Are Catholics really interested in Christian unity?

Published Feb. 2, 2022.

Over the past 50 years the various Churches around the world have observed January 18-25 as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  

But my impression is that this long-standing routine does not achieve much.

Am I wrong?

First of all, I am reacting to a recurring theme in this kind of meeting.

They talk about unity as a gift from God. But if one really believes in it, this gift was already granted a long time ago.

It has never been lacking, since God is an intimate and permanent source of inspiration in every human being, without relieving anyone of their responsibility.

So, it is not God to whom we have to beg for unity, but ourselves (in this area as in others) to seriously get down to work by looking clearly, without prevarication and without any preconceived ideas, at the obstacles to this unity in order to reduce and overcome them.

Are we really in this mindset? On the Catholic side, I doubt it.

Intransigent position

A year or two ago, Pastor Laurent Schlumberger, then president of the United Protestant Church of France, took as his theme for the ecumenical celebration the allegory of the vine and its branches found in John’s gospel.

The evangelist evokes the bonds of deep fraternity among the disciples of Jesus who all draw on the life-giving power of the Nazarene, as manifested in his practice of liberation in the name of his God.

I saw in this reflection an urgent call to recognize each other as Churches that are of equal dignity and equal faithfulness!

How then could one Church declare itself more faithful to Jesus than others?

But this is the permanent position of the Roman Catholic Church, which declares that it possesses “the fullness of Christ’s salvific mystery”, “the fullness of grace and truth”. 

This is stated in the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Catechism of Catholic Church (1992) and other Roman texts such as Dominus Iesus (2000), which was especially humiliating for Protestants.

Shouldn't the leaders of the Catholic Church who hold to this claim have the obligation to question the traditional reasons for their intransigent position?

A sacralized institution

How can we get out of this claim that is unacceptable for Reformed Churches and the Lutherans, whom Rome does not even acknowledge as “Churches in the proper sense”!

Is it not by noting its relativity, starting from a thorough historical study, without preconceived ideas, concerning the birth and development of the Church in the first centuries?

One would see how the monarchical episcopate was born by referring unduly to texts of the New Testament, read in a literal way. And one would also perceive how its institution was sacralized during past ages and resulted in other deviations (the interpretation of the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, the absolutization of the dogmas of the 4th and 5th centuries).

Is it not necessary for Catholicism to demonstrate courageous intelligence in order to take this path of a critical re-reading that would lead the Churches to mutual recognition, each one having its legitimate colorations based on the cultures in which they were born and evolved?

The actors of the so-called modernist crisis of the late 19th and early 20th centuries called for the reinterpretation of Catholicism, which was fixed in a literal reading of Scripture and in an immutable doctrinal truth.

Their work was harshly condemned at the time, and some people were excommunicated and banned from publishing!

Despite some moderate overtures from the Catholic Church over the past century, this modernist crisis has continued to the present day.

Pope Francis, tethered to classical doctrine

The current pope is popular on social and environmental issues. This is to be welcomed. But his doctrine remains quite classical.

Recall the remarks he made to journalists in November 2016 on his return flight from Sweden, where he went to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

“As for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, the last clear word was given by Saint John Paul II, and this holds,” he said!

In the same way, Francis has linked secularization to the spiritual lukewarmness of Christians – a refrain repeated often by the French bishops and which is completely inaccurate.

Of course, I am happy that the current pope has strong words about migrants.

But this may give a false impression inside and outside the Church regarding the profound reforms that depend on him (such as the concept of Christian Unity), which are not being fulfilled.

The reforms are not just about putting the Roman Curia in order (which is slow to happen) or the cleaning up of Vatican finances.

In fact, the Bishop of Rome’s singular responsibility is specifically focused on the fundamental issue concerning the presentation of the Christian faith in our contemporary world.

In writing these lines, I am motivated only by the desire to serve the living memory of Jesus who is the only reference for all those who call themselves his disciples.

What we know of him today, more than yesterday, thanks to the progress of exegetical studies on the Gospels, outlines for us the contours of his commitment in the name of his God, in his time and in his context.

This commitment was exercised on very precise issues that had to do with the liberation of the human being in all domains.

This is the reason why he started a conflict with the authorities of his religion which led him to the violent death that we know.

Returning to Jesus

Do we not need to return to the way in which Jesus, lucidly and courageously, invested himself in announcing, through word and deed, the coming, here and now, of the Kingdom of God, this new world of which he was doing the practical work all day long?

Is it not necessary to go back, swimming upstream from all the interpretations that have been made of Jesus (some of them cast in dogmatic stone), to the Nazaren's way of being and living and to what deeply inspired him, in order to be able to update his witness in our time in a pluralistic way, in new and multiple words and ways of living.

Fidelity is not repetition but re-creation.

Would it not be that by returning to the One who is at the origin of our Churches, we could live in communion with one another, in the legitimate diversity of our approaches that are shaped by our histories, and that are to be constantly revitalized in the human and cultural contexts in which we live?

I am far from being the only Catholic to think this way. And I also have Protestant friends who share my views.

They, along with the Lutherans and the Anglicans, have had the intelligence and the courage to reach an agreement of full recognition.

Shouldn't these reflections and questions be a matter for debate not only for theologians and Church leaders, but also by grassroots Christians who also have something to say about and testify to regarding their experience?

Jacques Musset (b. 1936) is a French Catholic biblical scholar and widely published author.