The Independent News Source
NCR on Kindle - NCR classifieds - YouTube - Twitter - Facebook - Email Alerts - RSS
Printer-friendly version
PDF version'Ecumenism of the Martyrs', and remembering Giancarlo Zizola
by John L Allen Jr on Sep. 16, 2011
Ecumenism, meaning the push for Christian unity, today stands at a crossroads. On the one hand, it's among the towering religious success stories of the last century, wiping away old prejudices and building new friendships in the historical blink of an eye. Just ask my 97-year-old grandma out in rural Hill City, Kan., where only decades ago her Protestant neighbors tried to block the sale of a parcel of land to build a Catholic parish, and where today the churches do virtually everything together.
Yet ecumenists (or, among wags, "ecumaniacs") are right when they say the movement's goal of full, structural unity seems further away than ever. Resentments over Roman primacy still block détente with the Orthodox; massive ecclesiological differences still separate Catholics from most Evangelicals and Pentecostals; and disputes over both sexual morality and female clergy have added new complications to already frayed relations between Catholics and mainline Protestants.
Facing this "ecumenical winter," what do you do?
For the decade from 2001 to last July that the legendary Cardinal Walter Kasper was the Vatican's top doctrinal official, he had a ready answer: "Spiritual Ecumenism," which means quietly building bonds of friendship among Christians of different persuasions, rooted in prayer and a spirit of unity, which over time can reshape the context in which theological and ecclesiological problems are explored.
That's a noble pursuit, but also a long-term undertaking without the sort of immediate results that get people's blood moving.
This week, a new model with greater promise of tangible outcomes in the here-and-now was placed on the table by Kasper's successor: "Ecumenism of the Martyrs," meaning common concern and activism on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world. It reflects the realities of the 21st century, in which two-thirds of the world's Christian population lives in the southern hemisphere, often as minorities up against hostile majorities. According to one estimate, 80 percent of the acts of religious intolerance in the world today are directed against Christians.
We're not talking, by the way, about an alleged secular "war on Christmas", or a government-funded art exhibit that rubs some pious souls the wrong way. We're talking about real violence and oppression, on a global scale. The gripping recent book Where Christians are Dying, by Italian journalist Francesca Paci, documents systematic attacks on Christians in Iraq, the Holy Land, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, North Korea, Somalia, Nigeria and Algeria, as well as sections of the Amazon -- and that's hardly a complete list.
Subscribe to NCR
Want to read more about important issues in the life of the Church? A subscription to NCR will keep you up to date and informed.
I've said it before, and I'll repeat it here: It's not merely silly that Christians in the West spend our time debating the fine points of liturgical translation, or the latest pronouncement from the bishops on some book of theology, while millions of our coreligionists are forced to take their life in their hands every time they go to church, open their store, or just walk down the street. It's obscene.
The call for a new "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" came from Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at an annual ecumenical and inter-religious summit sponsored by the Community of Sant'Egidio, staged this week in Munich.
Here's how Koch laid it out.
"Since today all churches and Christian ecclesiastical communities have their martyrs, we are dealing with a true ecumenism of martyrs," he said. "While we, as Christians and as churches, live on this earth in an as yet imperfect communion, the martyrs in their celestial glory find themselves in full and perfect communion."
"Today, as Christians, we must live in the hope that the blood of modern-day martyrs may someday become the seed of full unity of the Body of Christ. But we have to demonstrate this hope in a credible manner, by helping persecuted Christians, publicly denouncing situations of martyrdom and getting involved in efforts on behalf of respect for religious freedom and human dignity," Koch said.
"The ecumenism of martyrs, therefore, is not merely the core of ecumenical spirituality, particularly needed today, but it is also the best illustration of the inseparability of the promotion of Christian unity and preferential love for the poor".
(Though Koch is hardly the first person to float this idea, his remarks represent the debut of "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" as a more-or-less explicit proposal of the Vatican's top ecumenical officer. And although it probably goes without saying, I'll say it anyway: Embracing "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" does not have to come at the expense of "Spiritual Ecumenism." It's both/and, not either/or.)
* * *
A 21st century "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" has at least three points to recommend itself.
First, it can deliver a strong new impulse to the ecumenical movement. Tertullian once famously observed that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of faith," and a similar point could be made about ecumenism: the experience of martyrdom is often the engine of unity.
