The following originally appeared in a recent IRD Weekly e-newsletter. If you would like to receive our weekly e-newsletter, click here and select “IRD Weekly.”
Fifty years ago, on January 25, 1959, less than three months after his election as pope, John XXIII gave notice of his intention to convene the Second Vatican Council (The First Council Vatican took place in 1869-70). Despite controversies that arose from Vatican II—controversies that our Roman Catholic brethren are still navigating—it is one of the more important events in recent world history because it enabled Catholics and Protestants to work together in ways we have only begun to explore.
At the time of the council, most American Protestants seemed to believe that the Roman Catholics had a greased fireman’s pole to Hell in the basement of every church. And most Roman Catholics seemed to believe the same of Protestants.
Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom in Is the Reformation Over?: An Evangelical Assessment of Roman Catholicism quote Reformed theologian Loraine Boettner who in 1962 wrote about the Catholic Church:
Its interpretation of the Scriptures is so erroneous and its principles are so persistently unchristian that over the long period of time its influence for good is outweighed by its influence for evil. It must, therefore, as a system be judged to be a false church. (italics in original).
While there are some who still believe this, their tribe has been waning for years. Instead, most of us would agree with Noll and Nystrom that “the contemporary world needs to hear more about what Catholics and evangelicals share in common than about their legitimate disagreements.”
While Noll and Nystrom catalog a great number of shifts in Catholicism, Protestantism, and the culture that have brought about change, the first item on their list is the changes within the Catholic Church beginning with Vatican II.
Above all, Vatican II dramatically changed the way in which the Catholic Church related to other churches, and thus the way in which all churches relate to each other.
In the council’s document about ecumenism, non-Catholic Christians are called “separated brethren.” “Separated” is a statement of historical fact; “brethren” is a statement of biblical fact. Reformation era polemics were over—at least on the Catholic side. The council wrote that it “gladly notes” the growing ecumenical movement among those “who invoke the Triune God and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior.” The document goes on to say that the end of ecumenical unity is “that the world may be converted to the Gospel and so be saved, to the glory of God.”
This theme was picked up in “The Communion of Saints,” a statement released in 2003 by Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT). ECT lamented the fact that Protestants and Catholics do not share the communion of one Lord’s Table. Nonetheless, their statement affirmed with Vatican II:
All are called to belong to the new People of God. Wherefore this People, while remaining one and unique, is to be spread throughout the whole world and must exist in all ages, so that the purpose of God’s will may be fulfilled. . . . It follows that among all the nations of earth there is but one People of God, which takes its citizens from every race, making them citizens of a kingdom which is of a heavenly and not an earthly nature. For all the faithful scattered throughout the world are in communion with each other in the Holy Spirit.
That communion in the Holy Spirit makes us the People of God together in spite of our disagreements. From this springs the hope that we can work together to bring the Kingdom of God to bear on our troubled world. It is the true ecumenism that IRD board member and ECT signer Thomas Oden writes “is actively returning to the wellsprings of unity in apostolic truth and classic Christian teaching.”
Last Thursday, January 22 was the March for Life. This annual prolife event is a striking example of this new ecumenism. Catholics and Protestants share the podium together, pray with and for each other, and encourage each other in the work of protecting the unborn. I watched Baptists for Life, Anglicans for Life, and United Methodist members of Life Watch walk side-by-side with Knights of Columbus, Priests for Life, and students from hundreds of Catholic schools. Current and former IRD staff marched as well, and Faith McDonnell reflected on the event in an article posted on our website.
The IRD itself is, in fact, a reflection of the ecumenical spirit encouraged by Vatican II. Our founders and our current board of directors include Roman Catholics as well as Mainline and evangelical Protestants.
I do not mean to imply that Vatican II brought about all these changes. The story is much more complex. I am convinced, however, that John XXIII’s call for a council was the genesis of a new and unprecedented era not only for the Catholic Church, but for all “who invoke the Triune God and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior” across all denominational divides. And in this new era there is no telling how much good we can do working together.
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