(National Catholic Register. Larry Chapp).
The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, headed by Cardinal Kurt Koch, recently published a lengthy new text on the question of the papacy and ecumenical relations. The document, “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in the Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint,” is not a magisterial text like an encyclical or apostolic exhortation, but is rather a “study document” intended to reopen ecumenical conversations that have been stalled. However, I think its true value will most likely end up being something that is only tangentially related to its legitimate ecumenical aims. Indeed, with its exhaustive listing of the various discussions that preceded it, the text shows us that the ecumenical movement remains mired in a series of impasses that are unlikely to be resolved any time soon. And the issues involved go far beyond the single question of papal authority. Therefore, the document’s initial impact will, in my view, be the reinvigoration of internal Catholic discussions about the proper exercise of the papal office. I think the text itself gives evidence of an awareness of this reality in its repeated emphasis on the need for a more “synodal” Church. The ongoing processes established by Pope Francis relating to the Synod on Synodality create a context for this document that makes its relevance for Catholic discussions of the topic even more pronounced, if not urgent. Indeed, the text itself implies that the best way for the Church to appear authentically committed to the ecumenical cause is by taking very real concrete steps in the direction of a less papally-centered Church.