Secularism ‘means new kind of ecumenism is needed’

Exactly 55 years after Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council and committed the Catholic Church irrevocably to the ecumenical movement, Pope Francis has pointed to secularism as playing a determinant role in the current phase of the push towards Christian unity.

“The ecumenical journey and relations between Christians are undergoing significant changes, due in the first place to the fact that we find ourselves professing our faith in the context of a society and culture where reference to God and all that reminds us of the transcendent dimension of life are less and less present,” the Pope said on 17 January. “Precisely for this reason, our witness needs to concentrate on the centre of our faith, on the proclamation of the love of God that has been made manifest in Christ his Son.”

Francis made the remarks during a meeting with a Lutheran-led delegation, which also included representatives from Finland’s Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The meeting came just a day before believers across the northern hemisphere began the annual eight-day Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Quoting the Second Vatican Council decree Unitatis Redintegratio, the Pope said “spiritual ecumenism” – which includes conversion of heart, holiness of life, and public and private prayer among the different denominations – was the “soul of the ecumenical movement”. “Division among us Christians is a scandal – a scandal!” Pope Francis reiterated at the Wednesday audience in St Peter’s Square. 

A 26 December 2013 statement from the Russian Orthodox patriarchate in Moscow appears to have set back hopes for ecumenical progress with the Orthodox. The president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, told Vatican Radio on 17 January that the Catholic-Orthodox Commission will have to revise its approach to dialogue after the patriarchate published “On the Problem of Primacy in the Universal Church”. The document states: “Orthodox theologians have always insisted that the Church of Rome is one of the … local Churches … They also believed that primacy in honour accorded to the Bishops of Rome is instituted not by God but men.”

“We will now have to find new ways of dialoguing in the commission. The Russian Orthodox statement has made this dialogue somewhat difficult,” Cardinal Koch said.