MARTY GERVAIS ON RELIGION
Basilian Deacon puts
sharing at forefront of religious aims
THE WORD Thomas Rosica
repeats over and over again is “scandalous.”
He’s referring to the
way in which churches tend to remain segregated, isolated, interested in their own.
If you spend any time talking
to Rosica, he will tell you just how frustrated he gets when he hears how Roman
Catholic priests speak in such chauvinistic ways about salvation in the “Catholic
Church.” He doesn’t even like it when they refer to themselves as Catholics, when
the word “Christian” would not only have been good enough, but preferable.
It’s not that he doesn’t
like Catholics – he is one. In fact, this spring he will be ordained a priest
of the Basilian religious order.
The fact is, Rosica
spent a good part of his field training as a priest working on ecumenism. In
1984 he surveyed churches in the Montreal area for the Canadian Centre for
Ecumenism to determine where they stood on church unity. His findings, and
especially the approach Rosica took to the survey, are being examined and
considered by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. There is the possibility
that the Roman Catholic Church’s umbrella organization in Canada will implement
a survey of this kind on a national basis.
THE YOUNG DEACON
working at St. John the Baptist Church in Amherstburg with its other Basilian priests
regards the whole matter of ecumenism as “scandalous.” He sees “the Catholic
ghetto mentality as a stumbling block and knows just how reticent clergymen
from other denominations can be when it comes to authentic sharing. Some of it has to do with being “too set in
their ways” but there are other reasons, too.
In some cases, the clergymen know little of the ecumenical movement, and
they haven’t bothered to do “any reading at all about it.”
There’s also the notion
that their churches are suffering serious losses in membership. The direction
now is to shore up what they can count on.
UNFORTUNATELY, the
notion exists that some churches have the exclusive copyright on the “word of
God, “ says Rosica.
“But the word of God is
for all people,” says Rosica, who adds that it isn’t just for Catholics or
Anglicans or Presbyterians.
Another fact, says
Rosica, is that many denominations must learn that no one is out to threaten the
existence of any one church. In addition to this, the myth has to be dispelled
that the only way in which the Roman Catholics are going to be part of church
unity is for all Christian denominations (to) join Rome.
Rosica says there is no
reason real ecumenism -- even to the point of an organic union – can’t mean a harmony
of various Christian denominations in one community.
The Basilian deacon could
sit all day in his office at St. John the Baptist and talk about the ecumenical
movement. While he doesn’t regard himself as an expert, the survey did teach
him something. His objective is to set into motion something that will bring
churches in Amherstburg closer together.
ROSICA EXPECTS to
return here after ordination, and if he does, he feels he will continue his
ecumenical work in the town. The real test for the ecumenical movement, he
says, is at the grass roots: moving the “local” churches into a situation where
they will share more and pray more together.
Sunday will see the
first step in that direction: St. John the Baptist is holding an ecumenical
prayers service at 2:30 p.m. where five different Christian denominations – the
Baptists, United Church, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics – will be
participating.
Rev. John Parker,
Pastor of Wesley United Church, will deliver the homily. The service coincides
with the first Sunday, in the Week of Christian Unity, celebrated by Catholics
and Protestants around the world. The service in itself is admittedly a “minor
act” says Rosica, but it could be the beginning of a new awareness the churches
will have for one another.
HE SEES Amherstburg as
no different than any other community, pointing out that no matter how much dialogue
the national churches hold, unless clergy and congregations at the local level
are prepared to start talking to one another in a meaningful way, then
ecumenism is simply a dream.
He says if churches persist
in taking the attitude that they “have all the answers,” then nothing is going
to be advanced in church unity.
But while Rosica likes
being an idealist, he is intimately aware of the obstacles.
Intercommunion is
certainly the first to spring to mind. In some ways, he regards the Roman
Catholic Church’s reluctance to permit Catholics and Protestants to take
communion in their churches as an embarrassment. On the other hand, he also has
a lot of respect for his church in holding back from the pressure until other
obstacles have been cleared away.
THIS IS BECAUSE Rome
regards the eucharist as “the fullness of unity,” Rosica says.
He added until other obstacles
have been resolved, there can be no unity.
Bishop Sherlock told the
fall synod of Canadian Bishops that the extension of communion to non-Catholics
would be a “form of cheating.”
He had said, “It
assumes a unity which has not yet occurred.”
But Rosica agrees with the
new CCCB vice-president, Archbishop James Hayes of Halifax, that the issue should
be pursued, and that “shared communion” with Protestant denominations at times
of mixed marriages and funerals should be encouraged.
The church sanctions such
a practice.
Unfortunately, Rosica
says some priests aren’t even aware of “this possibility” – to them it’s a non-issue.
ESSENTIALLY, such an attitude
or lack of awareness is a formidable obstacle to church unity. Rosica says it
comes down to the glaring fact that many clergy just won’t bother to acquaint
themselves with what is being done about church unity.
Apathy is another obstacle,
Rosica said explain how some priests regard the issue as “just another job”
they have to do. As a result, he says, there is no compelling urge to do anything
more than pay lip service to it.
Another stumbling block
lies with the training institutions which tend to want to propagate and further
their own denominational interests and philosophies. As a result, there are institutions
that tend to favour one religion over another, when in fact they ought to be “open”
to the whole spectrum.
IN HIS REPORT to the Canadian
Ecumenical Commission, Rosica wrote that while it might be difficult “to
complain” about training in the past from the era before or during Vatican II which
spurred on ecumenism, “We have a right and duty, however, to take objection
with these young people (including young professors), who, through their
theology courses and their religious beliefs, wish to move the Ecumenical
movement back to a time when it new no possibilities for growth.”
Rosica says unless the church
– not only the Roman Catholic Church – begins to take a “a vested interest” in the formation of clergy, making sure they
are less chauvinistic about their denomination – then ecumenism is going to
remain at a standstill.
Because of the lack of
any read dramatic unity, Rosica says people have indeed, lost interest in
church unity.
He said this in his
report too, pointing out that the findings showed that “many have lost the desire
for unity over the past years, and even fewer really sense the scandalous division
existing within our own church and also among the Christian churches.
ROSICA KNOWS that the
move toward church unity has to be gradual and it must go through a set of “sequences.”
Sunday’s service is the beginning. The next step is to form a ministerial
association.
The next step is to
work on “twinning” churches, where churches begin to do some real sharing and
experimenting with liturgies.
Rosica isn’t sure how
successful he will be. He hopes for the best. He says as long as congregations
are praying, “somehow the spirit of God is alive.”
He’s certain this will
ease the impatience.
