Authored By
Dr. William Abraham,
(Methodist), Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeler, (Union Theological Seminary, Virginia),
Mr. William Ball Bentley, Dr. Bill Bright , Mr. Charles Colson *, Professor
Robert Destro (Roman Catholic), Rev. Juan Diaz-Vilar, S.J.* (Roman Catholic),
The Rev. Augustine DiNoia, O.P. (Roman Catholic), Rev. Avery Dulles, S.J.*
(Roman Catholic), The Rev. Joseph Fitzpatrick * (Roman Catholic), Bishop
William Frey (Episcopalian), Professor Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard University),
Bishop Francis George, OMI* (Roman Catholic), Dr. Os Guinness, Dean Nathan
Hatch (Roman Catholic - Notre Dame) Dr. Kent Hill* (Nazarene), Dr. James
Hitchcock, Professor Peter Kreeft (Roman Catholic), Rev. Matthew Lamb (Roman
Catholic), Dr. Richard Land* (Southern Baptist), Dr. Larry Lewis* (Southern
Baptist), Mr. Ralph Martin (Roman Catholic), Dr. Jesse Miranda * (Assemblies of
God), Dr. Richard Mouw (Fuller Seminary), Msgr. William Murphy* (Roman
Catholic), Rev. Richard Neuhaus* (Roman Catholic), Dr. Mark Noll (Wheaton
College), Mr. Michael Novak, Mr. Brian O'Connell* (World Evangelical
Fellowship), John Cardinal O'Connor (Roman Catholic), Dr. Thomas Oden
(Methodist), Professor J.I. Packer (Anglican ), The Rev. Pat Robertson, Dr.
John Rodgers (Episcopalian), Mr. Herbert Schossberg*, Bishop Carlos Sevilla,
S.J. (Roman Catholic), Archbishop Francis Stafford* (Roman Catholic), Mr.
George Weigel*, Dr. John White*.
Introduction
We are evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics who have been led through
prayer, study, and discussion to common convictions about Christian faith and
mission. This statement cannot officially speak for our communities. It does
intend to speak responsibly from our communities and to our communities. In
this statement we address what we have discovered both about our unity and
about our differences. We are aware that our experience reflects the
distinctive circumstances and opportunities of Evangelicals and Catholics
living together in North America. At the same time, we believe that what we
have discovered and resolved is pertinent to the relationship between
Evangelicals and Catholics in other parts of the world. We therefore commend
this statement to their prayerful consideration.
As the Second Millennium draws to a close, the Christian mission in world
history faces a moment of daunting opportunity and responsibility. If in the
merciful and mysterious ways of God the Second Coming is delayed, we enter upon
a Third Millennium that could be, in the words of John Paul II, "a
springtime of world missions." (Redemptoris Missio)
As Christ is one, so the Christian mission is one. That one mission can be and
should be advanced in diverse ways. Legitimate diversity, however, should not
be confused with existing divisions between Christians that obscure the one
Christ and hinder the mission. There is a necessary connection between the
visible unity of Christians and the mission of the one Christ. We together pray
for the fulfillment of the prayer of Our Lord: "May they all be one; as
you, Father, are in me, and I in you. so also may they be one in us, that the
world may believe that you sent me." (John 17) We together, Evangelicals
and Catholics, confess our sins against the unity that Christ intends for all
his disciples.
The one Christ and one mission includes many other Christians, notably the
Eastern Orthodox and those Protestants not commonly identified as Evangelical.
All Christians are encompassed in the prayer, "May they all be one."
Our present statement attends to the specific problems and opportunities in the
relationship between Roman Catholics and Evangelical Protestants.
As we near the Third Millennium, there are approximately 1.7 billion Christians
in the world. About a billion of these are Catholics and more than 300 million
are Evangelical Protestants. The century now drawing to a close has been the
greatest century of missionary expansion in Christian history. We pray and we
believe that this expansion has prepared the way for yet greater missionary
endeavor in the first century of the Third Millennium.
The two communities in world Christianity that are most evangelistically
assertive and most rapidly growing are Evangelicals and Catholics. In many
parts of the world, the relationship between these communities is marked more
by conflict than by cooperation, more by animosity than by love, more by
suspicion than by trust, more by propaganda and ignorance than by respect for
the truth. This is alarmingly the case in Latin America, increasingly the case
in Eastern Europe, and too often the case in our own country.
