Vatican Document: Nothing New Under the Sun

Don't fall for the media spin and knee jerk reaction from some Protestant groups to the Vatican's new document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. There is nothing new here, only a restatement of what the Roman Church has always believed.

It has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church that "the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church" and "that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them." This is merely a restatement of the Roman Church's understanding of itself. It is to be expected that its understanding of other "churches and ecclesial Communities" will be influenced by this self-understanding, just as the self-understanding of most Protestant bodies naturally influences their perception of the Roman Church.

Historically, the effect of such clarifying statements from the Vatican has been quite the opposite of what conventional wisdom would have us expect. They have furthered the cause of Christian unity, not hindered it. As hard as it is for our Protestant communions to accept, one of the reasons for Rome's perception of our expression of the Church as somewhat deficient is our constant focus on the issues which divide us, rather than on the truth which unites us. Rome affirms about Protestant bodies what those Protestant bodies so often cannot affirm about each other, namely, "that the Church of Christ is present and operative" in them "on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them."

I am reminded of the old joke that Methodists don't recognize Presbyterians, Presbyterians don't recognize Baptists, and Baptists don't recognize each other in the liquor store (the parts are interchangeable, depending on which group you'd most like to offend). It would seem the biggest disagreement among the myriad of "ecclesial Communities" among us is over which one caused the disagreement in the first place. If we got over that, we might get over a lot of other hurdles that stand in the way of genuine unity in the Body of Christ.