Incarnation, Ecumenism and Ecclesiology in the Thought of Cardinal Yves Congar and Bishop B

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Incarnation, Ecumenism and Ecclesiology in the Thought of Cardinal Yves Congar and Bishop B. C. Butler Gabriel Flynn

Abstract. – This paper explores the relationship between the respective themes of incarnation, ecumenism, and ecclesiology in the thought of Congar and Butler. By drawing Congar and Butler into dialogue on the incarnation and by relating that dialogue to their respective ecumenical visions, an effort is made to contribute to a renewed commitment to the original goals of the modern ecumenical movement. The paper considers whether a return to the incarnate Christ, the primordial source of unity in the world, provides new impetus for ecumenism; a hypothesis that will be tested by reference to the urgent challenges to the ecumenical movement currently emerging in Northern Ireland.

I. The Incarnation: ‘Key to the Whole Mystery of the Church’

This paper explores the relationship between the respective themes of incarnation, ecumenism, and ecclesiology in the thought of the eminent French ecumenist Cardinal Yves Congar (1904-95), and the distinguished English theologian Dr Basil Christopher Butler (1902-86), Abbot of Downside and sometime Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster. Both were utterly dedicated to the renewal of Catholic ecclesiology and to the promotion of Christian unity. Butler, a convert to Catholicism, followed a more ‘conservative’ line on the great project of unity than did his French counterpart. Congar, the leading figure of the Catholic ecumenical movement in France and a member of the Catholic-Lutheran Commission of Dialogue since 1965, was profoundly influenced by Lutheran theology in the formulation of his later ‘progressive’ stance on ecumenism. The painstaking work of renewal in Catholic theology and the valiant efforts of reforming theologians and sympathetic Church leaders for the realization of unity during the first half of the twentieth century, reached their zenith in the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), one of the defining moments in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the early modern period. Cardinal Congar, a renowned peritus (expert) at Vatican II, 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 197

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along with Bishop Butler, who attended all four sessions in his capacity as President of the English Benedictine Congregation, served at that council with unrepeatable energy, and their respective theological visions are enshrined in its principal documents.1 It is noteworthy that Butler, in contradistinction to many of the other English-speaking participants, was regarded as one of the best Latinists at the Council, which combined with his profound theological learning helped to give authority and respect to his contributions. The concern of the present paper is to explore the theme of incarnation in the thought of Congar and Butler, in order to extrapolate precise ethical implications for the present day ecumenical movement, viewed in historical context. By drawing Congar and Butler into dialogue on the central doctrine of the incarnation (Latin, incarnatio), regarded by the former as ‘the key to the whole mystery of the Church’,2 and by relating

1. See Yves Congar, Mon journal du Concile, ed. Éric Mahieu, 2 vols. (Paris: Cerf, 2002) II, 511 (7 December 1965). Here Congar provides a precise description of his part in what was undoubtedly the most important aspect of the Council’s entire enterprise. He says that he worked on Lumen gentium, especially the first draft of many numbers of Chap- ter I, and on numbers 9, 13, 16, and 17 of Chapter II, as well as on some specific passages. In De Revelatione, he worked on Chapter II, and on number 21 which came from a first draft by him. In De oecumenismo, the preamble and the conclusion are, he says, more or less his work. Likewise, in the Declaration on Non-Christian Religions, the introduction and the conclusion are, he says, for the most part his contribution. In Schema XIII – Gaudium et spes, he worked on Chapters I and IV. He wrote all of Chapter I of De Missionibus, while Joseph Ratzinger contributed to number 8. In De libertate religiosa, Congar says that he co- operated with the entire project, and most particularly with the numbers of the theological part, and on the preamble which was entirely his own. Congar notes that the drafting of De Presbyteris was undertaken by three scholars: Joseph Lécuyer, a professor at the Lat- eran University and subsequently head of the Holy Ghost Congregation; Willy Onclin, a priest of the diocese of Liège and professor of canon law at the University of Louvain; and, of course, Congar himself. Congar indicates that he reworked the preamble of De Presby- teris, as well as numbers 2-3, while also writing the first draft of numbers 4-6, and revis- ing numbers 7-9, 12-14 and the conclusion, of which he compiled the second paragraph. See, further, Gabriel Flynn, “Mon journal du Concile: Yves Congar and the Battle for a Renewed Ecclesiology at the Second Vatican Council,” Louvain Studies 28 (2003) 48-70. Bishop Butler made an important contribution to three key documents of Vatican II, including Lumen gentium, Dei Verbum and Gaudium et Spes. See Congar, Mon journal du Concile, II, 598. See further, Xavier Rynne, Letters From Vatican City: Vatican Counicl II (First Session): Background and Debates (London: Faber and Faber, 1963) 132, 154, 155, 159, 171, 173, 233, 238; also, id., The Second Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 29 to December 4, 1963 (London: Faber and Faber, 1963, 1964) 60, 66, 137, 157, 247, 276, 290; also Giuseppe Alberigo (ed.), History of Vati- can II: The Mature Council Second Period and Intersession September 1963 – September 1964, English version ed. Joseph Komonchak, 5 vols. (Maryknoll, NY/Louvain: Orbis/ Peeters, 2000), III, 108, 115, 130, 264 footnote 35, 272 footnote 53. 2. Yves Congar, Divided Christendom: A Catholic Study of the Problem of Reunion, trans. M. A. Bousfield (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1939), p. 274; also, id., Chrétiens désunis: principes d’un ‘oecuménisme’ catholique, Unam Sanctam, 1 (Paris: Cerf, 1937) 344. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 198

