Magyar Egyház, 2002 (81. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2002 / 1. szám
8. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ Dominus Iesus REFORMED “DISAPPOINTED AND DISMAYED” At the beginning of September WARC General Secretary, Setri Nyomi wrote to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity to express “disappointment and dismay” following the publication of Dominus Iesus, a declaration by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The declaration, he wrote in his letter to Cardinal Edward Cassidy, is “made without ecumenical sensitivity” and “seems to go against the spirit of Vatican II...and the progress made in relationships and dialogues since then”. The declaration, on the “unicity and salvific universality” of Jesus Christ and the church, is concerned to combat “relativistic” and “pluralistic” views that treat Christianity as just one way of salvation among many, but makes statements about other Christian churches and other religious faiths that have provoked widespread criticism. “We in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches have attached much importance to the dialogue we have engaged in for a long time now”, he said. “In many nations a number of our constituent members have made major strides in relationship, often relating as ‘sister churches’ in common witness and diaconal work vis-á-vis challenges in their communities.” The decree on ecumenism (Unitatis redintegratio) approved by the second Vatican council in 1964 committed the Roman Catholic Church to wholehearted participation in the ecumenical movement and was widely seen as the beginning of a new phase in ecumenism. By contrast, slighting remarks on other Christian communities in Dominus Iesus, coupled with an earlier note from the Congregation on the use of the term ‘sister churches’, are identified by Nyomi as “part of a sustained effort by Catholic conservatives” to deny the growing relationship and respect between the Roman Catholic and Reformed and other churches. By seeming “to contradict commitment to ecumenical cooperation within the Christian family or even to take us back to a pre-Vatican II spirit”, such statements raise questions, Nyomi writes, concerning “how we can continue in dialogue with integrity - trusting and respecting one another”. Dialogue goes ahead, but with questions Ironically, Dominus Iesus was published a week before the Alliance was scheduled to meet in international bilateral dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church - on the theme of the church as a “community of common witness” to the kingdom of God. WARC considered calling off the session pending clarification on whether the Roman Catholic Church still took seriously the “special affinity and close relationship” (Decree on Ecumenism, par.19) binding it to Protestant churches, but decided to go ahead “because of the commitment of the Reformed family to ecumenical cooperation and a healthy cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church”. The meeting, at Mondo Migliore in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, did not confine itself to the usual scholarly papers and explorations. The recent tension between Reformed and Catholics were discussed frankly but in an ecumenical spirit. It was recognized that some of the tensions spring from significant differences in the Reformed and Roman Catholic understandings of the church. On Monday September 18, the dialogue commission was received in audience by Pope John Paul II. We regard it our duty and calling to remain in serious dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, even and especially when obstacles arise,” Russel Borman, Reformed co-chair of the joint dialogue commission, told the Pope. “Theological dialogue is the proper setting for us to face together the issues over which Christians have been divided,” John Paul II responded. “Our dialogue then becomes an examination of conscience, a call to conversion, in which both sides examine before God their responsibility to do all that they can to put behind them the conflicts of the past.” The World Alliance of Reformed Churches, acting on behalf of its now 214 member churches, began international bilateral dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church in 1970. A report of the first phase of dialogue, The Presence of Christ in Church and world, was published in 1977. The second phase (1984 to 1990) resulted in the report, Towards a Common Understanding of the Church. Hollywood: Cserkészeink betlehemes játéka 2001-ben.
