Showing posts with label Christian Unity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian Unity. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Unity between Orthodox and Catholic Church Draws Near

Orthodox and Catholic participants at the historic meeting in Vienna.
 
Sister Churches: Communion between Orthodox and Catholic Draws Near - Living Faith - Home and Family - Catholic Online

The photograph and following excerpt is published on Catholic Online:

By Deacon Keith Fournier

A form of restored communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches is near.

Participants in the 12th Session of the "Joint Theological Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches" prayed together and discussed the relationship between the two Churches. They did so with humility and a desire to heal the division which has existed in the Body of Christ for over a millennium. This meeting points us in the direction of where this dialogue is headed, a restored communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

Read More: Signs of Christian Unity

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Pope Benedict's Trip to England an Outreach for Reunion and Beatification of Cardinal Newman


Rev. C.J. McCloskey










Beyond the Beatification of Cardinal Newman: Pope's Trip to England an Outreach for Reunion - International - Catholic Online

The photograph and following excerpt is posted on Catholic Online:

By Father C. John McCloskey III
Wall Street Journal - online.wsj.com

What is most intriguing about Benedict's upcoming visit to England is its ecumenical significance. He has made a remarkable offer to members of the Anglican Communion throughout the world to be received into the Church, singly or in whole congregations, bringing with them their liturgical traditions and even their pastors and bishops.

CHICAGO, IL (Wall Street Journal) - This month Pope Benedict XVI will travel to England for an unprecedented state visit to the United Kingdom, meeting with the Queen at Balmoral Castle and giving an address to Parliament. The occasion for this historic event, however, is not church or international politics-although political issues will doubtless be touched upon-but the beatification (the penultimate step towards sainthood) of John Henry Cardinal Newman.

Newman, whose long life spanned most of the 19th century, was perhaps the greatest religious figure of the last 200 years of British history. Converting from Anglicanism to Catholicism at the age of 44, he wrote cogently and beautifully under both religious affiliations, and was a lightning rod in the passionately argued religious controversies of his time, such as infallibility of the Pope or the legitimacy of Anglicanism as the state church.

Valuing his religious influences as a thinker and evangelizer of the highest caliber, Pope Benedict has made an exception of his thus-far universal practice of not participating in beatification ceremonies. Hence, his trip to Great Britain.

En route to this honor were the standard ecclesial steps: the examination of Newman's life and writings; a declaration that he had lived a life of extraordinary virtue; and official approval by doctors and theologians of a miraculous cure after prayers that Newman would intercede with God on the sufferer's behalf.

The miracle in question holds special interest for Americans, being the recovery in 2001 from a debilitating back condition of the Massachusetts lawyer and deacon Jack Sullivan. His cure was a very modern "media miracle" provoked by a series on Newman on EWTN, Mother Angelica's Catholic broadcasting network. At the end of each episode, a prayer card for Newman was displayed on the screen. Mr. Sullivan prayed for the long-dead cardinal's intercession before God for a cure. The rest (following rigorous medical and ecclesial examination) is now history.

Although Newman was a devout and humble man of great personal warmth and sensitivity, it is difficult to think of him apart from his public career. The author of seminal books of theology and philosophy, such as "The Development of Doctrine" and "A Grammar of Assent," he also dashed off the greatest autobiography in English, "Apologia pro Vita Sua" (a media sensation in his time), in a matter of weeks after personal attacks on his honesty.

Newman's experience in helping found what is today the University College of Dublin inspired his extended argument for a classical liberal education, "The Idea of a University." He also wrote novels of religious conversion and hymns still sung in both Protestant and Catholic churches, such as "Lead, Kindly Light."

He also won early (and continuing) renown as a brilliant preacher. The atheist novelist George Eliot memorized the whole of one of them, "The Second Spring," and would recite it at the drop of a hat at private salons.

As a young and ardent Anglican priest, Newman and like-minded others originated the "Oxford Movement" in an attempt to revive the ancient doctrines and zeal for the "old religion" in an increasingly liberalizing Anglican Church. From the early 1830s up to his conversion to Catholicism in 1845, Newman battled the yielding spirit of Anglican toleration for indifferentism, which manifested itself in the belief that one religion was as good as another.

When his arguments were rejected by his Anglican superiors and he came to believe that his continued membership in the Church of England separated him from what he had now come to regard as the true Church, he converted to Catholicism and was ordained in Rome. Returning to England, he settled in Birmingham, where he founded the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, from which came the famous Brompton Oratory in London.

