John

Paul II and Benedict XVI on Ecumenism

By Leonardo Zuno April 2, 2011

"[In the time of the Apostles]... a Christian was bound to take without doubting all that the Apostles declared to be revealed; if the Apostles spoke, he had to yield an internal assent of his mind... Immediate, implicit submission of the mind was, in the lifetime of the Apostles, the only, the necessary token of faith... No one could say: "I will choose my religion for myself, I will believe this, I will not believe that; I will pledge myself to nothing; I will believe just as long as I please, and no longer; what I believe today I will reject tomorrow, if I choose. I will believe what the Apostles have as yet said, but I will not believe what they shall say in time to come." No; either the Apostles were from God, or they were not; if they were, everything that they preached was to be believed by their hearers; if they were not, there was nothing for their hearers to believe. To believe a little, to believe more or less, was impossible; it contradicted the very notion of believing.1

Pope Benedict XVI wrote, Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. Likewise, at the root of all evangelization lies not a human plan of expansion, but rather the desire to share the inestimable gift that God has wished to give us, making us sharers in his own life.2 This is perhaps the very same reason the Catholic Church is striving for ecumenism, which is one of the most important areas of the new evangelization proclaimed by Pope John Paul II. It is my hope that this essay will clearly communicate what Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have said on the topic of ecumenism: by defining terms from a Catholic perspective, stating the desire of Jesus for perfect unity among his people, looking at the problem of our disunity, and finally rejoicing in the hope for reunion in light of current events. Ecumenism is often defined as the attempt by various Christian communities to find unity. In the Catholic perspective, ecumenism is not the forming of new structures where Christians compromise their beliefs for the sake of being together once again; nor is it the gathering of Christians in a mutual non-aggression pact. It is the recognition that Christ desires his people to belong to one covenant family and to live in peace as one family, one body one communion with God and man, to live out the meaning of the word ecclesia, the assembly of the people. Evangelization and ecumenism are closely connected. This connection is implied in Jesus prayer in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John: I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, 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
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Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, Faith and Private Judgment in Discourses to Mixed Congregations. Benedict XVI, Ubicumque et semper.

 believe that thou hast sent me (Jn. 17:20-21). Jesus desires and pleads to God the Father that all Christian people be one as he is one with the Father, in order that the world may believe in him. This form of unity that he desires is perfect and visible. Pope John Paul II

expressed the bold hope at the eve of the third millennium "that unity among Christians will increase until they reach full communion3 that just as the first millennium was a time of Christian unity, and the second a time of disunity, that the third would be a time of reunion. In order to do this effectively, Christians must strive for reconciliation, which is only possible with Gods help. Since this perfect and visible unity is Christs will for us, and since our Christian witness before the world is at stake, this means that we must be committed to ecumenism for the effectiveness of our missionary witness. As Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have proclaimed, division among Christians does in fact pose an obstacle to evangelization (see #13).4 Our divisions and many interpretations of the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), often make the gospel message less convincing to its hearers. As Peter Kreeft asks, How could a divided Church unify a divided world? No more than an infected physician could heal himself.5 We need to stand united in agreement about what the truth of the gospel is in order to convincingly proclaim the truth about the one savior. Pope John Paul II reminds us that 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 The communion of Christians is none other than the manifestation in them of the grace by which God makes them sharers in his own communion.6 Pope Benedict XVI said exactly the same thing during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: "[The early Church] was a community not founded on a pact among its members, or on the simple sharing of a project or ideal, but on profound communion with God."7 Thus, our commitment to ecumenism should not only include dialogue, but also prayer and a closer union with God namely, holiness. Pope Benedict XVI also said,
The path that leads to the visible unity of all Christians lies in prayer, because, fundamentally, it is not we who build unity but God who builds it; it comes from him, from the Trinitarian Mystery, from the unity of the Father with the Son in the dialogue of love, which is the Holy Spirit; and our ecumenical commitment must be