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that dialogue to their respective ecumenical visions, an effort is made to contribute to a renewed commitment to the original goals of the modern ecumenical movement, as defined at it’s apex in the mid-twentieth century.3 The paper considers whether a return to the incarnate Christ, the primordial source of unity in the world, provides new impetus for ecumenism in the post-modern context; a hypothesis that will be tested by reference to the urgent challenges to the ecumenical movement currently emerging in Northern Ireland. It is precisely in such situations of politico-religious conflict that ecumenism becomes an ethical imperative.4 In order to make an effective contribution to conflict resolution, ecumenists require moral fortitude and diplomatic dexterity in the respective domains of ecclesiastical and secular power politics. In other words, without an effective praxis-orientation, all ecumenical ethics is destined to fail in situations of violent hostility that result from political and/or religious polarization. It must be said, however, that over and above political, intellectual, and psychological factors in the vocation and mission of ecumenists and peacemakers, prayer is foremost. This is a point of fundamental importance and one familiar to Father Paul Couturier (1881-1953), the renowned French apostle of unity who developed the ‘Week of Universal Prayer’ for Church unity. Congar too knew the power of prayer in ecumenical efforts and his remarks in this regard are ger- mane: ‘Prayer by common intention and even, where possible, prayer together, constitutes the culminating point of ecumenical experience and activity.’5 Looking again at the ambitious vision for Christian unity formulated in the twentieth century, we find that the voices of its architects still reverberate across the denominational boundaries, urging all to work tire- lessly for a new springtime in unity. At the heart of Pope John XXIII’s programme of renewal was a profound concern for those whom he called: “our separated brethren.” The magisterial opening message of the Second Vatican Council ‘Message to Humanity’, issued at the direction of Pope

3. See Marc Boegner, The Long Road to Unity: Memories and Anticipations, trans. René Hague (London: Collins, 1970); Michael Kinnamon and Brian E. Cope (eds.), The Ecumenical Movement: An Anthology of Key Texts and Voices (Geneva/Grand Rapids, MI: WCC Publications/Eerdmans, 1997). 4. See Gabriel Flynn, “Cardinal Congar’s Ecumenism: An ‘Ecumenical Ethics’ for Reconciliation?,” Louvain Studies 28 (2003) 311-325. 5. Congar, “Ecumenical Experience and Conversion: A Personal Testimony,” The Sufficiency of God, ed. Robert C. Mackie and Charles C. West (London: SCM, 1963) 71- 87 (p. 81); also, id., “Expérience et Conversion Œcuméniques,” in Congar, Chrétiens en dialogue: Contributions catholiques à l’œcuménisme, Unam Sanctam, 50 (Paris: Cerf, 1964) 123-139 (p. 133). 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 199

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John, calls upon all Christians to radiate Christ to the world.6 At the same time it should be easy to understand that certain caveats also continue to resonate in shrill tones. Karl Barth, the most distinguished Protestant theologian of the twentieth century, on more than one occasion during his last years, repeated a clear forewarning to Catholics: “Do not par- ticipate in the pathological experiences that we have undergone and from which we have emerged with such great suffering.”7 In 1975, less than 10 years after its ‘glorious’ conclusion, Congar observes that, with the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church “knows today a kind of Aufklärung which unquestionably brings it nearer to what is good, but also to what is more questionable, in Protestantism.”8 It goes without saying that theologians should urgently seek to redress, first, the deleterious consequences for ecumenism of the unfortunately all too frequent application of the principle of the lowest common denominator in inter-church dialogue and, second, the effects of an inadvertent relativism that result from various forms of ‘social’ ecumenism. Added to these difficulties is the intractable problem of unilateral ‘ecumenical’ gestures by individual church leaders, declaredly instigated at the prompt- ing of the Holy Spirit, but which often engender such controversy and division as to render the Holy Spirit otiose, thus forfeiting any real advance in the original goal of unity. These factors, without intending to, have in fact contributed in part to the current inertia affecting the ecumenical movement. At the same time it seems that there are signs of renewed hope for the cause of ecumenism. Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural homily of 24 April 2005, with its ‘explicit call to unity’;9 his subsequent overtures

6. “Message to Humanity: Issued at the Beginning of the Second Vatican Coun- cil by its Fathers,” 20 October 1962, The Documents of Vatican II: Introductions and Commentaries by Catholic Bishops and Experts, ed. Walter M. Abbott, trans. ed. Joseph Gallagher (London/Dublin: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966) 3-7 (p. 7). 7. Cited in Congar, Une passion: l’unité, Foi Vivante, 156 (Paris: Cerf, 1974) 105. This is a republication of the preface to Dialogue between Christians: Catholic Contribu- tions to Ecumenism, trans. Philip Loretz (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966) ix-lxiv except for the last chapter which provides an update of his reflections to 1973. 8. Congar, Une passion: l’unité, 106. 9. “Mass, Imposition of the Pallium and Conferral of the Fisherman’s Ring for the Beginning of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome: Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI,” in http://www.va/holy_father/Benedict_xvi/homilies/2005 (accessed: 29 October 2005). In his inaugural homily, Pope Benedict called on all in the Church to be servants of unity: “Let us do all we can to pursue the path towards the unity you have promised. Let us remember it in our prayer to the Lord, as we plead with him: yes, Lord, remember your promise. Grant that we may be one flock and one shepherd! Do not allow your net to be torn, help us to be servants of unity!” 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 200

