UNION OF CHURCHES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 13

UNION OF CHURCHES.

POPE DECLARES NO COMPROMISE. LORD HALIFAX AND MALINES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 19. The Pope has issued an encyclical concerning the means for “ promoting true religious unity.” It is, in effect, a final pronouncement regarding the secret conversations at Mahnes on the reunion of Christendom. The encyclical begins by recognising the general tendency towards ” the greatest intoinationaal union of peoples,” but deplores efforts to transfer the same system to religion, “thus mixing the true with false religions on the basis that all religions may be good and meritorious.” Lnder the rather exceptional appearance of good, he states some are promot’Cg fallacious religious unity among Christians, especially those called Pan-Christians, who aim at undermining the foundations of the Roman Catholic faith. Against such ” pernicious falseness ” the Holy Father again calls the attention of the bishops in order that they may forewarn their people and clarify the principles of true religious unity. UNCHANGED AND ABSOLUTE TRUTH. “It is the duty of human creatures,” continues the encyclical, “ to believe in revelation, and to obey God’s precepts, on which Ho founded His Church on earth, and therefore it is their duty to adhere to His Church, founded by Christ, ana identical throughout the centuries, namely, the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church. 4 *Thoso who are separated deny wJL. unitv cf faith and of the government of the true' Church of Christ. They seek union through agreement on some unimportant points, which, according to them, are fundamental, while each retains his own opinion, whereas the latter error was rea. y the reason why they separated from the Church in other times. “It is certainly a good thing to exhort to charity among Christians, though not to She disadvantage of the faith, through varying opinions, it being impossible tor Christ’s disciples to disagree among themselves on the truth of their faith. J - not possible to conceive a Christian soemty in which each one is allowed own w*y of thinking on the subject of fauh. I torn such dissension is born indifference, thence modernism, which considers dog matio truth not as absolute , truth, but as relative, and therefore changeable accordinn. to varying conditions and times an the dispositions of men. DOGMA AND FAITH. “ We cannot make distinctions m dogma because some are imposed an f. to the free acceptance of the taitniui, stace all must believe from the same motive, namely, the authority of the tevealina God. Faith m one revealed dogma cannot be less .certain than faith m an other dogma. Even in modern times some are explicitly clarified, as J*RP en . concerning the primacy as veil “"p" fallible magistracy of the Roman ro “iho encyclical concludes by contending that there can be no other conception of the unity of the Church except throughHhe Roman Church, which can only be effec-ed by the return cf dissidents to the mother church, “the only .true church of Jesus Christ, whence they deserted. l he ea cyclical seeks to persuade non-Catholics to “ submit to the government of the Vicar of the Divine Saviour—the Roman Pontiff.” CONSIDERABLE MEASURE OF AGREEMENT. Lord Halifax, who was largely instrumental in bringing the comerenco abou . now reveals in “ Notes on the Conver sations at Malines, 1921-1925” eom«. of the points of agreement arrived at on ““ questions as the Sacraments Holy Scn£ lures the Episcopate and, above all tuo difficult questions involved m the claims of the lV in relation to the rest of Christendom. ' i j . The discussions, he says, revealed a con siderable measure of agreement, ™d the following is a brief summary of the prm C ‘i al That** Holy Baptism constilutes the means of entry : to the. Church of Chris., and that all validly baptised persons beloner, in virtue of their baptism, to the body cf the Church. That the initiation thus effected must develop into an organ 2 That the sacrifice of the death of Christ upon the Cross is the one allsufficient sacrifice for the *s.ns of the 'H'oie world; and that sacrifice is sacramentally offered by the showing forth—to use St. Paul’s words-of that death, mystically represented by the . separate consecration of the bread and wine; and that, as the formularies of the Church of Englan. teaches, “ the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed given, taken, and by the faithful m the Lords ° l 3. P That Communion in both kinds was once the custom of the Universal Church, and had only been discontinued in the West for reasons of a practical nature. The question was not therefore so much one of doctrine as of discipline. _ 4. That Holy Scripture required the interpretation of the church before it can be accepted ns the ultimate standard of faith and doctrine. A CONCESSION. The theological position of Anglicans that no doctrine may be considered to be de fide, and therefore binding upon the conscience of Christians, which cannot be derived from Holy Scripture, was not thought to be incompatible with that which is held by Roman Catholics. 5. That with regard to the position of the Holy See and the o.uestion of Papal Supremacy, the Anglicans, although, ’.n common with the Orthodox Eastern Churches, they disowned the monarchy of the Bishop of Rome, and maintained that his doctrinal authority is not separate from that of the Episcopate, and can only be exercised in conformity with the traditions and teachings of the whole Church of Christ, conceded that a visible headship of the church might be implied in the commission bestowed by our Lord upon St. Peter, and might even be found to be essentia] for the - accomplishment of a reunited Christendom. 6. That the bishops derived their succession direct from the Apostles, and their authority and position in the church are therefore jure divino.