Pope Francis says Mass, Nov. 15, 2013. Credit: Kyle Burkhart/CNA.
Posted on 01/18/2014 3:05:14 PM PST by NYer
.- Pope Francis met this week with members of an ecumenical delegation of Finnish Lutherans, encouraging them to work towards unity among all Christians.
“In the face of those who no longer see the full, visible unity of the Church as an achievable goal, we are invited not to give up our ecumenical efforts, faithful to that which the Lord Jesus asked of the Father, ‘that they may be one,’” the Pope told the delegation Jan 17.
“Ecumenism is in fact a spiritual process, that is realized in faithful obedience to the Father, in fulfillment of the will of Christ and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”
The group, led by Kari Makinen, a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, was on its annual pilgrimage to Rome for the feast of St. Henry, their nation’s patron saint. Their trip coincides with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, held Jan. 18-25.
The week of prayer is sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the World Council of Churches’ faith and order commission. The week is dedicated to encouraging dialogue and spiritual unity amongst Christians.
Pope Francis reflected on this year’s theme, “Has Christ been Divided”, in his audience with the delegation, noting that the process of working for Christian unity is changing in response to an increasingly secularized culture, particularly in Europe.
“At the current time, even our ecumenical journey and the relations between Christians are going through significant changes, due to the fact that we find (ourselves) professing our faith in the context of a society and culture where the reference to God and to all that recalls the transcendent dimension of life is ever less present.”
In the face of these challenges, “it is necessary that our testimony focuses on the center of our faith, on the announcement of the love of God that is manifested in Christ his Son,” encouraged Pope Francis.
“We find here space for growth in communion and in unity amongst ourselves, promoting spiritual ecumenism, which grows directly from the commandment of love left by Jesus to his disciples.”
Yet the ecumenical movement faces many challenges. Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promoting Christian Unity, noted that a major difficulty lies in different understandings of ecumensim’s goal.
“The main problem that we have today in the ecumenical dialogue with all the Protestant” communities, he told CNA recently, is the lack of “a common vision of the goal of the ecumenical movement. We have two different views. The Catholic view, (which) is also the Orthodox view, (is) that we will re-find the unity in faith in the sacraments and in ministries.”
Conversely, Cardinal Koch said, “the vision that I find today in the Protestant churches and ecclesial communities (is that) of the mutual recognition of all the ecclesial communities as churches.”
In this Protestant vision, the goal of ecumenism presupposes a different understanding of “church.” Rather than unity visible in sacrament and ministry, the Protestant vision sees “church” as simply a conglomeration or “addition of all these ecclesial communities.”
“This is the view of the ecumenical goal that is very very difficult for us.”
Nevertheless, hope remains. As Pope Francis continues the work of his predecessors in seeking union with the Orthodox, most visible in his upcoming pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the spring, the improving relationship between Catholic and Orthodox may serve as a model for dialogue with Protestants.
“I think that the Reformation … has some basis in the division between Orthodox and Catholic, and when we can find new unity between Orthodox and Catholics, I think we have a better basis for the discussion between Catholics and Protestants,” said Cardinal Koch.
“I hope that we have more in common than what is divided.”
Something for everyone, ping!
As Jesus prayed for His followers in John 17.
A good post. My personal belief is in seeking a unity of all followers of Jesus and his message, despite our historical differences.
However, I’ve not seen much out of the World Council of Churches that was actually beneficial, as they were infiltrated by the communists early on.
?
Unity in Christ does not mean one gives up spiritual truth or doctrinal correctness. People wish to give up understanding God for the sake of getting along. Do people really want to know God or do they simply wish to get along with everyone else?
A one world church in the works.
How quaint.
” “I think that the Reformation … has some basis in the division between Orthodox and Catholic, and when we can find new unity between Orthodox and Catholics, I think we have a better basis for the discussion between Catholics and Protestants,” said Cardinal Koch.”
And here it seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on which this whole question, as well as that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to bring about the union of the Christian churches depends. For authors who favor this view are accustomed, times almost without number, to bring forward these words of Christ: "That they all may be one.... And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,"[14] with this signification however: that Christ Jesus merely expressed a desire and prayer, which still lacks its fulfillment.
Francis speaks as the non-Catholics Pius XI speaks of in his encyclical Mortalium Animos.
Why doesn't Pope Francis preach this same statement to the Jews and Muslims?
Instead of A Man for All Seasons, he appears to be A Man for All Audiences.
In this week of prayers for Christian unity, may ALL who by their common baptism in the Lord Jesus Christ treat one another as truly brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Ephesians 4:4-6:
“4There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”
We're more like cousins rather than brothers and sisters.
3. In obedience, therefore, to her Founder's behest, the Church prolongs the priestly mission of Jesus Christ mainly by means of the sacred liturgy. She does this in the first place at the altar, where constantly the sacrifice of the cross is represented[5] and with a single difference in the manner of its offering, renewed.[6] She does it next by means of the sacraments, those special channels through which men are made partakers in the supernatural life. She does it, finally, by offering to God, all Good and Great, the daily tribute of her prayer of praise. "What a spectacle for heaven and earth," observes Our predecessor of happy memory, Pius XI, "is not the Church at prayer! For centuries without interruption, from midnight to midnight, the divine psalmody of the inspired canticles is repeated on earth; there is no hour of the day that is not hallowed by its special liturgy; there is no state of human life that has not its part in the thanksgiving, praise, supplication and reparation of this common prayer of the Mystical Body of Christ which is His Church!"[7] MEDIATOR DEI
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10. Nevertheless the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the sacrifice, and to eat the Lord's supper. SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM
One faith: the Catholic Faith. One Church: The Catholic Church.
Let us pray for the conversion of all to the Holy Catholic Faith. That is the only way to true Christian unity.
In time, in time, the Lord’s time and ONLY by HIS TIMING.
Yet, it is that ONE BAPTISM that binds us as brothers and sisters in the Lord, which is the starting point.
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