Ecumenical Developments in the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S.

Ecumenism is making substantial though not sensational progress in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. There are small pockets of resistance here and there but no large-scale opposition to the movement. The extent of ecumenical progress in Catholic circles can be gauged, I think, from the fact that it was only a little more than a decade ago that Cardinal Stritch of Chicago forbade any Catholic to attend the World Council General Assembly at Evanston.

The most immediate cause of the recent acceleration in the pace of our ecumenical progress has been the participation of the Catholic bishops themselves in the movement. Ten years ago ecumenism was thought to be a dubious and marginal hobby of specialists such as Father Gustave Weigel. Now the American hierarchy has set up the U. S. Bishops Commission for Ecumenical Affairs to foster the movement and to supply the bishops with guidelines for activities such as dialogue and joint prayer services. This official involvement of the bishops overshadows all the high-level dialogues by biblical scholars and theologians as well as the multitudinous projects for religious cooperation in civic and academic affairs. For the hierarchy now officially recognizes other Christians not merely as individuals but as churches, in line with the Vatican Council decree on ecumenism.

The Bishops Commission has established a number of subcommissions for dialogue with other churches: one for the Lutherans, one for the Methodists, the Anglicans, the Orthodox, the Presbyterians and Reformed, the Conservatives, the National Council of Churches and the World Council—and the Jews. The subcommission for the National and World Councils will be a counterpart of the joint Vatican—World Council working group that meets at Geneva. The subcommission is meeting May 25 and 20 in New York. Among the topics for discussion at this and other meetings will be mixed marriages, peace, baptism, and common prayer and worship.

This central Bishops Commission has also established a special committee for Education on Ecumenism. The chairman, Father Colman Barry, O. S. B., has stated that it will concern itself with the education of children as well as adults, with the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine as with Catholic schools, with the secular campus as well as the Catholic college, with the seminary as with parish life—all with the view of giving an ecumenical orientation to Catholic education.

Dr. Eugene L. Smith of the World Council of Churches has called attention to “rebellious ecumenism.” This is not a Roman Catholic problem, at least not yet. Our problem at present is protest from young priests and seminarians who claim that certain bishops are not carrying out Vatican Council reforms. Under the doctrine of collegiality enunciated at the council, the Pope will now exercise his authority in the framework of dialogue with the bishops of the church; and it was the mind of the council that every person in authority—bishop, pastor, or religious superior—should exercise his or her authority in dialogue by “talking things over” with his or her subjects.

Encouraged by the official involvement of the bishops, Catholic theologians and Bible scholars are meeting with Protestant and Orthodox scholars in public or private dialogues all over the country. Two of the most active centers for this top-level professional dialogue have been Packard Manse, outside Boston, and the Paulist Center in Boston. Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities are exchanging guest lecturers, and several Catholic theologians and Bible scholars are visiting professors at Protestant Divinity Schools: Father Bernard Haring, for instance, succeeds Father Roland Murphy at Yale Divinity School for 1966–67. The presidents of Union Theological Seminary, New York, and Fordham University in New York recently announced that their institutions have set up a permanent relationship in which there will be an exchange of professors and reciprocal acceptance of academic credits on the graduate level. One especially interesting news item is that Martin Scharlemann, professor of New Testament studies at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis, has gone to Rome to study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the first Lutheran ever to enroll there.

Ecumenism is of course a byword in religious publishing. A Catholic edition of the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament has received an imprimatur. Protestant scholars have been writing in Catholic periodicals, and Catholic newspapers feature Protestant columnists such as Marty, Pelikan, and Robert McAfee Brown. A Catholic-oriented press, the Guild Press, along with American Press and a Protestant press, Association Press, have just published (March 7) a paperback containing the sixteen council documents along with comments by Protestant and Orthodox observers. The Paulist Press publishes not only the Ecumenist, edited by Father Gregory Baum, but also a series of booklets on the Protestant churches written by Protestants and the booklet called Living Room Dialogues. This paperback, designed to further “grass roots” dialogue, appeals under the sponsorship of the National Council of Churches and the Good Will Apostolate of the Catholic Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. It is now in its second printing of 50,000. The Graymoor Friars publish the ecumenical magazine At-One-Ment, and Duquesne University publishes the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.

There is a lively ecumenical ferment in Catholic parishes across the land. The enthusiasm, usually fostered by younger clergy and laity, has expressed itself in joint prayer services in many areas, especially since Pope Paul himself set the example by participating in a Bible vigil with Protestant and Orthodox observers at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls on December 4. This year for the first time Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox used the same pamphlet of prayers and procedures for the Week of Christian Unity. It was published by the National Council of Churches and the Graymoor Friars. One picturesque example of a joint prayer service was that at Baltimore on January 23 in which Catholic and Protestant clergy preached, a combined Catholic-Protestant choir sang, and the Scriptures were read. The service opened with a processional of fifty-six clergy—Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox.