Oppression of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants alike under the Nazis and the Soviets was a key to the ecumenical push of the mid-20th century. According to the late Dutch Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, a pioneer of the ecumenical cause, the "life together" of Protestant and Catholic clerics in Nazi concentration camps was a key to the movement's growth after 1945. The theory of unity, Willebrands said in 2002, "received its life and purpose from that fact."
Today too, ecumenical relations tend to be closest in parts of the world where Christians face a common threat: the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, China and North Korea, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The more global Christianity becomes engaged in responding to those crises, the more a sense of urgency to put aside old squabbles gains ground.
Second, "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" offers a response to the most important practical question activists on behalf of beleaguered Christians always ask: How do we build networks to mobilize support in the West?
In truth, those networks don't have to be built. They already exist, in the form of a sprawling galaxy of ecumenical commissions, dialogue bodies, lecture series, publications, offices and staffs dedicated to ecumenical work, and so on. The trick is to take this infrastructure -- which, to be honest, in the context of today's ecumenical stall, sometimes seems under-utilized -- and focus it squarely on 21st century Christian martyrdom.
In July, I attended a joint Anglican/Catholic summit on the threats facing Christianity in the Holy Land, held in London at Lambeth Palace, the headquarters of the Anglican Communion, and co-hosted by Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams and Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols. It was a vintage case of "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" in action: Anglicans and Catholics may be no closer on women's ordination, but Williams and Nichols seemed in perfect sync on the need to prevent the land of Christ's birth from turning into a "spiritual Disneyland," full of attractions but empty of an indigenous Christian population.
Third, an "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" would serve the purpose of reminding people that Christianity and the West are not co-extensive. The most dynamic and rapidly growing Christian communities today are outside the West, especially in Africa and parts of Asia. They will set the tone for the global church in the century to come. If those communities are repressed, and perhaps radicalized, the entire Christian world will have to live with the consequences.
That danger seems most acute today in the Middle East, where no one yet knows how the Arab Spring will shake out, but the safe bet looks to be on a strong new role for militant Islam. At the same Sant'Egidio meeting where Koch spoke, the Catholic Patriarch of Egypt, Antonios Naguib, warned that the Egyptian revolution has been "sequestered" by Salafists and other Islamic groups. Right now, he said, Christians are being shut out of government roles both nationally and at the level of the country's regions, conflicts between Christians and Muslims are mounting, and most Christians are deeply afraid.
* * *
If "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" takes hold, there are two further implications worth pondering.
First, the ecumenical conversation would no longer be the near-exclusive province of theologians. It would draw in a higher share of diplomats, policy analysts, political activists and grassroots organizers, who would become, in a sense, the primary carriers of ecumenical progress.
This could break the unfortunate dynamic that's grown up over the last 50 years, according to which ecumenism is de facto styled as a project for a narrow class of experts, with the rest of us relegated to sitting around waiting for the next document on Mary, or authority in the church, to appear.
This shift would also put the accent on what Christians share, rather than what still divides them. While there certainly is a particular Catholic view on apostolic succession or the Eucharist, there's no specifically Catholic take on calls to enforce shariah through the civil law. On that score, Catholics, Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Orthodox, and mainline Protestants all have the same basic position: "No."
Second, an "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" would inject balance into Christian attitudes towards secularism.
In the West, resentment in Christian circles over secular hostility to religious faith has deepened significantly. Developments such as the failure by the European Union to acknowledge its Christian roots, various perceived assaults on marriage and human life, and a new brazenness to use the media and the legal system to go after religious institutions (most notably, in the sex abuse crisis facing the Catholic church), have all produced a mounting sense of cultural war.
News this week that a secular legal foundation based in New York, in tandem with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has asked the International Criminal Court to prosecute the pope and other senior Vatican officials, will reinforce those impressions in some quarters.
Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, former President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, memorably summed up this sense of antagonism back in 2004, after an Italian Catholic politician was blackballed for a job with the European Commission after confessing that he accepted church teaching on abortion and homosexuality: "It looks like a new Inquisition," Martino said at the time. "It's a secular Inquisition, but it is so nasty. You can freely insult and attack Catholics, and nobody will say anything."
