Ecumenical Ethics?
By John M. Swomley
[Dr. John Swomley is Emeritus Professor of Social Ethics at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri.]
Is it possible to develop an ecumenical ethics, given the romanticism about church unity in some Protestant churches and the intractable demand of the Catholic hierarchy that ecumenism requires a return to Rome?
The Second Vatican Council under the leadership of Pope John Paul XXIII, 1962-1965, was so successful in making people think that the Roman church had reformed itself and was adapting to the modern world that virtually no Protestant theologians or bishops since then have criticized the Vatican or its subsequent repressive actions. Instead there is a widespread worldwide reform movement of Roman Catholics themselves protesting numerous actions of the Vatican. Their protest is based on the absence of religious liberty, the hierarchy`s preoccupation with sexual issues such as opposition to birth control and abortion, the attitude of the papacy toward women and married priests, and the doctrine of papal infallibility.
Under the present Pope, John Paul II, the Roman church has become so thoroughly reactionary that its leading theologian, Hans Kung, in 1985 wrote, "It is only because I am daily made to feel how many men and women-especially fellow priests and religions-suffer under the current course that I can no longer keep silent." In a long statement published in the October 11, 1985 National Catholic Reporter, Kung cited the repudiation of Vatican II and a return to the ways of the medieval Roman church, much of it due to what used to be called the "Holy Office of the Roman and Universal Inquisition,"1 now called the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," headed by the Pope`s appointed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Kung said, "No one is burned at the stake anymore, but careers and psyches are destroyed as required. (The former dean of Le Saulchoir Faculty of Theology in Paris, dismissed and suspended from ecclesiastic functions; now earns his living working in an office.) In very important cases, such as that of the recalcitrant Latin American episcopate, Ratzinger journeys with a whole posse to the relevant country to make unequivocally clear what the `Catholic truth` is. Alternatively, (as in the case of Holland and Switzerland) a whole episcopate is invited to Rome for a `closed session`-as the new instrument of curial domination.
"On the unhappy 500th anniversary of Pope Innocent VIII`s anti-witch bull (in 1484 as many as nine million became the victims of witch trials, products of belief in the devil and psychological sexual behavior), we hear such opinions from the representatives of an institution that even today is involved in one of the greatest financial scandals ever, complete with Mafia intrigues. But no structural or personal consequences have been drawn from these events.
"The Protestant Reformation (the beginning of `modern decadence`) is written off in theological superficiality. We are warned against Protestantization (that is the beginning of pernicious `modernization`)….Martin Luther, according to the Ratzinger report, should still be condemned as an un-Catholic heretic, because he denied the infallibility of the councils, despised tradition, and put the authority of the individual above Scripture and tradition."
Then Kung added, "I wonder whether the Protestants will now take up the protest themselves again, instead of leaving it to critical Catholics."
Several developments make this unlikely. One is the way the Roman church avoided an ecumenical dialogue with Protestant theologians by arranging separate dialogues with each of a number of denominational representatives, with the understanding that neither denomination would criticize the dialogue partner. This means that Christian journals, especially official publications, generally do not publish theological, political or other critiques of the Roman church.
At various levels Catholic bishops, through their 1975 Pro-Life Pastoral in opposition to legalization of abortion, established a mechanism of political ecumenism wherein the Southern Baptist Convention, the Christian Coalition and other fundamentalist Protestant or right wing groups have accepted and cooperated with the Bishops` political agenda against separation of church and state, abortion, family planning, and in favor of aid to parochial schools, among other issues.
The combination of these groups plus the failure of progressive Protestants to read progressive Catholic periodicals such as Commonweal and the National Catholic Reporter or to be in active dialogue with progressive Catholic organizations, has led to continued romanticism about the official Roman Catholic church. A case in point was the joining of a Roman Catholic Church by an ordained United Methodist minister in the North Texas annual Conference. He believed it was possible to begin ecumenical relations by joint membership The judicial council of the United Methodist Church ruled against such joint membership.
