Cardinal Farrell: Church
unity concerns the whole people of God
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| Cardinal Kevin Farrell |
Cardinal Kevin Farrell reflects on the changes that have
marked the ecumenical movement in the 60 years since the foundation of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
By Vatican News
“I think it’s very hard to overestimate” the significance of
the creation of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, says
Cardinal Kevin Farrell.
Pope Saint John XXIII’s idea of establishing an ecumenical
office in the Vatican, he says, “was certainly a novelty, a revolution at the
time, and now it has become a reality. And we are constantly working for the
restoration of the unity of Christ’s Church.”
Cardinal Farrell currently serves as the secretary of the
Pontifical Council. In an interview with Sister Bernadette Reis, the Cardinal
looks at some of the differences that characterise ecumenical dialogue today,
sixty years after the foundation of the Pontifical Council.
From conflict to trust
“First of all, there is a sense of how much we actually have
in common, because for centuries the churches rivalled each other by insisting
on their differences”, he says. In the past sixty years, “ecumenical dialogue
and constant contacts” have allowed Christians “to discover that we are much
closer than the social images that we had made of each other.”
Another important difference is “the fact that, from
conflict and rivalry, we have moved to a situation of trust and confidence and
complete openness in our ecumenical dialogues”, he says.
This change, for which we must be truly grateful, “comes
from recognising and engaging with our brothers and sisters in the other
churches.”
A long journey
Asked about some of the ecumenical challenges facing the
Church today, Cardinal Farrell says that “the great challenge is, first of all,
to make known the whole ecumenical goal of the Church.” Ecumenism can not be
the concern only of “an elite group of experts”. Instead, “the unity of the
Church is all about the whole people of God”.
Cardinal Farrell says that the anniversary of the birth of
the Pontifical Council dedicated to ecumenism “is a good opportunity for all of
us to recognise what’s [been] done, and to examine what we need to do now.”
Living as if united
With Pope Francis, Cardinal Farrell recognises the “healthy
impatience” of those who feel that we can and should do more to work for
Christian Unity. “One of the things that we need to do more is not to be
content with the way we are”, he says, adding, “this is a very human
temptation."
It is also important, says Cardinal Farrell, “that we
actually learn the lesson […] that the Lord has been teaching the ecumenical
movement, and in particular through the ministry of Pope Francis”, namely,
“that we need to live as if we have discovered unity”.
By living out the imperfect communion that we already share,
“we can have the framework and the context to solve the very difficult
questions that we still have to resolve”.
Cardinal Farrell acknowledges that there is “still a great
deal of study and work and prayer to do before we reach a full understanding of
our unity.”
However, he says, “we can’t stop the present moment. We are
all confronted by a world that shows us that if we don’t stand together, we
won’t be able to serve.”
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