@Harel13 In furtherance of my last post, where I set out the major denominational families of Christianity (Catholicism with its 1.3 billion followers, Protestantism with its 800 million+ and Orthodoxy with its 260 million) and the historical trajectory of the primary schisms, here are some of my own reflections on the state of Christendom:
The largest Christian church by far - because it represents both its own 'branch' (like Protestantism and Orthodoxy)
and a single consolidated denomination/sect of over a billion persons - is my own Catholic one and following official pronouncements on ecumenism at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, Catholicism defined itself positively in relation to what we call "
our separated brethren" dispersed throughout the other branches and denominations.
Even before the conciliar decrees in the 1960s, Catholics had already viewed other Christians as "
Christians", especially but not limited to the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox (for them, in every sense with valid sacraments, liturgies and theologies etc.), primarily because of the validity of other Christians' water baptisms which incorporated them into the One Church of Christ, His Mystical Body, which Catholics believe subsists in the Catholic Church in its fullness:
The matter was infallibly defined no later than the
Council of Trent (1545), whose
Canons on Baptism contain the following:
Canon 4. If anyone says that the baptism which is given by heretics in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit with the intention of doing what the Church does, is not true baptism, let him be anathema.
Thus, the pre-Vatican II church might have regarded some other churches (apart from the Eastern Orthodox) as teaching 'heretical' doctrines or lacking the fullness of a sacramental life in some respects, however it recognised the validly baptised members of those communities as 'true Christians'. And the canon above actually condemned any statement to the contrary as "
anathema".
Consider the following pre-Vatican II statement from Pope Pius XI:
“…Catholics are sometimes lacking in a right appreciation of their separated brethren, and are even wanting in brotherly love, because they do not know enough about them. People do not realize how much faith, goodness, and Christianity there is in these bodies now detached from the age-long Catholic truth. Pieces broken from gold-bearing rock themselves bear gold. The ancient Christian bodies of the East, for instance, keep so venerable a holiness that they deserve not merely respect but complete sympathy…”
(Pope Pius XI, 1927 (cf. Radio Replies, Volume 2, pp. 76))
And also this nice one from the young Pope John XXIII (who, when he assumed the papacy in the 1959, would implement Vatican II, speaking as official papal ambassador to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church:
“…Catholics and Orthodox are not enemies, but brothers. We have the same faith; we share the same sacraments, and especially the Eucharist. We are divided by some disagreements concerning the divine constitution of the Church of Jesus Christ. The persons who were the cause of these disagreements have been dead for centuries. Let us abandon the old disputes and, each in his own domain, let us work to make our brothers good, by giving them good example. Later on, though traveling along different paths, we shall achieve union among the churches to form together the true and unique Church of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
- Angelo Roncalli (later Pope John XXIII) 1926, Letter to Young Bulgarian Orthodox Christian
But until 1960, the Catholic church did not engage in much ecumenical dialogue with these other churches and at times even proscribed it. This practice was reversed entirely at Vatican II (along with the description of these groups as 'heretical', language that is no longer in use), with the promulgation of
Unitatis redintegratio:
Unitatis redintegratio - Wikipedia
Unitatis redintegratio (Latin for "Restoration of unity") is the Second Vatican Council's decree on ecumenism. It was passed by a vote of 2,137 to 11 of the bishops assembled at the Council, and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 21 November 1964.
The title of the document is taken from the opening words of the Latin text. The opening words of the official English translation are: "The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council."
It focuses on the unity of the people of God and on separate Christian brethren rather than insisting according to the classical formulation that schismatics must return to the fold under the unity of the Vicar of Christ.
Unitatis acknowledges that there are serious problems facing prospects of reunion with Reformation communities that make no attempt to claim apostolic succession as the Anglican communion does. Ecclesial communities which adhere to Calvinism are a particularly challenging case because they and Catholicism have important doctrinal differences on key issues such as ecclesiology, liturgy and mariology.
I. Catholic Principles on Ecumenism (2-4)
"...it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ's body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church"
Unitatis redintegratio
The children who are born into these Communities and who grow up believing in Christ cannot be accused of the sin involved in the separation, and the Catholic Church embraces upon them as brothers, with respect and affection. For men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect. The differences that exist in varying degrees between them and the Catholic Church - whether in doctrine and sometimes in discipline, or concerning the structure of the Church - do indeed create many obstacles, sometimes serious ones, to full ecclesiastical communion. The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome these obstacles. But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ's body,(21) and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church.(22)
Moreover, some and even very many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and visible elements too. All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ.
The brethren divided from us also use many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. These most certainly can truly engender a life of grace in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community. These liturgical actions must be regarded as capable of giving access to the community of salvation.
It follows that the separated Churches(23) and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.
Lumen Gentium the Vatican II constitution on the Church, moreover stated in regard to other Christian churches:
Lumen gentium
15. The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter. (14*) For there are many who honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal. They lovingly believe in God the Father Almighty and in Christ, the Son of God and Saviour. (15*) They are consecrated by baptism, in which they are united with Christ. They also recognize and accept other sacraments within their own Churches or ecclesiastical communities.
...They also share with us in prayer and other spiritual benefits. Likewise we can say that in some real way they are joined with us in the Holy Spirit, for to them too He gives His gifts and graces whereby He is operative among them with His sanctifying power. Some indeed He has strengthened to the extent of the shedding of their blood. In all of Christ's disciples the Spirit arouses the desire to be peacefully united, in the manner determined by Christ, as one flock under one shepherd, and He prompts them to pursue this end. (17*) Mother Church never ceases to pray, hope and work that this may come about. She exhorts her children to purification and renewal so that the sign of Christ may shine more brightly over the face of the earth.
Because Catholics comprise just over half of all Christians and are a unitary bloc under a single spiritual leader (the Bishop of Rome, the Supreme Pontiff, the office presently occupied by His Holiness Pope Francis) within one megachurch body comprised of different 'liturgical rites', our relations with the rest of Christendom are far more coherent and stable than the eparchic federalism of the Orthodox communions (its ethnarchic federation of national churches in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, or the Coptic pope in Egypt for the Orientals) or the multifarious ecclesialism of the thousands of disparate Protestant churches.
Thus, when the Pope defines something in an encyclical or apostolic exhortation (or indeed the global episcopacy under the magisterium of the Pope does so at an ecumenical council, such as Vatican II) regarding ecumenical relations with the other churches, his words
really carry weight as being representative of the definitive stance of the entire Church (all 1.3 billion of us in communion with the Pope) because "
he's the Daddy", surrounded by his college of other world bishops and handpicked cardinal-bishops.
