Christians of Europe, Unite!

Published by The Wall Street Journal, October 21, 2005

Christians of Europe, Unite!

(October 21, 2005 – Vienna) It is difficult to hear anything about the state of Christianity in Europe today that doesn't describe a spiritual decline. Average church attendance in France, Sweden and the Netherlands is down to 10% in urban areas, compared to 60% in the 1960s, according to the Gordon Conwell Theological Institute in Boston. "There is no longer evidence for a need of God, even less of Christ" Pope Benedict XVI recently told Italian priests. "The so-called traditional churches look like they are dying."

But the rising secular tide in the West has, quietly and behind-the-scenes, prompted the Eastern and Western churches to accelerate efforts at reconciliation. A possible reunification of the Christian Church and its combined 1.4 billion members isn't out of the question. The overtures were begun by the late Pope John Paul II -- the first Pope to visit Eastern Orthodox countries since the 1054 schism who was also the first to apologize for the 1204 Catholic sacking of Constantinople -- and continued by Benedict XVI. In a recent Common Declaration, the two churches acknowledged a "shared common ancestry." From the Vatican's own newspaper to Pravda, talk of unity is being taken seriously.

After several false starts, Rome and the Patriarchate of Constantinople -- the name still used for the "first among equals" of 15 autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches -- held their first talks at the Vatican in June 2004. The meeting marked the first official step toward "full communion," the most critical standard in Christian doctrine of recognition between two churches or denominations, requiring total mutual agreement on the most essential aspects of church doctrine.

This process began fitfully 40 years ago. At the 1964 Second Vatican Council, then-Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople terminated mutual ex-communication -- that is, the formal non-recognition of either church's jurisdictions -- between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox for the first time since 1054. That was the year when centuries-long theological disputes within Christianity broke out in a doctrinal fight, permanently dividing the church. An earlier 4th and 5th century "Eastern" schism in the Church resulted in the so-called "Oriental" churches, such as the Coptic and the Armenian. These too have agreed to participate in the current reconciliation talks.

Upon his ascension in April, Pope Benedict XVI made the "ecumenical movement" -- the idea of a universal Christian church -- his main goal. He will travel to Istanbul for further talks with Patriarch Bartholomeos in November. Pope John Paul II, according to his official biographer George Weigel, was practically obsessed with trying to achieve unity with Orthodoxy.

For their part, the Eastern churches have extended a wary hand, following years of post-communist insecurity that reconciliatory overtures reflected the Vatican's strength vis-a-vis the Eastern church. While the Greek Church is more open to Rome, the Moscow patriarchate blocked a visit by Pope John Paul II in Russia, and only officially received Vatican officials last year. But the Russian church removed one obstacle to unity by canonizing the family of Tsar Nicholas II in August 2000, a move intended to put to rest concerns about its past ties with the Soviet regime.

More than theological niceties are involved here. Both churches are facing an existential threat from secularism as well as their liberal offshoots in North America. At heart is the recognition that historical Christian heritage and identity are threatened. As Cardinal Walter Kasper, who coordinates ecumenical dialogue at the Vatican, recently noted in an address commemorating Vatican II's "Decree on Ecumenism": "There are problems… and new challenges… such as doctrinal and ethical liberalism as well as an aggressive fundamentalism by both old and new sects… There is the real danger of relativism and indifferentism."

Much of the momentum toward unity may be credited to an institution with no official ties to either church. Pro Oriente was founded here in Vienna in 1965 by late Cardinal Franz König to strengthen "underground" relations between Rome and the non-communist Eastern Orthodox churches. König became something of an unofficial diplomat of the Vatican to the Soviet Bloc, and a legend in his own time. Later, König pushed the Church to take a clear stand against anti-Semitism, and acknowledge that the Jews should not be held responsible for the crucifixion.

After a millennium apart, reconciliation won't be easy. One sore spot is the so-called Uniate problem: Eastern Catholics, predominantly in the mostly Orthodox Ukraine, follow Eastern "rites" but answer to Catholic Rome. Some Eastern Orthodox leaders consider the Uniates a menace. Eastern churches also look askance at Westerners who identify Christianity with political and social causes.

Yet the Catholic Archbishop of Moscow, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, captured the current mood well. "Despite the difficulties," he said two years ago, "we hope that relations between the Orthodox and the Catholics will develop and preserve the Christian values in the life of Europe and the world."



Volume 7 Number 43 - Tuesday, October 25, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY