wfn.org | "Dominus Iesus" Receives "Not New" Comment

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October 8, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

Vatican Declaration Receives "Not New" Comment From 
Adventists

Rome, Italy - A recently released Vatican document 
claiming that the Roman Catholic Church holds a monopoly 
on Christian legitimacy should not come as a surprise to 
the religious community, says Dr. Bert B. Beach, director 
of Inter-church Relations for the Seventh-day Adventist 
Church worldwide. 

"There is nothing new here," says Beach of the document 
that has prompted an outcry from many non-Catholic 
Christian denominations around the world. "The Roman 
Catholic Church has never affirmed the validity of 
Protestant churches. Despite its involvement in 
interfaith dialogues over the years, it has always 
claimed primacy as being the only 'true church.'" 

Beach points out that even the Second Vatican Council of 
1962 to 1965, widely hailed as having liberalized the 
Roman Catholic Church in a number of areas, including its 
approach to ecumenism, consistently referred to other 
Christian denominations as "ecclesial communities" rather 
than churches. 

The declaration number 148, called Dominus Iesus, was 
issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 
the Vatican body founded in 1542 that is charged with the 
protection of doctrinal orthodoxy. Speaking at a 
September 5 news conference at Vatican City, the head of 
the Congregation, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said the 
document is intended to counter "religious relativism." 

According to the document, "there exists a single church 
of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, 
governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in 
communion with him." Thus, non-Catholic churches are in a 
"gravely deficient situation in comparison with those 
who, in the [Catholic] Church, have the fullness of the 
means of salvation." 

The steadily growing involvement of the Roman Catholic 
Church in various ecumenical organizations, such as the 
World Council of Churches, over the past few decades has 
made this frank assertion of superiority shocking to many 
in the religious community, says Beach. 

"But the Catholic Church's participation in such 
organizations has always been based on a mono-centric 
view of ecumenism," Beach explains. "This is an 
underlying belief that Christian organizations should 
work towards unity, but with the ultimate goal of coming 
together under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church 
the 'one true church.'" 

Beach says that, in one sense, such an open assertion is 
a good thing, providing a clear picture of where the 
Vatican stands on the issue. 

Dr. Gerhard Pfandl, an associate director in the 
Adventist Church's Biblical Research Institute, called 
the declaration "a bold move to counter the inroads of 
postmodernism and pluralism in the Catholic Church" and 
"an indication that the church has not changed its 
philosophy or doctrinal stand." Pfandl says that the 
document "comes close to saying that there is no 
salvation outside the Catholic Church, which was the 
position of the Church for centuries." 

"The document is an attempt to rein in certain Catholic 
theologians who have gone, or would like to go, beyond 
the limits the papacy has set in its ecumenical 
enterprise," says Pfandl, who notes that the declaration 
is specifically directed to Roman Catholic theologians 
rather than the broader religious community. 

The German weekly magazine, Focus, has printed excerpts 
from a book by Ratzinger, to be published next month, 
reports Associated Press. The goal, Ratzinger states in 
the book, is to unite Christianity as a single faith. He 
adds that "we as Catholics are convinced that such a 
single church exists in its basic form in the Catholic 
church." 

Also published was an official "Note" written by 
Ratzinger and approved by Pope John Paul on June 9. The 
four-page note, which was sent to the heads of Catholic 
bishops' conferences around the world, warns against the 
use of the phrase "sister churches" to describe 
Protestant denominations. 

The release of both Dominus Iesus and the cardinal's note 
has received wide media coverage and prompted expressions 
of concern from many Christian leaders, including the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, Rev. Joe Hale, 
general secretary of the World Methodist Council, Rev. Dr 
Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World 
Federation, Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the 
World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the chairman of 
the council of the Evangelical Church of Germany, Manfred 
Kock. (276/2000)