There are, of course, real worries about an ideological form of secularism which is blindly hostile to the church. There is also, however, an equal-and-opposite danger in an "us-versus-them" psychology that shuts down lines of communication and misses opportunities for partnership.
The option for "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" would act as a corrective in this regard. It would make the push for religious freedom a cornerstone of ecumenical effort, which means quintessentially secular values such as democracy, the separation of religion and politics, and the rule of law, would receive a powerful new Christian embrace. Proof of the point can be found today in the Middle East, where the region's tiny Christian minority is also its most passionate champion of healthy secularism -- open to religious values, but not dominated by any one religious vision.
"Ecumenism of the Martyrs," in other words, would remind Christians in the West that secularism doesn't have to be an enemy. Under the right conditions, it's actually the best friend we've got.
* * *
The small -- and, truth to be told, somewhat idiosyncratic -- world of Vatican correspondents lost an old friend this week. Giancarlo Zizola, the legendary Vatican writer whose work appeared in virtually every Italian and international publication that mattered over the last six decades, died of an apparent heart attack at 75.
Fittingly, Zizola was in Munich at the time, following the Sant'Egidio meeting I mentioned above. He died, in other words, with his boots on, still keeping his finger on the pulse of the global Catholic scene.
Zizola first started covering the church in 1961, when a friend in Italian Catholic circles, a frumpy Bergamese cleric named Angelo Roncalli -- by that stage, better known to the world as Pope John XXIII -- asked him to come to Rome to provide coverage of the Second Vatican Council for the country's eight Italian Catholic newspapers. As Vatican II quickly became not just a Catholic story, but a global one, Zizola's work attracted a wide following. He found himself writing for Italy's prestigious daily Il Giorno, and then a string of other premier secular publications.
From that point forward, Zizola established himself as an indispensable point of reference on all things Catholic. He had a real background in theology, scripture, and church history, which meant that he brought depth to his coverage of ecclesiastical vicissitudes. He was especially close to Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, and the circles around both men, which gave him phenomenal sources and insider perspective. In the run-up to the conclave of 1978, for instance, Zizola published a book in which he floated Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla as a candidate for the papacy, and history obviously proved him right.
As time went on, Zizola became more of a commentator than a front-line reporter, always bringing intelligence to the subject at hand. He was often critical of what he saw as tendencies to abandon or stifle some of the reform energies unleashed by Vatican II. Whatever one made of his conclusions, he was always a must-read. I'll put it this way: Over the years I've probably consumed hundreds of pieces by Zizola, and never -- not once, not ever -- did I come away without learning something.
When I first arrived in Rome in the 1990s, I contacted Zizola and asked if he would mind giving a novice vaticanista some tips. He graciously invited me to his apartment, and delivered three memorable rules of engagement: Never print a scoop (by which he meant the Italian sense of "scoop," i.e., gossip rather than real news); never betray a source; and publish only 20 percent of what you actually know. People will trust you more, he said, if you have a reputation for restraint.
I can't say I've always followed that advice -- for one thing, I don't know nearly enough to withhold 80 percent of it. I've always carried those rules of thumb in my head, however, and I believe I'm a better journalist because of it. It's not just me; the entire profession is better because Zizola raised the bar for all of us.
I'll remember Gaincarlo Zizola and his family in my prayers this week, and I'd ask "All Things Catholic" readers to do the same.
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR senior correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@ncronline.org.]
Very insightful. However the
Very insightful. However the perspective of History is a source of my hope. We absorbed the Huns and Goths, later took the best of the Enlightenment to move ahead and today we are overcoming the worst aspects of the Reformation as in your grandmother's life span to date. We saw Nazism and Communism defeated.
The serious will see that the advancment of anti-Natural Law in the legislation will eventually be turned around by people and the laws and politicans will follow. The current sex abuse crisis will spin out once the extremists settle down to seeing that we move forward and learn from yesterday. Right now it is used as a stick with which to attack the Catholic Church for its stand on the Natural Law, that started waw before the sexual abuse scandal exploded, so one "considers the source" while dealing with the facts, the reality and seek to protect all involved.
Extremists in the Middle East will lose their power once the West realises that drones and guns do not solve problems and mutual respect and listening will take over, especially if the people get a chance to be together and dispell the false notions of the Other as Grandma and her neighbours discovered.
huh?
huh?
