One month after the Vatican reasserted its claim that the Catholic Church is the one true church, Milwaukee's Catholic auxiliary bishop is about to find himself in what some might assume would be an uncomfortable position - addressing more than 1,000 Lutherans."I know I want to begin with the recognition of our unity in Christ through baptism," said Bishop Richard J. Sklba, who will offer a brief greeting on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops when he speaks Friday in Chicago to delegates at the national assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Sklba, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, longtime co-chairman of the National Evangelical Lutheran/Catholic Dialogue and part of the Orthodox/Catholic Bishops' Dialogue, says he wants to "make some allusion to the experience of the dialogue."
"I certainly have to address the issues we struggle with. I don't want it to be bland. I don't want it to be just fluff. I want it to be a contribution. It has to at least recognize the (Vatican's) recent statement. I have to allude to that, to offer some assurance that this is not any rejection of dialogue partners or a lessening of commitment."
That can be hard for some people in the pews to accept.
"I think when people read Pope Benedict's statement, there was a sense of discouragement," said ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson. "There was a hope that we had proceeded further in our conversations.
"I think with people in the pew, there's an impatience with the seeming inability of we who are leaders to find a way through our significant differences so that we can experience greater unity."
He said division is deeply felt when family and friends cannot receive Eucharist in each other's churches. "Because I know that and feel that, it drives me to continue to come back at Pope Benedict and say, 'I will not back away from my commitment to continue to address the questions that divide us.' "
Not a 'grenade'
Sklba said the document was aimed at Catholic theologians and their interpretations of Vatican II documents and papal encyclicals. It was drafted by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by the pope, but he did not craft every word, Sklba said.
"This wasn't a grenade aimed at Protestants," said Father Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center. Benedict favors ecumenical dialogue but worries that it "is making Catholics think that as long as we all love Jesus and do good, it doesn't matter what church we belong to. Something like 56 percent of (American) Catholics under the age of 40 say they could be just as happy in another church."
The document says Protestant Reformation churches are not churches "in the proper sense" because Catholic doctrine holds that their pastors are not ordained in apostolic succession - in a direct line back to the Apostles.
It says they have elements of "sanctification and truth" but suffer from defects. It says Christ has not refrained from giving them important roles in the mystery of salvation, but their "value derives from the fullness of grace and truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church."
It is short, an introduction and five questions and answers. It tries to clarify doctrine. It summarizes some points made in 2000 in "Dominus Iesus," which the pope wrote when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. That text sparked a lot of reaction.
In Reese's view, ambiguous terms added in drafting Second Vatican Council documents to achieve near unanimous approval are being given specific interpretations by Vatican conservatives.
A biblical scholar and theologian, Sklba focused on a word that has caused debate among theologians - what Vatican II meant by saying "the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church" instead of already "is" that church.
The document says the Catholic Church is the one true church, and Sklba agrees. But he interprets "subsists" as meaning the Catholic Church is not yet the church that Christ intended, that it has flaws and needs continuing reform.
"There's something in that 'subsists' which recognizes that we clearly have not fully complied with the mind of Christ," Sklba said.
Sklba also points to earlier statements by Ratzinger.
When the National Evangelical Lutheran/Catholic Dialogue ended its 10th round of talks in Milwaukee in 2004, its report said that Catholic judgment on the authenticity of Lutheran ministry need not be all or nothing.
The report quotes a 1993 letter from Ratzinger: "I count among the most important results of the ecumenical dialogues the insight that the issue of the Eucharist cannot be narrowed to the problem of validity.
Even a theology oriented to the concept of succession . . . need not in any way deny the salvation granting presence of the Lord in the Lutheran Lord's Supper."
Asked if that differs from Catholic Eucharist, Sklba said, "I think one has to ask the person who said it."
What does Sklba mean by Catholic reform?
"Clarification, deepening," he said. "It's the same element of development of doctrine referred to in the Second Vatican Council's decree on divine revelation, where then-Father Ratzinger 40 years ago underscored the fact that doctrine developed and continues to develop and deepen understanding of revelation through the prayer and study of Christians, through the religious experience of Christians, and, only finally he pointed out, through the formal teaching ministry of the church.
"So, he was fascinated by the recognition of the development of doctrine, which has been part of Catholic tradition. It might take us yet in another direction."
Noting that Ratzinger's views changed over the years on some topics, Reese added, "You have to ask, is that still the view of Benedict?"
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