Ecumenism

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 16

Ecumenism

Sir, —Bishop Hanrahan in his reply to D. M. Williams (December 8), says that the Catholic Church no longer tells other churches to “come to Rome,” that all of them are struggling to find the truth, no one wiser than the other, obviously. Were G. K. Chesterton (writer), Hugh Ross Williamson (historian and writer), Cardinal Newman, Ronald Knox, S. J. (son of an Anglican bishop), all intellectuals, mistaken? Why submit to another church no surer than your church? What revelation at Vatican II caused this turnabout? I understand that that council’s documents are totally orthodox. Whence comes this change? Orthodoxy to unorthodoxy; how come? — Yours, etc., V. H. ANDERSON. December 13, 1986.

[The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, the Most Rev. Denis Hanrahan, replies: “Mrs V. H. Anderson writes about the phrase ‘Come home to Rome’ in my earlier comment. The invitation we offer to other churches is for us to walk together ‘towards our home.’ This in no way implies a diminution of that sense of uniqueness about itself which is a hallmark of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II expressed this very strongly on November 24 here in Christchurch at the ecumenical service in the Catholic Cathedral. He said that three things were part and parcel of the Roman

Catholic conviction about me cause of Christian unity: (1) The unity we seek is a full profession of the apostolic faith; (2) the sign of which is joint sacramental life, especially culminating in the Eucharist; (3) and all of this united with the visible teaching authority of the Church. The tension we must live with is that between what we are called to and the imperfect communion which already exists between all baptised Christians. Acknowledging this necessary tension does not deny our differences. Acknowledging our differences does not preclude us from walking, together insofar as conscience allows. That is the ecumenical task. We are talking here of the development of doctrine which is a reality which Cardinal Newman, one of Mrs Anderson’s authorities, was at pains to explore and defend.’’]