The Pope in Geneva: Milestone or Millstone?

Roman Catholic membership in the World Council of Churches is “not envisaged at the moment, and is not likely to occur in the near future.”

With this statement on the eve of the June 10 papal visit to Geneva’s Ecumenical Center, WCC officials put an end to speculation. Pope Paul VI himself raised and answered the question again when, during his visit, he said: “In fraternal frankness, we do not consider that the question of membership of the Catholic Church in the World Council is so mature that a positive answer could or should be given. The question remains an hypothesis. It contains serious theological and pastoral implications. It thus requires profound study and commits us to a way that honesty recognizes could be long and difficult.”

Pope Paul’s visit to the city of Calvin was the result of an initial invitation for him to address the fiftieth-anniversary conference of the International Labour Organization, a division of the United Nations with strong Vatican ties. After accepting, the Pope indicated a desire to visit the headquarters of the World Council of Churches. An official invitation was then sent to Rome by the WCC general secretary, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake.

Predictably, there was opposition to the Pope’s visit, both in and out of Geneva. This caused the president of the Council d’Etat, M. Gilbert Duboule, to affirm: “Geneva is not denying her past. But her authorities are concerned that each person shows an open-mindedness and tolerance, in order to give the papal visit the dignity it deserves.” He added that the Pope himself had requested a public announcement that “he would wish to cause as little embarrassment as possible to those who do not welcome his presence.”

Swiss Protestants, led by the local Evangelical Alliance, staged a demonstration that, it was said, was “not [to] be interpreted in a spirit of opposition.” Some 2,000 met at the historic Reformation Wall to “reaffirm together, in good order and dignity, our attachment to Jesus Christ and the spiritual heritage of the Reformation.” Their Sunday-morning demonstration, two days before the Pope’s arrival, was referred to at a WCC press conference the following day as “an ecumenical action.”

Less “good order and dignity” was expected with the threatened arrival of Northern Ireland’s militant Ian Paisley. His promise to fly to Geneva with twenty supporters was accompanied by a letter bearing the name of one of his colleagues in which it was claimed that Switzerland’s “only contribution to culture was the invention of the cuckoo clock!” Swiss authorities tried to save the party the price of their plane tickets by warning that Paisley would be denied entry to the country. Still he came, but with an entourage numbering only five. After an impromptu press conference at the airport in which he denied knowledge of the “cuckoo clock” letter, he spent the night in the transit lounge. Came the dawn, and the group was put aboard the first flight to London. Their plane was awaiting take-off clearance as the Pope’s Swissair “Coronado” arrived from Rome.

Another objector, described by the Swiss press as a “well-known … archenemy of ecumenism,” failed to arrive. No official ban had been placed on Dr. Carl McIntire, but he was prevented from coming by problems of his own, according to a representative at one of two meetings at which he was scheduled to speak.

Having seen an end to such disquieting possibilities, the Swiss authorities set about organizing the Pope’s visit with the precision for which they are famous. Time, it is said, is the art of the Swiss, and they kept to the schedule with commendable punctuality most of the day.

A comparatively short and simple welcoming ceremony at the airport was followed by a processional drive direct to the Palais des Nations, where the pontiff fulfilled his primary obligation in addressing members of the International Labour Organization.

From here he went to meet with Swiss authorities, and later he received Catholic bishops of Switzerland and representatives of Catholic International organizations. His visit to the World Council of Churches came before he conducted a final mass for Swiss Catholics. Soon after this, he left for Rome.

In personal conversation the previous day, Blake emphasized to this reporter that “this is more than a mere courtesy visit. It is une rencontre de fraternité chrétienne [a visit of Christian fellowship].”

When the Pope arrived at the Ecumenical Centre, he was greeted by Blake and three others: M. M. Thomas, chairman of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, Miss Pauline Webb, a vice-chairman, and the other vice-chairman, Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon, who was embraced warmly by the Pope. Other officers were introduced to the Pope before he was taken into the building’s main conference hall, where the WCC’s honorary president and former general secretary, Dr. W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft, welcomed him to the platform.

True to a Vatican spokesman’s promise that “the program will not only include speeches, but also a time of common prayer,” the Pope shared in a thirty-minute worship service.

