The New Ecumenism

By Robin G. Jordan

The Vatican has through its spokesmen and the Roman Catholic media been touting Pope Benedict XVI’s ecclesiastical adventurism as the new ecumenism. True Christian unity, they claim, is to be found only in full communion with the Church of Rome. The path to true Christian unity is to convert to Roman Catholicism and become a Roman Catholic. Behind these assertions is the long-standing claim that the Church of Rome is the only true Church.

What is happening is the Church of Rome is returning to its old default position if it ever really left that position in the first place. If one examines the outcome of the ecumenical talks of the past 40 years, it is quite evident that these talks did not produce any significant change in the Roman Catholic position on a number of issues. Rather those involved in the talks on the Anglican side glozed over the differences between the two churches and accommodated the Roman Catholic position.

In formally recognizing the authority of church tradition alongside that of Scripture, requiring the interpretation of Scripture in accordance with Church tradition, and affirming the Church as the authoritative interpreter of church tradition the Church of Rome at the Council of Trent tacitly acknowledged that in the debate with the Protestant Reformers over doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church it could not appeal to Scripture alone for the support of its doctrines and practices. It in effect gave Church tradition and the Church as the interpreter of Church tradition greater authority than the Scriptures. This was a radical step.

The Western Church had given Church tradition a place in the interpretation of Scripture but it had never elevated it to this level of authority where it outweighed Scripture. The Council of Trent further claimed that Church tradition and Scripture could not disagree with each other. How Church tradition interpreted Scripture was what Scripture meant. In adopting this position the Council of Trent not only set Roman Catholicism apart from Protestantism but also historic Anglicanism and primitive Catholicism.

The Church of Rome added two more innovation to its growing list of innovations in doctrine and practice, a list to which it has added further innovations since that time—for example, the doctrine of papal infallibility. It is rather disingenuous for the Church of Rome to accuse the Anglican Church of innovation in its ordination of women when itself has made a number of innovations. There is considerable pressure in the Roman Catholic Church to elevate Jesus’ mother to the position of co-redemptrix with Christ. Pope Benedict’s predecessor who had a strong devotion to Mary gave serious thought to declaring her to be co-redemptrix alongside her son.

It is against this background we must consider what the Scriptures say in this matter. What do they say about church unity? First, they do not say that the Church of Rome is the only true Church. The Roman Catholic Church asserts that Jesus Christ founded his church upon the apostle Peter and Peter was the first bishop of Rome and the first pope. It points to Matthew 16:18-19 as the foundation of the papacy. The Scriptures, however, offer no support for the claim that Peter was a bishop of Rome, much less that he established a succession of bishops and vested the bishops in that succession with the authority the Church of Rome claims that Jesus gave him. In John 20:22-23, the “power of the keys” is given not just to Peter, but to all the disciples. To support its claim the Church of Rome falls back on Church tradition and legend. It pays not heed to the apostle Paul’s warning about turning away from listening to the truth and wandering off into myths (1 Timothy 4:4).

Second, nowhere do we find in Scripture that uniting with a particular ecclesial body is necessary to church unity. They certainly do not say true church unity is found in only full communion with the Church of Rome.

The passage that is most often cited in debates over church unity is John 17:20-24.

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

It is noteworthy that Jesus prays for unity in God not only for the apostles but also for those who will believe in him through the apostles’ teaching—“their word.” Their teaching is found in the Scriptures, in the New Testament. Jesus does not pray for such unity for those who do not believe. He does not pray for unity between believers and non-believers. He prays for unity in God only for believers. John points very clearly to the attention of the readers of his Gospel to whom Jesus was referring.

…but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31)

John 17:20-24 applies not only to Roman Catholics who believe but also Eastern Orthodox, Jews, and Protestants (including Anglicans). It does not apply to adherents of these faith traditions who, while they hold the beliefs of their faith tradition and observe its practices, do not believe on Jesus Christ for everlasting life. They are devoid of a lively faith.

The Roman Catholic Church is hardly a paragon of a united and unified church. With its centralized hierarchy and its authoritarian form of church governance it may do a better job of suppressing dissent than other ecclesial bodies. However, the Church of Rome has its divisions. It is not free from conflict and dissension.

The centralized hierarchy and the authoritarian form of church government have not protected the Church of Rome from innovations that are not consonant with Scripture. Rather they have tended to produce and promote such innovations. The Roman Catholic Church has not been faithful to the teaching of the apostles and has justified and rationalized its abandonment of their teaching.

The centralized hierarchy and the authoritarian form of church government have not protected Roman Catholic children from sexually predatory priests and physically abusive priests and religious. Rather they have concealed the crimes and permitted further molestation and abuse of Roman Catholic children.

The Church of Rome strains its credibility with claims that taking advantage of the Anglican Church’s troubles is a “prophetic gesture” and advances the cause of true church unity. Whatever Anglicanorum coetibus and the Personal Ordinariates are, they are not a form of ecumenism. Such claims are self-serving.