Subsequently another Methodist Minister, W. Paul Jones, a former colleague of mine in the Saint Paul School of Theology and a continuing friend, joined the Roman Catholic Church and in August 1996 was ordained a priest. He had been ordained a Methodist minister in 1954. He hoped dual ordination would be a bridge between the two churches. When he chose as his primary ordination that of the priesthood, his certificate of ordination in the United Methodist Church was returned to him.
There followed the romantic expression of Missouri Methodist Bishop Ann Sherer: "I returned your orders with absolute confidence that the ordination which the Spirit conferred and the Methodist Church affirmed and authorized in 1954 continues in you as a Roman Catholic priest." She then appointed him to serve as the ecumenical liaison between the Missouri West Conference and the Jefferson City Catholic Diocese (one of the staunchest anti-women, anti-family planning, anti-separation of church and state dioceses in the U.S.)
She also invited him to conduct a retreat for ordinands of the Missouri East Annual United Methodist Conference in June 1997, and with her support the Missouri West Conference voted to seat him on the floor of future Annual Conferences as an "observer participant." It is difficult to see how this accords with the legal polity of either church.
There is nothing wrong with cultivating good personal relationships within groups, even between political opponents, which I am sure is the actual status of Methodism and Roman Catholicism on important political issues. It may indeed be a virtue unless it leads to capitulation or a muting of a strong voice on issues like family planning or defense of public education or separation of church and state. Unfortunately Missouri Methodist officials give little if any direct leadership on these issues. There is no longer Protestant ecumenical activity as once occurred in a statewide Council of Churches.
When Bishop William Boyd Grove, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Church as a denomination, learned of the return of Father Jones` Methodist credentials, he wrote, "My heart is very heavy. A few years ago a Roman Catholic woman who teaches theology at Duke (a Methodist school of theology) said that the ecumenical movement lags because the people do not feel the pain of our disunity….Today I feel the pain."
Here is an illustration of Protestant church officials feeling the pain of one Roman Catholic priest while they have not publicly felt the pain of numerous Catholic theologians who have been excommunicated or silenced or dismissed from their church positions. They also do not publicly feel the pain of Methodist women denied family planning assistance, or the numerous women worldwide who cannot get safe abortions or get contraceptives, or the pain of Catholic women who cannot be ordained, or the pain of married Catholic priests forbidden to act as priests.
The Duke University Catholic theologian and Bishop Grove do not tell the truth about the reason there has been no advance in ecumenism. Hans Kung does. He notes that the real issue is that the Bible has been "Catholically appropriated" and "Ratzinger bluntly calls the Protestants to return to the Roman Catholic Church" saying, "But the Bible is Catholic….To accept it as it is…therefore means to join the Catholic Church." Kung also wrote that Roman leaders believe "Rome equals the Church equals Christ equals God."
Given this realistic picture of the state of ecumenism in 1985 and today, what should we propose as ecumenical ethics? The following could provide a framework:
Protestant denominations should cease unilateral secret dialogue, through an appointed ecumenical officer, with Roman Catholic leaders. Any dialogue should be public knowledge reported regularly to church members instead of being secret, as has been the case for years. Dialogue should not exclude other Protestant denominations and their theologians. A Catholic approach of "Divide and conquer" should be unacceptable to Protestants.
Dialogue should not be confined to bureaucrats friendly to the Vatican, but should include critical theologians, among others.
Ecumenical study groups in various churches should examine real issues such as papal infallibility, the way each group views religious liberty, education, celibacy, women, sex, and a host of other issues.
Ecumenical study should include the way Rome treats other faith groups. For example, when the Anglican bishops of the world met in 1988 Pope John Paul II wrote the Archbishop of Canterbury suggesting that the ecumenical movement would be seriously impaired if Anglicans legitimized women bishops in various branches of the church. His letter, wrote one Episcopal bishop, "was, in fact, a threat….But if the Bishop of Rome has the right to speak about Anglican practices that seem to him to impede the quest for ecumenical unity, then Anglican leaders must also have the right to inform our brothers and sisters in the Roman tradition of practices within the church that make ecumenical activity difficult to impossible for us." (John Shelby Spong, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Newark, N.J., The Virginia Quarterly, Spring 1992)
Moreover, when the U.S. Episcopal Church "voted to ordain women in 1976 the American Roman Catholic Church announced almost immediately that it would be willing to receive into the Roman priesthood any Episcopal priests who disagreed with this policy. So eager were they to do this that they even allowed married Episcopal priests to take advantage of this offer without relinquishing their married status" while "there are now thousands of Roman Catholic priests who are forbidden by their (same) hierarchy to practice their priesthood." (Ibid.)