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to Eastern Christians;10 his meeting with Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2006;11 the recent document on Mary from ARCIC12 entitled Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ (2005);13 and the indispensable contribution of the Christian Churches to the fraught and fragile peace currently emerging in Northern Ireland, all provide evidence of new vitality in the otherwise flagging ecumenical movement. Fur- thermore, the work and witness of the outstanding pioneers of church unity in the twentieth century – the great century of the Church – inspire all engaged in the ecumenical movement today to continue the difficult work for unity. There is one further point to be noted. The noble cause of unity, at once human and divine, is itself a sign of hope. Christ’s priestly prayer for unity in John 17 is the source and foundation of all ecumenical endeavour: “That they should all be one, as we are one.”14 Ecumenists, reflecting on Christ’s call to unity, will discover anew the vitality of their cause. In the felicitous words of Boethius (c. 480-c. 524), philosopher, statesman, and educator: “The human soul, in essence, enjoys its highest freedom when it remains in the contemplation of God’s mind.”15

10. See “Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul: Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI,” Wednesday 29 June 2005 in http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2005 (accessed: 29 October 2005). Pope Benedict said: “Even though we may not agree on the issue of the interpretation and importance of the Petrine Ministry, we are nonetheless together in the apostolic succession, we are deeply united with one another through episcopal ministry, and through the sacrament of priesthood, and together profess the faith of the Apostles as it is given to us in Scripture and as it was interpreted at the great Councils. At this time in a world full of scepticism and doubt but also rich in the desire for God, let us recognise anew our common mission to witness to Christ the Lord together, and on the basis of that unity which has already been given to us, to help the world in order that it may believe. And let us implore the Lord with all our hearts to guide us to full unity so that the splendour of the truth, which alone can create unity, may once again become visible in the world.” 11. See “Meeting with His Holiness Bartholomew I Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople: Address of the Holy Father,” Patriarchal Cathedral of Saint George in the Phanar, Istanbul, 29 November 2006 in http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/ speeches/2006/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20061129_bartholomew-i_en.html (accessed 15 January 2007). 12. ARCIC – Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. A joint Com- mission of the Roman Catholic Church and the whole Anglican Communion set up following the meeting between Archbishop M. Ramsey of Canterbury and Pope Paul VI in 1966. 13. See The Seattle Statement of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ, ed. Donald Bolen and Gregory Cameron (London: Continuum, 2006). 14. John 17:23 (Knox). 15. Cited in Joseph Pieper, Abuse of Language: Abuse of Power, trans. Lothar Krauth (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius, 1992) 54. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 201

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In understanding the important contribution of the Second Vatican Council to the renewal of ecumenism, we are helped by the work of Cardinal Augustin Bea (1881-1968), onetime President of the Secretariat for Christian Unity. Renowned for his promotion of unity and religious liberty, he provides a succinct account of the goals of the ecumenical movement born of Vatican II. Bea’s comments are rooted in Christ’s vision of unity, while also taking account of the difficulties in so great a work: In the Decree on Ecumenism the Council itself declared: ‘The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council’ (no. I). […] The Council has been able to make a great contribution to the cause of the union of all baptised people. For this reason, since the closing of the Coun- cil, every ecumenical movement, in order to be opportune and in accordance with actual reality, must also take into account the ecumenical situation now created by the Council.16 It is now almost 50 years since Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) proposed his grand plan of campaign for the cause of Christian unity. There are those who claim that in the intervening period the Church has garnered little from its myriad endeavours in this domain. For all the difficulties, the dream of unity lives on and was revivified by Pope John Paul II (1920-2004) through his papal ministry and, in particular, his encyclical on unity, Ut Unum Sint (1995). The latter points to the cross as the way forward, a point re-echoed in John Paul’s Apostolic Letters for the new millennium.17 As the late pontiff remarked: “Christ calls all his disciples to unity. My earnest desire is to renew this call today, to propose it once more with determination. […] Believers in Christ, united in following in the footsteps of the martyrs, cannot remain divided. If they wish truly and effectively to oppose the world’s tendency to reduce to powerlessness the Mystery of Redemption, they must profess together the same truth about the Cross.”18 The ecumenical movement, in plotting a course for the third millennium, will either operate in the light of Christ’s

16. Augustin Cardinal Bea, SJ, The Way to Unity After the Council: A Study of the Implications of the Council for the Unity of Mankind (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1967) 7. 17. See John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente: Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Bishops, Clergy and Lay Faithful on Preparation for the Jubilee of the Year 2000 (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1994) pars. 33-34; also John Paul II, Apostolic Letter: Novo Millennio Ineunte of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Bishops Clergy and Lay Faithful at the close of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 (London: Catholic Truth Society, 2001) pars. 6, 29, 49-50. 18. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint: Encyclical Letter of the Holy Father John Paul II on Commitment to Ecumenism (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1995) par. 1. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 202

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cross so as to unite with and reach out in peace to other religions, as Pope John Paul did, or be consigned to the graveyard of irrelevance in a world dominated by rampant materialism, secularism, incredulity, and the occult. If ecumenism is to accomplish the Scripture-inspired transformation of darkness to light, then its practitioners, obliged to practise their vocation in the shadow lands far from the corridors of power traversed by today’s Caesars, are unintentionally, yet respectfully, reminded by artists and poets that the stars shine only at night. In his poem My Room, the Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67) writes strikingly of the mystery of light’s transformation of darkness: My room is a dusty attic But its little window Lets in the stars In reflecting on church unity, a difficult question arises. Is the vision for unity presented in John 17 to be taken seriously at the present time? A response to this question is best provided in the context of a consideration of the respective contributions of Cardinal Congar and Bishop Butler.

