Catholic Church must be more conciliar, ecumenists say

Published: 2005-09-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- If the papacy is to be exercised in a way that serves Christian unity better, the Catholic Church must become more conciliar, with broader participation at all levels in church governance, several ecumenists said at forum Sept. 26 at Georgetown University. "Hierarchy without conciliarity is tyranny. ... Conciliarity without hierarchy is anarchy," said Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, a veteran ecumenist and dean emeritus of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y. The forum, convened by the Woodstock Theological Center to mark the 30th anniversary of its founding at Georgetown, was titled "Re-envisioning the Papacy." The ecumenical scholars were responding to the 1995 invitation of the late Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical on Christian unity, asking church leaders and theologians to "engage in a patient and fraternal dialogue" about new ways papal primacy could be exercised that would make the pope's ministry more effective in advancing Christian unity.

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