John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 16. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 23, 34, 43, 75, 78, 83, 96. 5 Peter Kreeft, Ecumenism Without Compromise. 6 John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 9. 7 Benedict XVI, Jan. 25, 2011, at the Ecumenical Evening Prayer Service at the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
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open to divine action, it must become a daily invocation for God's help. The Church is his and not ours. Therefore, Benedict said, the search for Christian unity is a moral imperative, a response to a precise call of the Lord.8

During this years Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the theme was: One in the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of the bread, and prayer, based on Acts 2:42, which says, And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers. To be fully united, Benedict said, Christians must hold firm to the faith taught by the apostles, they must gather together, they must share the Eucharist, and they must pray. These are the four pillars of unity in the early Church, and of the Church in every age. Even a cursory reading of the writings of early Church fathers will show that this has always been the case in the Catholic Church. And because unity must be based on faith believed and lived in common, Christian unity cannot be reduced to a recognition and acceptance of differences and an agreement to coexist peacefully. This is what Peter Kreeft calls Christian relativism, where each denomination is like a different flavor of ice cream, and whatever group one chooses is like a preference of flavor. I will never forget when someone said to me, I can tell you are a Christian. What flavor are you? Catholicism has never proclaimed to be a denomination, but a Communion, both vertical (with God) and horizontal (with other Christians). By virtue of its catholicism, the Church is capable of embracing all kinds of people (see #6.3).9 The Church is, as Vatican II puts it, the kingdom of God now present in mystery10 and cannot think of itself as
one religious organization in a supermarket of religious options.11 George Weigel Pope John Paul IIs biographercontinues, The Church is also where we experience the light and love of the Holy Trinity. This is why the Council, the Pope, and prominent Catholic theologians all suggest that the Church is best described as a communiona communion of believers with the Living God, with one another, and with the saints who have gone before us. We can speak of the Church as institution, herald, servant, and so forth. At the bottom of the line, however, the Church is a communion. As John Paul puts it, it embraces those who now see God as he is, and those who have died and are being purified. It is a communion of saints.

The one Church of Christ is Apostolic In speaking about St. Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 135-203 A.D.), Pope Benedict said,
In fact, the Gospel preached by Irenaeus is the one he was taught by Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and Polycarps Gospel dates back to the Apostle John, whose disciple Polycarp was. The true teaching, therefore, is not that invented by intellectuals, which goes beyond the Churchs simple faith. The true Gospel is the one imparted by the bishops who received it in an uninterrupted line from the Apostles. They taught nothing except the simple faith, which is also the true depth of Gods revelation This faith alone is apostolic, it is handed down from the Apostles; that is, from Jesus and from God. In adhering to this faith, publicly

Ibid. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 14. 10 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 3. 11 George Weigel, Liberal Church? Conservative Church?, in The Truth of Catholicism, pp. 41-42.
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transmitted by the Apostles to their successors, Christians must observe what their bishops say and must give special consideration to the teaching of the Church of Rome, pre-eminent and very ancient. It is because of her antiquity that this Church has the greatest apostolicity; in fact, she originated in Peter and Paul, pillars of the Apostolic College. All Churches must agree with the Church of Rome, recognizing in her the measure of the true Apostolic Tradition, the Churchs common faith.12

Pope Benedict XVI also reminds us that St. Cyprian (ca. 200-258 A.D.) wrote,
An indispensable characteristic of the Church is unity, symbolized by Christs seamless garment (De ecclesiae catholicae unitate, 7). Cyprian said this unity is founded in Peter, and its perfect fulfillment in the Eucharist. God is one, and the faith is one, and the Christian people is joined into a substantial unity of body by the cement of concord. Unity cannot be severed. And what is one by its nature cannot be separated (Ibid., 23).13

Carl R. Trueman professor of historical theology at Westminster Theological

Seminary presents a Protestant alternative to the Catholic assent of faith:

Every year I tell my Reformation history class that Roman Catholicism is, at least in the West, the default position. Rome has a better claim to historical continuity and institutional unity than any Protestant denomination, let alone the strange hybrid that is evangelicalism; in the light of these facts, therefore, we need good, solid reasons for not being Catholic; not being a Catholic should, in other words, be a positive act of the will and commitment, something we need to get out of bed determined to do each and every day."14

