wfn.org | Disciples leaders respond to controversial Roman Catholic

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declaration
>From nobody@wfn.org  Fri Oct 20 00:00:00 2000
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Date: October 20, 2000
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org
E-mail: CWillis@oc.disciples.org

00b-53

     INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) leaders have joined the ecumenical community in responding to a
recent controversial Roman Catholic declaration on church unity.

     Drafting the response to "Dominus Iesus" was the Rev. Robert
K. Welsh, president of the Disciples Council on Christian Unity, and the
Rev. Paul A. Crow Jr., co-moderator of the Disciples of Christ--Roman
Catholic International Commission for Dialogue. Crow retired as
president of CCU in 1998.

     While affirming the document's primary focus to clarify the
salvation message, Welsh and Crow emphasized the importance of  "our
efforts for offering a common witness to a divided world." The
declaration, according to the Disciples ecumenists, inadequately reflects
the progress and spirit of ecumenical hospitality achieved "during the 30
years since Vatican II."

     "It seems inconsistent to us for the Roman Catholic Church to
proclaim that ecumenism is central to the church's life and witness and
then to issue a statement that does not reflect that basic commitment,"
said the Disciples leaders.

     Most controversial in the declaration is a statement that refers to
Protestant bodies as "derivative" of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Certainly we Disciples of Christ believe there is only one Church of
Christ, not several  churches," said Welsh and Crow. "But we believe
that the reality--however tragically--of "divided churches" calls us to a
far greater commitment to seeking the healing of this ecclesial
brokenness."

                  -- end --

{Editors: Below is the complete text of the letter written by the Revs.
Robert K. Welsh and Paul A. Crow Jr. of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ).}

     
    Disciples Response to Dominus Iesus
                     

Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy 
President
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
Vatican City

Dear Cardinal Cassidy:

     We greet you in the name of our common Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Because of our longtime international dialogue with the Roman
Catholic Church and because of the Disciples of Christ's central
commitment to seek the unity of the Church, we are moved to send a
response to the recent Declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, Dominus Iesus. We have listened to the primary focus of
the Declaration's message that centers upon the question of salvation in
the face of religious pluralism in our world today, and strongly affirm
the importance of articulating theological clarity around this crucial
issue in relation to the mission of the Church. We trust that our
comments will be received in the spirit of Christian dialogue that will up
build the unity which Christ has given.

     We share many of the concerns which the Declaration addresses.
Fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus Christ remains the calling of all
Christians and the responsibility of the whole Church. The mystery of
the incarnation, the cross and resurrection, the gift of reconciling love
and unity, and the promise of the Kingdom of God are essential for the
salvation of the world.

     We agree that the times in which we live call us to address
fundamental questions about the content of the faith and its application
to common witness in a changing world situation. Many ignore the
Gospel; others reinterpret it incompletely under the guise of a pluralism
that has no center. Truly the Church is in a unique missionary situation
that requires Christians to articulate the faith "once and for all given in
Christ Jesus" and to find new ways to offer the grace and loving care of
God to all of God's people. The magnitude of this task makes even more
important our efforts for offering a common witness to a divided world.
However, this element seems to be absent or diminished in the
Declaration. Its spirit and commitments seem to many Christians and
partners in dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church to make the
teachings of Ut Unum Sint, the Decree on Ecumenism, and some
post-conciliar documents regarding the centrality of the quest for unity
in Christ marginal or irrelevant. Indeed, as other communions have
stated in their responses to Dominus Iesus, the Declaration does not
appear to reflect the recent understandings and the spirit of ecumenical
hospitality that have been achieved through dialogue and cooperation
during the past 30 years since Vatican II.

     Amid the confusion of this post-modern and dramatically
pluralistic world we strongly commend the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, under the leadership of Cardinal Ratzinger, for
calling Catholics--and indirectly Christians of other traditions--to
theological reflection about the crucial issue of salvation in Jesus Christ.
We Disciples have publicly faced this fundamental matter of the faith in
recent years in our own ecclesial life. The Commission on Theology of
the Disciples of Christ in the
U.S. and Canada spent several years reflecting on the theological issues
involved, and in 1989 issued a report on "Salvation in Jesus Christ"
which was affirmed by our General Assembly. Some of the insights of
this document are relevant to this matter, so may we briefly share some
quotations: 

 *  "To confess 'Jesus Christ is Savior' is a truth
     fundamental to the faith of the Church. . . (For us this
     confession is rooted in the Scriptures and Tradition, the
     living witness of the Church down through the centuries.)
     . . . 