As someone has said, if
As someone has said, if Natural Law is natural, why does the magisterium need to teach about it?
The fact is that there are not just quantitative changes, but qualitative ones based on new discoveries and inventions that move us to see and act in new ways.
Just think, is used to be
Just think, is used to be ecumenicism produced martyrs (Foxes), I think Bible reading/believing without Church doctrine, or tradition as a guide, still does.
A good example is the most referred to date in the Bible, new and old testaments, the same day that Christ said "Do this in remembrance of me", the "do this" was referring to the keeping of passover, this date is nearly ignored by the Church, in order to promote worship on the day of the sun god Baal.
Jesus, His disciples, and Gentile Christians all kept God's Sabbath, and continued till 300 years after Christ, the Council of Laodicea outlawed it.
I think a true Ecumenical movement among God's children, will require following God's rules, not "councils of men".
"A good example is the most
"A good example is the most referred to date in the Bible, new and old testaments, the same day that Christ said "Do this in remembrance of me", the "do this" was referring to the keeping of passover, this date is nearly ignored by the Church, in order to promote worship on the day of the sun god Baal."
*
Baal was never a sun god - that is a nineteenth-century invention (like so much in US Fundamentalism: the Rapture, & Pre-mill Dispensationalism, are two other nineteenth-century inventions).
Your points are well taken.
Your points are well taken. However, it can be very difficult to follow them. Since 9/11 secularists, many of whom are atheists, have become quite militant about their beliefs, even to the point of setting up billboards espousing and promoting atheism. Many of us find this offensive, but of course they have every legal right to do this if they chose. But the question remains, how do we deal with this situation?
For Gaincarlo Zizola: Lux
For Gaincarlo Zizola:
Lux aeterna luceat ei, Domine: Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum.
Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine: et lux perpetua luceat ei.
Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum: quia pius es.
Absolve, Domine, animas omnium fidelium defunctorum ab omni vinculo delictorum. Et gratia tua illis succurrente, mereantur evadere judicium ultionis. Et lucis aeternae beatitudine perfrui.
Amen.
"..a new brazenness to use
"..a new brazenness to use the media and the legal system to go after religious institutions (most notably, the sexual crisis facing the Catholic church).."
Brazen is defined by Webster as impudent or shameless.
It is not bazen for Catholic parents to get up off their knees to prevent priests from raping their children and bishops from covering it up. The media and the legal system are the only effective avenues.
Good point, J. Stanton.
Good point, J. Stanton.
Your article emphasizing
Your article emphasizing "ecumenism of martyrs" makes sense. You seem to be ignoring the tremendous ecumenical work done through retreats of all kinds that are ecumenical. Could you take your words suggesting vehicles of ecumenical progress: "a sprawling galaxy of ecumenical commissions, dialogue bodies, lecture series, publications, offices and staffs dedicated to ecumenical work, and so on" and add the immense ecumenical work of the Holy Spirit going on everywhere and all the time in ecumenical retreats?
John - Insightful as usual
John - Insightful as usual but, also as usual, we work hard to be politically correct. It is certainly true religion and to some exten Catholics suffered horribly under communist Russia and its allies but that is now essentially finished. At present and for the forseeable future other than from the crazies in North Korea systematic attacks come for the most part from the Islamic countries you mentioned. Maybe if we withdraw our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan things will change but hard to bet on it
I didn't know Mr. Zizola very
I didn't know Mr. Zizola very well, but I disagree with the notion that he was one of the best Vatican reporters out there.
For one thing, he failed at predicting who the next pope would be. He literally named dozens of potential papabili, while consciously and perhaps hypocritically omitting the name of Cardinal Ratzinger.
Of course, John Allen and other vaticanists also failed at predicting Ratzinger's election, so he wasn't alone on this one.
And predicting who the next
And predicting who the next pope will be is your agenda for deciding who is and isn't a jornalist of high regard? Based on what you write, I hope you won't mind if I go with John Allen on such things!
I like this idea of the
I like this idea of the ""Ecumenism of the Martyrs" very much. Wouldn't it be wonderful if one of the first actions growing out of this movement/perspective
could be for all of to come together and formulate a plan which could lead us to be pro-active on behalf of all other Christians in the world ad to work toward some ways for providing protection or them wherever and whenever their, faith and well-being is being threatened. How can we sisters and brothers in the faith
stand by helplessly while he see them threatened? And yet, what can we do?
