C I O F S LIST

Fatherhood and Motherhood, sharing in the creative power of God

Ecumenism: Lutheran - Roman Catholic dialogue and relations

The Vatican Council and Roman Catholic ecumenical work

With the creation of man and woman in his own image and likeness, God crowns and brings to perfection the work of his hands: He calls them to a special sharing in his love and in his power as Creator and Father through their free and responsible cooperation in transmitting the gift of human life: "God blessed them, and God said to them, 'be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'" (Genesis 1: 28).

Thus the fundamental task of the family is to serve life, to actualize in history the original blessing of the Creator - that of transmitting by procreation the divine image from person to person (cf. Genesis 5: 1-3).

Fatherhood and motherhood are themselves a particular proof of love; they make it possible to discover love's extension and original depth. But this does not take place automatically. Rather, it is a task entrusted to both husband and wife...Experience teaches that human love, which naturally tends towards fatherhood and motherhood, is sometimes affected by a profound crisis....

(Fatherhood and motherhood are) the fruit and the sign of conjugal love, the living testimony of the full reciprocal self-giving of the spouses: "While not making the other purposes of matrimony of less account, the true practice of conjugal love, and the whole meaning of family life which results from it, have this aim: that the couple be ready with stout hearts to cooperate with the love of the Creator and the Saviour, who through them will enlarge and enrich his own family day by day." (Gaudium et Spes, 50)

However, the fruitfulness of conjugal love is not restricted solely to the procreation of children, even understood in its specifically human dimension: It is enlarged and enriched by all those fruits of moral, spiritual and supernatural life which the father and mother are called to hand on to their children, and through the children to the Church and to the world. Indeed children are the supreme gift of marriage and greatly contribute to the good of the parents themselves.

Dialogue:

What and where is the root of the dignity of the parents' mission in transmitting life?

Why are children the supreme gift of marriage that greatly contribute to the good of the parents themselves?

What are the human and Christian motives for carrying out this task of parenthood?

It has often been noted how much the SFO Rule reflects the expectations of the Second Vatican Council for a renewed, emancipated laity, mature baptized Christians, who acknowledge their co-responsibility for the proclamation of the Good News.

Pope John XXIII, the visionary Secular Franciscan who called the Council, declared the restoration of unity among Christians to be -"one of the principal concerns of the Council"-, and though this unity is not yet in sight, we as Secular Franciscan co-bearers of the responsibility for the spreading of the kingdom would do well to pause occasionally and ask ourselves if we have done what we are able to do in all the areas where we can be expected to be active. While the SFO has made reasonable - and sometimes even impressive - efforts in the area of social care, justice and ecology, ecumenism seems to be one of the areas where, with local exceptions, we as an order have not got very far. This was revealed clearly in the reaction of some countries to the document of the previous Presidency concerning associate membership of our order. The reaction seemed to be characterized by fear more than anything else, and since fear is nourished by lack of information and knowledge, the Presidency has decided to present the theme of ecumenism in a couple of brief studies in the Bulletin.

The present article will deal with the Lutheran Church (in some countries called the Evangelical Church, a name, however, which in other countries covers another ecclesial reality). This Church has been chosen for the first article because it is the first of the Reformation churches. The article in no way claims to exhaust the subject, but is intended only to present in brief the state of the official dialogue between the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church and in addition to offer some reflections on Lutheran and Roman Catholic (RC) ways of thought and modes of believing. For it is a fact that the theological questions, which are dealt with in the official dialogue, are not necessarily the most important issues for the ordinary believer's sense of differences between the two churches.

The Vatican Council and Roman Catholic ecumenical work

While the Protestant churches have been involved in ecumenical work on an official level at least since the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948, the ecumenical work proper of the Catholic Church is a direct outcome of the Second Vatican Council. In fact, the official acknowledgment of other denominations as churches and therefore potential partners in an ecumenical dialogue dates from this time. There had of course been pioneers in the ecumenical field, notably in France, but it was Pope John XXIII's initiative in 1964 of establishing the Secretariat for Christian Unity, (led by the dynamic Cardinal Bea - one of the pioneers of the Council) which set the official RC ecumenical effort in motion.

(to be continued)