Newman died in 1890 popularly considered a saint. Over a century later, the Church is vindicating this judgment of the people of the U.K. and the whole English-speaking world. Pope Benedict's decision to preside over Newman's beatification reflects his love and respect for a fellow theologian whose work he has studied from his seminary days, and whose influence on the Second Vatican Council made him perhaps the most influential theologian on the council, even though it was meeting more than 70 years after his death.

Read More: Catholic Online


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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Orthodox and Catholic Embrace in Rimini: Signs of Christian Unity

Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, of Moscow,
and Pope Benedict XVI

Orthodox and Catholic Embrace in Rimini: May the Two Become One - International News - Catholic Online

The photograph and following excerpt is from Catholic Online:

By Deacon Keith Fournier

Full communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches is being prompted by the Holy Spirit. It is the most important development of the Third Christian Millennium and has implications for the whole world at this critical time in history. This coming communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Church will mark the beginning of the re-Christianizing of the West and a new missionary age.

Read More: Orthodox and Catholic Embrace in Rimini


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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Lutherans Seek Full Communion with Catholic Church


The photograph and following excerpt is regarding Christian Unity and can be read on Catholic Online.

Are Lutherans Next? Lutherans Seek Full Communion with Catholic Church - International - Catholic Online:

By Deacon Keith Fournier 

The desire to recover the unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.

Pope Benedict XVI's first Papal message: 'With full awareness, therefore, at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome which Peter bathed in his blood, Peter's current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This is his ambition, his impelling duty.'

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) -  On Tuesday, Peter Kemmether,  a married 62 year old father of four children was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller.  Fr. Peter was granted a dispensation from the canonical discipline of celibacy attached to priestly ordination. He had been a Protestant Pastor who came into the full communion of the Catholic Church as the fruit of a sincere search for the fullness of the Christian faith. On June 6, 2010, I read a story in the Philadelphia Enquirer entitled "The Priest and his Mrs."  concerning now Fr. Philip Johnson, a Lutheran Pastor for 19 years, who followed a similar path. He was ordained for the Diocese of Camden with the same exception, under the sponsorship and invitation of Bishop Joseph Galante.  

Catholics are becoming aware of the former Anglican and Episcopal ministers who have followed the same journey home. Fewer Catholics are aware of the marvelous welcome the Church has extended to many more through the historic apostolic constitution approved by Pope Benedict XI. I have written extensively about this and recently shared my joy with our readers at the ordination of lifelong friend and pro-life hero Fr. Paul Schenck, whose ordination I had the privilege of attending last month. You can read my account here.  

I am in a dialogue with Archbishop Irl A. Gladfelter, CSP, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the  Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, a group of Lutherans who have embraced the Catholic Catechism and the teaching of the Magisterium. They are humbly knocking at the door of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeking a way into full communion. You can read about this amazing group here. I am working on a fuller story of their journey. Some have said that their smallness and placement on "the fringes" of the Lutheran community makes them less representative. I recall that those were the same comments made about the "Traditional Anglican Communion" in their early efforts. They became the prophetic vehicle the Holy Spirit used to open up an historic breakthrough.

To read the complete story, please visit the following link: Lutherans Seek Full Communion with Catholic Church


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Friday, May 07, 2010

It's Time to Take a Step Toward Christian Unity

Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Sluck

The following article and photograph appeared on Catholic Online:

Orthodox Metropolitan Filaret: It's Time to Take a Step Toward Unity - International News - Catholic Online

By Jesús Colina

The time is now for the Orthodox and Catholic Churches to take a step toward unity, and for Benedict XVI and the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow to meet, says the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.The Orthodox leader added that both Churches seek to establish full unity, and stressed that he has come to this conclusion based on the fraternal dialogue and the meetings that they have held with representatives of the Catholic Church.

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) - The time is now for the Orthodox and Catholic Churches to take a step toward unity, and for Benedict XVI and the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow to meet, says the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.

Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Sluck said this Tuesday at the international conference held in Rome on "The Poor Are the Precious Treasure of the Church: Orthodox and Catholics Together on the Path of Charity."

During the conference, which was promoted by the Sant'Egidio Community, participants reflected on the reception of the most frail in our societies, the testimony of the Fathers of the Church, and the challenges dictated by new social problems.

