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The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a 
book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication 
is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and 
Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed. 

June 5, 1958 

Pamphlet No. 11-22 

C E N T R A L O F F I C E 

C H A I R O F U N I T Y A P O S T O L A T E 

G R A Y M O O R , G A R R I S O N , N . Y . 

Prepared with permission from Homiletic & Pastoral Review 

Designed ana Printed at Graymoor Press, Peekskill, N. Y. 



The Cathol ic Church a n d Ecumenism 

B Y T I T U S CRANNY, S . A . , S . T . D . 

There is a spiritual phenomenon in the world at the present 
day which might be described in terms of nostalgia—a kind of spiritual 
longing for home. It is a sincere and manifest desire for religious 
unity on the part of those who are separated from the Catholic 
Church, who deplore the existence of a divided Christendom, and 
who seek a way to remedy the plight in which they find themselves. 

In the providence of God this desire for and search after unity 
may be a kind of reversal of that spiritual disaster which shook 
Europe four centuries ago and which since then has spread into 
nearly all parts of the civilized world. This movement toward unity 
is called the Ecumenical Movement, so named because it aims at 
the formation of One Church throughout the whole world.1 We 
trust and pray that it marks the beginning of a homeward religious 
journey for the millions, now separated from the One Fold of the 
Redeemer, whose ancestors made their sad cleavage several cen-
turies past. 

Nothing Gained By Suspecting Protestant Motives 

At least awareness of disunity is a good thing: these peoples 
realize their plight, that it is far from enviable and they seek a 
solution. Visser 't Hooft, General Secretary of the World Council 
of Churches and prominent leader in the Ecumenical Movement, 
is spokesman for many when he says: 

If there is only one King, if salvation means to be part of one 
Body, no Church can accept the fact that the people of God 
are scattered, that the Body is broken.2 

It is true that non-Catholic ideas about unity are at variance 
with the teachings of the Catholic Church, but we should not be 

3 Instruction on the Ecumenical Movement, (Eng. trs. Graymoor Press: 
1949 ) 9. 

2 Kingship of Christ (London, S.C.M. Press, 1948), p. 10. 

1 



too quick to judge their motives or their means to secure unity, nor 
should we minimize their efforts to secure what they lack. Indeed 
we ought to pray that they may be led by God to the harbor of 
salvation and the citadel of truth, the Catholic Church. 

Father W. H. Van de Pol, of Holland, convert to the faith 
from Protestantism and a longtime worker in the Ecumenical field, 
has written a book on the problems of Christian Unity. He presents 
an appraisal of the situation of the present day—of separation from 
Christ when all men should be united with Him and in Him. These 
are his words: 

At the centre of the history of the human race, divided by 
sin, discord, and strife, stands One whose word and work be-
token complete reconciliation, absolute unity and perfect peace: 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him God has willed to win 
back all things, to resume all things, to restore order to all 
things; in Him men have been reconciled to God and thereby 
to one another. Christ is the Redeemer of a world that was 
lost; He is our peace and in Him we are all one. He is the 
realization and embodiment of God's order in a world of human 
disorder: "This alone of all names under heaven has been ap-
pointed to men as the one by which we must needs be saved." 
Yet, in actual fact, Christendom does not present a picture of 
unity, reconciliation and peace in a world of disruption and 
disorder, but instead we are confronted with the alarming spec-
tacle of hopeless dissension even among Christians themselves.8 

These Are Not Sixteenth Century Protestants 

The prospect of an early reconciliation, of a speedy attain-
ment of unity with the Church for all who are outside of it, does 
not exist in the foreseeable future. It is true that God could miracu-
lously lead all the erring sheep to the one fold, that in a moment 
of time and with a prodigious outpouring of grace He could dissipate 
the prejudices, misunderstandings, and complexities of a million 
hearts and bring them to the unity of His Church. But that is not 
His way. 

s The Christian Dilemma (London: Dent, 1952), p. ix. 

2 



We know that God uses human instruments, often proud and 
ignorant, and at times weak and foolish, to achieve His ends. And 
so He uses men to work for the bestowal of this unity upon other 
men. It should be borne in mind that the Protestants of today are 
not the same as their forefathers of the past. In practice we do not 
deal with heretics as the Church dealt with them in the sixteenth 
century, nor consider the Protestants of today as being precisely 
identified with those who broke from the Church during the era 
of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and the other leaders. 

In the course of centuries the problem has become very com-
plicated. It cannot be solved so easily as a yes or no. For as Father 
Charles Boyer, S.J., a leader in the Ecumenical Movement from the 
Catholic point of view, has declared: 

The problem is a delicate one, for there is a danger of dim-
inishing the Church in attributing to her a lack which is true 
only of one or another of her members. I should not be prepared 
to concede, on any doctrinal point, that the Lutherans or the 
Anglicans have a more perfect doctrine than the Catholic Church 
whose Bridegroom will remain with her until the end of the 
world. 

But it is certainly true that there are Catholics who are less 
filled than they should be with the idea of grace as a gift, 
with the holiness of the Bible, with the mystical beauties of 
the Church. Such people could undoubtedly find, within the 
Church, admirable models of every aspect in which they are 
lacking. Nevertheless they can also find outside the Church 
useful lessons not provided in their immediate surroundings. 

Let us say then that the return of our separated brethren 
would undoubtedly draw our attention to these spiritual treas-
ures of the Church of which we make insufficient use.4 

It should not be said that non-Catholics would contribute to 
the good of the Church because they have espoused non-Catholic 
errors. Their doctrinal background would not add to the peculiar 
riches of the Church. They would not contribute in a positive 

* Unitas, III (French edition), 1948, pp. 14, 15. 

3 



way to the doctrinal contents or to any essential element of the 
Church. For as the Instruction of the Holy Office has stated: 
"Non-Catholics may certainly be told that, in returning to the Church, 
they will forfeit none of the good that the grace of God has hitherto 
wrought in their souls, but that the return will bring this to its per-
fection and final consummation. Yet this must not be represented in 
such a fashion as to create in them the impression that by their 
return they were making a contribution to the Church of something 
essential that she lacked in the past."5 

Religious Unity Wi l l Be A Rediscovery 

The Catholic idea and ideal of unity is far removed from the 
concept of most non-Catholics. Outside the Church there is a wide 
variety of beliefs: that the Church is made up of branches; unity 
does not exist at the present time but will be achieved later—at 
the price of compromise; all the religious bodies somehow comprise 
the Catholic Church; that the Church is an invisible society, vague 
and nebulous, both in membership and in profession of belief. 

But we know that the Church possesses that Unity given to it 
by its Founder, a unity of faith, of government, and of worship which 
can never be lost. It is the visible unity of a visible society of exis-
tence in the world today. The Abbot of Downside Abbey in England 
has well phrased it: 

The fact is that, according to the Catholic faith, the visible 
unity of the Church both precedes and survives the fact of 
schism, and is essential to the very idea of the Church. The 
Church founded by Christ not only naturally gives rise to the 
fellowship, the koinomia, the fellowship of the faithful: it is 
identical with that fellowship. And as it is in and by the Church 
that Christ fulfills the promise: "Lo, I am with you always 
even to the end of the ages," so also today and tomorrow. 
Any movement of "return" therefore, be it conceived as the 

B Instruction on the Ecumenical Movevent, (Eng. trs. Graymoor Press: 
Peekskill, N.Y., 1952), 5. 

4 



return of individuals or a whole body of hitherto "separated" 
brethren, is a movement of return to what already exists prior 
to the movement; it is not the creation of a non-existent unity, 
it is the rediscovery by those who return to that unity which 
already exists.6 

The Church Whol ly Disinterested? 

At times it has been charged that the Catholic Church is not 
interested in unity efforts of non-Catholic groups, that she has no 
concern for the Ecumenical Movement of the present day. 

We know that the Church's non-participation in such meetings 
does not rise from an attitude of arrogance, or pride, or disdain, 
but from the conviction that she alone possesses the truth given 
her by Almighty God; that taking part in meetings would mean to 
place the Catholic faith on the same level as man-made religions, 
which would be a denial of the truth that Christ has revealed. 
Any compromise in religious matters would be contrary to the teach-
ing of Christ and to the constitution of the Church. 

This does not mean that the Church is not interested, and in a 
very sincere and hopeful way, in the various movements toward 
unity. For example, when the leaders of the Conference on Faith 
and Order (May 16, 1919) invited Pope Benedict XV to take part 
in their conference, he refused. But at the same time they were 
granted an audience with him. As they left the chamber they were 
handed a statement of explanation for his refusal, the report of which 
was the following: 

The Holy Father, after having thanked them for their visit, 
stated that as the successor of St. Peter and the Vicar of Christ 
he had no greater desire than that there should be one fold and 
one shepherd. His Holiness added that the teaching and prac-
tice of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the unity of the 
visible Church of Christ was well known to everyone and there-
fore it would not be possible for the Catholic Church to take 
part in such a congress as the one proposed. His Holiness, 

6 Introduction to John Todd's Catholicism and the Ecumenical Movement 
(London, 1956,) pp. xi, xii. 

5 



however, by no means wishes to disapprove of the Congress 
in question for those who are not in union with the Chair of 
Peter; on the contrary he earnestly desires and prays that, if 
the congress is practicable, those who take part in it may, by 
the grace of God, see the light and become reunited to the 
visible Head of the Church, by whom they will be received 
with open arms.7 

I should like to show briefly the concern of the popes for 
these groups outside the Church. We know in general that the Holy 
Father is solicitous for the reunion of all those separated from the 
Chair of Peter; that it is his role to work and pray and lead in 
achieving the prophecy of Christ: "Other sheep I have that are not 
of this fold. Them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice 
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." 

But the desire for unity has been the specific hope of the popes 
of every age and particularly of the Pontiffs of recent times. For 
example, in a message to a German Catholic meeting in Mainz in 
1948, Pope Pius XII declared: 

We know how insistent is the desire in many, both Catholics 
and non-Catholics, for unity of faith. And who could desire 
this more ardently than the Vicar of Christ? The Church sur-
rounds dissenters in the faith with sincere love and prayer for 
return to her, their mother, from whom God knows how many 
are separated without any fault of their own. If the Church is 
inflexible with respect to everything that might appear in any 
way to place the Catholic faith on the same footing as other 
confessions or to confuse Catholics with dissenters, it is because 
she is convinced that there always has been and always will 
be one sure citadel wherein rests infallibly the fulness of truth 
and of grace that Christ has given us, and that according to 
the express will of her divine founder this one citadel is none 
other than the Church herself.8 

In 1848 Pope Pius IX made an appeal to the Eastern dissidents, 
7 History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948 (Phila., 1954), p. 416. 

Ed. by R. Rouse & S. C. Neill. 
8 Oss. Romano, Nov. 9, 1948. 

6 



assuring them that nothing would be required of them except what 
was demanded by unity of faith.9 Before the convening of the 
Vatican Council of 1870 he invited the Protestants and the Eastern 
dissidents to return to unity. 

Toward "The Great Return" 

Pope Leo XIII was most energetic in striving for the return of 
the separated East. To the Armenians he wrote: "For it is no 
shame—but praiseworthy in the highest degree—that a father should 
himself call his wandering and long-expected children home—should 
even go forth with open arms to receive and welcome them."10 

His words were filled with emotion when he wrote in another 
document, Praeclara gratulationis: "Weigh carefully in your minds 
and before God the nature of our request. It is not for any human 
motive, but impelled by Divine charity and a desire for the salva-
tion for all, that we urge your reconciliation and union with the 
Church of Rome." 

He quoted the words of Cardinal Johannes Bessarion (1395-
1472), who was so interested in the return of the Eastern separated 
brethren and who did much for reunion at the Council of Florence 
in 1439: "What answer shall we give to God when He comes to 
ask why we have separated from our brethren: To Him, who to 
unite us and bring us into one fold, came down from heaven, was 
incarnate and was crucified." 

Turning to the Protestants, he added: "With the example of 
such men before you, our heart appeals to you even more than our 
words: to you, our brethren, who for three centuries and more 
have dissented from" us in the Christian faith, and to you all likewise 
who in later times, for any reason whatsoever, have turned away 
from us: "Let us all come together in the unity of faith and in the 
knowledge of the Son of God."11 

The great Pontiff later wrote Orientalium dignitas demanding 

® In suprema Petri A.S.S. 1, 154-161. 
10 Patema caritas, July 25, 1888; Eng. trs. in Tablet (Sept. 1, 1888), 

321-320. 
11 Great Ency. Letters of Leo XIII, (New York: 1903) 311. 

7 



the preservation of the Eastern rites12 and Christi nomen, which 
recommended the establishment of a Catholic clergy for the purpose 
of bringing the Eastern Churches back to the unity of the faith. On 
March 19, 1895, the Holy Father named a Commission whose pur-
pose was to work for the reunion of those outside the Church (ad 
reconciliationem dissidentium cum Ecclesia fovendam). It seems un-
fortunate that this Commission has not survived, but it might well 
be re-instituted at the present day. 

The same Supreme Pontiff wrote a cordial letter to the non-
Catholics of England13 after he had been informed of the efforts of 
Lord Halifax and other Anglicans to urge the faithful in England to 
pray for the conversion of their fellow men. This was followed by 
Satis cognitum14 in which the Holy Father presented the doctrine 
on the unity of the Church. Moreover, when he made the definitive 
pronouncement of the invalidity of Anglican orders15 he was again 
expressing the teaching of the Church and defending its unity. 

