Vatican statement says nothing new

Doctrinal clarification
for Roman Catholics
won’t affect ties to UMs

United Methodist News Service
A July 10 Vatican statement shouldn’t significantly affect relations between United Methodists and Roman Catholics, United Methodist leaders said last week.
Noting that the two Christian churches have been in dialogue for more than 40 years and “have reached clarity on several major theological issues,” the United Methodist Council of Bishops said in a July 18 statement that it found “nothing new or radically different” in the document.
The United Methodist statement added that “all the positives remain in our relationship.”
The Vatican document, titled “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church,” came from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and was confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI June 29.
The document reasserts that only Roman Catholics constitute the true church. Protestants are merely “Christian communities” and not churches “in the proper sense.”
The Second Vatican Council, which met in the early 1960s under Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, is often cited as a turning point in ecumenical relations for the Roman Catholic Church. That council didn’t change Roman Catholic doctrine on “the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,” the new Vatican document says. The council more fully explained it.
The July 18 statement from United Methodist bishops said United Methodists affirm
“the one true church, apostolic and universal.”
“We believe that apostolicity is based on the faithfulness of the church through the ages rather
than on historical succession,” the bishops wrote.
The bishops acknowledged that the Vatican doesn’t consider The United Methodist Church a church “in the full sense, because we lack from their viewpoint the mark of oneness and sacramental priesthood and the fullness of the Eucharist.”
“We understand ourselves,” the bishops continued, “by God’s grace, to share in the fullness of the church through faithful ministry and mission, and the table of the Lord. That is a difference we can continue to explore. Someday we pray that this difference will be overcome.”
The United Methodist response was signed by Bishop Janice Huie, president; Bishop William Oden, ecumenical officer; Bishop Ernest Lyght, secretary; and Bishop Roy Sano, executive secretary.
“As United Methodists, we share in the pain of the brokenness of Christ’s body and prayerfully long for unity around the table of the Lord,” the bishops said.
A statement from the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns pointed out that the Vatican document “is actually a restatement” of a 2000 declaration titled “Dominus Jesus.”
A key component of that declaration, the United Methodist agency noted, was “the pronouncement of the primacy of historical continuity and permanence, with the fullness of the Church of Christ subsisting in the Catholic Church.”
But the grace of salvation “is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church,” said the commission’s statement, signed by the Rev. Larry Pickens, its chief executive.
“Within all of our churches are the elements of sanctification and truth that represent the presence of the Holy Spirit and the reality of Jesus Christ,” Pickens said.
For decades, United Methodists have engaged in dialogue with Roman Catholic colleagues through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. An international dialogue has continued between the World Methodist Council and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
“Our dialogues have taught United Methodists and Catholics to realize that by baptism and faith in Christ, United Methodists enjoy a communion, although imperfect, with the Catholic Church,” the Pickens statement said.
“Our dialogues have also taught us that there is a positive appreciation that is felt between our two communions and serves as a foundation for addressing other church-dividing issues that face both of our churches.”
Representatives of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns visited the Vatican and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in April 2006.
“During that time we shared our mutual concern that the national and international dialogues involving The United Methodist Church and the Catholic Church should continue,” the Pickens statement said.