There is no doubt that the Second Vatican Council was the watershed moment in the history of the Christian Church in the 20th century.  Even now, fifty years after the conclusion of the Council, theologians and church leaders are still discussing, debating, and struggling with the teachings of the Council.  The documents promulgated during the Council touched upon almost all areas of life in the Catholic Church.  But, the reach of the Council went even further.  One can argue that the Council work generated a seismic shift in the wider world of ecumenism.

In November of 2014 the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity sponsored a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the Decree on Ecumenism.  The papers delivered were what one would expect at such an event.  Each of them, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant, offered a positive view of the Council and the Decree in particular.  It was clear, however, that beyond the great work of the Council, much more is left to do.  In one way or another all agreed that we’ve stalled in ecumenism. 

It seems as if it is less the doctrinal issues that continue to cause the fracture in the Church of Christ.  The Joint Declaration on Justification between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church demonstrates that thorny doctrinal issues can be worked through.  Now in the 21st century the difficulties lay in moral issues, specifically issues of gender and sexuality.  Ethical issues such as these touch upon Church order, ecclesiology, family life, and many more areas of religion.  Moving forward will not be easy, but it is not impossible either. 

The situation is not hopeless.  There seem to be several strategies that might well bear fruit towards Christian unity.  First, there is the example of Pope Francis.  No one can say that Pope Francis hasn’t stirred things up in Rome and within the wider Catholic world.  He has tackled major problems and offered striking commentary, sometimes to the exasperation of his press officials, on a wide range of difficult topics including sexual orientation and the place of women in society.  What does this have to do with ecumenism?  If ethical issues are stumbling blocks to restoring Christian unity, they must be confronted boldly and honestly.  The Church can learn from Pope Francis’ engagement of the issues.  He has not been afraid to allow an issue to be debated and discussed.  One must only look at the current news of the Synod on the Family as an example.  But differing positions on divisive issues does not have to stop the progress towards restored unity. 

This leads us to Cardinal Kasper.  Kasper has been advocating for a more radical Church.  Not radical in the political sense, but in the original sense of getting back to the roots.  He is arguing that the Church must become more evangelical, more Gospel centered.  This call has a bearing on ecumenism.  Yes, there are differing doctrinal and ethical issues that divide the Christian Church.  But, what unites us is Jesus Christ.  That is the basic point of Kasper’s ecumenical writing and Pope Francis’ comments on ecumenism.   

This notion isn’t new.  The World Council of Churches gathered in Lund, Sweden in 1952.  In their Final Report they wrote:

Put into the affirmative, the Report calls on all the member churches not to wait until full unity has been worked out by the theologians, but to start acting unified today in all ways possible.  This call came a decade before the Second Vatican Council.  Kasper and Francis have reiterated a similar call, and have stressed that this type of ecumenism must grow at the local level not just at the upper levels of Church administration.  With the teachings of the Decree on Ecumenism, and the wider corpus of Vatican II documents, and the current climate in the Christian Church, a reinvigorated ecumenism is possible.