The novena of Pentecost which Pope Leo XIII directed to be 
observed in all Catholic Churches throughout the world was intended 
"to hasten the reconciliation with the Catholic Church of those who 
are estranged from it for reasons of doctrine or obedience, for it is 
the will of Jesus that all be united in a single flock under a single 
Pastor.16" It is unfortunate that the novena at the present time 
seems to have fallen into disuse in most parts of the world. 

Pope Pius XI continued the call to unity by such encyclicals as 
Ecclesiam Dei of 1923, Mortalium animos in 1928, Lux veritatis 
in 1931, and by his special interest in the Eastern rites of the 
Catholic Church. But in our own generation the words of our present 
Holy Father have come ringing forth from the Vatican City to all 
parts of the world calling to our separated brethren in the accents 
of a loving father. His words are those of invitation, of pleading, 
of charity. They contain but one message—the Church opens wide 
its arms to welcome those who return to her. 

12 A S S 27 (Nov. 30, 1894), pp. 257-264. 
w Ad Anglos (April 14, 1895). 
" A S S 28 (June 20, 1896), 708-739. 
15 Apostolicae curae (Sept. 13, 1895). 
16 Pravida matris (May 5, 1895) and Divinum illud (May 9, 1897). 

8 



"Year Of The Great Return" 

When Pope Pius XII established the Jubilee year of 1950 he 
called it "The Year of the Great Return." "Oh, that this Holy Year" 
he said, "could welcome also the great return to the one true 
Church, awaited over the centuries, of so many who though they 
believe in Jesus Christ are for various reasons separated from her! 
With unspeakable groanings, the Spirit who is in the hearts of 
good people, today cries out imploringly the same prayer of our 
Lord: 'That they may be one' (Jn 17:21). With good reason men 
are anxious about the effrontery with which the united front of 
militant atheism advances and the old question is now voiced aloud: 
Why are there still separations? Why are there still schisms? When 

•will all the forces of the spirit and of love be harmoniously united?"17 
Then he added: 

If on other occasions an invitation to unity has been sent forth 
from this Apostolic See, on this occasion We repeat it more 
warmly and paternally; We feel that We are urged by the 
pleadings and prayers of numerous believers scattered over the 
whole earth, who after suffering tragic and painful events turn 
their eyes towards this Apostolic See as towards an anchor of 
salvation for the whole world. 

For all these who adore Christ—not excluding those who 
sincerely but vainly await His coming and adore Him as the 
One promised by the prophets and still to come—do We open 
the Holy Door; and at the same time We extend a welcome 
from the heart of a father whose fatherhood in the inscrutable 
designs of God, has come to us from Jesus the Redeemer.18 

Several years before, in 1943, when he wrote his great encyc-
lical on the Church, Mystici Corpus, the Supreme Pontiff referred 
to those separated from the one fold: 

And oh how earnestly We desire that the immense charity of 
these common prayers embrace those also who, not yet receiving 
the light of the gospel truth, are still outside the Church's safe 

17 AAS XLII (1950) 124. 
« Ibid. 

9 



fold, or for the regrettable conflict of faith and unity are sep-
arated from Us . . . Let us then re-echo the divine prayer of 
Our Saviour to the heavenly Father: "That they all may be one 
as Thou Father in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be 
one in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 

As you know from the very beginning of Our pontificate We 
have committed to the protection and guidance of heaven those 
who do not belong to the visible organization of the Good 
Shepherd; We desire nothing more ardently than that they 
may have life and have it more abundantly.19 

He spoke of his own charity for their souls, of their relationship 
to the Mystical Body in desire and resolution, and of his longing 
to receive them into the safe embrace of the Church. These are his 
words: 

From a heart overflowing with love We ask each and every 
one of them to be quick and ready to follow the interior move-
ments of grace and to consider withdrawing from that state in 
which they cannot be sure of their salvation. For even though 
they unsuspectingly are related to the Mystical Body of the 
Redeemer in desire and resolution, they still remain deprived 
of so many precious gifts and helps from heaven, which one can 
enjoy only in the Catholic Church. May they enter then into 
Catholic unity and, united with us in the organic oneness of 
the Body of Jesus Christ, may they hasten to the one Head 
in the society of glorious love. With persevering prayer to the 
Spirit of love and truth, We wait for them with open arms to 
return not to a stranger's house, but to their own, their Father's 
house.20 

We Have No Time For Rest 

So far as the Catholic is concerned, and much more the priest 
and religious, there can be no indifference or lack of interest' and 
prayer toward the work of unity. It is the work of the Church, her 

1» AAS XXV (1943 ) 242-Eng. trs. by America Press (New York, 1943), 
sec. 120. 

