Does a Doctrinal Teaching Office Have an Ecumenical Future?

Abstract

The Roman Catholic Church will soon conclude its celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II, an ecclesial event that marked the Church’s official entrance into the twentieth-century ecumenical movement.1 More has been accomplished ecumenically in the half century since the opening of the council than had been accomplished in the four and half centuries between the Reformation and Vatican II. Simply from the perspective of Roman Catholicism, we have witnessed remarkable ecumenical achievements: the rescinding of the mutual excommunications between the Catholic and Orthodox churches that had existed for almost 1,000 years; the declaration of a common Christological faith between the Catholic Church and the ancient Oriental Orthodox churches, overcoming 1,500 years of division on basic Christological doctrine; and the crown jewel of ecumenical achievement, the 1999 Joint Declaration on Justification by Faith between the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. Beyond these landmark achievements there has been a plethora of multilateral and bilateral ecumenical dialogues resulting in official statements that have helped articulate an expanding consensus in shared Christian faith on a wide range of topics such as scripture, tradition, baptism, Eucharist, ministry, and ecclesiology.