Pope Benedict XVI, however, gives us reasons for being Catholic in his book titled Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today,15 where he develops the Catholic doctrine of ecclesiology. In it, he discusses the origin and nature of the Church, how Christ came to establish it through his Twelve apostles, the role of bishops and the primacy of Peter, and other important topics (see #11.1 and 13.5).16 While much work remains to be done so that all Christians will know what Catholics believe to be the fullness of the apostolic teaching and therefore, to share the same Eucharist, we must rejoice that we can pray together and enjoy our fellowship as children of God (see 11.6).17 Pope John Paul II reminds us that the best starting point for all dialogue is by recognizing the things we share in common. Pope Benedict XVI reflects on a question raised at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Regensburg (1972): What unites and divides denominations? Benedict concludes his discussion by saying, [The Lord] is our unity, what we have in common no, who is the one who is common to and in all denominations.18
Benedict XVI, General Audience, March 28, 2007, as written in The Fathers, pp. 26-27. Benedict XVI, General Audience on June 6, 2007, as written in The Fathers, pp. 53-54. 14 Carl R. Trueman, review of Is the Reformation Over? by Mark A. Noll and Carolyn Nystrom. 15 Benedict XVI, Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today. 16 John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 16, 78. 17 Ibid., 49. 18 Benedict XVI, What Unites and Divides Denominations? in The Unity of the Church, vol. 1, p. 9.
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 Is there hope for ecumenism? Peter Kreeft asks, Is there any hope for ecumenism? And the answer is yes, because the most passionate ecumenist is Jesus Christ.19 Jesus explicitly connects ecumenism with evangelization (Jn. 17). All the serious differences between Protestants

and Catholics concern how much territory this category of divinely-revealed truth covers Protestants say Catholics believe too much; Catholics say Protestants believe too little. Kreeft also points out that the best reason to be a Catholic is to be the best possible Evangelical Protestant for the essence of Protestantism is to be one with Christ, to meet Christ and thats the best reason to be a Catholic! Thats the reason for the Mass and the Eucharist namely, the Protestant thing of meeting Christ. Thats the whole point of the Catholic thing of the Church, and the sacraments, and the saints, and all the rest. Kreeft reminds us that the lack of holiness which caused division among Christians can be mended by our mutual dialogue, prayer, reconciliation, and our return to holiness. Only once we are reconciled to one another will we be a powerful witness of reconciliation to the world. Reconciliation Some recent events are showing signs of hope for Christian reunion. During his pontificate, John Paul II established The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, which is the Vatican office that works in conjunction with other churches and ecclesial communities to promote Christian unity. Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI made it very clear that striving for this reunion which Christ desires is one of their greatest priorities. A good prelude to John Paul IIs and Benedict XVIs ecumenical tone was established by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI in their encyclicals Ad Petri Cathedram and Unitatis Redintegratio, respectively. Pope Paul VI was a great ecumenist himself: he reinstated relations with the Eastern Orthodox Churches in 1964; he called the Anglican church our beloved sister church; in 1965, he began working together with the World Council of Churches and began dialogue with Lutherans, Methodists, and Reformed churches. John Paul II in the Magna Charta of the Catholic Churchs commitment to ecumenism, Ut Unum Sintasked non-Catholics for

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Peter Kreeft, Ecumenism Without Compromise.

forgiveness, just as Paul VI did, for those things that caused our deep and sad divisions (see 14.1).20 With regard to this matter, Stanley Hauerwas says, I often point out that at least Catholics have the magisterial office of the Bishop of Rome to remind them that

disunity is a sin. You should not overlook the significance that in several important documents of late, John Paul II has confessed the Catholic sin for the Reformation. Where are the Protestants capable of doing likewise? We Protestants feel no sin for the disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to confess our sin for the continuing disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to do that because we have no experience of unity.21

