Brown Sees a Hope for Ecumenism In Catholic Position on Reformation

Robert McAfee Brown, professor of Religion at Stanford, said last night that the Catholic Church's admission of partial responsibility for the division of Christianity marks "a significant breakthrough in the ecumenical movement."

In the second of four William Barnes Noble Lectures, Brown told a Memorial Church audience of 100 that this admission helps to establish a common ground of agreement on which the two churches may examine the "really hard issues that divide them."

Brown said that a reinterpretation of the Reformation by Catholic scholars was instrumental in bringing about the new Church position, which was most significantly expressed in the Schema on Ecumenicism issued by the Roman Catholic Ecumenical Council in 1964.

Only in this century, Brown said, did Catholic historians and theologians begin to examine the intentions of the 16th century reformers instead of looking simply at the consequences of their actions. They then came to see, he continued, that the schism the reformers caused came only because the Medleval Church was too corrupt to admit the truth in the reformers' charges.

Brown said that out of this new interpretation has grown a consensus among many Catholic scholars and clerics that the Church must meet all that is justified in the Protestant protests and thus neutralize them. The Catholics, Brown said, are now acting on the original Protestant demands for reform of the Pope's Curia, removal of the Papacy from politics, and revision of the Mass.

The Curia is the body of tribunals and offices through which the Pope governs the Catholic Church.

Warns Against Protestant Pride

Brown warned against "Protestant pride which says 'at last the Catholics have found out the real truth about the Reformation.'" He said that the Protestants must also admit their responsibility, "remembering that the high, cost of the Reformation was the disruption of Western Christendom."

"To any Christian," he continued, "the notion of a divided church is a contradiction in terms and a scandalous and shocking situation ... But neither Catholic nor Protestant must have any preconception as to the kind of understanding which will finally emerge," Brown said, "we can only wait and see."