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by Brian Flanagan, praytellblog
Much Catholic media attention has focused upon the final document of
the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian
Region, with its newsworthy recommendations about the possible
ordination of married men and reopening the conversation of ordaining
women as deacons (and, incidentally, ignoring many of the other
substantive sections in the document about cultural, ecological, and
ecclesial conversion to a greater living out of the Gospel in the
region…). Everyone wonders what Pope Francis will do with the synod’s
recommendations, as we anxiously await his post-synodal apostolic
exhortation.
But another Vatican text,
dated October 18, 2019, and received with much less fanfare on while
the Catholic media was focusing on the Amazon synod, is as significant
to the future life of the Catholic Church, and, arguably, would be
causing just as much consternation in some radically traditionalist
corners of the internet as the Amazonian Synod.
The document is the official Catholic response to The Church: Towards a Common Vision,
a major ecumenical document on the nature and mission of the church,
and it indicates Catholic reception of a significant milestone in
convergence across separated Christian communities of an increasingly
shared theology of the church. It’s a specialist document that really
will require more study, evaluation, and reception across the Catholic
Church, but in this short piece I’d like to give some background and
makes four observations with significance for our further growth in
ecumenical unity as well as the kind of renewed ecclesiology that Pope
Francis is promoting for the Catholic Church. It might particularly make
excellent reading today, in these last days of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Background
First, some necessary background on where this document comes from.
While the Catholic Church is not an official member of the World Council
of Churches, it has, since just after the Second Vatican Council,
participated in the WCC in general and as voting members of the Faith
and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, the major body
that studies doctrinal, theological questions that divide the churches
and explores ways of resolving church-dividing doctrinal differences.
One method for that has been multilateral dialogues, that is, dialogues
that attempt to involve all of the Christian communities (as distinct
from bilateral dialogues like the Catholic-Lutheran dialogue and the
Catholic-Orthodox dialogue).
The two landmark accomplishments of the Faith and Order Commission (in my opinion, at least) were the 1982 text Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (often abbreviated BEM,
and sometimes called the “Lima Document” after the location of the
meeting at which it was approved), and, more recently, the 2013 text The Church: Towards a Common Vision
on ecclesiology. Both were the product of decades – literally – of
conversation, dialogue, official and unofficial responses by
communities, theologians, and other ecumenical groups, and both were put
forward as “convergence texts” – not expressing the full doctrinal
consensus judged necessary for the restoration of visible unity, but
demonstrating the width and depth of shared theological agreement
between the churches. (And one of the major contributors of the effort
that led to BEM was the late Canadian theologian and ecumenist, and my PhD subject, Fr. Jean-Marie Tillard, O.P.)
In both
cases, official church bodies responded to the final versions of each process
of dialogue; the responses to BEM
were edited and published in 6 sizeable volumes! The Catholic Church gave its
official response to BEM in 1987,
after five years of study by the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity and
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. While it appreciated the hard
work of the drafters and lifted up some of each of its chapters for
appreciation, it raised numerous critical questions, asked for further
clarification and dialogue (especially on ecclesiological issues), and was
overall seen in some circles as a disappointingly lukewarm response to the
hopes of the Faith and Order Commission. BEM
continued to be received in Catholic
circles, particularly those focused upon ecumenical dialogue, but I
wouldn’t be surprised if most of those reading this post are hearing about it
for the first time right now.
The Church: Towards a Common Vision (which I’ll abbreviate TCTCV – it just rolls off the tongue
after a while, trust me!) is the end result of a similar, multi-decade process
of dialogue, study, and discernment. It responded to Catholic and other
communities’ critiques that BEM put
the cart before the horse by treating sacraments and ministry before the
ecclesiological doctrines that undergirded them, and to the growing results of
bilateral dialogues on ecclesiology. It was preceded by two earlier versions,
“The Nature and Purpose of the Church” (1998) and “The Nature and Mission of
the Church” (2005), leading to the final document in 2013. And, as with BEM, the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity released a substantive (67 page!) Catholic response
to TCTCV, and while I’d love to know
who the primary drafters were, it was released under the authority of the head
of that office, the Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch first named as the head of PCPCU
by then-pope Benedict XVI in 2002.
Observation One: A Different Tone
All of this
leads to the first of my observations of this draft, particularly in some
contrast to the Catholic response to BEM:
this response is overwhelmingly, refreshingly, warmly positive. Throughout the
text the authors raise some questions for further dialogue and clarification,
and note that their response “makes no claim to deal with all relevant aspects
of ecclesiology but rather to build upon some fundamental ecclesiological
convergences which have emerged in the churches’ responses to BEM and in subsequent ecumenical
dialogues” – in other words, they aren’t claiming that TCTCV expresses a full Catholic ecclesiology in the way that, say,
the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, would.