The impact of the ecumenical movement shows up in parishes in many ways. There has been a notable drop in the total number of converts to the Catholic Church. This may be due, of course, to the increasing secularization of American society and a corresponding decrease in interest in religion. However, it seems more probable that it is due to a realization that individual conversions do not usually help the ecumenical movement; this leads to an abandonment of high-pressure campaigns directed to Protestant or Orthodox partners in mixed marriages. Another reason for the drop might be the increased cooperation between ministers and priests in regard to prospective conversions. The chaplains at Yale recently drafted ground rules for convert making. Chaplains from twelve churches including the Roman Catholic agreed to avoid any means of evangelization that “compromises the intellect, spiritual integrity, dignity and freedom of any person on the campus.” Parish clergy, Catholic and Protestant, often arrive at a similar agreement about conversions.

Ecumenism received a setback last year with the conditional baptism of Luci Baines Johnson, a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. Episcopal Bishop Stephen F. Bayne commented: “What is significant about the whole degrading episode is how little attempt was made … to point out the true and supernatural dimensions of baptism as Christians understand it.” Father Thomas F. Stransky, C. S. P., an official of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity at Rome, chided American priests for baptizing conditionally without making a proper investigation of the original baptism. One happy result of the entire episode was that certain diocesan guidelines now warn against rebaptizing without investigation. The guidelines for the diocese of Atlanta say that in the case of Christians entering the Roman Catholic Church, conditional baptism can be administered only when the priest has a prudent doubt about the original baptism, and even then the proper authorities should be consulted.

The decree on ecumenism states that training of young priests should have an ecumenical orientation. This will soon begin to bear fruit in parochial preaching in the biblical content of parish sermons. A unique ecumenical event this year was the annual convention of the Catholic Homiletic Society, at which Dr. Kyle Haselden, editor of the Pulpit, was main speaker. At one of the meetings, presided over by Dr. William Thompson of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Protestant biblical scholar, a Protestant educator, a Protestant counselor, and a Protestant rhetoric critic evaluated, a taped sermon by Ralph Lightbody.

The Roman Catholic laity seem to be adapting quickly to their role in grass-roots ecumenism. In St. Louis in January, 52,000 Roman Catholics and 150 parishes completed a six-weeks study course on the Constitution on the Church, and among the suggestions they offered their parish assemblies was “more contact with members of other churches.” The National Council of Catholic Men and the National Council of Catholic Women have launched a national closed-circuit TV dialogue with religious leaders and civic leaders in seventy major cities of the United States. It features a program kit produced in cooperation with Protestant and Jewish agencies to be distributed in parishes throughout the United States.

One of the most important lines in the decree on ecumenism is that which says: “There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without interior conversion. Father Couturier, the early French ecumenist, emphasized this spiritual ecumenism, and European Catholics insist strongly on the need for ecumenists to cultivate a keen sense of the presence of God in order to achieve a more perfect obedience to the Holy Spirit. In American Catholic circles, the emphasis in ecumenism, is still on activism; but there are signs of more profound stirrings of the Spirit. There are meetings such as that of the Spiritual Life Institute held at Collegeville, Minnesota, last September where men of the stature of Douglas Steere and Godfrey Diekmann shared insights on the devotional side of religion. The Gustave Weigel Society established in Washington promotes ecumenical retreats. Co-chairmen are Dr. Douglas Horton and Father John Courtney Murray. On its immediate agenda are a retreat for Catholic priests, Protestant ministers and their wives, and Catholic religious, a retreat for Fellow Christian Clergymen, and one for Fellow Christian Laymen. Retreats for ministers conducted by Catholic priests have not been uncommon in recent years.

The Catholic and Protestant liturgical movements seem to run parallel and in some respects to converge. One interesting development has been the appearance of Catholic bishops at Protestant and Anglican funerals and at consecrations of Anglicans. Because of the immense crowd, Marymount College in Salina, Kansas, on January 6 made available its fine arts auditorium for the consecration of the Rev. William Davidson of the Protestant Episcopal Church. An Episcopal and Orthodox bishop had places of honor at the consecration of Bishop Breitenbeck as auxiliary bishop of Detroit, the first time in Detroit history that prelates of other Christian churches were seated in the sanctuary.

At the official top-level dialogues between Catholic and other Christian groups, the Eucharist and Baptism have figured prominently. At the Roman Catholic-Anglican meeting at Kansas City, February 2–4, 1966 the topic was “The Eucharist: Sign and Cause of Unity. The Church as a Eucharistic Fellowship.” Two position papers were presented, one by Father Bernard Cooke, S.J., and one by Father Arthur Vogel, an Anglican. Father Cooke’s paper asserted that if we really believe the Eucharist is a cause of unity, we should not unduly delay intercommunion. “Perhaps the most appropriate way,” he said, “is to make a proposal—why cannot we in the private and controlled situation that is ours in this conference celebrate together the Eucharist?” Father Vogel also spoke favorably about the possibilities of Roman Catholic-Anglican intercommunion before unity. Incidentally, at the Xavier College theology symposium last month, the noted English Catholic theologian Charles Davis said that attempts to rethink the doctrine of transubstantiation can be expected to continue.” It is well to observe that dissatisfaction with the older theology of transubstantiation is not primarily due to doubts about the Aristotelian philosophy as such. What is seen as defective is an explanation that draws upon a philosophy of nature while making no appeal to personal categories.”

