Orthodoxy, both upper case and lower case, is at the heart of Pope John Paul II’s twelfth encyclical, Ut unum sunt (That They May Be One). The document underscores the priority of East-West relations in the Catholic Church’s understanding of the ecumenical imperative, with the pope repeatedly emphasizing that we can settle for nothing less than the restoration of the full communion that was formally broken in 1504.
He asserts, as he has on other occasions, that the Church must again “breathe with both her lungs”—East and West. As the second millennium has been the millennium of Christian divisions, so he looks forward to the third millennium as the millennium of Christian unity. This necessarily involves also healing the breach of the sixteenth century between Rome and the Reformation. Here, too, orthodoxy (lower case) is key, for the only unity that can be trusted is unity in the truth.
With the Orthodox Church (and the encyclical significantly refers to the Orthodox Church in the singular), it is suggested that there are no church-dividing disagreements on the constituting truths of apostolic Christianity. It is not too much to say, somewhat paradoxically, that the chief obstacle to full communion between East and West is the absence of full communion between East and West. Of course there are long-standing differences regarding jurisdiction, especially when it comes to what the Catholic Church has claimed for the universal and immediate jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome as the successor of Peter. But Ut unum sint takes a bold initiative in suggesting that the Catholic Church is ready, indeed eager, to join with others in rethinking how the Petrine ministry can be exercised in a way that more effectively serves the unity of Christians.
The dogmatic claims regarding the papacy cannot be trimmed. The encyclical leaves no room for doubt on that score. It is precisely the uncompromised and uncompromisable strength of those dogmatic claims that makes it imperative that the ministry of Peter be exercised in a way that better secures the unity of all Christians. At several points, the encyclical points to the first millennium, before the separation of East and West, as a period that may provide models for the exercise of the papal office in the future.
I am confident that we would not go wrong in understanding the Holy Father to be saying that unity is more important than jurisdiction. Christians in the East have been waiting a thousand years to hear a Bishop of Rome say that, and now it is being said. What exactly that might mean for the governance of the churches of the East, and what implications it might have for the way in which papal jurisdiction is exercised in the West—these are questions to be worked out in the years ahead. The historic breakthrough of Ut unum sint is that it has put these questions on the table.
There is evidence that some of the Orthodox churches have been taken aback by the urgency and scope of Rome’s proposal for reconciliation. Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, like his immediate predecessors, has been responsive to the bold initiatives of Rome. But he is not the “pope of the East” in a manner comparable to the role of the Bishop of Rome in the West.
The jurisdictional dynamics in Orthodoxy are famously, some would say notoriously, self-dividing, and it is almost impossible to overestimate the deep-seated suspicions that many Orthodox have of Rome. The Catholic Church is viewed as the 900-pound gorilla on the ecclesiastical stage, and the Orthodox have nurtured for centuries memories of what they believe to be their abuse and betrayal at the hands of Rome. The situation is not helped by the current insecurities of Orthodox churches, notably of the Russian Church, still emerging from decades of persecution and moral compromise under Communist regimes.
In restoring full communion with the West, the Ecumenical Patriarch and those of like mind cannot get out too far ahead without risking new conflicts, even schisms, within Orthodoxy. In the past year, the monks of Mount Athos— who have no canonical authority but possess enormous moral influence—have taken the lead in opposing the rapprochement that has been achieved to date. In very blunt language, they have issued statements putting Bartholomew on notice, and have come close to suggesting that he and others are selling out Orthodoxy to its traditional enemy. In full awareness of the many difficulties, John Paul is undaunted. Ut unum sint fully supports the perception that this pope has no higher hope than that his pontificate will witness, if not the restoration of full communion with the East, the irrevocable setting of the Church’s course toward that end.
“Irrevocable” is a word that is central to the message of this encyclical. Ecumenism, the Holy Father insists, is not something optional; it belongs to the very nature of the Catholic Church. This is a truth too little appreciated by orthodox Catholics, even if it is understandable that the ecumenical movement is sometimes viewed with a measure of suspicion.
The modern ecumenical movement began with the Edinburgh Missionary Conference in 1910 as an essentially Protestant affair, and later gave birth to institutions such as the World Council of Churches (WCC) and National Council of Churches (NCC). While the Faith and Order wing of the WCC made important theological contributions over the years—contributions that are generously recognized in Ut unum sint—those institutions frequently promoted a theological liberalism and left-leaning political activism that alarmed conservative Catholics.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that many Catholics watched with anxiety as the Church, following the Second Vatican Council, seemed to be “joining” the ecumenical movement. The reality, of course, is that the Catholic Church has not joined the ecumenical movement. It has reconstituted the ecumenical movement. One may go further and risk saying that it is the ecumenical movement. Put more modestly, it is without doubt the center of the movement toward Christian unity in our time.