Nevertheless,
like the response to BEM, it begins
with an appreciation, but this response’s appreciation goes on for several
pages. Another introductory section outlines 11 distinct “general aspects in
harmony with Catholic thought.” (p. 6-8) It suggests that the first chapter
might express not only convergence but “almost a ‘consensus’” – that is, the
level of “substantial accord” needed for full, visible unity. (10) It is full
of expressions of appreciation, such as for how TCTCV responds to concerns to BEM,
for particular expressions of our shared faith in the church, for convergences
and parallels between TCTCV and Roman
Catholic magisterial teaching – especially the Lumen Gentium from the Second Vatican Council and John Paul II’s
1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint, “On
Commitment to Ecumenism.” To the first of four questions for study the drafters
of TCTCV asked of the churches, this
response states clearly that while “there are still various theological
statements in the text that Catholic teaching would find inadequate, nevertheless…TCTCV presents some convergences on the
meaning of the Church which reflect, in very substantial ways, the
ecclesiological understanding of the Catholic Church.” (52) To the
non-specialist, that seems a very qualified, hesitant statement, but in the language
and conventions of ecumenical theological dialogue in recent years, this is a
great leap forward.
In short, I
first scanned through the text with baited breath, waiting to see when a Roman
shoe might drop, and never found it.
Observation Two: Hope for a Renewal of Ecumenism
This change
in tone opens the door to further, wider pathways to Christian unity, in two
senses. First, as the document states, the question of “the nature and mission
of the Church” “Is perhaps the central ecumenical question.” (3) The reception
of BEM was hindered, in part, because
how one understands baptism, Eucharist, and the structures of ministry depends
in such large part upon how one understands the church. If this text now shared
by the churches is compatible “in very substantial ways” with the teaching of
the Roman Catholic Church, then the possibilities of moving forward in dialogue
on the particular areas of further divergence – especially around ministry in
general, primacy in particular, and papal primacy above all – seem more within
reach and open to discussion on the foundation of this shared idea of the
Church. The response is chock-full of constructive, helpful suggestions for
further study and dialogue between churches, but locates them within the wider
context of TCTCV as a whole.
In addition
to “harvesting Scripture, Tradition, and the results of multi- and bilateral
dialogues on ecclesiological themes” in the past forty years (p. 9), the
response also points forward in hope to how we can better live out our
ecumenical commitments “on the road” to full visible unity – a favorite phrase
of the text. One aspect of this is the embracing of the method of
“differentiating consensus,” most famously used in the Catholic-Lutheran Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The response writes that “just as
Catholics have achieved a fundamental consensus on the core of the doctrine of
justification by faith with Lutherans and, subsequently, with other Christian
communities, by identifying what might be called the hierarchy of truths about
justification by faith, to which diverse explanations of the central truths can
be seen as compatible, there is no inherent reason why such an approach could
not also be applied to ecclesiological doctrines.” (5) In other words, when it
states that “adherence to revealed faith in its entirety does not preclude a
certain degree of diversity, even in the expression of that faith” (5), the
response re-opens a wider pathway to consensus than a unequivocal embrace of
the formulation of any one church’s ecclesiological doctrine.
And, at the
same time, recognizing the limits that yet prevent full visible communion and
the sharing of Eucharist, this response returns the Catholic Church to a
commitment to do together with our fellow Christians all that we can already do
together. For the readers of this blog, the paragraph on growing closer
liturgically is important: While we cannot yet share Eucharist,
this does not impede us from inviting members of other churches to the liturgies we celebrate, just as nothing stops us from attending the liturgies of other churches when it is acceptable. The liturgy is an opportunity to learn about each other; as we pray, so we believe (lex orandi, lex credendi). As explained earlier…we will renew our commitment to do together whatever we can do together, even in the context of the liturgy. These are some examples: the highly significant gesture of the washing of the feet, signifying service as well as intimacy, following Jesus’ example; the imposition of ashes on the first day of the Lenten season; celebrating together the liturgy of the Word and other symbolic gestures during the vigils of solemnities such as Christmas, Epiphany, the Ascension, Pentecost, and the Martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul; local religious festivities in significant shrines to which Christians from different churches journey as pilgrims. (61)
In a time
when, sadly, “Protestant” gets used as a term of abuse rather than a term for a
fellow Christian by a few loud but influential voices on social media, this
recommitment to the basic commitments to our fellow Christians first outlined
of Lumen Gentium, Unitatis Redintegratio, and Ut Unum Sint is a needed gift to the
church in our times. And after a time sometimes described as an “ecumenical
winter,” this feels like the first warm breezes of a returning spring.
