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Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Ut unum sint

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  • CHAPTER I - THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S COMMITMENT TO ECUMENISM
    • Renewal and conversion
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Renewal and conversion

15. Passing from principles, from the obligations of the Christian conscience, to the actual practice of the ecumenical journey towards unity, the Second Vatican Council emphasizes above all the need for interior conversion. The messianic proclamation that "the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand", and the subsequent call to "repent, and believe in the Gospel" (.Mk 1:15) with which Jesus begins his mission, indicate the essential element of every new beginning: the fundamental need for evangelization at every stage of the Church's journey of salvation. This is true in a special way of the process begun by the Second Vatican Council, when it indicated as a dimension of renewal the ecumenical task of uniting divided Christians. "There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without a change of heart".21

The Council calls for personal conversion as well as for communal conversion. The desire of every Christian Community for unity goes hand in hand with its fidelity to the Gospel. In the case of individuals who live their Christian vocation, the Council speaks of interior conversion, of a renewal of mind.22

Each one therefore ought to be more radically converted to the Gospel and, without ever losing sight of God's plan, change his or her way of looking at things. Thanks to ecumenism, our contemplation of "the mighty works of God" (mirabilia Dei) has been enriched by new horizons, for which the Triune God calls us to give thanks: the knowledge that the Spirit is at work in other Christian Communities, the discovery of examples of holiness, the experience of the immense riches present in the communion of saints, and contact with unexpected dimensions of Christian commitment. In a corresponding way, there is an increased sense of the need for repentance: an awareness of certain exclusions which seriously harm fraternal charity, of certain refusals to forgive, of a certain pride, of an unevangelical insistence on condemning the "other side", of a disdain born of an unhealthy presumption. Thus, the entire life of Christians is marked by a concern for ecumenism; and they are called to let themselves be shaped, as it were, by that concern.

16. In the teaching of the Second Vatican Council there is a clear connection between renewal, conversion and reform. The Council states that "Christ summons the Church, as she goes her pilgrim way, to that continual reformation of which she always has need, insofar as she is an institution of human beings here on earth. Therefore, if the influence of events or of the times has led to deficiencies ... these should be appropriately rectified at the proper moment".23 No Christian Community can exempt itself from this call.

By engaging in frank dialogue, Communities help one another to look at themselves together in the light of the Apostolic Tradition. This leads them to ask themselves whether they truly express in an adequate way all that the Holy Spirit has transmitted through the Apostles.24 With regard to the Catholic Church, I have frequently recalled these obligations and perspectives, as for example on the anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus' 25 or in commemorating the eleven hundred years since the evangelizing activity of Saints Cyril and Methodius.26 More recently, the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, issued with my approval by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has applied them to the pastoral sphere.27

17. With regard to other Christians, the principal documents of the Commission on Faith and Order 28 and the statements of numerous bilateral dialogues have already provided Christian Communities with useful tools for discerning what is necessary to the ecumenical movement and to the conversion which it must inspire. These studies are important from two points of view: they demonstrate the remarkable progress already made, and they are a source of hope inasmuch as they represent a sure foundation for further study.

The increase of fellowship in a reform which is continuous and carried out in the light of the Apostolic Tradition is certainly, in the present circumstances of Christians, one of the distinctive and most important aspects of ecumenism. Moreover, it is an essential guarantee for its future. The faithful of the Catholic Church cannot forget that the ecumenical thrust of the Second Vatican Council is one consequence of all that the Church at that time committed herself to doing in order to re-examine herself in the light of the Gospel and the great Tradition. My Predecessor, Pope John XXIII, understood this clearly: in calling the Council, he refused to separate renewal from ecumenical openness.29 At the conclusion of the Council, Pope Paul VI solemnly sealed the Council's commitment to ecumenism, renewing the dialogue of charity with the Churches in communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople, and joining the Patriarch in the concrete and profoundly significant gesture which "condemned to oblivion" and "removed from memory and from the midst of the Church" the excommunications of the past. It is worth recalling that the establishment of a special body for ecumenical matters coincided with the launching of preparations for the Second Vatican Council 30 and that through this body the opinions and judgments of the other Christian Communities played a part in the great debates about Revelation, the Church, the nature of ecumenism and religious freedom.




21 Ibid., 7.



22 Cf. Ibid.



23 Ibid., 6.



24 Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 7.



25 Cf. Apostolic Letter Euntes in Mundum (25 January 1988): AAS 80 (1988), 935-956.



26 Cf. Encyclical Epistle Slavorum Apostoli (2 June 1985 ): AAS 77 (1985), 779-813.



27 Cf. Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism (25 March 1993): AAS 85 (1993), 1039-1119.



28 Cf. in particular, the Lima Document: Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (January 1982); and the study of the JOINT WORKING GROUP BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, Confessing the "One" Faith (1991), Document No. 153 of the Commission on Faith and Order, Geneva, 1991.



29 Cf. Opening Address of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (11 October 1962): AAS 54 (1962), 793.



30 We are speaking of the SECRETARIAT FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY, established by Pope John XXIII With the Motu Proprio Superno Dei Nutu (5 June 1960), 9: AAS 52 (1960), 436, and confirmed by successive documents: JOHN XXIII Motu Proprio Appropinquante Concilio (6 August 1962), c. III, a. 7, § 2, I: AAS 54 (1962), 614; cf. PAUL VI Apostolic Constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae (15 August 1967), 92-94: AAS 59 (1967), 918-919. This dicastery is now called the PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY: Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus (28 June 1988), V, Arts. 135-138: AAS 80 (1988), 895-896.






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