In his welcoming speech, Blake told his honored guest: “By coming to this house … you remind the whole world of the rapidly developing joint efforts of the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches in the interest of justice and peace.…”

Contact between the two ecclesiastical bodies began nine years ago when Dr. Visser’t Hooft and the late Cardinal Bea first met in Milan. 1965 saw the beginning of a more concrete link with the creation of a Joint Working Group, which has already met nine times. The WCC and the Vatican have sent observers to each other’s major meetings, and Blake has visited Rome three times for discussion with the Pope.

In continuing his welcoming speech, Blake affirmed: “Your visit here further signifies the growth of the ecumenical movement, through which Christ is gathering his Church in our century. This house itself is both a reminder of the divisions in the Christian community and a sign of growing fellowship among the churches. This fellowship is not primarily based on the efforts of men but seeks to be a response of the churches to the action of the Holy Spirit. It does not seek unity at the expense of truth.…”

In response to this welcome, the Pope expressed his appreciation of the World Council, which he described as “a marvelous movement of Christians, of children of God who are scattered abroad who are now searching for a recomposition in unity.”

Then, almost immediately, he said: “Our name is Peter,” following the statement with a clear endorsement of the apostolic succession he claims.

“The name Paul which we have assumed,” he added, “sufficiently points out the orientation which we have wanted to give our apostolic ministry.”

Speaking of ecumenism, he identified his primary concern as “more the quality of this manifold cooperation than the mere multiplication of activities.” “There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without interior conversion,” he asserted.

The Pope concluded his speech by quoting John 17:21–23, 26.

An unplanned and surprise incident was the presentation of an anonymous gift of $100,000 to the Pope for him to pass on to the leprosy work carried on through the World Council of Churches.

Private talks between the Pope and top WCC officials continued longer than scheduled so that he was late in leaving the Ecumenical Centre. As his heavily guarded black Cadillac sped across town to where some 60,000 were waiting for him to conduct an open-air mass, the expressed view of World Council leaders was that his visit represented “an important milestone on the long road which we still have to cover.”

Some may view such a milestone as more of a millstone. Those who are unenthusiastic about treading “the long road” may find themselves in a large company, according to the Rt. Rev. Andrzej Wantula, Bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland. When interviewed concerning the Pope’s visit to the WCC headquarters, he had this to say about the ecumenical movement: “Out of hundreds of millions of Christians, there are only several thousand theologians and clergy, and a similar number of laymen, involved in the movement. Great masses of ordinary church people have not been moved by the movement. Most of them have heard only scraps of news about it, and many have heard nothing at all.”

Lutherans-Catholics Talk

Unity talks between Lutherans and Roman Catholics intensified recently when a group from the World Lutheran Federation called on Pope Paul at the Vatican to talk about unity and Catholic church structure. Leader of the group, André Appel of France, told his hosts: “We feel particularly desirous to deepen the dialogue with Rome.” In reply, the pontiff called the visit “a visible sign” of growing relations between Lutherans and Catholics. The two bodies have held yearly unity meetings since 1965.

Panorama

Trustees of New York’s Interchurch Center, which houses numerous denominational headquarters, secured a court injunction late in June to remove black militant James Forman from their building. Supporters of Forman, who is demanding $500 million in reparations from America’s churches, had occupied the building off and on since early May. Forman called the Protestant action “barbaric.”

According to a recent Gallup Poll, 70 per cent of America’s adults think religion is losing its influence. Only 14 per cent felt that way in 1957.

This fall Washington Bible College will move its main campus from the District of Columbia to a former Roman Catholic institution, Divine Saviour Seminary, in Lanham, Maryland. The seminary, to be purchased for $1.2 million, will help alleviate WBC growing pains (more than 250 students on a campus built for 125). The interdenominational school plans to maintain the Washington campus for adult night classes and other functions.

New York’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese claimed a $1.2 million operating deficit during 1968. In this first fiscal report ever made by the archdiocese, blame was laid on the rising cost of parochial education. The archdiocese is regarded as one of the richest in the world.

Regent College, a new school seeking to train college graduates in Christian thought and life before they begin professional careers, begins operation in Saint Andrew’s Hall, University of British Columbia, this month. This summer’s sessions include such scholars as Stuart Barton Babbage (Conwell School of Theology), W. J. Martin (University of Liverpool), and P. F. Barkman (Fuller Seminary).

