Pope John Paul opened the week by beatifying Pius IX, controversial for his anti-semitic pronouncements and as the Pope who defined papal infallibility and condemned modernism. Later in the week, Cardinal Ratzinger, who is secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, introduced a new statement, Dominus Iesus, which many see as threatening the gains of three decades of ecumenical dialogue. The Cardinal described the new declaration as a necessary response to "the theology of religious pluralism". He spoke of a mistaken notion of dialogue which gives rise to a "false idea of tolerance" and becomes a substitute for missionary activity.
No one should expect a church to do anything but assert its own claims: a church that is not missionary is a church that faces extinction. But this declaration turns its back on understandings achieved through ecumenical dialogue and co-operation over the past 30 years, and effectively says the post-Reformation branches of Christianity "are not Churches in the proper sense" because those "ecclesial communities" have not "preserved the valid episcopate" or a genuine Eucharist. Cardinal Ratzinger frowns on the term "sister churches", commonly used in these islands - particularly for Anglicans in the Church of Ireland and the Church of England - ever since the second Vatican Council promoted a new spirit of dialogue, co-operation and sharing.
This latest pronouncement from the Vatican has received an understandably cool reception too from German Lutherans, from Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury, and from the bishops of the Church of Ireland, who are "concerned and disappointed" at the prospect of "a retreat from much of the ecumenical progress that has been experienced by many communities throughout Ireland". Many will fear that this not just a step back to pre-Vatican II days, but to the days before the first Vatican Council, which was called by Pius IX and promulgated the doctrine of infallibility. Cardinal Ratzinger claims that Dominus Iesus is not just another theological opinion, but is part of the infallible teaching of the Magisterium of the Church.
It is sad that in the closing phase of his pontificate, Pope John Paul is seen as trying to regain and reassert Papal authority through documents that claim infallibility but that are seen by many Christians, inside and outside his Church, as uncharitable and anti-ecumenical. This Pope has been assertive in defending human rights and opposing the death penalty; he has been vigorous in condemning war; despite trenchant opposition to the ordination of women and conservative views on abortion and contraception, he has been radical in many pronouncements on the rights of women; and he has done more than any other Pope to challenge centuries of anti-Jewish prejudice.
This week's actions echo the mood of Pius IX, who appeared to compensate for the loss of the Papal States by asserting new authority through claims to infallibility and promulgating the Syllabus of Errors. And the church itself will regret it if Pope John Paul II is remembered by later generations for presiding over the unravelling of decades of ecumenical endeavour and dialogue.