Bea Sees New Progress Toward Unity

"The realization that we are all unified in Christ has really spread like wildfire," the president of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity declared last night.

In his second of three Stillman Lectures, Augustin Cardinal Bea reviewed the development of the spirit of Christian unity and the impetus given to it by the Ecumenical Council Vatican II.

The aged German cardinal, still obviously quick in mind and bright in spirit, told his large Sanders audience --including the 150 scholars and theologians participating in the Roman Catholic-Protestant Colloquium--that the ecumenical movement has had "a significant and happy beginning, one full of promise for the future."

Cardinal Bea underscored the forward progress of the ecumenical spirit since the convocation of the Council of Rome. In particular, he emphasized the encouraging prayers offered by non-Catholic Christians for the Council's success and the significance of non-Catholic observers at Rome.

The confrontation of Catholics and non-Catholics at Vatican II seemed especially significant to the Cardinal. "Thinking of the events of a memorable day"--the day on which non-Catholic observers were received in audience by Pope John XXIII--Cardinal Bea was moved to think. "This is a miracle, a genuine miracle."

He related the Pope's assurance to the observers that his spirit of goodwill towards "non-Catholic brethren" was genuine. The Pope had told them that there was "greater hope in his heart than his words themselves expressed."

Cardinal Bea's conviction that a miracle was taking place at Rome was further deepened when non-Catholic Christian congregations and leaders offered prayers for the assembly in St. Peter's. He cited the comment of Lord Fisher, the former archbishop of Canterbury: "No council of the Church of Rome has ever met so surrounded by the prayers of other churches."

In order to dispel any notion that observers were brought in merely "as topdressing to the pomp and splendor of the occasion," the cardinal dwelled at length on the efforts made by both sides to integrate non-Catholics in line with the ecumenical aspects of the Council.

The observers were given all secret documents of the Council and were asked to discuss all issues openly and freely. As a result of this mutual confidence and honesty, Cardinal Bea said, "Many observations made by the observers penetrated trated even into the discussion on the floor of the Council."

Such a spirit of hope and unity has not always prevailed since the Pope first called for an Ecumenical Council in 1958, when many took the announcement to mean a meeting of the different churches for purposes of unity.

The disillusionment following the Pope's clarification of the meaning of "ecumenical"--as referring to a meeting of all bishops of the Catholic Church--was first dispelled, the cardinal said, when "through the establishment of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, the Holy Father's interest in the question of unity and in the ecumenical movement received concrete, tangible expression."

Today, the Vatican prelate concluded, all disillusionment is gone, for the events of the Council have "clearly shown how Christians of every denomination desire unity intensely."

In the final Stillman Lecture tonight, Cardinal Bea will further examine the work of Vatican II and will attempt a prognosis of the Council's probable pronouncements on Christian unity.

Meanwhile, the hard-core theological discussions of the Colloquium will go forward this morning, as the assembled scholars and theologians meet in four discussion groups centering on selected critical issues