According to Metropolitan Filaret, the time has come to take decisive steps toward unity, reported the country's Catholic news service.

The Orthodox leader added that both Churches seek to establish full unity, and stressed that he has come to this conclusion based on the fraternal dialogue and the meetings that they have held with representatives of the Catholic Church.

If Benedict XVI and Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia were to meet, it would be a first for the two pastors of Rome and Moscow.

Metropolitan Filaret's statements coincide with the announcement of the "Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality in the Vatican," which will be held May 19-20, and which will culminate with a concert offered to Benedict XVI by Kirill I.

The musical event will include compositions of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, president of the Department for Foreign Relations of the Patriarchy of Moscow.

On Wednesday, Metropolitan Filaret visited the Holy Shroud of Turin and Cardinal Severino Poletto, archbishop of Turin.

"The impression is so profound that one cannot express the joy one feels," commented the Orthodox representative after seeing the Shroud.

Metropolitan Filaret, in this post since 1978, received the recognition of "Hero of Belarus" in 2006, by decision of president Alexander Lukashenko, in recognition of the service to the spirituality of his country.


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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Signs of Unity: Forward in Faith Anglicans in Australia Unanimously Vote to Become Catholic


The photograph and following article appeared on Catholic Online:

Forward in Faith Anglicans in Australia Unanimously Vote to Become Catholic - Catholic Online

They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

By Deacon Keith Fournier

SYDNEY, Australia (Catholic Online) – It has been an historic week for the Church in Australia and around the world. The move of many Anglican Christians into full communion with the Catholic Church has taken a decided move forward.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Bishop David Robarts OAM, the chairman of Forward in Faith Australia, explained that members of that Anglican association in Australia have decided they could no longer move forward in faith as a part of an Anglican Church in Australia which was not being faithful.

The Bishop explained that the Anglican Church was moving away from orthodox Christian belief and practice and leaving them behind: "In Australia we have tried for a quarter of a decade to get some form of episcopal oversight but we have failed… We're not really wanted any more, our conscience is not being respected."

The Bishop continued, "We're not shifting the furniture, we're simply saying that we have been faithful Anglicans upholding what Anglicans have always believed - and we're not wanting to change anything, but we have been marginalized by people who want to introduce innovations. We need to have bishops that believe what we believe."

So, on Sunday, February 13, 2010, Forward in Faith Australia voted unanimously to accept the invitation extended by Pope Benedict XVI in his historic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus. They will now take the next step in entering into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

The entire process of following the directions set forth in the Apostolic Constitution is being presided over by Catholic Bishop Peter Elliott. This Anglican group will now make Church history. They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

Bishop Elliott explained the process in a recent article he wrote for the publication of the Traditional Anglican Communion:

"The Pastor of the nations (Pope Benedict XVI) is reaching out to give you a special place within the Catholic Church. United in communion, but not absorbed – that sums up the unique and privileged status former Anglicans will enjoy in their Ordinariates.

"Catholics in full communion with the Successor of St Peter, you will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals. Each Ordinariate will be an autonomous structure, like a diocese, but something between a Personal Prelature (as in Opus Dei, purely spiritual jurisdiction), or a Military Ordinariate (for the Armed Forces).

"In some ways, the Ordinariate will even be similar to a Rite (the Eastern Catholic Churches). You will enjoy your own liturgical "use" as Catholics of the Roman Rite. At the same time your Ordinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside diocesan bishops of the Roman Rite and find their place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region."

These members of Forward in Faith, Australia, will be accompanied on the journey to full communion by members of the Traditional Anglican Communion and others from the Anglican Church in Australia.

They have established a "working group" which, under the supervision of Bishop Elliott and the direction of the Holy See, will establish the process of establishing an Anglican Ordinariate in Australia. It may become a prototype for similar Anglican Ordinariates in other parts of the world.

Bishop David Robarts told the Daily Telegraph, "I love my Anglican heritage, but I'm not going to lose it by taking this step."

After the release of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Anglican Bishops of Ebbsfleet and Richborough issued a call for a Day of Prayer and Discernment on Monday 22nd February. February 22d is the Feast of the Chair of Peter. These are historic times.

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Optimism About the Road to Catholic-Orthodox Unity


Orthodox Patriarch Optimistic About Unity - Catholic Online

The following article appeared on Catholic Online:

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I is affirming that progress is being made on the path to Catholic-Orthodox unity.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Zenit.org) - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I is affirming that progress is being made on the path to Catholic-Orthodox unity, and says uprooting the obstacle caused by the "thorny question" of papal primacy will be key for continued progress.

