There
are indications that the
dominant
theme of future ecumenical
discussions
will be ecclesiology: what
is
the nature of the church, how can diverse
structures be reconciled,
how
should the apparently intractable
differences
between the churches be
approached? In such discussion,
attention
will be given to the Virgin Mary, model of the Church, member
of
the Communion of Saints, the
"preeminent
and wholly unique
member
of the Church." (Vatican II) For
this reason, two recent ecumenical dialogues merit careful study: the
Lutheran/Catholic
Dialogue VIII in the
United States (from 1983 to 1990,
leading
to the study of the One Mediator,
the
Saints, and Mary and the Report of
the
Group de Dombes, published in
1997 and 1998, Marie dans le dessein
de Dieu et la communion des saints.
Both
documents affirm that the Virgin
Mary
was present in the early church
and
also in the life and preaching of the
principal
reformers. It was only in the
post-Reformation
period that a silence
regarding
Mary enveloped the Protestant Churches. Both documents concur
in
identifying the principal challenges
to
agreement regarding Mary: the
definitions
of 1854 and 1950; the notion
of
Mary's cooperation with Christ in the
work
of redemption, and the invocation
of
Mary.
There
is a major difference in the two documents.
A standard feature of all the documents of the Groupe de Dombes
is
"the call to conversion," that is, a call
to
the churches to reexamine their positions
in the light of Scripture, church
history and their own traditions. In
this spirit, Catholics are encouraged
to
continue the reforms of Marian devotion as outlined in Lumen gentium and
Marialis
cultus, and Protestants are
challenged
to break their silence
concerning
the role of the Virgin Mary
and
to return to the position of the
founders.
It is unfortunate that no similar feature - "a call to conversion"
-exists in the Lutheran/Roman Catholic dialogue.
A comparison
of the two documents indicates a major difference in the way Scripture is
interpreted. The Lutheran/Roman Catholic dialogue begins with
historical-critical exegesis, and then attempts to formulate a statement of
belief. The Group de Dombes proposes as starting point for the interpretation of
Scripture the faith of the Church as expressed in the Creeds.
The Creeds provide a Trinitarian, Christological, and ecclesial matrix
for interpreting the Scripture.
--Thomas A. Thompson, S.M.
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