20 Ibid., sec. 121. 

10 



mission given by Christ, to save the souls of men. As the German 
bishop, the Most Reverend Julius Dopfner, has recently declared: 

As long as the Church in her earthly pilgrimage has not yet 
embraced the whole of humanity, she can allow herself no rest. 
All the painful divisions which have been realized over the 
course of the Church's history have created for her the pressing 
duty of reconciling her separated children. Even St. Paul never 
ceased to struggle for the salvation of the Hebrew nation and 
each of his countrymen, despite all the failures he experienced 
in his missionary work among the Jews, a presage of a formi-
dable mystery of divine predestination. 

The Church, as the signum levatum in nationibus, must in its 
responsibility for the whole human race actualize all her forces 
so that eventually there may be "one fold and one Shepherd." 
She would be betraying her mission if she were to be content 
with her present confines.21 

This unity of the Church, divinely given and divinely preserved, 
can never be lost. There is one Church and there is one Christ. We 
say that the unity of the Church follows not only from her essence 
as the Mystical Body of the Saviour, but also from her mission as 
the one divine institution for the salvation of all men. "If Christ is 
the second Adam," writes the renowned Scheeben, "and if the 
Church by her teaching and her grace is to lead all mankind back 
to its pristine holiness, then the unity that was present in the 
human race before the disruption caused by sin must again be made 
manifest in her. Unity, therefore, is the great formative law operative 
on all sides in the mystical organism of the God-man, His Church, 
repelling on one hand all proud disruptive tendencies and tolerating 
on the other hand the most manifold variety."22 

More and more leaders outside the Church are beginning to 
recognize and realize this unity. One of the leaders of French non-
Catholic thought, M. Boegner, has written of Christian Unity in terms 
of a "visible unity of faith. . . The texts are right there in Holy 
Scripture," he declared, "filled with the revelation that the Holy 

21 Vnitas, Eng. ed., VIII (1956), 34. 
22 Handbuch der Dogmatik, IV, 341. 

11 



Ghost proclaims to be the truth of God. Whether we like it or not, 
these texts speak to us of one and only one Church of Christ, 
whose visible unity is part of the testimony she must render to her 
Lord. Since there is 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all,' just as there is 'one spirit, even as you were called 
in one hope,' so too, there is 'one body,' one Church" (Eph. 4:45) . 2 3 

Paul James Francis—Apostle of Unity 

What can we do to effect the reunion of our separated breth-
ren? The problems are so vast, so apparently insurmountable, the 
differences so insoluble, that any hope of reunion seems an idle 
dream. In this connection I might refer to the words of a great 
apostle of reunion in our day, Father Paul James Francis. Early 
in his career as the founder of our community, several years before 
he entered the Church, and at a time when he had but one follower 
in his Society, he wrote these prophetic words: 

Is then Christian Unity a visionary dream? Will the prayer of 
the Son of God never be answered: Was He a lying prophet 
when He told the time of its fulfillment saying: "Other sheep 
I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and 
there shall be one Fold and one Shepherd." Let who will deride 
or shake their heads in doubt saying "Heresy and schism have 
gone too f a r ; . . . Rome is too proud and unbending. England is 
too self-satisfied, the East too Orthodox; Protestantism too en-
amored of letting everybody do and think as they please. They 
never can and never will come together. Christian Unity is 
hopeless!" Our answer is—God's will is omnipotent; the fiat of 
the Most High must prevail; the prayer of Jesus Christ has to 
be answered... Were the mountains of difficulty to be sur-
mounted a thousand times higher and vaster than they are, 
God is able to cast them into the sea."24 

This is our answer as well. 
23 Le Probleme de I'Unite Chretienne (Paris, 1947) p. 43. 
24 Lamp, Feb. 1903, p. 3. 

12 



Four-Part Program: 

I. Prayer 

To effect the return of present-day non-Catholics to the unity 
of the one fold, a program of four fundamental elements is nec-
essary: Prayer, penance, example, and presenting the truth. 

Prayer is necessary for what has been called a "fantastic enter-
prise": the reunion of Christendom. For if without Christ men can 
do nothing for salvation, what can they do for the salvation of other 
souls without the grace and love of the Son of God by which the 
mystery of redemption and atonement is made operative in their 
souls as a supernatural activity? We can never overestimate the need 
and value of prayer in the apostolate, both for personal sanctifica-
tion and for the souls of other men. 

No one needs more prayers than he who is venturing toward 
the Church. All the talking in the world will prove worthless unless 
united to, inspired by, and founded upon prayer. We do not pray 
enough for the concerns that really matter. And surely the cause of 
Christian Unity is extensive enough to warrant our most sincere and 
persevering prayer. 