The patriarch of Constantinople made this affirmation when he welcomed a delegation from the Holy See for Monday's feast of St. Andrew, patron of the Orthodox Church.

The Vatican delegation was headed by Cardinal Walter Kasper and Bishop Brian Farrell, president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Bartholomew said the presence of the delegation in Istanbul "confirms the desire to eliminate the impediments accumulated in the course of a millennium to attain the fullness of communion."

An Orthodox delegation makes a similar visit to the Vatican for the June 29 feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

"We attribute great symbolic meaning to your presence here, as it also reveals the desire of the Most Holy Church of Rome to do everything possible to regain our unity in the same faith and in sacramental communion, according to the will of the One who has called us to unity so that the world will believe," Bartholomew I said in his message.

He said the path to communion, as lived by the two Churches for the first Christian millennium, "has been undertaken with the dialogue of love and truth."

And, the patriarch affirmed, this dialogue "progresses, by the grace of God, despite the occasional difficulties."

The current theme being tackled by the joint Orthodox-Catholic commission is the question of papal primacy in the first millennium, before the split between the two Churches.

The commission met in Cyprus in October.

"Everyone is aware that this thorny question has caused great contention in the relationship between our two Churches," Bartholomew I observed. "For this reason, to uproot this impediment between us would surely foster our path to unity."

The study of the history of the Church in the first millennium "will also be the cornerstone for the evaluation of other subsequent developments in the course of the second millennium," he affirmed, invoking the gifts of humility and dialogue to accept the truth.


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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI establishes structure for Anglicans uniting with Rome




The following story by Cindy Wooden appears on the Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has established a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving aspects of their Anglican spiritual and liturgical heritage, said U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada.

The cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said a new apostolic constitution would establish "personal ordinariates" -- similar to dioceses -- to oversee the pastoral care of those who want to bring elements of their Anglican identity into the Catholic Church with them.

Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests, but married Anglican bishops will not be able to function as Catholic bishops in keeping with the long-standing Catholic and Orthodox tradition of ordaining only unmarried clergy as bishops, Cardinal Levada said.

The cardinal announced the new arrangement at a press conference Oct. 20 at the Vatican. He said the pope's apostolic constitution and norms for implementing it were undergoing final revisions and would be published in a couple of weeks.

In establishing the new jurisdictions, Pope Benedict is responding to "many requests" submitted by individual Anglicans and by Anglican groups -- including "20 to 30 bishops" -- asking to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, the cardinal said.

At the same time, Cardinal Levada said the new provision does not weaken the commitment of the Vatican to promoting Christian unity, but is a recognition that many Anglicans share the Catholic faith and that Anglicans have a spiritual and liturgical life worth preserving.

"It has always been the principal aim -- the principal aim -- to achieve the full, visible unity" of the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion, the cardinal said.

But given recent changes within many Anglican provinces with the ordination of women priests and bishops and the acceptance of homosexuality in some areas, the prospect of full unity "seemed to recede," he said.

The church recognizes and welcomes those Anglicans who fully share the Catholic faith, agree with the Catholic view that only men can be ordained priests and recognize the role of the bishop of Rome -- the pope -- as the sign and guarantor of church unity, he said.

At a press conference in London Oct. 20, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Communion, and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, issued a joint statement saying the new provisions are a recognition of "the substantial overlap in faith, doctrine and spirituality between the Catholic Church and the Anglican tradition."

"Without the dialogues of the past 40 years, this recognition would not have been possible, nor would hopes for full visible unity have been nurtured," the two leaders said.

Archbishop Williams told reporters that some members of the Church of England are uneasy about positions their church is taking, yet they would not want to become Roman Catholic.

"This will not resolve their challenges, and we in the Church of England have to continue to engage with that," he said.

Cardinal Levada told reporters he met personally Oct. 19 with Archbishop Williams, who had been told about the new arrangement a month earlier.

In a letter to top Anglican leaders, Archbishop Williams said, "In the light of recent discussions with senior officials in the Vatican, I can say that this new possibility is in no sense at all intended to undermine existing relations between our two communions or to be an act of proselytism or aggression. It is described as simply a response to specific inquiries from certain Anglican groups and individuals wishing to find their future within the Roman Catholic Church."

