Sir, - It is interesting to compare Dr Trevor Morrow's reception of Dominus Iesus with that of Dr Eames (The Irish Times, December 6th). The former finds Dominus Iesus "clear in its statements which ensure that inter-church dialogue does not take place in a fog". Dr Eames seems more interested "in maintaining the momentum of ecumenical progress", which Dr Morrow thinks may not be as much as some have imagined.
Some time ago Terence Crotty OP, in defending Dominus Iesus in your estimable newspaper against criticisms made by Dr Eames and other Church of Ireland divines, was taken to task by a reader who seemed to suggest that Crotty was not "committed to acknowledging and respecting the riches of all churches and religious traditions" (September 29th) - a conclusion that did not follow from Crotty's letter. Crotty might have been more diplomatic in dealing with those divines whose unfamiliarity with Catholic teaching may be the fault of over-enthusiastic Catholic ecumenists who engage in "a false conciliatory approach which harms the purity of Catholic doctrine and obscures its assured genuine meaning" (Unitatis Redintegratio II).
It was obvious from his Sunday Tribune interview of September 10th that Dr Eames had been led up the garden path by some of his Catholic colleagues. He asks: "Does it mean that, in fact, members of the Church of Ireland are somehow members of something that is less than a church? Now I don't believe that the vast majority of my Roman Catholic colleagues would want me to think that" - thereby showing their unawareness of Catholic teaching and the timelessness of Dominus Iesus.
In this context it is worth noting the Pope' defence of Dominus Iesus which, he says, was "approved by me in a special way at the height of the Jubilee Year . .
That document clarifies essential Christian elements which do not hinder dialogue but show its bases, because a dialogue without foundations would be destined to degenerate into empty wordiness. The same also applies to the ecumenical question. If the document, together with the Second Vatican Council, declares that `the single church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church', it does not intend thereby to express scant regard for the other Churches and Eccesial Communities... "This document thus expresses once again the same ecumenical passion that is the basis of my Encyclical Ut Unum Sint. I hope that this declaration, which is close to my heart, can, after so many erroneous interpretations, finally fulfil its function both of clarification and of openness." (L'Osservaore Romano, October 4th, 2000.) - Yours, etc.,
C.T. Greenan O.P., St Saviour's Priory Upper Dorset Street, Dublin 1.