You know, somehow I think
You know, somehow I think that this "new Evangelism" is going to have to go outside of old categories and ways of thinking if it is to have ANY chance of succeeding in a world which has already left those old categories, language and ways of thinking well behind in the dust of the road. Did any of the planners of this conference give any thought to going outside of their own circles and trying to find out, first, what, exactly, are the barriers to the acceptance of our message outside in the world?
The 'theological
The 'theological distinctions' sneeringly dismissed here are the source of enormous suffering among the poor. It matters if we are always building a society headed by Christ the King--for in that fine distinction we have an alternative, a practical third way both socially and economically, to the two parties who represent for us now nothing more than a kick in the head, or a kick in the stomach. Do we actually think the fine distinction represented by the Catholic teaching on homosexuality, against all its 'rights' to an unnecessary 'marriage,' have no bearing on the situation in which African American women must live in, their hell on earth, where they have a one in seven chance of ever marrying, then a twenty-five percent chance of that marriage surviving, so that they must live celibate, or live as the poor sex toys hurried into abortion clinics every Saturday morning? Their debasement results from the loss of the fine theological distinctions, where only the Catholic church provided the terribly difficult leadership that held promise for the poor, that held out for marriage, for real life-long marriage. Protestantism is about profits! They were the first to privatize hospitals, all the way back in Henry's time. To make nice with protestantism is to abandon the poor. The nice, polite church suppers Grandmother enjoys with her sweet protestant neighbors do not balance out the cost, the true unspeakable cost, of the loss of pure hard Catholic doctrine.
Thank you, John, for another
Thank you, John, for another excellent article
A little known fact: From 1900, more Christians have been martyred in China than in all other places combined.
One reason why there are now 100,000,000 Christians in China, is that the blood of Chinese martyrs has been the seed of Christian growth. Since the first recorded martyrdoms in AD 845, about 250,000 Christians in China have been killed for their faith.
"China's Book of Martyrs" by Paul Hattaway records the heroic stories of thousands of these martyrs, locals and foreigners, from all Christian denominations.
Martyrs like Eleanor Chestnut from the USA who served as a medical missionary in Guangdong Province from 1893.
In order to build a clinic, Chestnut used most of her salary, and for years lived on very little food. When her hospital was attacked by rioters on October 28, 1905, she could have escaped, but chose to stay, her final act of service to the Chinese people being to rip a piece of material from her own dress to bandage the head of a child wounded by the rioters.
Martyrs like Bishop Ferdinand Hamer from the Netherlands who served in China from 1865 until his death at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. He, too, could have escaped, but chose to stay with his flock, and suffered an atrocious death. His fingers, toes, nose and ears were cut off, then he was covered with cotton cloth soaked with oil before being hooked feet first to the top of a tripod and set on fire.
In earlier days, some missionaries felt that the faith of local Chinese Christians may not have been very deep. But the opposite was true and more than 200,000 of them courageously laid down their lives for the sake of the Gospel.
"China's Book of Martyrs" is not something to be read at one sitting. A few of its 600 pages is all one can take in one reading. It is so overpowering. But it's truly a daily dose of courage.
Like many other outstanding books about China from Paul Hattaway, "China's Book of Martyrs" can be obtained from www.asiaharvest.org
Riddle me this: "I've said it
Riddle me this:
"I've said it before, and I'll repeat it here: It's not merely silly that CATHOLIC NEWSPAPERS in the West spend THEIR time REPORTING the fine points of liturgical translation, or the latest pronouncement from the bishops on some book of theology, while millions of our coreligionists are forced to take their life in their hands every time they go to church, open their store, or just walk down the street. It's obscene."
Confucius says:
"People who live in glass houses should DRESS IN THE BASEMENT!"
Why not an ecumenism of the
Why not an ecumenism of the saints? All the major spiritual traditions have produced genuine saints, including martyrs for God, mystics who realized union with God, heroic souls who have sacrificed their lives for others, etc. But the Church still canonizes only institutional Catholics and 90% of those have been servants of the institution itself such as priests, nuns, bishops and popes. Under John Paul II particularly, it seems service of the institution was at least as important, if not more important, than genuine holiness, his efforts to canonize the viciously anti-semintic Pius IX a prime example.