As an aside on this point, may I recall that the Eucharist is 
the sacrament of Unity par excellence, not only for deepening the 
intimacy of Christ and the soul, but for enriching and perfecting 
that unity of all the members of the Mystical Body with one another. 

It is significant that on Holy Thursday, when Jesus instituted 
the Eucharist, He also offered His great prayer for Unity as recorded 
in the seventeenth chapter of St. John: "Holy Father, keep them in 
Thy name whom Thou hast given to Me, that they all may be one 
as Thou Father in Me and I in Thee, that they may be made 
perfect in unity, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent 
Me." (Jn. 17:21) How these words of Christ ought to be in our 
minds and on our lips, impelling us to prayer for the souls of men, 
to make them one with Christ, and one with each other. The words 
of John Chrysostom reveal to us how keenly the saint appreciated 
this sense of Unity: 

13 



For we being many are one bread and one body. Why do 1 
speak of communion; we are that self-same body. For what 
is bread—the Body of Christ. Not many bodies but one body 
. . . For we are all members of that one bread. If we are 
all nourished with the same and all become the same, why do 
we not also show forth the same love, and become also in this 
respect one? For this was the old way too in the time of our 
forefathers: "for the multitude of them that believed were of 
one heart and one soul.25 

Prayer is essential to any form of any religious enterprise, but 
never more necessary than in the Apostolate of Unity. That is why 
the Chair of Unity Octave with its emphasis on prayer is so valid. 
Prayer is the most essential, necessary, and universal means to 
achieve unity. Prayer is the most effective remedy to save souls. Our 
Lady tells us at Fatima: "There are many souls that go to hell 
because they have no one to pray for them." 

In praying for Unity we regard Our Lady as the special patroness 
of the enterprise. "Rejoice O Virgin Mary thou alone has destroyed 
all heresies throughout the world" we read or chant in the Divine 
Office for her feast days. We realize that her function as spiritual 
mother of all men is to give life; we know that as the Divine 
Shepherdess she shares the anxiety of her Son in seeking souls 
that are outside the Church. She longs to bring them to the pastures 
of refreshment and life in the one Fold. 

Such was the idea of Father Paul when he gave the Blessed 
Virgin the lovely and significant name of Our Lady of the Atonement. 

She is Our Lady of Unity, and she will accomplish the greatest 
victories for her Son, where until now, Satan has emerged 
triumphant. Let us look up to her all radiant on her throne, 
our beautiful Mother of the Atonement, apparelled in the 
crimson robe of the Precious Blood, interceding at this moment 
for the great At-one-ment; and may we never cease to unite 
our prayers with hers that the scales may fall away from the 
eyes of our separated brethren and they may understand that 

2 6 24th Homily on First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. 

14 



the Great Shepherd whom Our Lord appointed as His vice-
regent on earth is their Father and their Shepherd.26 

Elsewhere he urged: 

. . . let us consecrate ourselves afresh at her altar to contribute 
what lies within our power of prayer, sacrifice, and charitable 
endeavor to bring our separated brethren into the unity of the 
One Fold under the One Shepherd.27 

I I . Penance 

The second requirement for Christian Unity work is penance. 
This is not a popular term today. It never will be to those of a 
worldly spirit. But how did the great missioners of past ages win 
souls for God if not by assiduous penance? They fasted and took the 
discipline; they slept little and worked late; they wrestled spiritually 
for the souls they desired to save. "I am come to cast fire on the 
earth and what will I but that it be enkindled" was a cry that 
burned in their blazing hearts. 

There was a young sister who died in 1939 in a Trappistine 
Convent at Grottoferrata in Italy. She was only 24 years old when 
she died, but her whole convent life, with its penance and its 
mortifications, was motivated by one desire: Christian Unity. As she 
lay on her deathbed the Abbess came quietly and asked if she gave 
her life for Unity. With a sense of victory she cried gladly, "Yes!"28 

That spirit of Mother Gabriella is needed to achieve unity. Not 
all will be martyrs or great apostles for Unity, as some saints were, 
but everyone must be convinced of the truth that souls are won 
only at the cost of sacrifice, for such is the divine plan. 

One of the most moving accounts of what apostolic men should 
be, was written in regard to the conversion of England. But its 
thought applies to the conversion of every nation under heaven. 

Let them (the apostolic men) work among the Roman Cath-
olics. Let them offer us what we do not have ourselves, the 

26 Lamp Nov. 1 9 3 0 ( 2 8 ) 3 2 3 . 

Ibid. 
2 8 Titus Cranny, Cloistered Apostle of Unity (Graymoor Press: 1956) 15. 

