By Cindy Wooden
Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate was marked by strong ties of friendship and esteem with the leaders of the world’s Orthodox and Anglican Christians, but his papacy also coincided with a difficult time in the search for full Christian unity.
In the face of new obstacles to ecumenism — particularly regarding the ministry of women, attitudes toward homosexuality and differences on ethical issues — Pope Benedict often emphasized the role of prayer in seeking Christian unity, as well as the need for divided Christians to work together to protect religious freedom and defend traditional Christian values.
For Catholics coming from the Anglican tradition, the ecumenical highlight of Pope Benedict’s pontificate was his decision in 2009 to establish personal ordinariates, jurisdictions similar to dioceses, which recognize their full communion with Rome while preserving some of their Anglican heritage.
Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, head of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for former Anglicans in the United States and Canada, said, “Unambiguously, it is his ecumenical legacy.”
Canadian Bishop Donald Bolen of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Catholic co-chairman of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission, had a slightly different view.
“The ordinariates for Catholics coming from an Anglican background are not a new form of ecumenism or the new hope for Christian unity,” he said. “They are pastoral provisions for individuals and groups who, in conscience and after long prayer, have sought full communion with Rome while not wanting to leave behind their spiritual, theological and liturgical heritage.
“Welcoming them into the church and encouraging them to hold on to that heritage is a recognition on the part of Pope Benedict and the Roman Catholic Church — arising from decades of dialogue — that the diverse gifts given to different Christian communities should enrich the entire body of Christ,” Bishop Bolen said in an email response to questions.
Msgr. Steenson said Pope Benedict’s care for former Anglicans entering the Catholic Church “was and has been a project close to his heart for many years, even as Cardinal (Joseph) Ratzinger,” head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In an interview with Catholic News Service in Rome Feb. 24, Msgr. Steenson said that as an Episcopal seminarian, “we were told that in our lifetime we would see full communion between our churches.”
But as the years went on, he said, “It just kept being pushed further and further over the horizon because of developments in Anglicanism.”
Decisions regarding the ordination of women, the ministry of openly homosexual clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions were “just the outward things,” he said; they were signs of a growing movement within Anglicanism to emphasize independence rather than unity and mutual accountability.
Msgr. Steenson said that when he was informed he would become head of the ordinariate in the United States, he also was told by Cardinal William J. Levada, then prefect of the doctrinal congregation, that the ordinariates did not mark an end to the church’s theological dialogue with the Anglicans.
“The Catholic Church is obligated to be in conversation with everyone, and so you never close the doors,” the monsignor said. “Especially in the world we live in now, with Christians under attack from so many quarters, Christians need to be talking to each other and working with each other.”
For Bishop Bolen, Pope Benedict’s understanding of ecumenical dialogue is not just about finding a way to defend Christianity together; the goal is still the full union willed by Christ for his followers.
“The search for Christian unity has always been considered a journey, one requiring God’s grace, our prayers and a willingness to allow ourselves to be converted in order to overcome the divisions human beings have created and continue to create in the body of Christ,” the bishop said.
“Pope Benedict continued to emphasize the essential role of both prayer and of theological dialogue based on truth and charity as Christians seek the unity to which they are called. This is why he authorized a further round of ARCIC talks” — the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission’s theological dialogue.
Even as the theological dialogue hit new obstacles, the esteem of the theologian Pope Benedict for the theological brilliance of other church leaders was something he wanted to share with all Catholics. Pope Benedict invited both Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury to make major addresses to meetings of the world Synod of Bishops.
While Catholic-Orthodox dialogue meetings continued under the papacy of Pope Benedict and the leadership of Patriarch Bartholomew, tensions among the Orthodox delegations stalled progress.
Still the pope and patriarch met frequently. The patriarch was present in October for Pope Benedict’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, and Pope Benedict attended a liturgy celebrated by the patriarch in Istanbul in 2006.
Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew both expressed sadness at the fact that although they share the same faith and recognize the validity of each other’s sacraments, Catholics and Orthodox cannot regularly share each other’s Eucharist.
“May our daily prayer and activity be inspired by a fervent desire not only to be present at the Divine Liturgy, but to be able to celebrate it together, to take part in the one table of the Lord, sharing the same bread and the same chalice,” the pope said after the 2006 Orthodox liturgy. As a gift, he gave Patriarch Bartholomew a chalice.
Before becoming pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was recognized as an important force behind Catholic-Lutheran dialogue, which celebrated major progress in 1999 with the signing of a theological agreement on justification, the dispute at the heart of the Protestant Reformation.
But he left many Lutherans disappointed when he visited Germany in 2011; in the run-up to the visit, hopes had been raised that the German-born pope either would lift the 500-year-old excommunication of Martin Luther or would make it much easier for a Lutheran married to a Catholic to receive communion in the Catholic Church.
The pope knew of the expectations. In an Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, where Luther lived until 1511, Pope Benedict said conjecture about him making an “ecumenical gift” demonstrated a “political misreading of faith and of ecumenism.”
Progress in Christian unity is not like negotiating a treaty, he told his fellow Germans. Ecumenism will advance when Christians enter more deeply into their shared faith and profess it more openly in society, he said.
The Catholic Church’s ecumenical engagement under Pope Benedict continued an emphasis begun when the pope was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published “Dominus Iesus” on the uniqueness of Christ, on universal salvation in him and on the essential role of the church in salvation.
As a follow-up, in 2007 the doctrinal congregation, with the pope’s express approval, published a document reaffirming church teaching that the Catholic Church is the one, true church, even if elements of truth can be found in separated churches and communities.
Even when ecumenical progress seemed slow, though, Pope Benedict continued to preach the importance of Christian unity and to recognize the duty of the pope to be its chief proponent.
After celebrating Mass April 20, 2005, in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals who elected him pope the evening before, Pope Benedict, in referring to himself, said he would assume as “his primary commitment that of working tirelessly toward the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all Christ’s followers. This is his ambition, this is his compelling duty.” – CNS