Father, first of all I am happy you have decided not to completely leave CAF
I’m making a drop in visit as someone chose to attempt to “explain” my thoughts in a way particularly egregious; I’ve corrected the record & explained myself
I would appreciate if you could explain what you mean by “superannuated”
One encounters texts on this forum that are presented as though the text itself were definitive. This is very alien to the concept of Catholic theology and one must beware of it. In excommunicating Archbishop Lefebvre and the others in 1988, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote
But especially contradictory is a notion of Tradition which opposes the universal Magisterium of the Church possessed by the Bishop of Rome and the Body of Bishops. It is impossible to remain faithful to the Tradition while breaking the ecclesial bond with him to whom, in the person of the Apostle Peter, Christ himself entrusted the ministry of unity in his Church
We look to the
living Magisterium to guide us…not simply to texts. Francis and PCPCU are who we look to today. Pius XI and Leo XIII are both dead. The Church is not in the place where it was when either occupied the Chair of Peter. Pope Leo XIII’s refusal to associate the Catholic Church with the World Council of Churches was revisited and changed by his successor. Thus his decision was superannuated by subsequent papal acts and those of an ecumenical council
The Council Fathers in
Unitatis Redintegratio, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recognised that the ecumenical movement is a divine imperative
*The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. /…/ It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church /…/
Today, in many parts of the world, under the inspiring grace of the Holy Spirit, many efforts are being made in prayer, word and action to attain that fullness of unity which Jesus Christ desires.
The Sacred Council exhorts all the Catholic faithful to recognize the signs of the times and to take an active and intelligent part in the work of ecumenism*
The Holy Father and dicasteries of the Holy See not only allow but mandate our engagement with the other Christian communities. We are well moved beyond what Pius XI expressed. That mindset changes in & after World War II. As Pope Benedict said in Erfurt in 2011
As the martyrs of the Nazi era brought us together and prompted that great initial ecumenical opening, so today, faith that is lived from deep within amid a secularized world is the most powerful ecumenical force that brings us together, guiding us towards unity in the one Lord. And we pray to him, asking that we may learn to live the faith anew, and that in this way we may then become one
There Benedict also said, far removed from the words of Pius XI
I would respond by saying that the first and most important thing for ecumenism is that we keep in view just how much we have in common, not losing sight of it amid the pressure towards secularization – everything that makes us Christian in the first place and continues to be our gift and our task. It was the error of the Reformation period that for the most part we could only see what divided us and we failed to grasp existentially what we have in common in terms of the great deposit of sacred Scripture and the early Christian creeds. For me, the great ecumenical step forward of recent decades is that we have become aware of all this common ground, that we acknowledge it as we pray and sing together, as we make our joint commitment to the Christian ethos in our dealings with the world, as we bear common witness to the God of Jesus Christ in this world as our inalienable, shared foundation
In terms of a text to close with, I would recommend a prayerful reading of
Ut Unum Sint, Pope Saint John Paul II’s encyclical. Here is a relevant passage
*42. It happens for example that, in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, Christians of one confession no longer consider other Christians as enemies or strangers but see them as brothers and sisters. Again, 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. Today we speak of “other Christians”, “others who have received Baptism”, and “Christians of other Communities”. 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”. **This broadening of vocabulary is indicative of a significant change in attitudes. There is an increased awareness that we all belong to Christ. I have personally been able many times to observe this during the ecumenical celebrations which are an important part of my Apostolic Visits to various parts of the world, and also in the meetings and ecumenical celebrations which have taken place in Rome. *
The “universal brotherhood” of Christians has become a firm ecumenical conviction. Consigning to oblivion the excommunications of the past, Communities which were once rivals are now in many cases helping one another
vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html
Who was once a stand-in God parent for a baptism of some RC friends’ child. It was a sort of emergency, I think.
