in one way or another share this marvelous transcendence of the human spirit. And all of them know that nobody except the God of infinite majesty can satisfy their deepest longings."
77. Vatican I, Session 3, c. 3, cited in Satis Cognitum, p. 367.
78. Leo XIII, Encyclical Satis Cognitum, p. 368.
79. Pius IX, Encyclical Amantissimus, April 8, 1862, The Papal Encyclicals, 1740-1878, ed. Claudia Carlan (Raleigh, N.C.: The Pierian Press, 1990), pp. 363-64.
80. Cf. St. Ambrose, Epistle 11 ad imperatores.
81. Cf. St. Cyprian, De Unitate Ecclesiae.
82. Cf. St. Jerome, Epistle 51 ad Damasum.
83. St. Augustine, De Baptismo contra donatistas, Bk. l, ch.14, §22.
85. Leo XIII, Encyclical Satis Cognitum, p. 370.
86. Pius IX, Encyclical Amantissimus, p. 363.
87. Pius XII, Encylical Mystici Corporis, p. 16.
88. Vatican II, Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §3 (p. 455), of which we cite the complete passage: "However, one cannot charge with the sin of separation those who at present are born into these communities and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers. For men who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in some, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church. Without doubt, the differences that exist in varying degrees between them and the Catholic Church–whether in doctrine and sometimes in discipline, or concerning the structure of the Church–do indeed create many obstacles, sometimes serious ones, to full ecclesiastical communion. The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome these obstacles. But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church."
90. Pius IX, Allocution Singulari Quadem, December 9, 1954, Dz. 1647 (old numbering; absent in DS).
91. Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, §8, p. 357.
92. Benedict XIV, Brief Singulari nobis, Feb. 9, 1749, DS 2566-2568.
93. Council of Florence, Bull Cantate Domino for the Jacobites, DS 1351.
94. Vatican II, Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §3, p. 456.
95. St. Augustine, De baptismo contra donatistas, Bk. l, Ch. 10, no. 14.
96. Ibid., Bk. l,Ch.14, no. 22.
97. Vatican II, Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, §3, p. 456.
98. Cf. J. Ratzinger, "Ecclesiology of the Constitution on the Church, Vatican II, Lumen Gentium": "Although the Church is only one and 'subsists' in a unique subject, there are also ecclesial realities beyond this subject–true local Churches and different ecclesial communities." In fact, "one finds therein the elements essential for a Church: the preaching of the Word of God and baptism, the active presence of the Holy Ghost, faith, hope, and charity, the forms of sanctity even to martyrdom. One can speak of a different configuration of these constitutive ecclesial elements, or Church of another sort or another type." (W. Kasper, "The Engagement of the Catholic Church in Ecumenism," conference of March 23, 2002, during the general assembly of the Protestant Federation of France. (Ecumenisme Informations, No. 325, May 2002, and No. 326, June 2002)
99. St. Augustine, In Psalmo 54:19, quoted by Leo XIII in Satis Cognitum, p. 368.
100. Letter of the Holy Office to the Bishops of England, Sept. 16, 1864. This theory "expressly avows for example, that the three Christian communions, Roman Catholic, Greek-schismatic, and Anglican, however separated and divided from one another, nevertheless with equal right claim for themselves the name Catholic....Indeed, the society itself indicates to all its members the prayers to be recited, and to the priests the sacrifices to be celebrated according to its own intention: namely, that the said three Christian communions, inasmuch as they, as it is alleged, together now constitute the Catholic Church, may at some time or other unite to form one body." DS 2885-2886 (Dz. 1685).
101. Ibid., 2886-2887 (Dz. 1686).
102. John Paul II, Ecclesia in Europa, §9.
103. Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.
104. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §38, p. 47.
105. Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, §4, p. 457.
106. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §38, p. 48.
107. Ibid., §57, p. 68. Cf. Cardinal Kasper, "The Common Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Reason for Hope": "It is clearly evident that the end of dialogue does not consist in changing the other party, but in recognizing one's own failings and learning from the other....Where we had first seen a contradiction, we may see a complementary position."
108. Congregation of the Holy Office, Instruction De Motione Œcumenica of December 20, 1949, AAS 42 (1950), p. 1454. DC, No. 1064, March 12, 1950, col. 332.
109. Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, §11, p. 462.
110. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Mysterium Ecclesiae, June 24, 1973. Available at the St. Michael Cyberspace Scriptorium, www.Saint-Mike.org.
111. John Paul II, "Meeting with the Evangelic Church Counsel, November 17, 1980," DC, No. 1798, Dec. 21, 1980, p. l 147.
112. Leo XIII, Encyclical Testem Benevolentiae, Jan. 22, 1899, in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, p. 442. Cf. Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, §13, pp. 11-12: "Besides this, in connection with things which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that distinction which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of faith which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental, as they say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may be left to the free assent of the faithful; for the supernatural virtue of faith has a formal cause, namely, the authority of God revealing, and this is patient of no such distinction."
113. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §§17 & 18, pp. 28-30.
114. Pius XII, Encyclical Humani Generis, Aug. 12, 1950 (Boston, Mass.: St. Paul Editions), pp. 4-6.
115. Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, §11, p. 462; John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §36, p. 46.
116. Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, c. 7, DS 1528 (Dz. 799): "Justification itself...is not merely remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man through the voluntary reception of the grace and gifts."
117. Joint Declaration on Justification by the World Lutheran Federation and the Catholic Church.
118. Congregation of the Holy Office, Decree of December 20, 1949. DC, No. 1064, March 12, 1950, col. 330ff.
119. St. Augustine, Sermon to the people of Caesarea preached in the presence of Emeritus, a Donatist bishop, No. 6.
120. The Pope Benedict XIV, in his De Servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione, explains that a heretic, in the invincible ignorance of the true Faith, killed for a dogma of the Catholic Church, cannot be considered a martyr. Indeed, perhaps he is a martyr coram Deo, but not coram Ecclesia, because the Church judges only on the outside, and the public profession of heresy necessitates the assumption of internal heresy. Cf. De servorum, c. 20. The objection concerning St. Hyppolitus, martyr and anti-pope (217-325), is not significant. In fact, if the martyrology mentions him on the 30th of October, the dies natalis of Pope St. Pontian, it is because Hyppolitus was reconciled to Pontian in the mines of Sardinia, before both suffered martyrdom in 236.
121. W. Kasper, "The Common Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Reason for Hope."
122. W. Kasper, 30 Jours dans I'Eglise et dans le Monde, No. 5 (2003), p. 22.
123. Pius IX, Encyclical Neminem Vestrum, Feb. 2,1854. The Papal Encyclicals, 1740-1878, p. 324.
124. Declaration of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, June 23, 1993.
125. W. Kasper, "The Common Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Reason for Hope." Cf. W. Kasper, Conference to the Ecumenical Church Assembly of Berlin. DC, No. 2298, Sept. 21, 2003, p. 817: "We cannot throw overboard that which has carried and held us up until now, that which our predecessors have lived, often in difficult circumstances, nor can we ask this of our brothers and sisters of Protestantism and Orthodoxy. Neither they nor we can become unfaithful."
126. W. Kasper, "The Ecumenical Engagement of the Catholic Church," conference given March 23, 2002, during the General Assembly of the Protestant Federation of France. (Ecumenisme Informations, No. 325 (May 2002), and No. 326 (June 2002).
127. Cf. for example, Pius IX, Apostolic Letter Iam Vos Omnes, Sept. 13,1868, ASS 4 (1868), p. 131, DS 2997-2999, inviting the Protestants and other non-Catholics to profit from the First Vatican Council in order to come back to the Catholic Church. Leo XIII does the same on the occasion of his Episcopal Jubilee with the Letter Praeclara Gratulationis, June 20, 1894, ASS 26 (1894), pp. 707ff. The most well-known text is certainly that of Pius XI in the Encyclical Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928, (§15), p. 13: "The union of Christians can only be furthered 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." This practice of "return" is what distinguishes the 19th century, but rather the renewed concern of the Popes for this cause. In fact, this practice "of return" has always been present in the history of the Church. For example, in 1595, Pope Clement VIII said to the metropolitan bishops of Kiev (instruction Magnus Dominus, December 23, 1595): "Thanks to the illumination of the Holy Spirit who enlightened their hearts, they have begun seriously to consider the fact that they were no longer members of the Body of Christ which is the Church, as they were no longer linked with Her visible head, the Sovereign Pontiff of Rome. For this reason they have decided to return to the Roman Church who is their mother, the mother of all the faithful."
128. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §42, p. 52.
130. Congregation of the Holy Office, Letter of Sept. 16, 1864, ASS 2, 660ff. (Not included in Dz.)
131. Lamentations 5:7: "Our fathers have sinned, and are not: and we have borne their iniquities."
132. Kasper, "The Common Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Reason for Hope."
133. Congregation of the Holy Office, Instruction De Motione Œcumenica of Dec. 20, 1949.
134. Preparatory schema of Vatican I on the Church, published in the Pontifical Teachings: The Church, Vol. 2, p. 8*: "We reprove the impiety of those who close the entry into the Kingdom of Heaven to men, by assuring them under false pretexts that it is dishonorable or in no way necessary to salvation to abandon the religion–even false–in which one is born, raised and taught; of those also who complain that the Church projects herself as the only true religion, proscribing and condemning all the religions and sects separated from her communion, as if there could be a possible communion between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial."
135. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §17, p.28.
137. Kasper, Conference to the Ecumenical Conference of Churches of Berlin.
138. Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, §4, p. 457; cf. all of §6, pp. 459-460.
139. Kasper, "The Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Reason for Hope."
140. Pius XI, Encyclical Mortalium Animos, Jan. 6, 1928, p. 13.
141. Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, p. 62.
142. Archbishop Lefebvre, Conference of April 14, 1978.
143. Psalm 11:2-4: "They have spoken vain things every one to his neighbour: with deceitful lips, and with a double heart have they spoken. May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things." Concerning this last verse which we cite, one would benefit from reading the commentary of St. John Chrysostom (In Ps. 11:1): "He does not speak against them, but in their interest; he does not ask God to destroy them, but to put an end to their iniquities. He does not say in fact: 'God will exterminate them' but 'he will destroy all deceitful lips.' Thus, again, it is not their nature that he wishes to see annihilated, but their language."
Current Issue