15 



picture of a Church perfect in discipline and in customs. Let 
this Church be chaste and beautiful as befits the divine spouse 
of Jesus Christ; let her sing the praises of her Saviour night 
and day; let even her exterior garments be resplendent, so 
that the spectator might be struck with admiration and throw him-
self at her feet, seeing clearly in her the beloved of the King 
of Heaven. Let them go into our great cities and preach the 
gospel to their quasi-pagan populations; let them go barefeet, 
and wear sackcloth; let mortification be written on their fore-
heads; finally, if there be among them a saint like the seraph 
of Assisi, the heart of England is already won.29 

III. Examp le 

Example is the greatest apostolate of all. As Pope Pius XI wrote 
in his encyclical on St. Josaphat in 1923 commemorating the third 
centenary of this martyr for unity: "They must understand that it is 
less through disputations and other activities than through the ex-
ample and self-sacrifice of a holy life that this unity is to be 
promoted."30 

By example we mean living the faith in such a way that it is 
lovable and livable. If those outside the fold see that the Catholic 
way of life is "different," at first they may be curious; if they see 
that it does something to character, they may be interested; if they 
realize that it is meant for them as well, many of them will enter 
the One Fold. By the same token we know how detrimental to the 
welfare of the Church and to the salvation of souls bad example 
can be. 

It is by making religion attractive, by making the pursuit of 
heaven the great adventure of life that people are won and drawn 
to the Church. The old adage, "Your actions thunder so loudly that 
1 c a n P 0 t h e a r w h a t you say," has relevance to winning souls to the 

2 9 i l f 6 n VniVerA' A p r ? 1 3 ' 1 8 4 1> b e l i e v e d t 0 h ^ e been written by 
John Dalganns. On reading this letter Dominic Barbari, the Passion«* 
with the consuming desire for the conversion of England, made his 
Church bv h?mt0 ; C a r d i n a I N e w m a n was received into the 

30 Ecclesiam Dei, AAS, XVI (1924), 150. 

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Church. If all the faithful in every part of the world lived up to 
the teachings of the Church, what a vast increase in the personnel 
of priests and religious there would be, and what a transformation 
would take place in political, economic and social life. If only all 
the faithful and, indeed, all of us priests could be impressed 
with the dynamic, magnetic character of good example in winning 
souls to God and in building up the Church. As the Holy Office 
declared: "All (the faithful) must be made conscious of the fact 
that, for those wandering outside the fold, there is no more effica-
cious means of preparing the way to embrace the truth and the 
Church than the faith of Catholics associated with good moral conduct 
and an edifying life."31 

IV. Present ing The Truth 

The fourth point in the work of Christian Unity is stating the 
truth. This should be clear enough, but it is not always so. There 
can be no compromise in presenting the teachings of Christ and the 
deposit of faith which has been entrusted to the Church. There 
can be no "watering down" of doctrine, no perversion of conscience, 
no false irenicism contrary to the spirit of charity and of truth. For 
as the Instruction of the Holy Office warns: 

The whole and entire body of Catholic doctrine is therefore 
to be proposed and explained. Nothing embraced in the Cath-
olic truth concerning the true nature and means of justification, 
the constitution of the Church, the Roman Pontiff's primacy 
of jurisdiction and the only real reunion effectuated by a return 
of the dissidents to the one true Church, must be passed over 
in silence or cloaked under ambiguous language... All this 
must be truly set forth clearly and intelligibly for the double 
reason that they are seeking the truth and that outside of the 
truth no true union can ever be attained."32 

Not everyone is called to write or speak on the question of 
reunion, particularly in a public or official way. Those who are 
should be trained in such a work. But surely manv should be able 

3 1 Inst, on Ec. Movement, op. tit.. 8. 
82 op. tit., 5. 

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to "give reason for the faith" that is in them, as St. Paul declares, 
and seek to learn from history and theology the answers that 
perplex the minds of many who are outside the Church. 

