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Ecumenical Shift of the Second Vatican Council and Present Searching

Jure Zečević orcid.org/0000-0003-2591-1962 ; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Sažetak

There are three main sections of the article: 1) Approach to the question of the unity of the Christians before and during the Second Vatican Council - a comparison; 2) Ecumenical shift of the Second Vatican Council; and 3) Ecumenical situation - 40 years after the Council.
The real value of the Council's doctrine of the ecumenism and pivotal shift can be seen clearly only in comparison to the pre-Council's approach of the Catholic Church to the question of the unity of the Christians and their Churches.
Decree of ecumenism, »Unitatis redintegratio«, no. 4, which describes the ecumenical movement, in the first place, as a tentative about establishing of the full unity among the Christians, makes reasonable speaking of the pre-Council ecumenism in the Catholic Church, but choosing the terms and expressions that would not obscure the Council's idea of ecumenism, the author points.
The Council affirmed the Christological meaning of ecumenism: Jesus Christ is the Foundation and the Founder (cf. John 17:11.20-26) of the ecumenism as a tentative about establishing of the full unity among the Christians. The author's research's results and his scientific contribution presented in this article, has as a main point the affirmation that the merit of the Second Vatican Council is not in starting of ecumenism, but in the new quality, intensity and articulation of already existing tentatives and attempts. On the Council, there were not a beginning of the ecumenism in the Catholic Church, but rather a shift, a change, of the methods and mentality, which stress ecumenism as an inseparable compound of the identity of every authentic disciple of Christ. The article describes ecumenical dimension of the events on the Second Vatican and immediately afterwards. It shows and proves, particularly in the first two decades afterwards, the supremacy of impression among the most part of the Christian world, of a possibility to reach the main goal of ecumenism — the full unity of the Churches.
Although the author renounced the ambition to identify and to locate all main reasons of the present ecumenical difficulties, because of the restrictions of the article, some of the exemplary and significant conflicts are depicted, just to show how complex and sensitive is the ecumenical effort in the time after the Second Vatican Council. The »spring of ecumenism«, (card. Bea), passed, and the author evaluated the present moment, 40 years later, as an »ecumenical stocktaking«, as a time of ecumenical realism and indepth reflection in searching of new possibilities.
After all those years of efforts, there is no desired unity, and nobody can assure it. Not even if there would be possible some kind of unity »on this earth, before heaven«. But there is no place for pessimism. The author based his hope on the work of the Holy Spirit, which could not be restricted, and therefore it is not possible to exclude the positive shifts in the future in various Christian Churches, similar to the one happened to the Catholic Church in the occasion of the Second Vatican Council. But there are still some possibilities to develop ecumenical process: major consciousness of the already present degree of unity, implementation in praxis of already achieved ecumenical achievements, cultivation and divulgation of »spiritual ecumenism«, in accordance to the present degree of unity.

Ključne riječi

ecumenism; Second Vatican Council; inter-confessional relations; unity of Christians; dialog

Hrčak ID:

24449

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/24449

Datum izdavanja:

21.2.2006.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 3.184 *