Return ecumenism

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Under Return Ecumenism refers to the attitude of a Church that the unity of the divided Christendom can only be achieved by returning the other churches in their own. The own church is seen as the mother church, which has remained in the truth, while the other churches are apostate and go astray.

The return ecumenism was the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council . It is considered to have been overcome by the Ecumenism Decree Unitatis redintegratio , even if conservative groups within the Roman Catholic Church continue to adhere to it. Some evangelical groups that do not participate in ecumenical dialogue also implicitly represent an ecumenical return.

Roman Catholic Church

The encyclical Mortalium Animos by Pope Pius XI provides a typical testimony to the ecumenical return . from the year 1928. In it he accuses those who seek ecumenical dialogue of making the truth revealed by God the subject of negotiation. This is a great godlessness. Rather, there is "no other way to bring about the unification of all Christians than to promote the return of all separated brothers to the one true Church of Christ, from which they once unhappily separated."

With the ecumenism decree of the Second Vatican Council, the ecumenical return in the Roman Catholic Church can be regarded as having been overcome on the part of the Church. In it the council speaks with appreciation of the other churches and ecclesial communities and appreciates the part they have in the truth positively, instead of viewing them negatively as apostates. It thus lays the basis for the Roman Catholic Church to participate in ecumenical dialogue.

literature

  • Pius XI: Mortalium animos . In: Hans-Ludwig Althaus (Ed.): Ecumenical documents. Source pieces on the unity of the church . Göttingen 1928, 163–174 [first publication: AAS 20 (1928), 5–16]
  • Jan-Heiner Tück : Farewell to the ecumenical return: Vatican II and the ecumenical opening of the Catholic Church . In: Helmut Hoping (Ed.): Denominational identity and church fellowship . Münster 2000, 11–52