“A Catholic priest comments”

I have received an email from a Catholic priest who asked if I would post the following message:

 

In the comments I noticed the following from Andy.

 

Dear Mark, I found your site after following Gavin Ashenden and his pilgrimage for a couple of years. I love Catholic unscripted and the writings of all three of you. I’m not a Catholic, I am a Christian. A member of an “Ecclesial Community” as Gavin put it in episode 14 (quoting Benedict, I believe). Anyhow, thanks so much for your writings and I pray you continue to contend for the faith…. Regards, Andy

 

Presumably when Andy describes himself as a member of an “Ecclesial Community”, he is referring to Dominus Iesus the Declaration of the CDF issued on 6 August 2000 by Cardinal Ratzinger:

Dominus Iesus paragraph 17 states:

 

On the other hand, the ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery,⁶¹ are not Churches in the proper sense; however, those who are baptized in these communities are, by Baptism, incorporated in Christ and thus are in a certain communion, albeit imperfect, with the Church.⁶² Baptism in fact tends per se toward the full development of life in Christ, through the integral profession of faith, the Eucharist, and full communion in the Church.⁶³

 

https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html

 

 

A number of people at the time criticised the Declaration for not being very ecumenical. And some still do.

 

But if they had read footnote 61, they would have realised that the-then Cardinal Ratzinger was quoting directly from Unitatis Redintegratio Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism whose chapter III is entitled “Churches & Ecclesial Communities Separated from the Roman Apostolic See”.

 

Paragraph 22 of Unitatis Redintegratio states

 

Though the ecclesial Communities which are separated from us lack the fullness of unity with us flowing from Baptism, and though we believe they have not retained the proper reality of the eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Orders, nevertheless when they commemorate His death and resurrection in the Lord's Supper, they profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and look forward to His coming in glory. Therefore the teaching concerning the Lord's Supper, the other sacraments, worship, the ministry of the Church, must be the subject of the dialogue.

 

https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html

 

So -  far from attempting to go against Vatican II or trying to turn the clock back to pre-Vatican II - Cardinal Ratzinger in Dominus Iesus was following Vatican II and using the exact terminology of Unitatis Redintegratio.

I am pretty sure this is in reference to our discussion about Pope Benedict XVI (here). In that episode we talked about true ecumenism being the reversal of the fracture that the Reformation brought. I wrote quite extensively on this subject and Dominus Iesus here if you want to know more.