"For those who wish to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church in the near future, this announcement will clarify possible options, and we wish them God's strength and guidance in their discernment," the Anglican leader said.

Cardinal Levada also said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, had been informed about the pope's decision.

Asked Oct. 15 about the possible entrance of groups of former Anglicans into the Catholic Church, Cardinal Kasper said, "We are not fishing in the Anglican lake; proselytism is not the policy of the Catholic Church. But if there are people who, obeying their consciences, want to become Catholic, we cannot shut the door."

U.S. Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and former undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation, spoke at the press conference with Cardinal Levada.

"We have been praying for unity for 40 years. We find now that the prayers we have had are being answered in a way that we did not anticipate. So the Holy Spirit is at work here and the Holy See cannot not respond," the archbishop said.

In 1993 the Catholic bishops of England and Wales asked the Vatican not to implement special structures for former Anglicans in their country, saying that the formation of Anglican-identity Catholic parishes would only further fracture the Christian community and would make the eventual unity of the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion more difficult.

Participants in the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue also have expressed concern in the past that the movement of Catholics to the Anglican Communion is making the Anglican Communion more liberal, while the movement of Anglicans to the Catholic Church is making the Catholic community more conservative.

Archbishop Di Noia said, "The ecumenical movement has changed. There has been a tremendous shift" in the prospects for full, complete union.

Many Anglicans already consider themselves to be Catholic, Archbishop Di Noia said, and the pope's new initiative will make "explicit the bond that is already implicit."

In 1980 the Vatican made a special pastoral provision for members of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. province of the Anglican Communion, who wanted to become Catholic after the Episcopalians began ordaining women priests. The provision included permission for entire parishes of former Episcopalians to use elements of their liturgy in the Catholic Mass.

Archbishop Di Noia said only a handful of parishes took advantage of that special permission, and in 2003 the Vatican approved "The Book of Divine Worship" for their liturgical use.

But he said many of those now seeking communion with Rome wanted a stronger affirmation of their Anglican heritage and a guarantee that it would continue to have a place in the Catholic Church, which is why the pope ordered the establishment of personal ordinariates.

The number of ordinariates and their headquarters will be determined by the number of Anglicans seeking full communion, Cardinal Levada said. The head of each ordinariate will be a former Anglican clergyman, who will not necessarily be ordained a Catholic bishop.

New priests for the ordinariates will study in seminaries with other Catholic seminarians, but an ordinariate can "establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in the Anglican patrimony," Cardinal Levada said.

In general, married Anglican priests and bishops who become Catholic will be ordained Catholic priests, as will married Anglican seminarians, he said.

But an unmarried man ordained a Catholic priest will not be permitted to marry, and the pope's apostolic constitution will state a clear preference for a celibate clergy, Archbishop Di Noia said.

Cardinal Levada told reporters that he realizes "for some people it seems to be a problem" that the Vatican is allowing married former Anglicans to be ordained Catholic priests, but will not allow Catholic priests who have left to marry to return to ministry.

"They are two different circumstances," the cardinal said. Respecting "the authenticity of the call to service" of Anglican clergy who were married when they came to the decision to become Catholic is different from the case of "a Catholic who knowingly commits to a celibate priesthood and then decides for different reasons to leave the priesthood for married life."

"I do not think it is an insurmountable problem," Cardinal Levada said, adding that the church needs to educate Catholics that the dispensation for former Anglican clergy is an exception and that the church continues to uphold the virtue of celibacy.

END

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Friday, October 09, 2009

1 Million Children Pray Rosary for Peace - Catholic Online



The following article and photo appeared on Catholic Online from the Zenith News Agency:

CARACAS, Venezuela (Zenit.org) - Venezuela's National Council of the Laity is encouraging children throughout the world to pray for peace and unity.

The plea is part of the annual campaign "One Million Children Praying the Rosary," which is set to take place this year Oct. 18.

The council explains on its Web site that the reason for the project is "because the world urgently needs peace and unity. Because God wants us to pray. Because prayer leads to faith, faith leads to love, love leads to service and service leads to peace."

This year, the organizers are asking children to pray three times: once on Oct. 16 in their schools, the second time on Oct. 17 in their parishes, and the third time on Oct. 18 with their families and friends.

The campaign recalls St. Pio of Pietrelcina's words: "And to think that if one million children prayed the Rosary. How many graces would be shed over the world!"

Those participating in the campaign are encouraged to send photos and testimonies of their local events.


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