Ut Unum Sint and Catholic Involvement in Ecumenism

Chapter II: Diversity and unity in faith

The second chapter of Ut Unum Sint is a collection of memories -- not ancient memories which need to be healed, but recent memories which heal. During the past thirty years,

   there is an increased awareness that we all belong to Christ ...
   Communities which were once rivals are now in many cases helping one
   another: places of worship are sometimes lent out; scholarships are offered
   for the training of ministers in the communities most lacking in resources;
   approaches are made to civil authorities on behalf of other Christians who
   are unjustly persecuted; and the slander to which certain groups are
   subjected is shown to be unfounded. In a word, Christians have been
   converted to a fraternal charity which embraces all Christ's disciples ...
   [This] is not the consequence of a large-hearted philanthropy or a vague
   family spirit. It is rooted in recognition of the oneness of baptism and
   the subsequent duty to glorify God in his work (para. 42).

One glorifies God in a way that is especially fruitful for Christian unity when one begins to see the goodness of others: "It is right and salutary to recognize the riches of Christ and virtuous works in the lives of others who are bearing witness to Christ, sometimes even to the shedding of blood. For God is always wonderful in his works and worthy of admiration" (para. 47, quoting Unitatis Redintegratio, para. 4; see also Ut Unum Sint, para. 15). Getting to know each other allows Christians "to discover what God is bringing about in the members of other churches and ecclesial communities" and to become "aware of the witness which other Christians bear to God and to Christ" (para. 48).

Within this positive evaluation of the changed climate between Christians, the pope turns respectively to developments in Catholic relations with the communities of the East and of the West. This review of "The Fruits of Dialogue" (the title of chapter I) tends to emphasize two different themes. The discussion of relations with the East focuses on legitimate diversity, that of relations with the West on dialogue as a means of arriving at unity in faith. A word should be said about each of these.

Legitimate diversity

Catholic relations with Eastern churches during the past thirty years began the healing of a division which, in the view of both the Second Vatican Council and of Pope John Paul II, is based less on disagreement about faith than on a failing in charity.(10) It is tree that doctrine entered into the divisions, stemming from the refusal by some Eastern communities to accept the definitions of the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon (para. 62). Yet even here, theological investigation and ecumenical dialogue have "made possible essential clarifications with regard to the traditional controversies concerning Christology, so much so that we have been able to profess together the faith which we have in common" (para. 63). With the large majority of Eastern Christians, however, Catholics remained in a full communion, which embraced a considerable degree of diversity, for the greater part of the first millennium. This is a very significant fact, according to Ut Unum Sint, which refers repeatedly to the situation between the East and West prior to the separation of 1054 (paras 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 61). When so united, the church was able to "breathe with her two lungs" (para. 54).