We do not go about waving catechisms, or Denzinger, or de-
fying anyone to disagree with us. We do not castigate all who are 
non-Catholics, for we know that God is not limited in the distribu-
tion of His graces. By the same token, however, we are proud of 
the faith and seek to live it to the hilt, and we can point to errors 
in theology or history so that the Church is not made to be the 
scapegoat for the foolish statements of its enemies. Catholics need 
to have a clear idea on various points dealing with unity: for example, 
that there is but one Church; that non-Catholic bodies were not 
founded by the Son of God; that there is but one means of salvation 
established by Christ for all men: the Catholic Church. Catholics 
also need to understand that prayer does not dispense them from 
an active and even intense apostolate, depending on the gifts of 
nature and of grace which they have received. And to refer to the 
words of the English Benedictine: 

Prayer is the highest form of the apostolate—but that does not 
dispense us from spreading the gospel; and this is not to be 
done simply from the pulpit. Those of us who have the oppor-
tunity to approach non-Catholics directly must not suppose that 
we have done our whole duty by devoting all our spare time 
to devout exercises, unless we are satisfied that we have a 
special vocation in that respect. In the normal disposition of 
God's providence, faith comes by hearing. It does not come 
without prayer on our part and that of our non-Catholic friends, 
but it does not normally come by prayer alone.33 

In working and praying for the return of those outside the 
fold, care must be taken to prepare the way for such a step. There 
must be personal association, but it must be tactful and charitable. 
In this vein Father Van de Pol has stated: 

It is no use—from our point of view—merely to insist on a 
returning of the Anglicans and Protestants to the Church with-

8 3 Illtyd Thethowan, Spirit of the Liturgy, (London 1952), 9. 

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out any attempt to prepare the way for such a return. Many 
misunderstandings between Anglicans and Catholics, Anglicans 
and other Protestants, Catholics and Protestants, are caused by 
a continual misinterpretation of one another's writings and say-
ings. A better mutual understanding can only be expected from 
close personal contacts without any idea of an immediate con-
version of the other party. The time has not yet come for that. 
The truth will have to find its way in the course of many years. 
We can only prepare the way. But up to now we have been 
doing nothing else but continually irritating one another and 
causing new estrangements. We expect too much of our aloof-
ness and steadfastness, in condemning the others and too little 
from the guidance of God's Spirit were we to have sufficient 
love and good will to seek one another and to create new 
opportunities of personal contact.34 

It is necessary to realize that the Ecumenical Movement is a 
real force in the religious world today. It is not a passing fad. It has 
been present, in its modern formulation and development, for almost 
fifty years. And since the first meetings in 1910 with the Missionary 
Conference in Edinburgh down to the World Council of Churches 
of our own day, more than one hundred meetings and mergers 
among non-Catholic groups have taken place. The World Council 
of Churches may fail in its objectives and become no more than a 
historical trend in the whole movement of Ecumenism. But this 
seems to be true, that from the efforts and even failures of the past 
and of the present there will evolve some new workings to bring 
souls outside the Church to her embrace. Under the grace of God 
the consciousness of disunity is too strong, the desire for unity too 
ardent to permit the Ecumenical Movement to fail ultimately in 
attaining unity. Such unity will be attained with the Catholic 
Church in the providence of God, even though people would deny 
it today. They will attain unity, but in a way precisely that they 
do not now recognize. 

Moreover, the Church desires that we who are her members 
3* Quoted by Columba Cary-Elwes, O.S.B. Sheepfield and the Shepherd 

(London, 1956), 104. 

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take an active interest in the work of reunion. We need only recall 
the words of the Instruction of the Holy Office of several years ago: 

This excellent work of the "reunion" of all Christians in the one 
true faith and Church should daily become more integrated as 
a distinguished portion in the universal pastoral charge and be 
made an object of concern that the whole Catholic people take 
to heart and recommend to God in fervent supplications. Much 
progress will be made, if the faithful are appropriately en-
lightened, for example, by means of pastoral letters, about these 
questions and issues as well as the measures taken with regard 
to them by the Church and the reasons prompting them. All 
indeed, but especially priests and religious must be admonished 
to seek to fecundate the work by their prayers and sacrifices.35 

Finally, in this work of reunion, or Christian Unity, we must 
have a tremendous love and appreciation of the role of the Church, 
not only in our own lives, but in the whole economy of salvation 
and sanctification; indeed, we may say, in the whole pattern of 
human history. We are members of the Church; we participate in 
its life; we share its sorrows and its triumphs; we work, study, 
and pray for its objectives. 

Loving the Church, we make the words of St. Aelred our own: 

Let enemies say what they wish, let them lie as they will. 
Wherever the evidence of our eyes, the testimony of reason, 
the assurance of authority tells us that where the Roman Church 
is—there is my heart, my mind and my affection. From the faith 
of that Church, that faith which the prayer of Christ will never 
allow to fail; from its unity, which the depravity of schismatics 
will never divide for Christ protects it; from obedience to it, 
whose King will open to me the gates of heaven, neither death 
or life, nor any creature, through the help of God's grace will 
ever separate me.36 

SB AAS, 42 (1950), p. 144. 
3 6 Migne, PL 195, 459-460, Sermon on Chapter 15 of Isaias. 

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