Without ignoring the conflicts between and within other Christian communities,
we address ourselves to the relationship between Evangelicals and Catholics who
constitute the growing edge of missionary expansion at present and, most
likely, in the century ahead. In doing so, we hope that what we have discovered
and resolved may be of help in other situations of conflict, such as that among
Orthodox, Evangelicals and Catholics in Eastern Europe. While we are gratefully
aware of ongoing efforts to address tensions among these communities, the
shameful reality is that, in many places around the world, the scandal of
conflict between Christians obscures the scandal of the cross, thus crippling
the one mission of the one Christ.
As in times past, so also today and in the future, the Christian mission, which
is directed to the entire human community, must be advanced against formidable
opposition. In some cultures, that mission encounters resurgent spiritualities
and religions that are explicitly hostile to the claims of Christ. Islam, which
in many instances denies the freedom to witness to the Gospel, must be of
increasing concern to those who care about religious freedom and the Christian
mission. Mutually respectful conversation between Muslims and Christians should
be encouraged in the hope that more of the world will, in the oft repeated
words of John Paul II, "open the door to Christ." At the same time,
in our so-called developed societies, a widespread secularization increasingly
descends into a moral, intellectual and spiritual nihilism that denies not only
the One who is the Truth but the very idea of truth itself.
We enter the twenty-first century without illusions. With Paul and the
Christians of the first century, we know that "we are not contending
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers,
against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts
of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6) As Evangelicals and
Catholics, we dare not by needless and loveless conflict between ourselves give
aid and comfort to the enemies of the cause of Christ.
The love of Christ compels us and we are therefore resolved to avoid such
conflict between our communities and, where such conflict exists, to do what we
can to reduce and eliminate it. Beyond that, we are called and we are therefore
resolved to explore patterns of working and witnessing together in order to
advance the one mission of Christ. Our common resolve is not based merely on a
desire for harmony. We reject any appearance of harmony that is purchased at
the price of truth. Our common resolve is made imperative by obedience to the
truth of God revealed in the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, and by trust in
the promise of the Holy Spirit's guidance until Our Lord returns in glory to
judge the living and the dead.
The mission we embrace together is the necessary consequence of the faith that
we affirm together.
We Affirm Together
Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the first and final affirmation that Christians
make about all of reality. He is the One sent by God to be Lord and Savior of
all, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4)
Christians are people ahead of time, those who proclaim now what will one day
be acknowledged by all, that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2)
We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ.
Living faith is active on love that is nothing less than the love of Christ,
for we together say with Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is
no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me." (Galatians 2)
All who accept Christ as Lord and Savior are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Evangelicals and Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have not
chosen one another, just as we have not chosen Christ. He has chosen us, and he
has chosen us to be his together. (John 15) However imperfect our communion
with one another, we recognize that there is but one church of Christ. There is
one church because there is one Christ and the church is his body. However
difficult the way, we recognize that we are called by God to a fuller
realization of our unity in the body of Christ. The only unity to which we
would give expression is unity in the truth, and the truth is this: "There
is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that
belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
us all, who is above all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4)
We affirm together that Christians are to teach and live in obedience to the
divinely inspired Scriptures, which are the infallible Word of God. We further
affirm together that Christ has promised to his church the gift of the Holy
Spirit who will lead us into all truth in discerning and declaring the teaching
of Scripture. (John 16) We recognize together that the Holy Spirit has so
guided his church in the past. In, for instance, the formation of the canon of
the Scriptures, and in the orthodox response to the great Christological and
Trinitarian controversies of the early centuries, we confidently acknowledge
the guidance if the Holy Spirit. In faithful response to the Spirit's leading,
the church formulated the Apostles Creed which we can and hereby do affirm
together as an accurate statement of Scriptural truth:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe
in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the
Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He
ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will
come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the
holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
We Hope Together
We hope together that all people will come to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior. This hope makes necessary the church's missionary zeal. "But how
are they to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how can they
believe in him of whom they have not heard. And how can they hear without a
preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10) The church
is by nature, in all places and at all times, in mission. Our missionary hope
is inspired by the revealed desire of God that "all should be saved and
come to a knowledge of the truth." (I Timothy 2)
The church lives by and for the Great Commission: "Go ye therefore and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matthew
28)
Unity and love among Christians is an integral part of our missionary witness
to the Lord whom we serve. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love
one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this
shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another." (John 13) If we do not love one another, we disobey his command
and contradict the Gospel we declare.
