c. 2000 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Taking full responsibility for a controversial Vatican document on the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II expressed hope Sunday (Oct. 1) that it will serve to clarify the position of the church and prevent dialogue with other faiths from degenerating into “empty verbosity.”

In reporting the pope’s statement on Monday (Oct. 2), L’Osservatore Romano leveled a highly unusual attack on Cardinal Edward Cassidy, the prelate in charge of ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, for criticizing the language and tone of the document in interviews last week.

Without mentioning Cassidy by name, the newspaper said strong reservations had been expressed within the church about the “Declaration Dominus Iesus,” issued Sept. 5 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“Interviews and declarations released by anyone on a document that invites all Christians to renew their adhesion to Christ in the joy of faith fall into a void,” the newspaper said.

Noting that John Paul said Sunday he had approved the declaration “in a special form,” L’Osservatore Romano said the pontiff had spoken “clear and solemn, definitively illuminating words.”

The declaration asserts only the Catholic Church offers the certainty of salvation through Jesus, and that with the exception of the Orthodox churches, other Christian denominations are “ecclesial communities” rather than churches while non-Christian faiths are gravely defective.

When the declaration was released it created a firestorm of controversy, especially among Anglican and Protestant Christian churches who have spent decades in dialogue with the Vatican. While acknowledging the document did not break new ground on the issue of the church’s view of salvation, critics _ including some inside the church _ said its tone and timing tended to undermine ecumenical progress and call into question the Vatican’s real attitude about non-Catholic churches.

The Vatican was forced to cancel a scheduled Catholic-Jewish dialogue in Italy after the Jewish participants withdrew in the wake of the statement.

At an interreligious meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, in the aftermath of the statement’s release, Cassidy took pains to distance himself from it and was reported as having told participants that because the pope had not signed it, the statement was less significant than his 1995 encyclical on ecumenism.

The pope, however, voiced his strong defense of the much-criticized declaration during the Angelus prayer after a solemn Mass at which he proclaimed 123 new saints. As on two earlier occasions since the document was issued, he was, nevertheless, at pains to underline the church’s commitment to dialogue.

To state the unique role of Jesus, John Paul said, “is not arrogance that shows contempt toward other religions.”

The pope said the declaration, building on the Second Vatican Council, shows that “salvation is not denied to non-Christians, but it points to Christ as the ultimate source” of salvation.

“The document clarifies the essential Christian elements, which do not serve as an obstacle to dialogue but show its basis because dialogue without foundations would be destined to degenerate into empty verbosity,” he said.

John Paul said that the document also is following in the footsteps of Vatican II when it declares that “the only church of Christ exists in the Catholic Church.”

“It does not intend to express little consideration for other churches and ecclesial communities,” he said. “The Catholic Church suffers, as the document says, because of the fact that true particular churches and ecclesial communities with precious elements of salvation are separated from it.”

“The document thus expresses once more the same ecumenical passion that is at the basis of my encyclical `Ut Unum Sint.’ And it is my hope that after so many mistaken interpretations, this declaration, which is close to my heart, may finally carry out its function of clarifying and at the same time providing an opening (to dialogue),” he said.

In the 1995 encyclical on the church’s commitment to ecumenism, the pope said he was willing to review the role of the papacy. The Orthodox and Protestant churches do not accept papal primacy.

DEA END POLK