II. Reawakening Ecumenism: ‘The Quest for Catholicity’

Consideration of Congar’s ecumenism, already documented by theologians,19 is not my concern here. I wish rather to comment briefly on the evolution in his ecumenical thought viewed in the context of his ‘total ecclesiology.’ Congar sums up that evolution as follows: My confrère and friend J.-P. Jossua finally analysed a change in the key concept from 1937, Chrétiens désunis and this book [Essais oecuméniques]: i.e. the passage from ‘Catholicity’ to ‘diversities’ and ‘pluralism’.20

19. See Jean-Pierre Jossua, “L’œuvre œcuménique du Père Congar,” Études 357 (1982) 543-555; Joseph Famerée, “‘Chrétiens désunis’ du P. Congar 50 ans après,” Nou- velle Revue Théologique 110 (1988) 666-686; Alberic Stacpoole, “Early Ecumenism, Early Yves Congar, 1904-1940: Commemoration of the Half-Century of the Beginnings of the World Council of Churches, 1937-1987,” Month 21 (1988) 502-510; also, id., “Early Ecumenism, Early Yves Congar, 1904-1940,” Part II, Month 21 (1988) 623-631; Gabriel Flynn, Yves Congar’s Vision of the Church in a World of Unbelief (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004). 20. Yves Congar, Essais œcuméniques: Le mouvement, les hommes, les problèmes (Paris: Centurion, 1984) 6. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 203

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In Chrétiens désunis: principes d’un ‘oecuménisme’ catholique (1937),21 the first contribution in French to Roman Catholic ecumenism,22 catholicity is viewed in dialectical terms as the universal capacity for the unity of the Church and the guarantee of respect for what is finest and most authentic in the diversity of languages, nations, and religious experiences.23 Congar argues that while there may be a non-Roman ecumenism, since no other exists, “there cannot be a ‘non-Roman Catholicity’.”24 This is an indication of how ecumenism has changed since 1937. In Diversités et Communion: dossier historique et conclusion théologique (1982),25 however, the focus is no longer on catholicity, but on the necessity of diversity at the heart of communion: It was the idea of Catholicity which at the time seemed to me to encompass the diversities; today I am more aware of the diversities, as is evident from my recent book Diversity and Communion.26 Congar goes even further to give a qualified acceptance to the expression ‘reconciled diversities’.27 The term ‘reconciled diversity’ (Ver- söhnte Verschiedenheit), was proposed by the Concord of Leuenberg and adopted by the assembly of the World Lutheran Federation in 1977.28 The question must be asked whether the shift in his ecumenism from catholicity to pluralism/diversities entails the recognition of the division of Christendom as permanent and irreversible. Diversités et Communion actually endorses an ecumenism which Congar warned against in Chrétiens

21. Congar, Divided Christendom: A Catholic Study of the Problem of Reunion, trans. M. A. Bousfield (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1939); also, id., Chrétiens désunis: Principes d’un ‘œcuménisme’ catholique, Unam Sanctam, 1 (Paris: Cerf, 1937). 22. See Étienne Fouilloux, “Frère Yves, Cardinal Congar, Dominicain: Itinéraire d’un théologien,” Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 79 (1995) 379-404 (p. 388). 23. Congar, Divided Christendom, 108, 114; also, id., Chrétiens désunis, 137, 148. 24. Congar, Divided Christendom, 101; also, id., Chrétiens désunis, 126. 25. Yves Congar, Diversités et Communion: Dossier historique et conclusion théologique, Cogitatio Fidei, 112 (Paris: Cerf, 1982). 26. Yves Congar, Fifty Years of Catholic Theology: Conversations with Yves Congar, ed. Bernard Lauret, trans. John Bowden (London: SCM, 1988) 81; also, id., Entretiens d’automne (Paris: Cerf, 21987) 104. 27. See Yves Congar, Diversity and Communion (London: SCM, 1984) 149; also, id., Diversités et Communion: Dossier historique et conclusion théologique, 221. 28. See Ulrich Duchrow, Conflict over the Ecumenical Movement: Confessing Christ Today in the Universal Church, trans. David Lewis (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1981) 183-204. Duchrow’s critique of ‘reconciled diversity’ as an ‘ambiguous concept’ subject to ‘perilous theological error’ is set in the context of a challenge to the World Council of Churches to remain faithful to the model of unity developed in that body since Uppsala in 1968, namely, that of ‘conciliar fellowship’. The crux is whether ‘reconciled diversity’ evades institutional/structural transformation in favour of the harmonious coexistence of separate confessional churches. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 204

