Unitatis Redintegratio

Authority level: Authoritative doctrine
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
GuideThe decree authoritatively states Catholic principles of ecumenism and supplies practical norms for pursuing Christian unity.
Contents

Unitatis Redintegratio is Vatican II's 1964 Decree on Ecumenism and the Catholic principles for seeking full visible Christian unity.[1]

Unitatis redintegratio (Restoration of unity) is the Second Vatican Council's decree on ecumenism. It was passed by a vote of 2,137 to 11 of the bishops assembled at the Council, and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 21 November 1964.

The title of the document is taken from the opening words of the Latin text. The opening words of the official English translation are: "The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council."

Catholic principles

Unitatis Redintegratio teaches that Christ founded one Church and that Christian division contradicts his will, scandalizes the world, and impedes mission. Catholics are called to conversion, holiness, prayer, accurate knowledge, dialogue, and cooperation in pursuit of unity.[2]

Those born into separated communities are not charged with the sin of the original separations and are rightly recognized as Christian brothers and sisters when incorporated into Christ by baptism. Elements of sanctification and truth outside Catholic boundaries truly come from Christ and tend toward Catholic unity.

Unity without indifferentism

Ecumenism is not a branch theory in which contradictory confessions are equally complete, nor does it permit concealment of Catholic doctrine. The decree calls for presenting the faith profoundly and accurately, observing a hierarchy of truths according to their different relation to the foundation of Christian faith.

The document distinguishes the Eastern churches, with true sacraments and apostolic succession, from communities formed in the West after the Reformation without denying the Christian goods present in either. Full communion remains the goal rather than permanent management of division.

Description

Unitatis Redintegratio calls for the reunion of Christendom and is similar to a previous call for unity by Pope Leo XIII in his 1894 encyclical letter Praeclara gratulationis publicae and by Pope Pius IX in his encyclical In Suprema Petri Apostoli Sede. However, Unitatis articulates a different kind of ecclesiology from Praeclara. It focuses on the unity of the people of God and on separated Christian brethren rather than insisting according to the classical formulation that schismatics must return to the fold under the unity of the Vicar of Christ.

Unitatis acknowledges that there are serious problems facing prospects of reunion with Reformation communities that make no attempt to claim apostolic succession as the Anglican communion does. Ecclesial communities which adhere to Calvinism are a particularly challenging case because they and Catholicism have important doctrinal differences on key issues such as ecclesiology, liturgy and mariology. Other communities have insoluble doctrinal differences with Catholic Christianity because their theology of the Holy Trinity is manifestly incompatible with the doctrine as articulated by the council of Nicaea in the early Church.

Subsequent developments

Pope John Paul II refers to and builds on the teaching of Unitatis Redintegratio in his encyclical letter of 25 May 1995, Ut unum sint.

Cardinal Walter Kasper discussed the status of the problems by the document on the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of Unitatis in remarks entitled "The Decree on Ecumenism – Read Anew After Forty Years".[3]

References

  1. 1.Unitatis redintegratio — Official text of the Decree on Ecumenism
  2. 2.Ut unum sint — John Paul II's encyclical receiving and developing the council's ecumenical commitment
  3. 3.Kasper, Walter (11 November 2004). "The Ecumenism Decree – read anew after 40 years". vatican.va. Archived from the original on 17 April 2005. Retrieved 21 June 2022.