Abstract
The more than fifty years of dialogue since Vatican II launched the Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement have resulted in significant convergence, but reception of these results remains slow and inconclusive despite the stunning success of the Joint Declaration on Justification signed in 1999. This presentation explores some of the challenges for reception within the ecclesial and social context of ecumenical relationships today and discusses why the ecumenical imperative is even more critical at this point in time. It also suggests a model of ecclesiology for the reception of relationships of full communion.
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Notes
- 1.
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, AAS 85 (1993): 1039–19, no. 20; the Directory cites Unitatis Redintegratio 4 and 15–16.
- 2.
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, 16.
- 3.
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, AAS 87 (1995): 5–41, no. 34.
- 4.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ut Unum Sint , AAS 87 (1995): 921–82, no. 15.
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
Randall Lee and Jeffry Gros, F.S.C., eds., The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries, Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue—X (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2005).
- 7.
Ibid., para. 103.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Ibid., para. 109.
- 10.
These include the common Declaration of Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I (December 7, 1965); the Joint Declaration of Paul VI and Ignatius Jacob III, Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians (October 27, 1971); the Joint Declaration of Paul VI and Shenouda III, Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt (May 10, 1973); the Joint Declaration of John Paul II and Ignatius Zakka I ĘżIwas, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, accompanied by a common profession of Christological faith (June 23, 1984); a common declaration signed by Mar Dinkha IV, the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, and Pope John Paul II (November 1994); and a formal theological statement signed by Pope John Paul II and the Armenian Catholicos Karekin I indicating their shared belief in the unity of Christ (December 13, 1996).
- 11.
The text is available on the web site of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops under the Department for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/ecumenical-and-interreligious/ecumenical/orthodox/filioque-church-dividing-issue-english.cfm.
- 12.
The creed was recited in Greek with Patriarch Dimitrios I (December 7, 1987), Patriarch Bartholomew I (June 1995), and in Romanian for the visit of Romanian Patriarch Teoctist (October 13, 2002).
- 13.
Cited in “The Filioque: A Church-Dividing Issue?”
- 14.
Scholars from multiple traditions, admittedly, have challenged this hypothesis in more recent times.
- 15.
The Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church, Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), no. 15.
- 16.
Lee and Gros, The Church as Koinonia of Salvation, para. 109.
- 17.
The Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, The Apostolicity of the Church. Study Document of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity (Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2006; John J. Burkhard, Apostolicity Then and Now: An Ecumenical Church in a Postmodern World (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2004).
- 18.
Lee and Gros, The Church as Koinonia of Salvation, para. 107.
- 19.
“Briefwechsel von Landesbischof Johannes Hanselmann und Joseph Kardinal Ratzinger über das Communio-Schreiben der Römischen Glaubenskongregation,” Una Sancta 48 (1993): 348, cited in The Church as Koinonia of Salvation, para. 107.
- 20.
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen, AAS (1995): 745–74, no. 20.
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Wood, S.K. (2018). The Ecumenical Imperative After Vatican II: Achievements and Challenges. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Opening to the World and Other Confessions. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98581-7_19
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