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The Vatican has dealt a blow to Catholic-Protestant relations by reaffirming its doubts about the validity of Protestant churches and by officially ordering Catholic bishops not to use the term "sister churches" in reference to them. An official "note" by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, warns that describing Protestant churches as "sister churches" can cause "ambiguities."

Another document, Dominus Iesus: On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church, also published today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declares that churches that do not have a "valid Episcopate [bishops] and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery are not Churches in the proper sense."

The two documents suggest a distinction between, on the one hand, the Roman and Orthodox churches which, according to Rome, are closely related, and, on the other hand, the Protestant communities. Both documents pointedly avoid using the word "church" when referring to Protestants, adopting instead the non-committal word "ecclesial communities."

Protestant churches contacted by ENI today were politely critical of the Vatican statements, although they pointed out that the documents contained nothing that had not been said before.

Cardinal Ratzinger's note on the expression "sister churches," dated June 30, 2000, was published this week by Adista, a Catholic publication in Rome. Cardinal Ratzinger has also sent a separate letter to the heads of Catholic bishops' conferences around the world warning that bishops should not use the term when speaking of "the Anglican communion and non-catholic ecclesial communities."

The cardinal's note, approved by Pope John Paul on June 9, is "to be held as authoritative and binding," according to Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to the bishops' conferences. The four-page note gives a detailed history of the use of the term "sister churches," explaining that it was used in reference to the Orthodox churches with which Rome was in communion for many centuries. However, even on this point, Cardinal Ratzinger claims Rome's superiority to other churches, stating: "In this connection, it needs to be noted that no Roman Pontiff ever recognized this equalization of sees or accepted that only a primacy of honor be accorded to the See of Rome"—meaning that Rome has superior authority.

Cardinal Ratzinger adds that in modern times, the expression "sister churches" was used by the late Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I (patriarch from 1948 to 1972), who "often expressed the hope of seeing the unity between the sister churches re-established in the near future." Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II have also used the expression in reference to Orthodoxy, the note adds.

But the cardinal adds: "It must always be clear, when the expression 'sister churches' is used in this proper sense, that the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Universal Church is not sister but 'mother' of all the particular Churches." He also states that "one cannot properly say that the Catholic Church is the sister of a particular church or group of churches. This is not merely a question of terminology, but above all of respecting a basic truth of the Catholic faith: that of the unicity of the Church of Jesus Christ. In fact, there is but a single Church, and therefore the plural term churches can refer only to particular churches."

The cardinal's note ends with a warning: "The expression 'sister churches' in the proper sense, as attested by the common tradition of East and West, may only be used for those ecclesial communities that have preserved a valid episcopate and Eucharist."

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October 23 2000, Vol. 44, No. 12