Catholic Primacy Issue Sparks Global Debate on Church Unity
Jul 14, 2007
The Holy See moved to reassure dismayed non-Catholics that a recent document reasserting the primacy of the Catholic Church was not meant to reverse gains made in ecumenical relations.
Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi, 13 July 2007) Protestants and evangelicals around the world reacted sharply to the document, made public on Tuesday, which stated that it is only the Catholic Church that has all the elements that Jesus Christ himself instituted.
Other churches outside the Catholic Church "suffer from defects", though they are not deprived of significance in the mystery of salvation.
The president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, said the document was an "invitation to dialogue." It is "not saying anything new, but explains, in a synthetic way, the position of the Catholic Church."
In a statement to ZENIT, Cardinal Kasper stated: "This is not a new development and therefore there is no reason for resentment or to feel as if they have been treated offhandedly. Dialogue presupposes clarity on differing positions."
The Russian Orthodox Church called "honest" the position of the Vatican, according to Interfax news agency. "It is an honest statement. It is much better than the so-called 'church diplomacy'," said Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who heads the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.
"For an honest theological dialogue to happen, one should have a clear view of the position of the other side," because "it helps understand how different we are," he said.
But Pastor Thomas Wipf, president of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe - with 105 Lutheran, Reformed, United, Methodist member churches on the continent - declared that "this kind of document sends the wrong signals."
"The challenges of this world call out for churches to work together. Communion is not an ideal, it is our task," he added.
The secretary-general of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Setri Nyomi, wrote to Cardinal Kasper: "Let us pray so that the Catholic Church gets beyond exclusivist pretexts, so that the cause for Christian unity may go forward."
Nyomi said of the document: "It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogues with the Reformed family and other families of the church. It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity."
Cardinal Kasper affirmed that "ecumenism from 'defined positions,'" has been requested from Protestants as well. "Now, the present declaration puts forth the Catholic position, that is to say, that which from the Catholic point of view still divides us," he said. "This does not limit dialogue, but rather favors it.
The World Council of Churches spoke of "the importance of genuine ecumenical dialogue, and of common Christian witness on the problems facing the world today".
Using the term "catholic" in the sense of "universal", the WCC stated: "Each church is the church catholic and not simply a part of it. Each church is the Church catholic, but not the whole of it. Each church fulfils its catholicity when it is in communion with the other churches."
In Paris, the Protestant Federation of France said it hoped that every church, "including the Roman Catholic Church", would seek ways to promote dialogue, "rather than being content with repeating its own convictions".
In Rome, Italian Protestant theologian Paolo Ricca, however, questioned whether it still made sense to engage in dialogue with the Catholic Church, telling Ecumenical News International that "the Vatican document is very clear: it's the old doctrine of return to the fold."
In 2005, immediately after his election as pontiff, Benedict said he was "disposed to do all in his power to promote the fundamental cause of ecumenism". However, with the latest document, "Hopes for a change in the ecumenical situation have again been pushed into the remote future," said Wolfgang Huber, Germany's.
Catholic Primacy Issue Sparks Global Debate on Church Unity