Catholics and Pentecostals: Miles to go to bridge the divide

   Catholics and Pentecostals – commonly known as Protestants – recently concluded the sixth phase of their international dialogue, aimed at promoting better relations between the two communities started over four decades ago. Are we anywhere close to unity? The answer is no, but everyone agrees that a continuous dialogue is necessary to achieve unification in the not-so-distant future.

  The theme of this sixth phase, held in July, focused on "Charisms in the Church: Their Spiritual Significance, Discernment, and Pastoral Implications" with sessions dedicated to common ground, discernment, healing and prophesy. The final session, which took place in Rome from July 10-17, was dedicated to drafting a final report, due for publication early next year. Daily prayer services, led alternately by Catholics and Pentecostals, have been an important feature of the meeting and participants on Sunday attended Mass at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.
  The two co-chairs of the dialogue were Bishop Michael Burbidge, head of the US diocese of Raleigh in North Carolina and Rev Cecil (Mel) Robeck representing the Assemblies of God, a professor of Church history and ecumenics at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.

 Christians in general are curious about the impact of the first Latin American pope on relations between the two communities.

  Historically, Christianity is divided into three broad categories – Roman Catholic, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church is an ancient community with many things in common with Roman Catholics except that there’s no Pope in the community. Protestant denominations – they number around 30,000 -- reject the notion of papal supremacy over the Church universal and generally deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and a host of other things, but they disagree among themselves regarding Christ's presence in the Eucharist.

  In another two years, 2017 will mark the 500^th anniversary since Martin Luther published ‘The ninety-five theses’ and started opposing the Catholic Church teachings which eventually led to the formation of Protestant churches.

  That said, the goal of the latest Dialogue, started in 1972, is to promote mutual respect and understanding in matters of faith and practice, says a press statement issued by Vatican. Genuine exchange and frank discussion concerning the positions and practices of the two traditions have been guiding principles of these conversations.

 According to Bishop Burbidge, through the scholarly papers that were presented, honest and respectful discussion throughout the Dialogue, and our prayer time together we grew to a deeper understanding of areas of agreement as related to charisms, healing, prophecy, and discernment, as well as points of divergence. “We also identified together pastoral challenges and opportunities as we go forth to invite others to a deeper reliance on the gifts of the Spirit who is always at work within us,” he said.
 Pentacostals say that on most issues they are in agreement.

 Rev Robeck said, "this current round of dialogue has revealed that the teaching of Pentecostals and Catholics on the charisms or gifts of the Holy Spirit have many points of agreement. Both traditions recognize that every believer has been given one or more gifts by the Holy Spirit to be used to build up the Church and to minister to the world. These gifts have been present in the Church since the time of the New Testament.”

  “Given the problems posed by society in the current culture, we acknowledge that we face common challenges in which our people must rely upon the help of the Holy Spirit to exercise these charisms in thoughtful and creative ways as they seek to extend the message of love and forgiveness that Jesus Christ brought to the world,” Rev Robeck said.
  The first major difference between Catholics and Protestants is the issue of the sufficiency and authority of Scripture. Protestants say that the Bible alone is the source of God’s special revelation to mankind and teaches us all that is necessary for our salvation from sin. Catholics reject the doctrine of sola scriptura and believe that both the Bible and sacred Roman Catholic tradition are equally binding upon the Christians. Roman Catholics believe in purgatory, praying to the saints and veneration of Mother Mary.

 Apart from transubstantiation, the major bone of contention, another disagreement between Catholicism and Protestantism is over the office and authority of the Pope. Further, Catholics teach that the Christian must rely on faith and seven Sacraments --  baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders and matrimony – for salvation. Protestants believe that, on the basis of faith in Christ alone, believers are justified by God, and all their sins are paid for by Christ on the cross and His righteousness is imputed to them.

 As a Christian, this writer hopes that Catholics and Protestants will thrash out all contentious issues and come together in the not so foreseeable future. If this happens, Jesus will be the happiest person.