At the Catholic-Lutheran meeting in Chicago February 4–6, 1966, the topic was the baptismal article of the Nicene Creed, “I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.” A joint statement published at the end of the meeting said, “We were reasonably certain that the teachings of our respective traditions regarding baptism are in agreement and this opinion has been confirmed at this meeting.”

One persistent source of Catholic-Protestant friction has been non-theological, the Protestant suspicion that the Roman Catholic hierarchy in centers of concentrated Catholic population have been exerting undue influence in the enacting or sustaining of laws pertaining to such matters as censorship, federal aid to Catholic schools, birth control, and divorce. The objection has been that the Catholic Church was imposing Catholic moral theology on the conscience of the public. In recent months, there has been a noticeable tendency on the part of American Catholic bishops to withdraw their support of many of these laws, especially when they are considered bad jurisprudence. In New York, the Committee of Catholic Citizens to Support Divorce Reform includes men like Frank O’Connor, New York City Council president; and the bishops of New York State have announced their readiness to accept divorce reforms if they do not encourage the breakup of marriages.

Since the great march at Selma, Roman Catholic participation in civic and social projects (which is recommended strongly by the Ecumenism decree) has been so common that I will not attempt to single out any examples. But there is a growing opinion in Catholic circles that this type of ecumenical enterprise may prove to be the most fruitful type in the future. I think most Catholics would agree with Dr. George Lindbeck, who says in Dialogue on the Way (p. 233) that the area of problems of the modern world “perhaps represents one of the most promising edges of ecumenism. Here, as in the area of biblical research, Protestants and Catholics can cooperatively seek common answers to common problems, rather than simply struggle with differences inherited from the past.” He goes on to say, however, that even here, the burden of our divisions is still with us, and that there are characteristic differences between the Catholic and Protestant approaches to the modern world.

You have undoubtedly read in Christianity and Crisis (April 4) about the new “secular ecumenists,” whose ecumenical interest lies in the relation between Church and world. You will find a similar line of thinking in other Catholic theologians. In a recent talk at Catholic University, the Catholic ecumenist Avery Dulles said: “From many quarters … one hears the call for a new ecumenism—one less committed to historical-theological controversies and more in touch with contemporary secular man: one less turned in upon itself, more open to the world and its concerns. The great decisions affecting man’s future are being made in the sphere of the secular and Christianity does not seem to be there.”

I said earlier that the ecumenical movement is making substantial though not sensational progress in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. I think the pace of ecumenism is every bit as rapid in American Catholicism as in American Protestantism or Orthodoxy. But after all, we have just passed through a Vatican Council that has revitalized and renewed the Church, and our ecumenical dynamism should be far more pronounced.

The delay is due, I believe, not to a defect in Roman Catholic thinking but to the strength of deep-rooted Catholic reflexes. I find the Catholic clergy convinced by and large that ecumenism is the will of God and the mind of the Church, but they are slowed down by legalism. They are accustomed to taking orders, and they want to wait for official directives before taking action. They tend, moreover, to interpret the directives according to the rigid letter of the documents. I don’t believe this was the mind of the council. The bishops wanted the council documents implemented, of course; but they felt that the spirit and dynamism of aggiornamento should outrun the cautious wording of council documents or episcopal directives. As Father Thomas Stransky, C. S. P., says in the January Clergy Review, the decree on ecumenism is “an open charter for a movement, not an absolute statement of a static position.” And he quotes in support of this the conclusion of the ecumenism decree, which expresses the hope “that the initiatives of the sons of the Catholic Church joined with those of the separated brethren will go forward, without obstructing the ways of divine Providence and without prejudging the future inspirations of the Holy Spirit.”

This legalism is to be found among some bishops, especially those who seem to be deferring ecumenical programs until the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity issues its guidelines. Generally, legalism is found not among bishops of a theological bent who think in terms of pastoral administration but among those who are juridically trained and think in terms of canon law.

The two groups that show the greatest enthusiasm for the ecumenical movement are the nuns and the seminarians. They do not hesitate to demonstrate their enthusiasm. The laity generally are somewhat more reticent. Accustomed to many years of passive docility, they are not in any hurry to avail themselves of the benefits of Chapter IV of the Constitution on the Church, which says that laity should openly reveal to their pastors their needs and desires “with that freedom and confidence, which is fitting for children of God and brothers in Christ,” this chapter also says that laity are sometimes “obliged to express their opinions on those things that concern the good of the Church.”

However, enough of the dark side of the ecumenical picture. Pope John would want me to emphasize the bright side; and if we look at the Catholic ecumenical picture as it was in 1962, we can say that the picture is very bright today. In fact, what has happened in the last four years is nothing short of miraculous.

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