Ecumenism and Unity, religious freedom

Rev. Rama Coomaraswamy

CREED AND CULT IN THE POST-CONCILIAR CHURCH
A STUDY IN AGGIORNAMENTO (part 4)

ECUMENISM AND UNITY

It all men are saved because of the Incarnation and if the Incarnation automatically provides them with their 'human dignity' regardless of whether they conform themselves to Christ or not, then two further consequences follow:
1) there in no longer any need for us to be in the One True Church';
2) every man's beliefs are capable of gaining him access to the 'community of salvation. Even atheists can be saved.
Let us see whether such opinions have the support of Vatican II:

'The Church (i.e., the Church which Christ founded), constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church which is governed by the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and truth are found outside its visible confines. Since these are gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces compelling towards Catholic unity.'

'Religious freedom has its foundation in the dignity of the human person. This right of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognizes in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus is to become a civil right... The right of religious freedom has its foundation not in the subjective disposition of the person, but in his very nature.'

'The brethren divided from us also carry out many of the sacred actions of the Christian religion. Undoubtedly, in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community, these actions can truly engender a life of grace and can be rightly described as capable of providing access to the life of grace and can be rightly describes an capable of providing access to the community of salvation.'

'Nor does divine providence deny the help necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God.'

Traditional doctrine affirms that only those are to be accounted really members of the Church who have been regenerated in the waters of Baptism and profess the true faith and have not cut themselves off from the structure of the Body by their own unhappy act or been severed therefrom for very grave crime, by the legitimate authority (Pius XII, Mystici Corporis & Denz. 2286). At the same time the Church teaches that a person who, suffering from an invincible and non-imputable ignorance, may be saved extra-sacramentally by a 'baptism of desire' which supernaturally gives them charity (St. Thomas, Summa III, Q68, Art 2). But the sine qua non for this is that, as St. Paul says in his Letter to the Hebrews, 'they must believe that God exists and is rewarder to those that seek him' (xi:6). But now we are told that there are numerous elements of sanctification and truth that are outside the Church; that the Church which Christ founded only 'subsists' in the Catholic Church, and that other 'ecclesiastical communities' have access to the community of salvation.' We are further told that 'religious freedom has its foundation in the dignity of man... The right of religious freedom has its foundation not in the subjective disposition of the person, but in his very nature.' If Christ is in a certain way united to each man, and each man is redeemed, then each, man's religious views must also be true. How can a person who is united to Christ and whose salvation is guaranteed have false opinions? And are we not back to the masonic-Roussouist concept of man with a religious, almost pantheistic, twist?

What then is the purpose of the Church? If all men are saved as the result of the Incarnation, even if they are unaware of the fact, what need do we have for the priesthood and the sacraments? The answer is to be found in the Conciliar Document entitled Lumen Gentium, Here we are told that 'it pleased God to make men holy and save them not merely as individuals... but making them into a single people... all men are called to be part of this catholic unity or the People of God, a unity which is harbinger of the universal peace it promotes. And there belong to it or are related to it in various ways, the Catholic faithful as well as all who believe in Christ, and indeed the whole of mankind... the Church is a kind or sacrament of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind, that is, she is a sign and an instrument of such union and unity...' As to the priesthood, according to Vatican II, among other things, 'it is necessary that priests, united in concern and effort under the leadership or the bishops and the Supreme Pontiff, wipe out every ground of division, so that the whole human race may be brought into the unity of the Family of God'. Whatever their other functions may be, the priests are to foster this unity or the People of God and the Church is to become the 'sacrament' of this unity. Extraordinary!