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désunis, namely, the recognition of a certain unity in diversity. His caveat is stated unambiguously in Chrétiens désunis: What is today called ‘ecumenism’ is the introduction of a certain unitedness into an already existing diversity – oneness in multiplicity. […] As Archbishop Söderblom called it: it is but a mirage of Catholic- ity (catholicité) for those who cannot recognise among ‘the Churches’ the Church of Jesus Christ, visibly one.29 This ecumenism, reduced to a common denominator without unity, lacks catholicity.30 It is noteworthy that J.-P. Jossua views the evolution from ‘Catholicity’ to ‘diversity or pluralism’ in positive terms but without denying the inherent tensions therein: ‘An all embracing model [catholicity], or an image of unfolding, is followed by one of openness [diversity], a figure of the tensions existing between two terms.’31 From what has been said, it is evident that Congar’s evolving perspectives regarding ecumenism have important implications for those presently engaged in the work of ecumenism, a question to which I shall return later. For now, I wish briefly to outline the contribution of Bishop Butler. Butler who was received into the Catholic Church in 1928, became in turn a Benedictine monk of Downside Abbey, then abbot, and Auxil- iary Bishop of Westminster in 1966. A trained historian and a founding member of ARCIC, he was one of the principal theologians of the Second Vatican Council, engaged on the creation of its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which laid the foundation for the movement towards Chris- tian unity, as well as the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Mod- ern World and the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. In his book The Church and Unity, he rejects the view that Christianity is one among many of the versions of the human quest for God, and argues instead that the Christian religion springs from a divine initiative that is disclosed primarily and uniquely in the incarnation. As he writes: “Christianity is not, fundamentally, nothing more than a human quest for God. At a deeper level, it is God’s quest for man. It springs from a divine initiative that is disclosed primarily in the utterly unprecedented, unpredictable, unique fact of the incarnation of the Word of God in Jesus Christ.”32

29. Congar, Divided Christendom, 101; also, id., Chrétiens désunis, 125. See also Joseph Ratzinger, “Catholicism after the Council,” Furrow 18 (1967) 3-23 (p. 21). 30. Congar, Divided Christendom, 101; also, id., Chrétiens désunis, 126. 31. Jean-Pierre Jossua, “In Hope of Unity,” trans. Barbara Estelle Beaumont, in Yves Congar: Theologian of the Church, ed. Gabriel Flynn (Louvain: Peeters, 2005) 167-181 (p. 179). 32. B. C. Butler, The Church and Unity (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1979) 24. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 205

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Like Congar, Butler places the incarnation, seen as an intensely powerful reality, at the centre of the Christian religion. The most complete self disclosure is in an act of self-giving love which ‘speaks’ the very heart of the lover. Such a word is claimed by Chris- tianity to be its core and essence: ‘the word became man and dwelt among us’; ‘he died for our sins and rose again for our justification’. Nothing like this is found in either Judaism or Islam (nor, to the best of my knowledge, in any other religion; most religions have failed to grasp the gulf between Absolute Mystery and polytheism). Hence, if we are concerned with the question: ‘Has God spoken?’, it seems rea- sonable to concentrate, at least in the first instance, on Christianity.33 Butler holds that the unity of the Church is part of the divine datum of salvation and argues, on the basis of his assertion of the uniqueness of Christianity, that the Church and its unity are integral to the divine econ- omy of redemption. If the historical and visible unity of the Church is a precarious thing, subject to the fallibility and peccability of the Church’s members, and capable of disappearing for a time, or permanently, from among the realities of history, then this unity is not part of the divine datum of redemption.34 Butler further develops his understanding of unity by arguing that the Church is essentially in the stage of probation, an historical reality and not a mere Platonic idea or an eschatological utopia. But a reality that is essentially and ‘visibly’ historical, that is, ‘concrete and recognizable,’ must have its own historical and visible unity. Following this line of argu- ment, he arrives at an important conclusion: ‘God’s fidelity guarantees to our faith that the Church will never fail to be at least adequately holy, catholic, and apostolic. Similarly, it will never cease to be visibly one, with a unity that is not intrinsic to its nature but comes as a gift from God, a gift continually bestowed afresh.’35 But if the unity of the church is guar- anteed, why is the work of ecumenism so important? Butler provides a precise response to this difficulty. The visible unity of the Church, while certain, is not a magic fact. It does, in a sense, depend on the faithful perseverance of the Church’s members – or at least of some of them. […] The mystery of redemption is a single mystery, including both Jesus Christ and his Church. […] But schism and the threat of schism are recurrent phenomena in Christian history.36

33. Butler, An Approach to Christianity (London: Collins Fount Paperbacks, 1981) 150. 34. Butler, The Church and Unity, 25. 35. Ibid., 27-28. 36. Ibid., 27, 31. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 206

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By making church unity, in a sense, dependent on mere mortals, Butler also makes plain the great challenge of ecumenism. If the baton of unity is not successfully passed from generation to generation, the Church of Christ is in grave danger of being reduced to a vast accu- mulation of tarnished fragments. Ecumenism is, of course, part of the noble call to holiness in the church. Butler argues that as the Church grows in holiness it will also grow in unity. By placing unity in eternal, eschatological relief, his thesis on ‘the church and its unity’ reaches its zenith. Such is the contention of many Christian thinkers who argue that, just as the Church in history is less than perfectly ‘holy, catholic, and apostolic’, so it may be less than perfectly united. They see the present divisions between Christian groups as evidence that this is in fact the case. They hope, indeed, that as the Church grows in holiness (but does it?), so it will grow towards unity, and many of them are of course devoted to the cause of unity as embodied in the ecumenical movement. They perhaps do not always bear in mind that since, in this world, the Church will never be perfectly holy in their sense of that term, the visible unity of the Church will always be precarious, and may have to be conceived not so much as an attainable and permanent goal but as an unrealizable eschatological hope or a Kantian regulative idea.37 Butler was at pains to point out to his ‘ecumenical friends’ that his ‘essay’ on ecumenism does not call into question the principle underly- ing the ecumenical movement or betray its integrity. He, nonetheless, adheres tenaciously to the principle of catholicity as a defence against the delusion of ‘false hopes’ in ecumenical dialogue. As Butler writes: “Chris- tianity is meant for everyone, and so the Church is meant for everyone; it is ‘catholic’, universal of right, even when it is not yet universal in fact.”38 Furthermore, in his vision for the nascent ecumenical movement, Bishop Butler calls for the reform of ‘extreme centralization’ in the Church but without departing from the principle of catholicity.39 Is it possible to say that the Catholic Church must ‘die’ in order to live? This essay has been devoted to arguing that there is a limit to such a suggestion: the Catholic Church, in loyalty to itself, its mission and commission, and to Christianity itself and the world to which Christianity is sent, cannot barter away the principle that God’s Church ‘subsists’ in the Roman Catholic Communion.40

