Following last week’s meeting with President Obama, Pope Francis continued his busy diplomatic schedule, hosting Queen Elizabeth II for a brief visit to the Vatican this week. As the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the Queen holds a special place in the world’s 80-million member Anglican Communion. The meeting provides an opportune moment to reflect on Pope Francis’ ideas about ecumenism.
This year makes the 50th anniversary of Vatican II’s promulgation of Unitatis Redintegratio, largely interpreted to be the Catholic church’s “charter” document on ecumenical engagement. Distinct from both inter-religious dialogue (between Christians and other faith traditions like Islam, Buddhism, etc.) and the complex sibling relationship between Christians and Jews, ecumenism is the – ideally – candid and prayerful interaction of different branches within the Christian family: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, etc.
Here at Durham, one of our Centre’s flagship and most prominent initiatives is the International Receptive Ecumenism project. We will be marking the anniversary of UR with a Receptive Ecumenism conference at Fairfield University in June.
Realizing the limitations of the earlier visions of ecumenism which saw the Catholic Church as the Father-figure waiting to welcome the “prodigal” siblings home when they realized their errant ways, Receptive Ecumenism attempts to take the denominational and historical realities of separation more seriously and self-critically. Thus, closely related to Receptive Ecumenism is the “Call to Catholic Learning,” where the classical ecclesiological categories of the ecclesia docens (the teaching church) and ecclesia discens (the learning church) are reframed. We need to listen – seriously, attentively, and deeply conscious of our ability to recognize our own faults and overcome them by learning from the strengths of our fellow Christians. Greater fluency with the Scriptures, managerial strategies which can address the systemic pathologies which allowed the sexual abuse crisis to unfold as it did, and an enhanced role of a mature and informed laity (including women) are among some of the things Catholics can take away from conversations with other Christians, and be all the stronger for it. This is not in any way a movement to dilute the particularity of or confidence in one’s own ecclesial setting, but rather to realize the diverse and profound gifts which can be received from others equally convinced that the Spirit is present when two or three are gathered in Christ’s name in their settings.
It seems to me, if I am reading his words correctly, that Pope Francis would very much respect elements of this agenda. A theologian given a high degree of prominence during this pontificate, Cardinal Walter Kasper, has been a patron of this initiative since his days as acting President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. During this year’s week dedicated to praying for that goal made clear in Jesus’ priestly prayer in John’s Gospel (“that they may be one, Father, as we are one”), Pope Francis said the following:
“It is good to acknowledge the grace with which God blesses us and, even more so, to find in other Christians something of which we are in need, something that we can receive as a gift from our brothers and our sisters. The Canadian group that prepared the prayers for this Week of Prayer has not invited the communities to think about what they can give their Christian neighbors, but has exhorted them to meet to understand what all can receive from time to time from the others. This requires something more. It requires much prayer, humility, reflection and constant conversion.”
Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., of Collingswood, is a Research Associate at Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies in Northeast England.
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