Let us back track for a moment to John XXIII's vision. According to Giancarlo Zizola, John XXIII believed there was 'a real progress of humankind's collective moral awareness through always deeper discovery of its dignity... the revelation of God's design for man strongly helps the believer discover what man is; and at the same time the advancement of the collective conscience...'2 He had a vision in which all men and all nations would eventually be united, and this in turn would lead to universal peace and perpetual progress. Mariol Kaizer tells us he saw Christian unity as but the first step in the direction of world unity. This was to be followed by the unity of all religions, and then of all mankind. 3

Now for John Paul II: In a discourse given after his return from Africa in 1980, he explicitly referred to the teaching of Lumen Gentium and to its enumeration of 'the different categories which form the People of God'. He then proceed to tell us that each of these was full of the particular hope of salvations and that this can be 'accomplished equally outside the visible church'. In a discourse given to the Roman Curia in 1981 he states that 'in these truly plenary gatherings, the ecclesial communities of different countries make real the fundamental second chapter of Lumen Gentium which treats of the numerous 'spheres' of belonging to the church as People of God and of the bond which exists with it, even on the part of those who do not yet form a part of it. He further said that the objective of pastors is to 'call together the people of God according to different senses and different dimensions. In this calling together, the Church recognizes herself and realizes herself.'

And so we have a consistency of outlook and intent that is shared both by Vatican II and the popes of the 'Contemporary Church'. According to Vatican II the absence of 'unity' is a scandal which must be repaired, and moreover, it is a scandal which the Catholic Church is primarily responsible for. Unity no longer is a mark of the new Church, but only 'subsists' within her. It also 'subsists' in other 'ecclesial communities' which are 'full of the particular hope of salvation' and which can be 'accomplished equally outside the visible Church'. And so the 'internal mission' or the Church and the 'startling vision of Vatican II' is not to draw mankind back to the Catholic faith, but to unite all people in a new kind of unity - a unity in which Catholics are also privileged to participate - a unity in which all men will recognize their brotherhood under the fatherhood of God and which 'is the harbinger of universal peace'. 'It is in this calling together that the Church recognizes herself and realizes herself'. Extraordinary, once again!

It is this then that explains the Ecumenical thrust of the post Conciliar Church. As John Paul II said to the non Catholic delegates at his inauguration, 'tell those whom you represent that the involvement of the Catholic Church in the Ecumenical movement, as solemnly expressed by the Second Vatican Council, is irreversible. It is this that led him to tell the Protestants that 'in our respective Churches we progress in deepening our understandings of the Holy Scriptures, in the fidelity to the ancient tradition of the Christian Church.' No wonder then that he feels free to come to the Lutherans as a 'pilgrim' and to join with them in their services. No wonder that he tells the Catholic faithful of Germany 'to encourage your evangelical brothers, in a friendly and opportune manner, to bear witness to their faith, to strengthen and deepen their form of the religious life in Christ'. No wonder that he can join with the Jews in praying for the coming of the Messiah. No wonder that he can arrange for the Buddhists to place their statues on top of a tabernacle. Need one go on and on?

But John Paul II 'startling vision of Vatican II' is as unpalatable to traditional Catholics as is his participation in Lutheran services. They hold, and correctly so, that 'unity' doesn't 'subsists', but actually 'exists' in the Catholic Church and only in her. It exists in her, like 'apostolicity', by definition, and once she loses it, she is no longer the Church established by Christ. As the Holy Office said in a de fide statement in 1865: 'the unity of the church is absolute and indivisible, and that the church had never lost its unity, nor for so much as a time, ever can.'4 To deny this is to deny the faith itself, for traditional Catholics believe in 'One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church'. They also reject the idea that the Church 'realizes' herself 'in calling together the people of God according to different senses and different dimensions', and that the fostering of ecumenism is 'the internal mission of the Church'.

4Quoted in The Reunion of Christendom, A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy, Archbishop Henry Manning, Appleton: N.Y., 1866. To quote Manning further: 'We believe union to be a very precious gift, and only less precious than truth... There can be no unity possible except by the way of truth. Truth first, unity afterwards; truth, the cause, unity, the effect. To invert this order is to overthrow the Divine procedure. The unity of Babel ended in confusion.... Bishop John Milner put it clearly. With regard to the Anglo-Catholic Ecumenical movement of the 19th. Century (which was quite limited in extent i.e., did not include Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Hottentots), 'if we should unite ourselves with it, the Universal Church would disunite itself from us.'

Ecumenism and Unity, religious freedom

incarnation, christendom, utopia, pope john xxiii

ECUMENISM AND UNITY