CHURCH REUNION.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 February 1928, Page 4

CHURCH REUNION.

"I HUMAN CATHOLIC ATTITUDE. *- AUCKLAND, Feb. ”7. The attitude taken by the Homan > Catholic Church toward the question of reunion was outlined by llishop Liston I in the course of a sermon at St. Uene- : diet’s Church. Dr Liston said that Homan Catholics gladly recognised that many who did not belong to the Church visibly belonged to its soul, because they lived * faithful to the light of conscience. 1 “ Vet the fact remains,” the llishop ' said, ‘‘that Christ wished His Church to he a family, a society, visibly one 1 for all the world to see, and seeing to * sav that Christ must lie God. The ■ conditions which the Homan Catholic Church holds essential for the reunion 1 of Christendom are set forth in an en--1 cyclical letter of Pope Leo XI Il’s to 1 the bishops of the Church '(.June 2!), ’ 189(1). The Pope used the Apostolic ' charity of honest speech and plain dealing, and the “London Times” spoke of the statement as dignified, temperate and charitable. The union of the several Christian communities could he brought about, not by compromise or amalgamation or federation hut by prayer and acceptance of the lull teaching of Christ. The Divine Teacher had left only one body of truths and commands, and there could lie only one meaning in them. Heunion meant submission lo Him and His teaching. This, in turn, meant acceptance of the obedience to. the Homan Catholic Church in spiritual matters, for Roman Catholics believed —and they could not claim to he the Church of Christ if they did not believe—that the Homan Catholic Church alone was made by Christ, did His work and spoke unerringly for Him and by His authority. ■'Heunion for us means return to the constitutional union that existed before the break-up of Western Chritendom in the sixteenth century,” de- I dared the bishop. “Until then every nation of Western Christendom accepted the authority of the See ot Peter, and there was constitutional, corporate. visible union between the Chun IPs visible head, the Pope, and its members. The Homan Catholic Church is free to admit changes and modifications in her own discipline, liturgy and legislation, hut the Pope holds his place by Divine appointment, and recognition of that is essential. Ornntof these three conditions, the Church ' will leave nothing undone to make | smooth the return path to Christ’s one fold.”