Observation Three: Hope for a Renewal of the Catholic Church
Pope Francis
has not written a major encyclical on the nature of the church; instead, his
ecclesiological teaching has come through a wide range of homilies, speeches,
paragraphs in his encyclicals and exhortations, and other forms. But this text
seems to express some of the major lines of a “Franciscan” ecclesiology.
One major
place that this happens is in its treatment of synodality. Building upon John
Paul II’s invitation to other Christian leaders and theologians to imagine new
forms of exercising papal primacy acceptable to all Christians, this text
highlights in a series of paragraphs that TCTCV
challenges the Catholic Church “to develop its current practice of synodality.” (57) Its description of synodality, obviously
in continuity with the International Theological Commission’s recent text on
synodality, is worth quoting in full:
Synodality is not solely a style of exercising authority,
service and collaboration in the formal structures of the Church but is also an
ecclesial attitude which can be adopted by all Christians, whatever their
responsibility, even at the grassroots. The Catholic Church commits itself to
facilitate this two-way process within its own life. This takes place
centripetally, from the local Churches to the centre, as well as centrifugally
from the centre to the peripheries. This ecclesial transformation marks a shift
in behaviour and in the way of doing things, but, more profoundly, it signals a
radical change in attitude. Regarding synodality at the grassroots level within
the Catholic Church, it will seek to promote a more inclusive attitude in its
structures whether this is either absent or weak – as in diocesan and parish
pastoral councils of consultation and collaboration. (58)
This is a
great expression of why ecumenism is so valuable – in addition to following the
will of Christ that we would all be one, that the world might believe, our
dialogue provides ways for the Catholic Church to more easily receive the
practices and wisdom of synodally experienced churches, even as we might share
some of the gifts of structures of primacy. But, in the meantime, we can see
here more clearly how and where Pope Francis is leading the Catholic Church
back to the renewal of synodal structures first renewed in modern Catholicism
at the Second Vatican Council.
Observation Four: Definitive Reception
Much more
could be said about the particulars of this text, and no doubt will be by
ecumenists and scholars in the coming years. But the final distinctive aspect
of this response is its formal act of reception within the Catholic Church as a
statement of ecumenical convergence. “Reception” is where ecumenical documents
often go to die – recall that I needed to begin this essay by explaining BEM.
But there are
some possibilities in this response that open pathways for a more robust
reception within Catholic life and teaching. The response concludes,
definitively, that “we receive this document [TCTCV] as an instrument of renewal within the Catholic communion.
It offers a way for each of us to work with our ecumenical partners as we
listen to the voice of each other and together to the voice of the Spirit
guiding the Church in our own time.” (67) And, earlier, it states, “Our hope is
that the further knowledge and reception of this text and its use in
theological faculties and in the formation programs of all of our communities,
not only involved in the preparation for ordained ministry and other forms of
pastoral service but also in the widest possible scope of the membership of our
communities, will enliven, in the years ahead, the aspiration and commitment of
all Christians to act in promoting the more complete realization of Christ’s
prayer that all his followers be one.” (9)
If we do this – and this, perhaps, is where you the reader come in – if we make TCTCV
an object of study beyond academics and ecumenical specialists; if
ecclesiologists explore how ecumenical convergence statements like these
have a kind of magisterial authority analogous to that of conciliar,
papal, and other forms of ecclesial teaching; if pastors and liturgists
renew or return to liturgical practices of doing all thing we can do
together, together; if parish book clubs and college courses, seminary
formation programs and priest study days, take this text seriously
– if we do all this, then we might help better form our Catholic Church
for dialogue with our fellow Christians, for renewing our Church,
particularly as a synodal community that listens to each other and to
the Spirit together, and for the day when a common vision of the church
will allow it to be more fully a sign of unity and an instrument of
God’s peace.
Dr. Brian Flanagan is associate
professor of theology at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia,
where he teaches systematic theology, ecclesiology, and liturgy and
sacraments. His Ph.D. is from Boston College. His most recent book is Stumbling in Holiness: Sin and Sanctity in the Church, published by Liturgical Press in 2018.