Reconciliation and ecumenism today The Holy Spirit is at work in this ecumenical movement. There can be no ecumenism without a true change of heart (see #10.1).22 Catholics must become more fully aware of the rich inheritance they have received and be truly evangelized become more fully Catholic, giving the full assent of their mind and will to Christ and his Church. Protestants must learn about the riches that the Church provides, for she is not an obstacle to grace as many believe but the sacramental presence of Christ on earth, the very Body of Christ. More and more, Catholics and Protestants have entered this dialogue of conversion as John Paul II called itand are open to the work of the Holy Spirit. Benedict XVI said,
The true chance for ecumenism does not lie in revolt against the Church as it is, in a Christianity as free of the Church as possible, but in a deepening of the reality which is the Church. He follows, in practice, this means that one cannot live ecumenism against ones own Church, but only by trying to deepen it in relation to what is essential and central.23

Christians must strive for holiness, for union with God is union with the Church, his Body. This desire is truly Christs desire (see #8.1 and 8.2).24 Some of the things that both John Paul II and Benedict XVI encourage Christians to seek are prayer and dialogue, charity, sharing the truth in love, and improving relations with other Christians. In speaking about the relationship between ecumenism and the new evangelization, Archbishop Joseph Augustine Dinoia said,
Suppose that we were to make operative the eschatological reality of the church, the full communion in truth and charity for which we long, in actual experiments in the new evangelization. Suppose that Lutherans and Catholics or Anglicans and Catholics attempted joint efforts in evangelization. What forms might such evangelization take, not just in terms of strategy but also in terms of proclaiming the gospel? Rather than

John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 88. Stanley Hauerwas, Sermon on Reformation Sunday, 29 October 1995. 22 Paul VI, Unitatis Redintegratio, 7 and John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 15. 23 Benedict XVI, What Unites and Divides Denominations? in The Unity of the Church, p. 8. 24 John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 9, 21, 22.
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thinking about how to resolve our doctrinal differences, let us ask ourselves what gospel we would preach if we applied a maximalist rather than a minimalist standard of the full content of revealed truth.25

And many Christians have taken this maximalist approach. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops can offer such an example here: http://www.usccb.org/seia/ where you will find numerous documents that are the results of dialogue among Christians from many denominations. Seeking agreement on as much as possible is a necessary step to achieving full communion. Finding the lowest common denominator leads to compromise and dishonesty in terms of ecumenism. Catholics and Orthodox Christians are in the midst of some historically-significant talks, seeking an alliance to make a strong witness to our common faith in an increasingly secularized world. Coptic Christians are now in full communion with Catholics over a Christological issue that divided us for centuries. Lutherans have signed an agreement on justification with Catholics, making our differences even fewer. Methodists signed-on to that agreement. Thanks to the Ordinariate established by Pope Benedict in 2010, converts from Anglicanism who enter the Ordinariate will be able to be in full communion with the Catholic Church and still maintain many of their elements of liturgy and worship and gifts, and share them with the worldwide Church. This Ordinariate will soon be expanded to Australia, Japan, and the U.S. A Lutheran group has already expressed interest in being in full communion with the See of Rome, as well. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has received requests from Lutherans asking for a structure similar to the Anglican Ordinariate. A number of Anglican parishes are converting to Catholicism as groups. The Anglican

Ordinariate is seen as a bridge, so that Anglicans will not have to swim across the Tiber to Rome. This is also happening in Episcopalian churches in the United States and Canada. Last year, a Pentecostal pastor and a large part of his congregation flocked to Rome and not without being rejected by many people who disowned them, believing they had apostasized. Would we have imagined that Reformed churches would ever sit down with Catholics to discuss the nature of Baptism and the Eucharist, or that even Bible churches are staring to observe dates of the liturgical calendar other than Christmas and Easter? Would we have imagined before Vatican II that thousands of Protestant pastors and scholars
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Joseph Augustine Dinoia, Ecumenism and the New Evangelization in Ut Unum Sint in Church Unity and the Papal Office, p. 165.