Presbyterian Survey, official monthly magazine of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S., will become a semi-monthly in September in an attempt to boost drooping circulation (see June 20 issue, page 30). It will have sixteen rather than forty-eight pages, with more emphasis on news. Inserts will be added to copies for persons interested in such areas as education, missions, and women’s work.

Duke Ellington and his orchestra will play a “sacred” concert at the National Council of Churches’ seventh General Assembly, to be held in Cobo Hall, Detroit, November 30-December 4. Dr. John Gardner, former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, now head of the National Urban Coalition, will deliver the keynote address. “Therefore, Choose Life” is the theme of the triennial assembly.

Prague’s “Singing Pastor,” Lubos Svoboda, a youthful Hussite minister, packs ’em in each night at a swinging little theater while he belts out original rock-and-roll renditions of biblical songs. Despite Czechoslovakia’s official policy of atheism, the priest is one of the country’s most popular entertainers.

World Parish

Because it is too busy publishing the “little red book” of the Thoughts of Chairman Mao, the Hong Kong Press has terminated a three-generation-old contract with the Bible Society there. Scripture printing will now be spread among several firms.

The saint-loving Church of Greece frowns at Rome’s recent decanonization of some forty saints. “Utterly uncalled for,” muttered an Athens theological professor. “A stab at the ecumenical council,” added the bishop of Sparta. An upcoming synod of bishops is expected to speak even more strongly.

Ecuador is the major target of this year’s Evangelism-in-Depth campaigns among Spanish-speaking peoples. Some 20,000 evangelicals are expected to be mobilized into Christian witnessing.

In Dublin, delegates to the General Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church heard their new moderator, the Rev. John T. Carson, plead that the church not substitute a justifiable concern about social improvement for the essential proclamation of salvation through Christ alone.

A clinic has been added to Faith Hospital in Glennallen, Alaska, by the Central Alaskan Mission. The hospital serves an area about the size of Ohio.

Canadian Presbyterians, meeting in Toronto, learned that their church membership declined by some 3,500 to 194,444 communicants this past year. The General Assembly opposed the appointment of a Canadian ambassador to the Vatican, agreed to continue sending observers to Anglican-United Church union meetings without actually joining the talks, and condemned law officials who resort to brutality in the name of law and order.

The New Testament has been published in the Somali language for the first time. Sudan Interior Mission staff members, who have been working in the eastern African country since 1945, also are nearing completion of an Old Testament translation.

DEATHS

FREDERICK C. FOWLER, JR., 67, United Presbyterian minister, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals; in Elk Park, North Carolina.

WALTER C. GUM, 71, retired Methodist bishop; in Norfolk, Virginia.

ELIZABETH STRACHAN, 52, widow of Kenneth Strachan, who was head of Latin America Mission and architect of the Evangelism-in-Depth concept; of a cerebral hemorrhage while swimming near Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

Personalia

According to a recent California court injunction, Kirby J. Hensley, head of the Universal Life Church and self-appointed ordainer of 17,000 ministers since 1962, can no longer issue mail-order divinity degrees—at least in his home state. “We’ll appeal,” he declared; but meanwhile the “bishop” will move his business to Nevada or Arizona—“whichever of them can mind its own business best.”

Controversial Roman Catholic Archbishop Robert E. Lucey, San Antonio, has retired at age 78. The reason, he said, was his age, not the demand by fifty-one archdiocesan priests last fall that he quit.

Salvation Army Major Thelma Smith has become the first New Zealand woman to receive a United Nations fellowship. She is the matron of Bethany Maternity Hospital and will use the award to study the problems of unwed mothers and of adoption.

Dr. Chandu Ray, Anglican Bishop of Karachi for the past twelve years, has been named executive director of the Coordinating Office for Asian Evangelism. The office was created recently at the direction of the Asia-South Pacific Congress on Evangelism. Offices will be in Singapore.

Liberal Roman Catholic Bishop James P. Shannon has confirmed his resignation as auxiliary bishop of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, despite official church denials. Cause: his inability to accept the church’s ban on birth control.

The first Eskimo deacon of the Anglican Church of Canada was ordained for the Eastern Arctic region at Povungnetuk, Quebec. He is the Rev. Isa Kopekoalak, 51, only the sixth Eskimo in Canada ever to reach clerical rank.

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