This is in part because of sheer size. Of the 1.8 billion Christians in the world (approximately one third of the world’s population), more than a billion are Roman Catholic, more than 300 million are Orthodox, and most of the others are part of the maddeningly diverse Protestant world of “evangelicalism.” The “classical” Reformation traditions (Lutheran, Anglican, Calvinist, etc.), commonly referred to as mainline Protestantism, which make up the core constituency of the WCC, constitute no more than 100 million Christians in the world, and are generally in decline. There is no way in which the World Council of Churches could have absorbed the Catholic Church; and there is no reason why the Catholic Church would have joined as a member church among other member churches.
The last point engages the theological reason why it is more accurate to say that the Catholic Church has reconstituted rather than joined the ecumenical movement. It has to do with that part of theology that is called ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the Church. Ut unum sint cites the teaching of Vatican II that the Church of Jesus Christ “subsists” in the Catholic Church in a singular way. The Catholic Church is not simply a church among the churches—it is not even the biggest or the best or the oldest or the grandest of the churches. Rather, it is, quite simply, the Church of Jesus Christ fully and rightly ordered. That may sound arrogant, but the relevant question is whether it is true. It may also sound exclusivist and profoundly anti-ecumenical, but in fact it is not. Just the opposite is the case.
The additional teaching of Vatican II, reiterated in the present encyclical, is that all who are Christians are “truly but imperfectly” in communion with the Catholic Church. All those who are, as the New Testament puts it, “in Christ,” are necessarily, however imperfectly, in communion with the body of Christ that is the Church. Christ the head and the Church that is his body cannot be separated. Where Christ is, there, however imperfectly expressed, is the Church. Christ and the Church are coterminous. The goal of ecumenism is not to create a unity that does not exist, but to bring to fulfillment a unity that is the gift of God already given. In the Constitution on the Church (Lumen gentium), the Council readily acknowledges that the saving and sanctifying grace of God is present outside the boundaries of the Catholic Church. At the same time, it emphasizes that these gifts of God contain a gravitational pull toward unity with the Catholic Church.
Ecumenism does not relativize or diminish the unique claims of the Catholic Church. On the contrary, it is the unique status of the Catholic Church that makes ecumenism mandatory. Ecumenism is not a program of the Catholic Church; ecumenism is in the nature of being the Catholic Church. The Church cannot be true to itself unless it is ecumenical. It follows that to be an orthodox Catholic is to be an ecumenical Catholic. The Extraordinary Synod on the Council, held in 1995, made clear that the ecumenical mandate is indelibly imprinted on the Church’s mind and mission.
The same message is driven home in Ut unum sint. John Paul II writes, “At the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church committed herself irrevocably to following the path of the ecumenical venture, thus heeding the Spirit of the Lord….” Also,
This unity, which the Lord has bestowed on his Church in which he wishes to embrace all people, is not something added on, but stands at the very heart of Christ’s mission. Nor is it some secondary attribute of the community of his disciples. Rather, it belongs to the very essence of this community. . . . To believe in Christ means to desire unity; to desire unity means to desire the Church; to desire the Church means to desire the communion of grace which corresponds to the Father’s plan from all eternity. Such is the meaning of Christ’s prayer: Ut unum sint.
And finally, “Thus it is absolutely clear that ecumenism, the movement promoting Christian unity, is not just some sort of ‘appendix’ which is added to the Church’s traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, and consequently must pervade all that she is and does.”
A sense of imminence marks the encyclical’s discussion of healing the breach between East and West. Not so with respect to healing the breach between Rome and the Reformation. While acknowledging that much progress has been made in theological dialogues, especially with Lutherans and Anglicans, Ut unum sint recognizes that it cannot be assumed with Protestants, as it can be assumed with the Orthodox, that there is already a secure foundation for full communion.
The encyclical lists five areas where much work is needed “before a true consensus of faith can be achieved.” They are: 1 ) the relationship between scripture and sacred tradition, 2) the real presence and sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist, 3) the sacrament of Ordination and the meaning of apostolic ministry, 4) the Magisterium or teaching authority of the Church, and 5) Mary as Mother of God and Icon of the Church.
Some may be discouraged by that list, since these are issues that have been in dispute between Protestants and Catholics for almost five centuries. The difference at the edge of the third millennium is that they are now the subject of a common exploration in the words of the encyclical, as “we look at one another in the light of the Apostolic Tradition.” The difference now is that the exploration begins from the premise that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. The difference now is that we mutually ask forgiveness for sins against unity in the past, and encourage one another, above all, to conversion to Christ, which of necessity is conversion to the unity of his body, the Church. The difference now is that an earlier ecumenical movement, a movement too often marked by compromise and evasion, has been replaced by a new ecumenical movement that seeks no unity other than unity in the truth revealed by God. The difference now is the irrevocable pledge of the Catholic Church to take the lead, as only she can take the lead, in striving for the fulfillment of the prayer of Our Lord that they may all be one.