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The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, previously named the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), is a dicastery within the Holy See whose origins are associated with the Second Vatican Council which met intermittently from 1962 to 1965.
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Pope John XXIII wanted the Catholic Church to engage in the contemporary ecumenical movement. He established a Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (SPCU) [1] on 5 June 1960 as one of the preparatory commissions for the council, and appointed Cardinal Augustin Bea as its first president. The secretariat invited other churches and world communions to send observers to the council.
The Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity prepared and presented a number of documents to the council:
Following the council, in 1966 Pope Paul VI confirmed the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity as a permanent dicastery of the Holy See.
In the apostolic constitution Pastor bonus (28 June 1988), Pope John Paul II renamed the secretariat the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The PCPCU has two sections dealing with:
The dicastery has a twofold role:
Since its creation, it has also established a cordial cooperation with the World Council of Churches (WCC). Twelve Catholic theologians have been members of the WCC's Faith and Order Commission since 1968.
The PCPCU is responsible for naming Catholic observers at various ecumenical gatherings and in its turn invites observers or "fraternal delegates" of other churches or ecclesial communities to major events of the Catholic Church.
At present, the PCPCU is engaged in an international theological dialogue with each of the following churches and world communions:
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Directed by a Cardinal President, assisted by a Secretary, a Joint Secretary, and an Under-Secretary.
Current leadership
Presidents
Secretaries
The council is responsible for working with other churches on ecumenical translations of scripture, and promoted the establishment of the Catholic Biblical Federation.[ citation needed ]
The Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews is the responsibility of the PCPCU, while the Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with Muslims comes under the direction of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. This is because when the council was being created the Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews was consulted as to whether it wished to come under the Inter-Religious Dialogue Council, it declined and thus remains part of the Promoting Christian Unity Council.[ citation needed ]
The Roman Curia comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church are conducted. The Roman Curia is the institution which the Roman Pontiff ordinarily makes use of in the exercise of his supreme pastoral office and universal mission in the world: thus curialism refers traditionally to an emphasis on the supreme authority of the Holy See within the Catholic Church. It is at the service of the Pope, successor of Peter, and of the Bishops, successors of the Apostles, according to the modalities that are proper to the nature of each one, fulfilling their function with an evangelical spirit, working for the good and at the service of communion, unity and edification of the Universal Church and attending to the demands of the world in which the Church is called to fulfill its mission.
Full communion is a communion or relationship of full agreement among different Christian denominations or Christian individuals that share certain essential principles of Christian theology. Views vary among denominations on exactly what constitutes full communion, but typically when two or more denominations are in full communion it enables services and celebrations, such as the Eucharist, to be shared among congregants or clergy of any of them with the full approval of each.
Ecumenism – also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalism – is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjective ecumenical is thus applied to any non-denominational or inter-denominational initiative which encourages greater cooperation and union among Christian denominations and churches. Ecumenical dialogue is a central feature of contemporary ecumenism.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an ecumenical Christian observance in the Christian calendar that is celebrated internationally. It is kept annually between Ascension Day and Pentecost in the Southern Hemisphere and between 18 January and 25 January in the Northern Hemisphere. It is an octave, that is, an observance lasting eight days.
The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, previously named Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), is a dicastery of the Roman Curia, erected by Pope Paul VI on 19 May 1964 as the Secretariat for Non-Christians, and renamed by Pope John Paul II on 28 June 1988.
The "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" (JDDJ) is a document created and agreed to by the Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999 as a result of Catholic–Lutheran dialogue. It states that the churches now share "a common understanding of our justification by God's grace through faith in Christ." To the parties involved, this substantially resolves much of the 500-year-old conflict over the nature of justification which was at the root of the Protestant Reformation.
The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue is a series of discussions that began during July 1964 as an outgrowth of the Second Vatican Council. These gatherings reflect the new openness of the Catholic Church to dialogue with other Christian denominations as well as other religions. These dialogues have been primarily between representatives of the Lutheran World Federation and representatives of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
Ut unum sint is an encyclical by Pope John Paul II of 25 May 1995. It was one of 14 encyclicals issued by John Paul II. Cardinal Georges Cottier, Theologian emeritus of the Pontifical Household, was influential in drafting the encyclical.
The Catholic Church has engaged in the modern ecumenical movement especially since the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the issuing of the decree Unitatis redintegratio and the declaration Dignitatis humanae. It was at the Council that the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was created. Those outside of the Catholic Church were categorised as heretics or schismatics, but in many contexts today, to avoid offence, the euphemism "separated brethren" is used.
Branch theory is an ecclesiological proposition that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church includes various different Christian denominations whether in formal communion or not. The theory is often incorporated in the Protestant notion of an invisible Christian Church structure binding them together.
Brian Farrell LC is an Irish Roman Catholic prelate who served as secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity from 2002 until 2024.
The General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns (GCCUIC) addresses the interreligious and ecumenical concerns of The United Methodist Church. The GCCUIC's office is located at The Interchurch Center in New York City. The Commission's President is Bishop Mary Ann Swenson and the General Secretary is Stephen J. Sidorak Jr. The Ecumenical Officer of the Council of Bishops is Bishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader and serves as the corporate ecumenical officer of The United Methodist Church, working in collaboration with GCCUIC.
Kurt Koch is a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been a cardinal since November 2010 and president of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity since 1 July 2010. He was the bishop of Basel from 1996 until 2010.
The Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church was established by the Holy See and 14 autocephalous Orthodox churches.
After the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI contributed in two ways to the continued growth of ecumenism and inter-Christian dialogue. The separated brothers and sisters, as he called them, were not able to contribute to the Second Vatican Council as invited observers. After the Council, many of them took initiative to seek out their Catholic counterparts and the Pope in Rome, who welcomed such visits.
Anglican–Roman Catholic dialogue is the historical communication between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, through their ecumenical relations. These were notably shaped subsequent to the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).
The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas is a Catholic educational institution providing an international community and formation for lay ecclesial ministers and other lay students at the Pontifical Universities, Athenae, and Institutes in Rome, Italy. It is international in character and composition, and welcomes ecumenical students from other Christian churches and ecclesial communities, as well as those from non-Christian religions.
In the Catholic Church, communicatio in sacris, also called communicatio in divinis or communicatio in ritibus, designates the regulations for the partaking of a Catholic person to a non-Catholic sacrament or liturgical celebration, or for the partaking of a non-Catholic person to a Catholic sacrament or liturgical celebration. The expression is also used to refer to said acts of partaking themselves.
Donald Joseph Bolen, also known as Don Bolen, is a Canadian Catholic prelate. He is the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Regina, since his appointment by Pope Francis on 11 July 2016; having previously served as Bishop of the Diocese of Saskatoon.
Catholic–Eastern Orthodox relations have warmed over the last century, as both churches embrace a dialogue of charity. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) ushered in a new era of relations for the Roman Church towards the Orthodox Church, fondly describing the Orthodox as “separated brethren” with valid sacraments and an apostolic priesthood. The Orthodox Church, on the other hand, encouraged local churches to prepare for future dialogue in the Third Pan-Orthodox Conference in Rhodes (1964), and has since engaged in several ecumenical efforts with the Vatican. Significantly, in 1965 Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople jointly lifted the mutual excommunications of 1054. More recently, in November 2019, the current Patriarch of Constantinople, Patriarch Bartholomew, has stated he believes Orthodox re-union with the Catholic Church is inevitable.
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