 would convert to the Catholic faith, and with them many of their parishioners? With them

come many reverts who never understood their Catholic faith to begin with. This is to be a lesson for Catholics to properly catechize people in the faith. Tim Drake mentions in his article The Lutheran Landslide that one of the most under-reported religious stories of the past decade has been the movement of Lutherans across the Tiber.26 That is a true statement. Protestants are re-discovering the roots of the Catholic faith, which they already share with us to a large extent. Richard Mouw, President at Fuller Theological Seminary, writes,
We evangelicals at our generic worst suffer from theological amnesia. Our narratives about the old time religion tend to leave whole centuries even whole millenniaout of the story of how God has led his church into new understandings of the truth of the gospel. We need conversation partners who will invite us into living communities of memory.27

Fortunately, these communities of memory are still around to show us that tradition and liturgy are positive reminders that our faith is a living, breathing relationship with Almighty God. Since Popes John XXIII and Paul VI changed the tone of the rhetoric towards non- Catholics, relations have improved. Catholics less and less frequently use terms like the one true Church although in essence that has not changed, and instead speak of the apostolic faith as the fullness of the truth. We no longer speak of Protestants as heretics, but as brothers and sisters in Christ who are not in full communion with us. That is a significant step. We must overcome triumphalism and realize that ecumenism is not an end in itself. The Church does not seek to grow in unity for its own sake. The Church always must be centered on its mission, which is to proclaim the Gospel to the world and to help Christ in gathering all people to himself gathering, not scattering. Many Christians are realizing that our incoherent witness to the world is not doing much in the culture war. The Holy Spirit is at work by moving Christians to seek full unity with God and their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But first, the dialogue of charity must always precede the dialogue of truth.

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Tim Drake, The Lutheran Landslide, March 18, 2011, in http://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-lutheran-landslide/. Richard Mouw, The Problem of Authority in Evangelical Christianity in Church Unity and the Papal Office.

 One observation, again from Peter Kreeft, regarding the hope for ecumenism is that with Christ, this is possible; without Christ, this is impossible. Kreeft reassures us, We know [ecumenism] will happen, because it is Christs will. We just dont know when.28 One final meditation, from Pope Benedict XVIs (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time) Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today:

"When Christ announced that The Kingdom of God is near at hand, he announced that God is near. Christ is that nearness. The Kingdom of God was promised, what came was Jesus. Ratzinger continues, But Jesus is never alone. For he came in order to gather together what was dispersed (cf. Jn. 11:52; Mt. 12:30). His entire work is thus to gather the new people (See #15.1).29

In conclusion, the Catholic understanding of ecumenism is not for Christians to join

arms, dismiss their differences, and work together for a pact or common project. As Peter Kreeft says, Ecumenical jihads are good, but not good enough.30 True ecumenism is a challenge for everyone: for Catholics to be truly Catholic by giving their assent of faith to Christ and his Church, renewing their relationship with Christ through the means of grace that the Church offersand for Protestants to enter the conversation about why Catholics believe the claims the Church makes about herself. Some may ask, Why not just meet Jesus and forget about the institutional Church? Jesus straight, not mixed drink Catholics believe that our ecclesiology is not superfluous to the central gospel message, but a direct result of Christs will for us; that Christ gave us Mary as mother and Peter as shepherd; that the Apostles were sent by Jesus; that the closer we stay to them, the closer we stay to Christ, who himself established his Church and gave her to us at the Pentecost event (see #15.1 and 15.3).31 As John Paul II wrote, God already manifested the Church in its final reality a reality already given.32 We, though many, become one Body with Christ when we consummate our love with Christ in the Eucharist the marriage supper of the Lamb, the source and summit of the Christian life.33 This communion is primarily with God through Christ, and also with one another. May we all strive for a more perfect unity with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who alone can bring us to closer communion with one another through love. Then, the world will know we are Christians, by our love.

Peter Kreeft, Ecumenism Without Compromise. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today, p. 23. 30 Peter Kreeft, Ecumenism Without Compromise, in reference to his book Ecumenical Jihad: Ecumenism and the Culture War. 31 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today, p. 43. 32 John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 14. 33 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1324.
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