Reformátusok Lapja, 1972 (72. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1972-06-01 / 6-7. szám
6 REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA • Action of the governing General Board of the NCC officially recognizing RC eligibility to join. Catholic membership in state, regional and local church councils has become a commonplace. Since Vatican II (1960-65) opened ecumenical doors, U.S. dioceses have joined once-Protestant-oriented councils in eleven states (Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont), plus the “Delmarva” Peninsula area (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia). Three others belong to metropolitan area federations (Kansis City, Pittsburgh, Columbus, 0.). Catholic parishes in at least 60 cities have joined local councils. And in half of the nation’s 700 councils, Catholics share in one or more programs without full membership. Other Questions And Issues While the committee found few practical roadblocks standing in the way of a Catholic approach for membership, it raised some interesting questions for which it found affirmative answers. Among them: • Would the Catholic Church in effect repudiate its traditional claim to “uniqueness’ by joining in common membership with “other bodies which also claim to be churches?” By way of answer, the report says: “From the point of view of Roman Catholic theology, there is no difficulty recognizing that elements of the true Church exist in the various member churches in the NCC. The Decree on Ecumenism declared that ‘some, even very many, of the most significant elements or endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church herself can exist outside the boundaries of the Catholic Church.’ Whether the RCC can go further and recognize other communions as churches ‘in the true and full sense of the word’ in a more subtle and difficult question (which) does not need to be settled in the present report. • Would the RCC find itself embarrassed belonging to a body whose majority members publicly advocated ‘unacceptable measures,” such as population control etc? Noting that the Council speaks only for itself and not the member communions, the report comments: “In the case of a genuine disagreement with a proposed policy statement, the RCC may have enough votes to stop passage. In other cases, as with other communions, it could either abstain or make a minority report. The present requirement of a two-thirds majority for passage might well be altered to three-fourths.” The committee further observes that in times of tension such as now, “policy statements are often controversial and open to legitimate criticism. Some criticism is irresponsible (e.g., accusation of Communist influence or of disregard of the Gospel), but much of it represents difference of responsible Christian opinion. Where genuine differences exist, they appear across the spectrum of opinion in all communions and therefore reflect tensions within all member churches. This situation exists in the RCC and therefore should cause no hindrance to membership.” • By whose authority can the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. join the National Council of Churches? Citing a Vatican II decree empowering the Church’s episcopal conferences to act thus under stated conditions, the committee says that the National Conference of Catholic Bishops could make such a decision. The Catholic Church belongs to national church councils in other countries— among them Finland and the Netherlands—in each case through a national bishops’ conference. • Is the popular image of the NCC as a liberal-Protestant, social-action-oriented organization a stumbling block to Catholics? Not so, according to the committee whose report says: “Many Catholics feel that the officers of the NCC deserve credit for their courageous leadership in social action, much of which is in full accord with papal encyclicals.” • Would the size of the Catholic Church in the U.S. (48 million members) mean that it could or would outvote all the other members in NCC (42.3 million members)? “In the event of RC membership,” says the report, “the present formula (for voting representation) would need to be replaced... While this is a subject for future consultation, in light of the membership of the RCC the committee proposes as a working principle that the RCC have not more than one-third of the representatives (on NCC policymaking boards) and not less than one-fifth.” Sharing Costs Financially, the Roman Catholic Church as a member communion would share in the support of the National Council of Churches. The basic requirement is that all member churches share in funding the Council’s “general operations” or central management costs, which now run at about $800,000 annually. In the committee’s opinion, the most any member church should be expected to contribute for general operations would be 25 per cent. Member churches are assessed according to their ability to pay as well as their membership size. A proposal now before the present member churches would provide that no church pay more than 25 per cent of the total general operating budget. The Council’s over-all budget of $16,000,000 is accounted for chiefly by a variety of programs, each with its own budget and each supported separately by member denominations. (The single major item in the budget is some $7,000,000 spent in overseas relief and rehabilitation work carried on by Church World Service, the NCC’s global aid arm.) Member churches provide support for these programs as they choose to participate in them. The report suggests three changes in the NCC which the committee feels would help “pave the way more smoothly for a favorable decision.” They are: • Upgrading the NCC’s Commission on Faith and Order “to the point that it is able to penetrate all the activities of the NCC with a theologically based concern for the unity of Christ’s Church in faith, polity and mission.” • Re-examining and clarifying theological formulations in its basic documents, such as its constitution. • Fixing with sharper precision responsibility for proposed policy statements, a step that is under consideration in current plans for reorganizing the Council. Immediate Future In conclusion, the committee members express the hope that “entrance of the Roman Catholic Church into the National Council of Churches might rekindle the ecumenical enthusiasm of many Roman Catholics, which has somewhat subsided since Vatican II, and at the same time strengthen the commitment of the present member churches in the NCC to the aims and purposes of the ecumenical movement... “While we recognize that careful study and committee work are necessary to shape the structures used by the