37. Butler, The Church and Unity, 23. 38. Ibid., 221. 39. Ibid., 4. 40. Ibid., 228. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 207

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It is perhaps ironic that Butler’s perception of the important role of catholicity is echoed by the American Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas. He identifies an obvious weakness in the ecumenical endeavours of some Catholic theologians. As he writes poignantly: I want you to be Catholics. I also believe that there is nothing more important for the future of the unity of the Church than for you to be Catholic. […] You have been so anxious to be like us that you have failed in your ecumenical task to help us to see what it means for any of us to be faithful to the Gospel on which our unity depends.41 This part of our discussion can perhaps be fittingly drawn to a close with some remarks on the ecumenical perspectives of the principal pro- tagonists under discussion. In Butler we hear the clear, decisive voice of the convert. In Congar, it is possible to decipher the evolving, hesitant voice of the ecumenist, a voice that reflects the ecumenical influences of his youth and adolescence through childhood relations with Protestants and Jews, contact with a Russian seminary at Lille, and a lecture given by his old master Fr Marie-Dominique Chenu on the Faith and Order movement of Lausanne. Careful analysis of Congar’s later ecumenical writings reveals the potent influence of his Lutheran and Protestant friends. In this regard, it is noteworthy that he was willing to sacrifice his life for a deeper understanding of Luther on the part of Catholics. As he remarks: “I know that nothing really worthwhile with regard to Protestantism will be achieved so long as we take no steps truly to understand Luther, instead of simply condemning him, and to do him historical justice. For this conviction which is mine I would gladly give my life.”42 Congar’s ambitious ecumenical vision is, in some respects, more appealing than that of Butler, who presses the thesis of catholicity. But it cannot be denied that the latter, by his adherence to catholicity as the standard for ecumenical dialogue, has contributed more to the preservation of the Christian heritage in its entirety than his erstwhile friend and former colleague from the French Ardennes. Congar, on the other hand, by abandoning catholicity in favour of diversity, has contributed to a diminution of his own theological tradition while the coveted goal of unity, much less reunion, remains unrealized. This point can be made clearer by drawing attention to the present decline in the popular ecumenical movement, a decline that is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the fate of the annual

41. Stanley Hauerwas, “The Importance of Being Catholic: A Protestant View,” First Things 1 (1990) 23-30 (p. 25). 42. Congar, “Ecumenical Experience and Conversion: A Personal Testimony,” 74; also, id., “Expérience et Conversion Œcuméniques,” 126. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 208

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octave of prayer for the unity of all baptized Christians. This observance, for which Congar and others had such high hopes,43 has become little more than polite and powerless exchanges between the few, deprived of universality, an important element in the psychology of the octave.44 It seems to me, therefore, that Butler’s insistence on the visible unity of the Church, as part of the divine datum of salvation, as well as on the Church’s holiness, may well prove more lasting than Congar’s more daring but risky embrace of the Lutheran notion of ‘Versöhnte Ver- schiedenheit’. In the penultimate part of this paper, I shall examine how the respective contributions of Congar and Butler can contribute, if at all, to the new science of politics and the praxis of ecumenism currently unfolding in the emerging post-war context of Northern Ireland.

III. Receptive Ecumenism in Northern Ireland: ‘A Winter’s Journey’

The politics of prejudice in Northern Ireland, with its familiar garb of mutual intolerance and antipathy, emanating ultimately from a pre- sumed superiority of ascendancy, eventually gave way to the terrible tumult of war and the seemingly endless, bloody, fist and fang of revenge in a brutal, complicated, civil and territorial conflict that spanned almost three decades. The violence was often so extreme that it spilled out over Northern Ireland’s borders into England and the Republic of Ireland. The signing of the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998 heralded the end of that bitter, unrelenting winter of war (1969-98). The cessation of hostilities has not, however, resulted in the end of the querulous spirit that for centuries divided the northern counties of Ireland. It is perhaps still too early and too painful for the people of Northern Ireland to peer into that province’s looking glass, to acknowledge as their own image and likeness the simulacrum of themselves which lies in the disinterested onlooker’s possession. What emerges from behind the shattered shards of the veiled figures in the Anglo-Irish looking glass is the spectre of indi- viduals and families, as well as communities and churches, disfigured by long years of mistrust, violence, and sectarianism; those wild, gnarled

43. Yves Congar, Review of Maurice Villain, L’Abbé, Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 41 (1957) 590. 44. See Geoffrey Curtis, Paul Couturier and Unity in Christ (London: SCM, 1964) 63-68. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 209