Pre-Pius X, reception of Communion was rare, often considered a reward for a sinless life since the last Eastertime. St. Pius X reversed that, saying the reception of Communion was rather the "means" to holiness, not a reward for holiness. Hence the wholesale Eucharistic devotion of today, perhaps the only thing now holding the Church together.
But, again, John Paul II reversed St. Pius. In 1979, here in Washington DC, John Paul said there could not be intercommunion among Christian churches until all other denominations submitted to Rome. Communion would be the reward. No concept of the Eucharist as the "means" to union. No wonder ecumenism has floundered.
John, intercommunion is the
John, intercommunion is the result of real unity not faux unity. The things that divide us are real. Ecumenism has floundered because we are beginning to hit the bedrock issues where there is less and less wiggle room. That is to be expected. It is not helped when Catholics, like you do here, bash the Church for being "gasp" Catholic. May Blessed Pius IX pray for us.
Pius IX was not "viciously
Pius IX was not "viciously anti-Semitic." Hitler was a person who was viciously anti-Semitic. Pius IX was not such a person.
While we're on the subject of Pius IX....One of Pius IX's greatest accomplishments was the "Syllabus of Errors", which the post-Vatican II clergy and laity ought to read and embrace.
In any event, a later pope after Pius IX, that is- Pius XI, prayed in his Act of Consecration of the Human Race, "Of old, they [the Jews] called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may It now descend upon them as a laver of redemption and of life."
This is the proper attitude we should have toward the Jewish people, or more appropriately, the loving hope we should have for them... and again, both the conservative and liberal "Vatican 2-ers" should read and pray that Act of Consecration, so that they will re-embrace that proper hope... which they have sadly lost to fuzzy ecumenical ventures.
The Jews need Our Lord Jesus Christ, as do we all.
The suspicions and wariness
The suspicions and wariness of Grandma were somewhat reinforced by Catholic triumphalism, and even to this day it is a stumbling block to ecumenism.
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=194319
We should always, all of us, in humility, try to see from the 'others' perspective.
That said, I love this idea of the "Ecumenism of the Martyrs". How wonderful to read "While we, as Christians and as churches, live on this earth in an as yet imperfect communion, the martyrs in their celestial glory find themselves in full and perfect communion."
In my Methodist church we recite "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of Saints...".
The catholic, universal church, of which we are all members, one body in Christ.
I love the Roman Catholic Church, the many Saints, the traditions, the Monasteries... I admire so much many Popes of the Church. As a protestant, I understand the Catholic Church is our Mother.
As far as I'm concerned there is no real division, our similarities far outweigh our differences.
I have no financial interest
I have no financial interest in it, so let me recommend J.J. Norwich's "Absolute Monarchs" dealing with the history of the Papacy, or as we non-RC would say, the Bishops of Rome. Steven W., your love of popes may be scales that will fall from your eyes once you have the big picture as they say. In fairness, a relative few were truly holy, but a far larger number were absolute scoundrels.
This is a typical
This is a typical John-Allen-article: There is not one central focus and so either a response has to be scatter-shot or become too narrowly focused.
Here I'll take my chances. My first reply is to the concept of "Ecumenism of Martyrs". As a brand (as they say in marketing) it'a good one. But if arguing about the basic truths of faith (theology) and prayer (liturgy) is "silly" and "obscene" then what, pray tell is debating or manipulating a substitution "Ecumenism of the Martyrs" for "Spiritual Ecumenism"? What's wrong with the tried and true concepts of common ground, solidarity or compassion, and unity or agape?
Another item that begs the question is "the failure of the European Union to acknowledge its Christian roots". Europe's roots, historically, are decidedly not Christian but pagan. When the first Christians, Paul & other disciples, fanned out to southern Europe those who greeted them were pagans. The Christian church needs to acknowledge our roots (radix) instead in Asian Judaism and Asian/European paganism.
