Pope John Paul I and Christian Unity
Here is the latest work of John Paul I that I have translated for Humilitas. To get more of his writings, articles about him, and news of the cause for his canonization, you can write to get Humilitas from Ray and Lauretta Seabeck, The Missionary Servants of Pope John Paul I, 22 Boyd Hill Road, Gilford, NH, 03249.
Letter to the diocese on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
January 6, 1964
Coming as it does in the wake of the recent news that Pope Benedict XV is fulfilling the desire of many Anglican communities for union with Rome, this little piece by John Paul I from the time when he was bishop of Vittorio Veneto is especially timely, because of his attention to the efforts of a member of the Anglican communion, Fr. Paul James Wattson, who became a Catholic priest, the co-founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, and also the founder of the Week of Prayer for Christian unity. Fr. Wattson, the friars and the sisters of their community were the recipients of a then unprecedented action by the Pope Pius X, when they were received into the Catholic Church as a corporate body in 1909.
Dearest people of the diocese,
As he went to the Holy Land, Paul VI, the Pope who is growing dearer every day to both Catholics and non-Catholics, carried in his heart one great hope; that all the Christian churches might become united again.
On January 3, he said to the people of Britain: “We are living in a time in which the extraordinary opportunity is offered to us to see the old controversies starting to go towards a solution and old wounds being put aside. It is not too late to repent of the lack of charity that we have shown one another. Great problems still must be resolved, many differences still must be overcome. But we are beginning our task with a renewed spirit, knowing that a spirit of understanding and good will exists on both sides. Starting from different viewpoints we can little by little approach each other and become one, at the hour chosen by God and according to his will.”
Yesterday, January 5, in Jerusalem, the Pope and Athenagoras repeatedly and with great emotion embraced each other, and recited the “Our Father.” For centuries it had not happened; for centuries a Patriarch of Constantinople has not met with a pope. A sign of the times, a clear, evident sign of “the profound will that, thanks be to God, is inspiring Christians more and more . . . to work towards the goal of overcoming division, and throwing down barriers,” the Pope has said.“This the resolution: to commit ourselves resolutely on the way that leads to reconciliation.”
And this morning, January 6, in his message from Bethlehem to the world, he said: AThe our is historic! Catholics try to see that you are all with me in these efforts, in this spirit!”
We will all try to be with him; first by charity toward our separated brethren, and by being inclined to believe more willingly in the good than in the bad about them; then with prayer, on the subject of which I heartily recommend the so-called “Octave of Prayer” for unity, which lasts from January 18 to 25. It is a pious practice encouraged by St. Pius X, by Benedict XV, Pius XI and John XXIII; it was founded in 1908 by the American Paul James Wattson, who was first a Protestant pastor then a Catholic priest. It has been adopted B in a consoling crescendo B by Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans and the Greek and Slav Orthodox, and produces visible good fruits.
Wattson, though a Protestant, reasoned rightly when he set forth two principles. 1) Union of the separated churches, while impossible to human beings, is completely possible to God; 2) For Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox to pray together for the same end is already a step toward unity.
One day, when he was still an Episcopalian pastor, Wattson preached a sermon at a synod. Our Protestant church, he said “is sick from lack of unity; it is similar to the poor cripple whose parents deposited him every day at the gate of the temple in Jerusalem, so he could ask for alms (Acts 3:1-11). How was the crippled man cured? By turning to St. Peter. So we Protestants will be able to be cured and find salvation, by turning to the Catholic unity personified by Peter and his successors.”
The speech was daring and it hurt some feelings. Pope John and Pope Paul would say it in a different way; in fact this morning in Bethlehem, the pope praised the Orthodox leaders for what the Church they guide possesses that is beautiful and good. It would be enough to add some things B he made it understood B to retouch some others; the Catholic Church, in its turn would gladly yield everything that it is reasonably possible to yield, and everything would be all right. Let’s pray that it happens!
Opera, 3:135-36. (Note: This is part of a longer letter, the second part of which dealt with Catholic schools in the diocese of Vittorio Veneto).
Translated by Lori Pieper