As Evangelicals and Catholics, we pray that our unity in the love of Christ
will become ever more evident as a sign to the world of God's reconciling
power. Our communal and ecclesial separations are deep and long standing. We
acknowledge that we do not know the schedule nor do we know the way to the
greater visible unity for which we hope. We do know that existing patterns of
distrustful polemic and conflict are not the way. We do know that God who has
brought us into communion with himself through Christ intends that we also be
in communion with one another. We do know that Christ is the way, the truth and
the life (John 14) and as we are drawn closer to him - walking in that way,
obeying that truth, living that life - we are drawn closer to one another.
Whatever may be the future form of the relationship between our communities, we
can, we must, and we will begin now the work required to remedy what we know to
be wrong in that relationship. Such work requires trust and understanding, and
trust and understanding require as assiduous attention to truth. We do not deny
but clearly assert that there are disagreements between us. Misunderstandings,
misrepresentations, and caricatures of one another, however, are not
disagreements. These distortions must be cleared away if we are to search
through our honest differences in a manner consistent with what we affirm and
hope together on the basis of God's Word.
We Search Together
Together we search for a fuller and clearer understanding of God's revelation
in Christ and his will for his disciples. Because of the limitations of human
reason and language, which limitations are compounded by sin, we cannot
understand completely the transcendent reality of God and his ways. Only in the
End Time will we see face to face and know as we are known. (I Corinthians 13)
We now search together in confident reliance upon God's self-revelation in
Jesus Christ, the sure testimony of Holy Scripture, and the promise of the
Spirit to his church. In this search to understand the truth more fully and
clearly, we need one another. We are both informed and limited by the histories
of our communities and by our own experiences. Across the divides of
communities and experiences, we need to challenge one another, always speaking
the truth in love, and in order to build up the Body. (Ephesians 4) We do not
presume to suggest that we can resolve the deep and long standing differences
between Evangelicals and Catholics. Indeed these differences may never be
resolved short of the Kingdom Come.
Nonetheless, we are not permitted simply to resign ourselves to differences that
divide us from one another. Not all differences are authentic disagreements,
nor need all disagreements divide. Differences and disagreements must be tested
in disciplines and sustained conversation. In this connection we warmly commend
and encourage the formal theological dialogues of recent years between Roman
Catholics and Evangelicals.
We note some of the differences and disagreements that must be addressed more
fully and candidly in order to strengthen between us a relationship of trust in
obedience to truth. Among points of difference in doctrine, worship, practice,
and piety that are frequently thought to divide us are these:
The church as an integral part of the Gospel or the church as a communal
consequence of the Gospel.
The church as visible communion or invisible fellowship of true believers.
The sole authority of Scripture (sola scriptural) or Scripture as
authoritatively interpreted in the church.
The soul freedom of the individual Christian or the Magisterium (teaching
authority) of the community.
The church as local congregations or universal communion.
Ministry ordered in apostolic succession or the priesthood of all believers.
Sacraments and ordinances as symbols of grace or means of grace.
The Lord's Supper as eucharistic sacrifice or memorial meal.
Remembrance of Mary and the saints or devotion to Mary and the saints.
Baptism Baptism as a sacrament of regeneration or testimony to regeneration.
This account of differences is by no means complete. Nor is the disparity
between positions always so sharp as to warrant the "or" in the above
formulations. Moreover, among those recognized as Evangelical Protestants there
are significant differences between, for example, Baptists, Pentecostals, and
Calvinists on these questions. But the differences mentioned above reflect
disputes that are deep and long standing. In at least some instances, they
reflect authentic disagreements that have been in the past and are at present
barriers to full communion between Christians.
On these questions, and other questions implied by them, Evangelicals hold that
the Catholic Church has gone beyond Scripture, adding teachings and practices
that detract from or compromise the Gospel of God's saving grace in Christ.
Catholics, in turn, hold that such teachings and practices are grounded in
Scripture and belong to the fullness of God's revelation. Their rejection,
Catholics say, results in a truncated and reduced understanding of the
Christian reality.
Again, we cannot resolve these disputes here. We can and do affirm together
that the entirety of Christian faith, life, and mission finds its source,
center, and end in the crucified and risen Lord. We can and do pledge that we
will continue to search together - through study, discussion, and prayer - for
a better understanding of one another's convictions and a more adequate
comprehension of the truth of God in Christ. We can testify now that in our
searching together we have discovered what we can affirm together and what we
can home together and, therefore, how we can contend together.