The thoughts above by no means exhaust my problems with this conglomerative article, but a last one deserves mention I think: the varied uses of the words "secular" and "secularism". If any subject deserves ecumenical, ideological, theological, epistomological, linguistic discussion at this time in Catholic circles, these do. They are used so glibly in this article and elsewhere. The reader is left to supply connotation or denotation so their intent is fuzzy as for instance, above when Mr Allen refers to an unnamed "secular legal foundation" in New York, but doesn't label as secular the "Community of Sant Egidio" (which it is from a curial standpoint).
The one thread to which I give heartiest and unrestricted, unrestrained enthusiam is John's emphasis that we don't live in a national or local church. It is catholic in that it is global and in that a disciple of Christ is a disciple of Christ no matter under what banner she/he lives. For that reason alone, we owe - yes, owe - each other support, compassion, solidarity. If you don't believe me read The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul. Incidentally, in one of these pieces we discover in which pagan city the followers of Christ were first called Christian. Hint: it wasn't in Europe.
Joan, was Antioch, Syria a
Joan, was Antioch, Syria a Christian city or a pagan one in Paul's time? The ancient near east was largely pagan. In fact Europe as we know it is rooted in Christianity and specifically Catholicism. It is impossible to tell the story of Europe and leave Christianity out of it. The same can be said of America, although secularists find it horrible to contemplate.
With all due respect,I would
With all due respect,I would suggest that the artifical construct entitled "Ecumenism"be discarded altogether;it's a huge ,useless waste of time and energy.We as Christians have two primary,indeed overriding commandments:"Love the Lord our God with all our hearts,souls,minds,and strength,and our neighbors as ourselves".Period.And the only place that can be accomplished is In Christ,not in interpretations.We all of us ought to be about our Father's business and pouring our lives out for our brothers and sisters In Christ,regardless of what ridiculous,artificial denominational/institutional constructs and labels we've allowed someone to saddle us with.I for one refuse to be defined by anyone's "'ism or schism",and the attendant constraints inherent within these man-made mindsets;I am a servant of God In Christ,and I don't need anyone's permission to obey Almighty God's call on my life.We all know what we need to do:Take up our crosses and follow Him to all these places our persecuted brothers and sisters need us.Let's roll,people!!
"ecumenical winter"? Well, if
"ecumenical winter"?
Well, if you watch the bishops, you may think so. However, at least in the United States, I think ecumenism is alive and flourishing. The Pope may forbid intercommunion, but it's my observation that many Catholics today respectfully take Communion whenever they find themselves at a Protestant service. I also know Catholics who, when driven from their parish by the pastor, found a home in a Protestant congregation.
As for "ecumenicism of martyrs"
- while I respect and admire those who practice Christianity in the face of real danger, I mistrust those who would seem to be using their fate to lay the foundations for a new Crusade - and I use the term "Crusade" in the most literal sense!
- I am also uncomfortable with those who would dare to compare the physical danger many Christians face with the loss of influence in the western world. Even worse is the suggestion that legal prosecution for real crimes constitutes persecution for belief!
- finally - if we want to see persecution of Christians, we need look no further than within our own Church, where members of the hierarchy use their power to persecute other Catholics daily!
Sorry, but I don't share the
Sorry, but I don't share the enthusiasm for the Ecumenical Movement.
I understand that many "Orthodox" (so-called) and Protestants are probably acting in good faith. Yes, many of them are persecuted. But objectively, they are in error.
Our hope should be that these Protestants and "Orthodox" would come to the knowledge of, and into full communion with, the Roman Catholic Church.
The theological points we might debate about are not minor. They are in many cases major and fundamental.
We should love and pray for Protestants and for Eastern Schismatics as well.
But the idea of focusing on what we hold in common with them, and hoping the differences will gradually (magically) go away, sounds very weird to me, to say the least.
And this doesn't even go into the strange shenanigans that took place at Assisi under JPII, even with people who don't believe there is one God.
Distincion not Separation:
Distincion not Separation: In your excellent article, "Ecumenism of the Martyrs", you speak of the "separation of religion and politics". Unfortunaely, "separation" implies a "wall", i.e., the exclusion of interaction. A more productive term is "the distinction between religion and politics". "Distinction" implies both the autonomy of each discipline within its own sphere and man's need for the two to cooperate. American Catholics' acceptance of the motto, "the separation of church and state", is unconsiously already to yield the field to the forces of atheism.
Post new comment