Excerpts from First Things, by ECT author and Roman Catholic Priest Richard John Neuhaus:

It’s not exactly a dirty little secret, but neither is it much discussed. Among evangelical Protestants, some of the most strident attacks on "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" (ECT) and similar efforts at reconciliation in the Gospel truth come from leaders of evangelical mega-churches for whom Catholics are a primary, if not the primary, market for recruitment. Some such churches boast that more than half their membership is composed of former Catholics, and their continued growth depends upon convincing more Catholics that the Catholic Church is, quite simply, not Christian. The ECT affirmation that Catholics and evangelical Protestants are "brothers and sisters in Christ" is fatal to their business. In November, John MacArthur, a vociferous opponent of ECT, is hosting an "ExCatholics for Christ Conference" at his Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. Speakers include a long list of anti-Catholic writers and activists, including a "panel of former priests and nuns," who will expose "The False System of Roman Catholicism." The nineteenth century’s awful revelations of Maria Monk get a new lease on life. Viewing religion purely as a business enterprise, one may be inclined to the opinion that all is fair in expanding market shares. But of interreligious warfare it is also true that the first casualty is truth. Please do not misunderstand. I have no reason to doubt that anti-Catholics such as John MacArthur, Dave Hunt, and Joe Jordan sincerely believe that the Catholic Church is the enemy of the Gospel and that they are rescuing souls from its clutches, in addition to building their little empires. Their sincerity only adds to the sadness. Fortunately, since the appearance of "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" in 1994, the evangelical opposition has been marginalized and is now mostly limited to those in the anti-Catholic business. Meanwhile, ECT has been moving ahead with very careful theological consultations and meetings between Catholic bishops and evangelical leaders, both here and in Latin America, aimed at evangelizing the world for Christ with rather than against one another in the twenty-first century.

That They May Be One

...Ut Unum Sint, issued May 30, is on ecumenism and, since Christian unity is an abiding concern of this journal, it will no doubt be coming in for further examination in the months and years ahead.

The initial response to Ut Unum Sint has been almost uniformly favorable. In the general media, it did not receive the major attention accorded Evangelium Vitae, and that is no doubt because editors view ecumenism as an internal Christian question with slight bearing on the public realm. While not surprising, that is a very big mistake. In a world increasingly marked by resurgent religion, notably Christianity and Islam, the ecumenical reconfiguration of 1.8 billion Christians is a matter of enormous world-historical import. Of course Ut Unum Sint does not effect such a reconfiguration, but it does irrevocably commit the Catholic Church, with more than a billion members, to that goal.

The forcefulness with which that commitment is expressed is what strikes many as the most dramatic feature of the encyclical. It does not add anything doctrinally substantive to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the relationship of the Catholic Church to other Christians, but it spells out the ecumenical implications, both theological and strategic, and underscores in an unprecedented manner the urgency with which the Catholic Church views the search for Christian unity.

After the Council, there was much talk about the Catholic Church "joining" the ecumenical movement that dates from the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference and is today represented by the World Council of Churches (WCC). Because of the asymmetry of size and ecclesiological self-understandings, there was never a possibility of the Catholic Church simply joining the WCC as another church among the churches. Ut Unum Sint formally clarifies what most observers-Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic-have recognized to be the case in the last several decades, namely, that since the Council the Catholic Church has reconstituted the ecumenical movement. In some respects, the Catholic Church today is the ecumenical movement; at the very least it is the spiritual and institutional center of the movement toward Christian unity in our time.

Turning to the West

With respect to the divisions in the West, the encyclical acknowledges that great progress has been made over the last three decades in theological dialogues with Protestant communions, especially with Lutherans and Anglicans. Yet much work is needed "before a true consensus of faith can be achieved." Five questions are mentioned that require fuller study: 1) The relationship between Scripture and Sacred Tradition; 2) The Eucharist as Real Presence and sacrifice; 3) The sacrament of Ordination and apostolic ministry; 4) The Magisterium or teaching authority in the Church; and 5) Mary as Mother of God and Icon of the Church. (The ordination of women, which has in recent years become a major obstacle to unity, is not specifically mentioned but is obviously included in the third question listed.)

Some may be discouraged by that list, since these are the questions disputed between Protestants and Catholics for nearly five hundred years. It is very much worth noting, however, that what many Protestants have claimed is the question dividing Rome and the Reformation traditions-justification by faith alone-is not on the list. It is confidently expected that in 1997 Rome and the Lutheran World Federation will adopt a common statement on justification, affirming that differences on this question are not church-dividing. Other Protestants for whom faith alone (sola fide) is the critical sticking point may well follow the Lutheran lead. Some Protestants declared justification by faith alone the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae - the article by which the Church stands or falls. With the dispute over that article resolved, common theological work can turn to questions about what it means for the Church to be fully and rightly ordered.