Hans Kung, speaking of Pope John Paul`s world travels, issued this warning: "One must not be fooled by media spectaculars. Notwithstanding many speeches and costly pilgrimages that have put some local churches deeply into debt, there has hardly been any meaningful progress in the Catholic church and ecumenicity." Instead, Kung said, "The Inquisition is again in full swing."
This suggests that ecumenical study groups should not only examine theological doctrines but the way the Pope and the Curia operate politically to exercise control in foreign countries. The Curia is the very large bureaucracy in the Vatican that manages the Vatican`s economic power, its military activity, its politics, and its control of hundreds of thousands of priests, bishops, members of religious orders, and lay elites such as the Knights of Malta who implement political orders of the Vatican.
For example, a Lebanese Catholic writer, George Irani, in The Papacy and the Middle East describes the Vatican`s connection with Catholic militias in Lebanon, the largest with 26,000 fighters. "The Holy See" was asked for help in training the Maronite militia. "A secret military organization based in Rome sent experts who had previous experience in the wars of southern Sudan and Biafra….These experts in guerrilla warfare picked the best among the Christian militia and sent them…to special training centers" in Europe.
Another Catholic writer, Emilio F. Mignone, wrote Witness to Truth: The Complicity of Church and Dictatorship in Argentina, which details the support of the Vatican for the Argentine military in its takeover of the government and its role in the tortures and murders and the "disappearance" of many hundreds. Pope John Paul II participated in this process with a visit in 1980 and his appointment of a military vicar, Bishop Jose Medina, who, according to Mignone, "publicly defended the legitimacy of torture." The Pope`s ambassador to Argentina, Archbishop Pio Laghi, gave a "papal blessing" to the military commanders and officers involved.
An Associated Press story in the May 21, 1997 Kansas City Star reported that Laghi, now in Rome and one of the Vatican`s most prominent Cardinals, has been accused by a leading human rights group in Argentina, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, of complicity in the torture, murder, and kidnapping of thousands of suspected political dissidents. The group charges that he "collaborated closely with the 1976-1983 military dictatorship" during the so-called "dirty war" and, on the testimony of "a bishop, several priests, a mother superior and two other persons, (was seen) at the government`s secret prisons and torture centers." The group has asked Italy to prosecute Laghi, and the Pope to lift the Cardinal`s diplomatic immunity so he can be brought to trial.
This will not happen, since Laghi was the pope`s agent in Argentina as well as in Nicaragua, Palestine, and Washington to carry out papal instructions.
Another Catholic writer, Penny Lernoux, in her book, The People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism, reports various other Vatican collaborations with the C.I.A. She also reported, about the post-World War II period, "Meanwhile, Catholic Action`s papal troops prepared for battle with U.S. jeeps, guns, and other supplies" against dissident groups in Italy.
Other actions by the Vatican too numerous to be listed here indicate that any future merger of non-Catholic organizations with the Roman Church would be in effect an endorsement of one of the most brutal dictatorships in world history. So, ecumenical ethics requires insistence on major changes in the Roman Church to abandon its military and political ventures in other countries.
Ecumenical ethics also requires that Protestants continue to work with the many Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim groups on issues relating to peace, justice, the ending of poverty, the protection of human rights, and separation of church and state. It is essential to remember that there is a difference between the Vatican and the Papacy on the one hand, and numerous progressive Catholic groups, leaders, and individuals on the other hand. We must defend them when they are attacked, and cooperate with them on mutual concerns.
This writer has aided dismissed priests in securing positions elsewhere, has served as African correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter in 1977 while on sabbatical, has invited Catholic speakers to various Protestant events, lectured in Catholic theological schools in the U.S. and Latin America, defended a Catholic periodical when a bishop threatened its existence, and joined with progressive Catholics in starting needed organizations for peace and justice.