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shoots springing from the deep roots of an ancient enmity. One such jagged, blood-stained shard that needs to be examined at the propitious moment is the coercive apparatus of the Northern Ireland state, from its foundation in 1920 to the commencement of war in the late 1960s. It is incontrovertible that wars don’t just happen; they are caused by people and what they do to their neighbours. In any sovereign democratic state, respect for the human and civil rights of all its citizens demands accountability for the actions of the state, notably, its security services and judiciary. Happily, a new dispensation has begun to emerge in the realm of Anglo-Irish politics, one that may eventually lead to renewed prosperity and economic independence for Northern Ireland. As Garret FitzGerald, the former Prime minister of the Republic of Ireland writes: “The common interest of the Irish and British States in preserving the relationship forged by having faced together the challenges posed by Northern Ire- land in the closing years of the twentieth century is a new and powerful stabilizing factor in the historical development of these two islands.”45 Democratic politics will change Northern Ireland in the same way that education has changed its people. But politics, like education, works slowly, normally very slowly. While importunate questions of rights and liberties properly belong in the domain of politics, all religious expres- sions of prejudice, regardless of the denominational affiliations of those who propagate them, are also the concern of the churches. In Northern Ireland’s complex web of politics and religion, intimately and intricately interwoven of sharply contrasting colours and antediluvian allegiances, ecumenism can no longer be seen as optional or occasional. It is rather an ethical imperative, not so much for the sake of the Church and its unity, as for the world and its salvation. It must be acknowledged, without dissimulation, that Congar’s mature ecumenism, replete with the Lutheran ‘Versöhnte Verschiedenheit’ is, in the context of Northern Ireland, untenable, unacceptable and, it would appear, unworkable in both short and long term perspectives. What appears to be lacking in Congar’s grand theory of ecumenism is the acceptance that the divisions among Chris- tians are not always necessarily resoluble. In the process of reconciliation in Ireland, respect for the other, for his/her unique political loyalties and religious beliefs, is much more likely to receive a favourable and success- ful reception than any naïve aspirations for reconciliation of opposing religious and/or political allegiances.

45. Garret FitzGerald, Reflections on the Irish State (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2003) 192. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 210

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In the final analysis, the greatest contribution of the longsuffering people of Northern Ireland to democratic politics and to Christian ecumenism will undoubtedly be in the sphere of respect for the integrity of the other. The difficult process of cultivating and then inculcating such respect involves parents, educators, and leaders of state and church; it neces- sitates fortitude and resilience on the part of its architects, whose painstaking work is, in general, secluded from the mainstream of history. Their efforts at local and national levels may in time become as a veritable plinth crowned with mutual, peaceful acceptance of the respective loyalties of a previously deeply divided community. Less than a generation ago, such sentiments would have seemed illusory. The present long awaited peace, carefully nurtured at its most critical stage by the highest office in Amer- ican politics, warrants the creation of a new kind of street mural based on respect rather than on the rapacious, bitter bellicosity with which Northern Ireland had been for so long synonymous. In this regard, it is easy to see how Butler’s ecumenism, with its respectful adherence to particular ecclesial loyalties in peaceful co-existence with the other, constitutes a more realistic, robust model of unity than that proposed by Congar. The Prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, together with their respective ministers and civil servants, have made remarkable progress in the peace process and have displayed mag- nanimity and resilience in the face of many failures and setbacks. Although their work is still incomplete, much progress has been made. In order to advance the fragile and dearly won peace in Northern Ireland, a jurisdic- tion which ironically boasts one of the highest levels of religious practice in Europe,46 what is called for is renewed ecumenical engagement by the churches on both social and doctrinal matters, thus avoiding the danger of a false and sterile dialectic. Such a renewal in ecumenism could facil- itate a more expeditious commencement of the next stage in the political process whereby Northern Ireland’s elected representatives would exercise the appropriate offices of government.

IV. The Incarnation of Christ: The Birth of Peace

We come finally to discussion of the incarnation. The mystery of the incarnation is the mystery of love and incarnational theology is ever affective theology, a notable point in the context of ecumenism. Study

46. See Loek Halman, et al., The European Values Study: A Third Wave, Source Book of the 1999/2000 European Values Studysurveys (Tilburg: Tilburg University Press, 2001) 35. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 211

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of the history of the modern ecumenical movement, in fact, reveals that the realization of its original goals is closely linked to that movement’s effectiveness in affectivity. Congar, the model par excellence for ecumenists in the present era of the Church, formulated a rich theology of ‘the other’ based on mutual esteem and respect. His outstanding contribution to ecumenism spans the most innovative period in Catholic ecumenical activity and one of the most creative periods in the history of Catholic theology. Destined to fail in the realization of his high aspirations for unity and reunion, formulated at the beginning of his dual vocation to ecumenism and ecclesiology, Congar, nonetheless pursued his ambitious plan with courage and fortitude, as he reached out to embrace a fragmented and bitterly divided former Christendom. His approach to the praxis of ecumenism testifies eloquently to the beauty of charity, and to the pre-eminence of love and sacrifice. As he remarks: Where ecumenism is concerned, intellectual forces are not the only ones encountered. Each original reality has its order of existence, its laws, and so, when situated within its order, it asserts its value when experienced in accordance with its laws. That is the profound theme of Pascal’s fragment on the three orders of body, mind, and of charity (or wisdom or holiness). Ecumenism too has its ‘order’ and it is felt as an authentic Christian value in the original experience which brings it its own light and power. It is difficult to analyse an experience; one makes it. It entails a second birth, or rather it is itself a process of rebirth. One becomes thereby a different person. It is what takes place at, say, the beginning of love or when one has undergone the blessed experience of sacrifice, of the Cross, of humiliation or poverty accepted lovingly for God’s sake.47 The challenge of ecumenism may be compared to that of a tired but determined pilgrim journeying towards the eternal mystery of the incarnation, walking bravely, falteringly towards the light in the shrouded darkness of a winter epiphany. The creative genius of artists and poets assists theologians in the articulation and explication of divine mysteries. The sentiments expressed by the English poet Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) in his inspiring poem The Night are relevant to our discussion of ecumenism in the context of the incarnation: Through that pure virgin shrine, That sacred veil drawn o’er Thy glorious noon, That men might look and live, as glow worms shine

