The Requirements for an Ecumenical Dialogue according to Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter „Ut unum sint"

Abstract

In the Christian theological language, the term “ecumenism” was put in circulation by the Ecumenical Movement initiated by the Christians after the First World War. But, in the language of the Catholic Church, the term “ecumenism,” used with the meaning of the “ecumenical movement,” was introduced by the renowned theologian Yves Congar in 1937. And, then, it was taken over by the Second Vatican Council for the text of the decree on ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio. The Roman Catholic Church joined the Ecumenical Movement in 1961, when its delegates were presents at the Session — held in New Delhi — of the Ecumenical Council. Among other things, from the text of the Encyclical Ut unum sint published by Pope John Paul II in the year 1995, we could notice that His Holiness asserted that an ecumenical dialogue — that remains in fact one of the main instruments for the reestablishment of the ecumenical unity — has to fulfill the requirements stipulated by the Second Vatican Council, adopted however to the ecumenical realities of the present times.