Finally, we must broaden our understanding of ecumenism. The ecumenical movement is a 20th century product originated to bring cooperation and unity among Protestant and Orthodox churches. One result was the formation of local, national, and world federations of churches such as the Federal Council of Churches, which later became the National Council of Churches in the U.S. and the World Council of Churches. Thus, one view of ecumenism is cooperative activity among equally valid churches organized in an ongoing federation or council. This concept did not prevent mergers of churches with similar roots or polity, but there was no assumption that all churches would necessarily become one ecclesiastical body.
A second view of ecumenism is that all Christians should be unified in one Christian body. Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council announced that such unity "cannot be attained save in identity of faith and by participation in the same sacraments and in the organic harmony of a single ecclesiastical control…" He also asserted that "only the Catholic Church can offer" these elements. (New York Times textual summary, Sept. 30, 1963) This is also the position of the Decree on Ecumenism of Vatican II.
Another view of ecumenism that emerged from Vatican II was evident in the cooperative activity of peace and social justice groups of Catholics, Jews, and Protestants at many local levels, sometimes as interfaith groups, and often simply in joint activity without accenting the differences in faith or church membership.
Still another view of ecumenism is apparent from the character of first century Christianity, which was marked by diversity as well as unity. The unifying elements were monotheism; the conviction that the historical Jesus was "the exalted one" who was "to bring God and man finally together"; a common faith and promise of forgiveness, salvation, and Spirit; the Jewish scriptures "interpreted in the light of the revelation of the Christ event," and "all Christians practiced baptism in the name of Jesus and joined in the common meals from which emerged the Lord`s Supper as such…" (James D.G. Dunn: Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry Into the Character of Earliest Christianity, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1977, Chapter XV.)
However, the actual working out of this unity "resulted in very different concepts and practices of mission, ministry and worship," and "early Catholicism was only one part of the diversity…" The conclusion is that "there was no single normative form of Christianity in the first century." (Ibid.)
There is a controversy in the Roman Catholic Church over such an understanding. The theologian Leonardo Boff, whom the Vatican has rebuffed, holds to the interpretation in Lumen Gentium of Vatican II: "This church of Christ is truly present in all legitimate local congregations of the faithful which, united with their pastors, are themselves called churches in the New Testament." However, Pope John Paul in 1987 while in the Untied States warned the bishops that "the universal church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular churches or as the federation of them."
The problem confronting the ecumenical movement today is not one of returning to an original single form of Christianity for such a form never existed. It is one of maintaining existing institutions while respecting different traditions and dissent. It is one of being free to criticize and be criticized as part of a dialogue on issues, practices, doctrines, and organization.
Bishop Spong had this interesting observation about the pain he feels for persecuted Catholic scholars and "ecclesiastical attempts at mind control.":
I wonder how this church will grow and change if it allows no debate and no dissent? I wonder whence comes the fear that is expressed in refusing to entertain new ideas? Sigmund Freud once suggested that any system of thought that claims to have been received by divine revelation against which there is no appeal, that is dispensed to the people through the only body that was authorized to receive that revelation and which claims infallibility for its articulation of that revelation and, therefore, allow no challenges and no questions, is clearly a system of thought that its adherents do not really believe. Truth that is really believed does not have to be so deeply protected from honest inquiry. But religious propaganda designed to enhance institutional power always requires protection. Why, one must ask, is any religious organization afraid of its own people and its own scholars? Why is it afraid of open inquiry? Or, as one religious poster once observed, why is it that churches that claim to have all the answers will not allow any questions?
Because I believe that God is bigger than the theological system human beings create to speak of God, and because I believe that human understanding will never capture, codify, or exhaust the divine mystery or the divine truth, I could never be drawn to a church that stifles discussion, bars dissent, and demands conformity." (Spong, Ibid.)
In other words, the context for ecumenical relations is not only to be found in friendly relations between bishops or biblical expressions of unity, but in history, the departure of churches from New Testament ethics, in current differences in doctrine, and in questions such as whether there is any point in negotiating unity with a church that insists on the infallibility of its leader and his right to exercise power over its members, unbelieving non-members, and nation-states. Unless there is willingness at the outset at least to discuss the renunciation of that power, time will be wasted over the discussion of peripheral matters.