47. Congar, “Ecumenical Experience and Conversion: A Personal Testimony,” 79; see id., “Expérience et Conversion Œcuméniques,” 131. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 212

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[…] There is in God – some say – A deep, but dazzling, darkness; as men here Say it is late and dusky, because they See not all clear. O for that Night! Where I in Him Might live invisible and dim! Ecumenism has been for a short time a bright, iridescent light for the churches and a source of hope for a near naked world clad in the tattered apparel of disunity and the blood red flags of wars executed with startling brutality in the name of religion, across the ‘Christian’ centuries, to the present. Still, the ‘dazzling, darkness’ of the light emanating from the ‘virgin shrine’ reveals the incarnation to a disinterested, rootless world. It is that same ‘dusky’ light, now illuminating the shadow lands of unbelief where anxious peoples patiently await the rebirth of untimely hope, hope as may yet trumpet a muffled nocturnal renaissance of faith in a normally ‘silent’ God. Nowhere are the mysteries of Christ, his incarnation, life and death more powerfully revealed than in European art. As Neil McGregor, Direc- tor of the National Gallery in London notes: “All great collections of European painting are inevitably also great collections of Christian art.”48 Christianity, once the predominant force shaping European culture, is central to the story of European painting and has inspired some of the greatest masterpieces of all times. As the curators of the world’s great gal- leries attempt to make it possible for these images to speak again, as they were originally intended to do, that is, to inspire and strengthen faith and devotion, so also should those called to mediate the Christian mysteries to the world, take time to contemplate the works of the great masters. Such necessary leisure has the dual advantage of providing, at one and the same time, insights into the love and pain of Christ and, for the ecumenist, a better understanding of patience and penance, as manifested in the brilliant, affective masterpieces of the great artists. Returning briefly to the vexatious question of Northern Ireland, I think I can indicate briefly how the incarnation can contribute to the advancement of the cause of peace and ecumenism in that troubled province, as well as in the wider wounded world. The mystery of the incarnation is the mystery of childhood, the mystery of love. As Bishop Butler remarks: “Love’s impulse is to help the beloved by identification with his concerns, and with himself. Christianity teaches us that God

48. Neil MacGregor, “Introduction,” in id., et al., The Image of Christ (London: National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press, 32000) 6. 0893-08_Louv_Stud_06/3-4_02 14-02-2008 10:33 Pagina 213

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so loves us that not only would he, if necessary, identify himself with our destiny and our fate in order to lead us to a triumph beyond that fate, but that he has actually done so. This is the meaning of the ‘incarnation’.”49 The birth of a new child heralds peace, if only for a short time within the sacred sanctuary of his/her own family. The birth of Christ is the birth of peace in a wider dominion, even in a world at war. The Son of David, wonder- ful counsellor of Israel, foretold by Isaiah of old, proffers an eternal olive branch to a world shrouded in a dim, distant twilight, caught between heaven and earth. The noble Son of Man governs by the royal law of love; not for him the regal insignia of gold crown and iron sceptre. He exercises his high office of peace and reconciliation with infinite patience, obfuscated but unimpeded by a Roman cross, a crown fashioned from briars and a dirty imperial cloak, bloody signs of the world’s contempt. It is my firm conviction that by recourse to Israel’s spurned Child- Prince of Peace, new energy can be infused into the ecumenical movement whereby the churches may continue to take their rightful place in shaping a new era of peace. I hope that such an idealistic idea will not seem entirely quixotic to diplomats and to the relevant doyens of political and ecclesiastical power politics. If we do not recapture the unique capacity of chil- dren for peace and love, the peace process in Northern Ireland and indeed elsewhere will be further obstructed by the apparently endless accretions of history. The original lofty goals of the ecumenical movement will only ever be realized in part, and to the extent to which they are pursued in a spirit of fidelity to the gospel, with due regard to the integrity of the other, and with essential realism. It is a sacred duty incumbent upon all Christians to work for the unity of the Church and the peace of the world, by openness to the Spirit and faithful adherence to Christ, the abiding norm for renewal (Unitatis redintegratio, 6). I advocate the approach of the French ecumenist, Paul Couturier whose eloquent prayer for unity resonates with unmistak- able eschatological overtones: “That the unity of all Christians may come, such as Christ wills, and by the means that He wills.”

Gabriel Flynn is head of the School of Theology and Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin, a College of Dublin City University. He is the author of Yves Congar’s Vision of the Church in a World of Unbelief (2004) and editor of Yves Congar: Theologian of the Church (2005). Address: School of Theology, Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Clonliffe Road, Dublin 3, Ireland.

49. B. C. Butler, “Jesus and Later Orthodoxy,” The Truth of God Incarnate, ed. Michael Green (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977) 89-100 (p. 100).