"Guarding and Transmitting the Gift": Pope Leo on Tradition & Ecumenism

"The opening lines (of In Unitate Fidei) affirm the essence of why we should be 'rigid' about Tradition: In the unity of faith, proclaimed since the beginning of the Church, Christians have been called to walk in harmony, guarding and transmitting the gift they have received with love and joy."

From One Peter Five

By Timothy Flanders, MA(Theol)

The Holy Father has released an apostolic letter titled “In Unitate Fidei: On the 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.” The opening lines affirm the essence of why we should be “rigid” about Tradition:

In the unity of faith, proclaimed since the beginning of the Church, Christians have been called to walk in harmony, guarding and transmitting the gift they have received with love and joy.

The very concept of unity in faith is welcome to all traditionalists, as we have continually sounded the alarm that there is a sacrifice of truth for unity, as our Trad Godfather, Dietrich von Hildebrand, once wrote so cogently:

The valuing of unity over truth plays a central role in the crisis of the Church; for the Church of Christ—the Holy, Roman, Catholic, Apostolic Church—is based on this fundamental principle: the absolute primacy of divine truth, which is the very primacy of God.[1]

This is why, every month, we promote the “proven method” to get out of this mess: the “charitable anathema.”

But is this the unity which the Holy Father is seeking? We hope so. He intends, he says, to “encourage the whole Church to renew her enthusiasm for the profession of faith.” To that end, he points to another, much larger document from the International Theological Commission: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. 1700th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. He then passes to his own reflections which amount to a retelling of the history of the Council of Nicaea (2-8) in which “The Council Fathers bore witness to their fidelity to Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition” (5), the highlight of which comes in article 6:

In order to convey its message in the simple language of the Bible and the liturgy familiar to the entire People of God, the Council incorporated some expressions from the baptismal profession: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.” The Council hereby adopted the biblical metaphor of light: “God is light” (1 Jn 1:3; cf. Jn 1:4-5). Just as light radiates and communicates itself without diminishing, so the Son is the reflection (apaugasma) of God’s glory and the imprint (character) of his being (hypostasis) (cf. Heb 1:3; 2 Cor 4:4). The incarnate Son, Jesus, is therefore the light of the world, and the light of life (cf. Jn 8:12). Through baptism, the eyes of our hearts are enlightened (cf. Eph 1:18), so that we too may be a light in the world (cf. Mt 5:14) (6).

The Holy Father also notes the powerful teaching of St. Athanasius and the Fathers:

Saint Athanasius explains that the Son of God became man so that man might be deified… Divinization in no way implies the self-deification of man. On the contrary, divinization protects us from the primordial temptation to want to be like God (cf. Gen 3:5). What Christ is by nature, we become by grace. Through the work of redemption, God not only restored our human dignity as his image, but the One who created us in a wondrous way, has now made us partakers in his divine nature in an even more wondrous way (cf. 2 Pet 1:4).

Divinization, then, is true humanization (becoming fully human). This is why human existence points beyond itself, seeks beyond itself, desires beyond itself, and is restless until it rests in God (7).

Notably, Pope Leo confirms the power of the laity during the Arian crisis: “Saint Hilary, on the other hand, testified to the orthodoxy of the laity in contrast to the Arianism of many bishops, acknowledging that ‘the ears of the people are holier than the hearts of the priests’” (8).

The Holy Father then shifts in the document to addressing all Christians, noting that both Eastern Orthodoxy (by implication, somewhat, also the Oriental and Assyrian Orthodox) as well as the Protestant “ecclesial communities” (he does not call them “churches” since they lack a valid Eucharist[2]), all profess the Nicene creed. From here the Roman Pontiff turns to a moral exhortation, calling all Christians to live a Christian life in the Name of the Trinity.

Following the Lord necessarily entails following the way of the cross, which, through repentance, leads us to sanctification and divinization. If God loves us with all his being, then we too must love one another. We cannot love God whom we do not see without loving our brother and sister whom we do see (cf. 1 Jn 4:20). Love for God without love for neighbor is hypocrisy[.] (11)

The Pontiff ends with an exortation to all Christians to

walk together to reach unity and reconciliation among all Christians. The Nicene Creed can be the basis and reference point for this journey. It offers us a model of true unity in legitimate diversity. Unity in the Trinity, Trinity in Unity, because unity without multiplicity is tyranny, multiplicity without unity is fragmentation. The Trinitarian dynamic is not a dualistic and exclusive “either/or,” but rather a decisive bond, “both/and.” The Holy Spirit is the bond of unity whom we worship together with the Father and the Son. We must therefore leave behind theological controversies that have lost their raison d’être in order to develop a common understanding and even more, a common prayer to the Holy Spirit, so that he may gather us all together in one faith and one love (12).

But what is meant by this? Is this not the Neo-Modernist false Ecumenism? Pope Leo offers a nuanced answer:

This does not imply an ecumenism that attempts to return to the state prior to the divisions, nor is it a mutual recognition of the current status quo of the diversity of Churches and ecclesial communities. Rather, it is an ecumenism that looks to the future, that seeks reconciliation through dialogue as we share our gifts and spiritual heritage… As at Nicaea, this goal will only be possible through a patient, long and sometimes difficult journey of mutual listening and acceptance. It is a theological challenge and, even more so, a spiritual challenge, which requires repentance and conversion on the part of all. For this reason, we need the spiritual ecumenism of prayer, praise and adoration, as expressed by the Creed of Nicaea and Constantinople (12, emphasis mine).

OK, so it seems that the Holy Father is hoping for a truly Catholic restoration, a true “unity in faith” since Nicaea is the model for ecumenism. I think we as Trads would like a much more robust statement, but at least he excludes the “mutual recognition of the current status quo” which would be just basic Modernism.

All in all, I don’t think this apostolic letter is any cause for concern, but it seems quite traditional in its basic shape. By positioning the ecumenical movement as attempting to achieve what Nicaea achieved, this excludes all forms of religious indifferentism.

I also appreciate, as I said, the use of the term “ecclesial communities” which rightly points out that Protestants do not have “churches” technically, since they have no Eucharist. This also calls the Orthodox to task, who venerate the “Seven Ecumenical Councils” and yet cannot call their own ecumenical council without the Pope.

Contrary to most Trads, I do think there is a traditional aspect to ecumenism, properly understood as a dialogos toward the truth. As my book attempts to show, the unity of faith cannot be achieved without the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, modesty, chastity, continence.

T. S. Flanders
Editor
St. John of the Cross

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[1] Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Charitable Anathema (Roman Catholic Books: 1993), 1.

[2] This term is clarified in the post-conciliar ecumenical documents.