The latest document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the principal teaching arm of the Roman Catholic magisterium (from magister: teacher), says nothing about the nature of the Church and the churches, nor about the Roman Catholic approach to ecumenism, that has not been said repeatedly before in various documents since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). In particular, this new text [TLC, Aug. 5], descriptively-if-cumbersomely titled Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church, essentially presents a simplified version, in Q&A format, of the CDF’s interesting and influential 1992 text, Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion.

That it is not especially new does not, however, mean that Anglicans cannot learn from the document, which in fact rewards study, and may usefully be set alongside our own Virginia and Windsor reports. Perhaps most noteworthy about the document is its demonstration of the Roman Catholic Church’s continual persistence in pressing two ecumenical questions. First, where is the Church? And second, how does it remain one, as we confess in the creeds, despite its imperfections — chiefly the lack of full, visible communion among all trinitarian Christians?

If Rome’s answer to the first question remains a stumbling block for many non-Roman Catholics, the answer to the second arguably remains unmatched on account of its creativity, tolerance of paradox, and spiritual intelligence, virtues that Anglicans have, at our best, often cultivated. As with every doctrinal statement from the Vatican, this one may be read more and less generously and to some extent we find what we are looking for. There are, however, some affirmations in the text that everyone should not ignore.

1. The document reiterates the teaching of Vatican II regarding where the Church is when it teaches that the Church of Christ “subsists” in the Catholic Church; for the center or heart of the one Church is gathered visibly around the Bishop of Rome, as a fact of grace for all Christians. On this basis, the magisterium concludes that all other “churches and communities”— both the Orthodox and those with Reformation roots — have “defects,” as we do not yet enjoy the “fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church.” We have not yet, for instance, reconciled with the universal ministry of the papal office; and, in a difficult sentence for Anglicans to hear: The Christian communities born out of the Reformation of the 16th century “have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the eucharistic mystery” due to a defect in the sacramental priesthood, and therefore “cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense.”

2. At the same time, the “how” of the Church’s unity is complicated in interesting and challenging ways. For “the Spirit of Christ” uses all the churches and communities “as instruments of salvation,” the document continues, whence the one Church “is present and operative in” them. Thus, in the words of the council, a “certain but imperfect” communion exists now between all baptized Christians, who rightly call one another sister and brother in Christ. If, in the conjunction of these two points, there are still remnants of old-fashioned triumphalism, it seems crucial nonetheless to insist upon the ecumenical dividends paid out. For an unambiguous, if often poorly understood, option has been taken for describing our common membership in the one, catholic body, even as a motley collocation of churches and communities imperfectly united. Both the irreducible unity of the Church and her licit plurality as a communion have therefore been secured.

If we mean to live “in subjection to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21), we should begin by recognizing with Vatican II that “often enough both sides were to blame (culpa)” for our past divisions; hence our habits of simple self-justification in the face of the other’s presumed calumnies have no place. Outstanding questions may be addressed faithfully in this perspective. I will mention two: First, how does the reiteration about a “defect” in the holy orders of the “communities” stemming from the Reformation relate, in the Roman Catholic Church’s view, to the action of God in the sacramental celebrations of these communities? In particular, does sacramental “nonvalidity” rule out sacramental efficacy? The distinction may, at first sight, appear to be one without a difference. The Catholic Church at and after Vatican II has, however, itself proposed the distinction, and answered “no” to the question.

If this is the Roman Catholic view, one nonetheless longs both for a charitable restatement and some development of the point in documents like the recent one from the CDF. For how is the Lord present in the Eucharist as it is celebrated simultaneously in churches that do not ye have the courage or the wherewithal to share the sacrament with one another?

A second question is important: When can we expect to hear more explicit reflection from the Church of Rome regarding her own vulnerability in division? The pope said last month that Christian divisions “have wounded the unity of the Church with consequences that still exist today.” That is, as the CDF also taught in its 1992 text, our divisions “wound” (vulnus) the Catholic Church herself, which is “called by the Lord to become for all ‘one flock’ with ‘one shepherd’” (John 10:16). Sentences such as these belie the oft-heard suggestion that the Catholic Church cannot distinguish between the perfect unity of the Church in Christ and the imperfect unity of the same body in time. The council after all taught that “the divisions among Christians prevent the Church from attaining the fullness of catholicity proper to her.” Is it possible, however, that the alleged defect in non-Roman Catholic churches converges with the wounds that we all have incurred in our would-be separations?

Obviously Rome’s ecumenical lexicon remains a stumbling block to many Christians—presumptuously authoritative hence annoyingly authoritarian to most mainline protestants; misguided hence largely irrelevant, albeit praiseworthily “clear,” to many Orthodox and evangelical protestants; and by turns agonizingly attractive and repulsive on varying points to many catholic-minded Anglicans and Lutherans, among others. And in every case it is a struggle to listen to Rome’s soundings with at least a measure of equanimity, if not gratitude per se. For she teaches without being asked, as it were, supposing that she has a brief that extends to the whole of the Christian world, and beyond.

I would argue, however, that the Roman Catholic Church rightly adopts this posture precisely on account of its commitment to visible catholicity; whence the message is a gift, albeit at times a painful one— not only to receive, but, we should presume, to offer. For the avowed end of Catholic teaching is communion-in-love, a goal and a vocation that is irreproachable on gospel grounds. Who, then, would fault our Roman friends for attempting to lead all of us together?

Common prayer and labor toward the end of visible reconciliation are therefore not negotiable. And if we find the Roman style irksome or offensive, what of it? Pragmatically speaking, future ecumenical leaders will surely come to care about these matters in many different ways, including in some cases via a jolt from a Roman Catholic Church that seems to rebuke as it invites and to sting as it embraces. But will this not still be a provision of providence? The bottom line, as always, is love — and faith, and hope. ❏

Christopher Wells is a doctoral candidate in theology at the University of Notre Dame.

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