Press Releases
Revd Canon Professor John Bartlett Comments on Recent Vatican Statements
"It cannot be right to patronise our fellow Christians"
Speaking at 11am Holy Communion Service in Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday 12 August 2007, the Revd Canon Professor John Bartlett, Former Principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College will comment on recent statements by the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The congregation recently asserted in Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church that “Christian communities born out of the reformation” have “not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery [and] cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called “Churches” in the proper sense”. Canon Professor Bartlett will say, “It cannot be right to patronise our fellow Christians by saying to them, ‘You do not really belong’. A Christian is surely one who expresses loyalty not primarily to the successors of St Peter as bishop of Rome but to the person of Jesus as Lord. Has one branch of Christianity alone the right to appropriate the New Testament word and concept of ‘ecclesia’, which we translate as ‘church’?”Asking “Why should we seek to distance ourselves from other Christians?” Canon Bartlett will continue, “Christians are right to say that there is an identity between the historical Jesus and the present church, and that there is a unity, a oneness; but in the interests of ecumenism we need to re-think our Christian definition of that unity, so that we can be inclusive rather than exclusive. We can be inclusive towards Christians with differing views of church polity.”Closing Canon Professor Bartlett will say “'It seems to me that even here on earth there is a Christian unity which transcends the limitations of the individual churches. We may apply Paul’s parable of the body; the body is one and has many members; if the eye may not say to the hand, I have no need of you, then one church of one tradition may not say to the church of another tradition, I have no need of you. The different churches need each other for their differing insights into the message of Christ. We are not, I think, all Anglicans here this morning; we all come here, however, Anglican, Roman, Protestant, Orthodox or whatever, from our differing traditions, to share in the one bread, and to be his one body.” For further information contact: Garrett Casey (01) 6106447 or (087) 2356472 The original statement from the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is available at this link (29 June 2007): http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html