*    "To confess, in accordance with the apostolic witness
     that Jesus Christ is the Savior is to speak--because of the
     Gospel--not only who Jesus is, but who God is, and who
     we are in relation to the triune God . . . 

*     "The center of the Church's confession is the saving God
     who was in Christ and is ever present in the Holy Spirit .
     . . 

*    "To say 'yes' to the Gospel is also to enter a life of
     obedience, striving--with the aid of God's grace--to speak
     and act in accord with God's loving purpose for the
     world . . . 

*    "Many ignore this gospel. Some take offense at it. Many
     will never hear it because the Church expresses it in ways
     that do not seem to be words and deeds of unfailing love,
     or open invitations to share, or signs of caring, but
     implausible, insensitive, or perhaps even self-serving and
     arrogant claims of a given social group or culture. . ."

     These points, we believe, parallel positions and insights of the
Declaration. Disciples of Christ are grateful the issue of interfaith
dialogue has been strongly raised in Dominus Iesus. This is a matter to
be addressed with full theological integrity and charitable intent. Nostrae
Aetate, the Vatican II document, offered helpful counsel, but there
remains a number of unresolved issues. Concepts of religious pluralism
that diminish the fullness of the Gospel will not serve to bring peace and
community on this common planet. 

     We also disagree with those Christians -- Roman Catholics,
Anglicans, and Protestants -- who identify interreligious dialogue as
"true ecumenism," thus diminishing the centrality of the search for the
visible unity of the Church as a sign of the unity of the human
community. Hopefully the probing of the nature and prospects of
interfaith dialogue--as prompted by the Declaration--will lead us to
clarity and a sense of a common pilgrimage among Roman Catholics,
Orthodox, Anglicans, and Protestants to discover our unity with all those
who confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Redeemer.

     We believe one of the most difficult issues, identified by the
Declaration, is the statement that other ecclesial communions are
"derivative of the fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic
Church." Certainly we Disciples of Christ believe there is only one
Church of Christ, not several churches. But we believe that the
reality--however tragically--of "divided churches" calls us to a far
greater commitment to seeking the healing of this ecclesial brokenness.
At this point in the Declaration's citation of Vatican II, we find the
references to be selective -- that is, there is no reference to the
important
points in the Decree on Ecumenism that those who now belong to
separated churches and communities are not themselves guilty of the sin
of schism, and that there are faults on both sides of the original
separation. Further, the Declaration tends to accentuate the negative, and
ignores the positive progress that has been made through bilateral
theological dialogues, the whole purpose of which is to restore
communion as a result of mutual agreement and mutual conversion to
Christ. 

     Also, reflecting upon the statement in Dominus Iesus that other
churches and ecclesial
communities "derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and
truth entrusted to the Catholic Church," we would ask, "How does this
happen? How are ecclesial communities 'derivative'? What does this
mean for the Roman Catholic Church in its ecumenical involvements
with other Christians who live in these ecclesial communities?" We
believe these fundamental ecclesiological issues should be included in
the future sessions of the Disciples of Christ--Roman Catholic
International Commission for Dialogue.

     All of this points to the providential significance of the bilateral
dialogues as a worthy and essential instrument of the ecumenical
movement. They are the arena where we come to understand each
other's witness to the Christian faith in its authenticity. They represent
interim relationships and sharing which Christ can use for the ultimate
reconciliation of Christ's Church. The integrity of the dialogues also
convinces the divided ecclesial communities of the importance of our
common witness and service to the world.

     It is at this point that the harshness of certain parts of the
Declaration brings pain to the Disciples of Christ and other ecclesial
communities outside the Roman Catholic Church. It seems inconsistent
to us for the Roman Catholic Church to proclaim that ecumenism is
central to the church's life and witness (Ut Unum Sint), and then to issue
a statement that does not reflect that basic commitment. The response to
the Declaration recently released by the World Council of Churches
speaks for the Disciples: "What a tragedy if this witness to a hurting
(and unbelieving) world were obscured by the Churches' dialogue about
their relative authority and status--however important they may be."

     The Disciples of Christ believe the visible, ecclesial unity of all
Christians--so that the world may believe--is a gift and calling from the
Gospel and Jesus Christ who once and for all incarnated the Gospel. We
pledge our continued commitment to seek this unity with the Roman
Catholic Church. To that end we give thanks to God for the wise
leadership of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and
the ecumenical vision of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.

                   # # #

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