APPENDIX III:
STUDY DOCUMENT ON CATHOLICITY AND APOSTOLICITY

1. In 1966, the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches decided that a Joint Theological Commission be formed "to study the fundamental issues that continually arise between the Roman Catholic Church and the other Churches" (first Report of the Joint Working Group, 7). It suggested that the Commission should examine the general theme "Catholicity and Apostolicity". The Commission was appointed in the following year. Its work has been organized by the Secretariat of the Commission on Faith and Order and by the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome.
   
   The Commission consisted of the following members:

World Council of Churches

Prof. S.C. Agourides
Prof. Jean Bosc
Dr. J.N.D. Kelly
Prof. John Meyendorff
Prof. Paul Minear
Prof. Wolfhart Pannenberg
Rev. Dr. Lukas Vischer
Prof. Claude Welch
Dr. J.D. Zizioulas

Roman Catholic Church

Prof. Giuseppe Alberigo
Rev. Raymond Brown, S.S.
Rev. Fr. François Dreyfus, O.P.
Rev. Alexandre Ganoczy
Rev. Fr. Jérôme Hamer, O.P.
Dom Emmanuel Lanne, O.S.B.
Rev. Umberto Neri
Rev. Prof. Dr. R. Schnackenburg
Rev. Prof. Jan Witte, S.J.

The Commission has held three meetings (at Nemi, Rome, May 19-24, 1967; at Oud-Poelgeest, Holland, December 16-20, 1967; and in Rome, May 31 - June 5, 1968). The following papers were prepared and discussed:

• Apostolicity — Present State of Studies (R. Schnackenburg)
• The Catholicity of the Church (J. Bosc)
• Historical Relativism and the Authority of Christian Dogma (J. Meyendorff)
• Pluralism and Unity — Possibility of Different "Typologies" within the Same Ecclesial Allegiance (E. Lanne)
• Ministry, Episcopacy, Primacy (A. Ganoczy)
• Some Theses on the Sacramentality of the Church (in connection with Catholicity and Apostolicity) J. L. Witte)
• Local Church: Catholicity and Apostolicity (E. Lanne)
• The Role of Eschatology in Understanding the Apostolicity and Catholicity of the Church (W. Pannenberg)
• ‘"Catholic" and "Apostolic" in the Early Centuries' (J. N. D. Kelly).¹

 

During its third meeting the Commission decided to suspend its work and prepare a study document for publication with a view to promoting continuation of the theological dialogue on these points. It is this document which is presented here.

This study document is not a joint statement, neither is it a doctrinal consensus nor a status quaestionis; it is essentially a tool in the service of joint research. This compilation deals with a series of important themes which it is proposed that theologians should study in depth and examine critically. It has been put together by the above-named interconfessional team. No member of the team will identify himself with the entire document presented here in which widely-divergent views stand side by side, but all are fully agreed in commending it to the attention of competent theologians.

The compilation is in two parts. Part One gives a new description of the two concepts of ‘Catholicity' and ‘Apostolicity'. Part Two consists of a number of appendices dealing with certain special aspects of the general problem.

Part One seeks to focus attention on elements frequently neglected in theological discussion. While the old differences remain, it is possible today to see them in a new light permitting us to discern possibilities of progress.

With a necessarily limited time available for its work, the Commission devoted more time to Part One than to Part Two. Thus each of the appendices was entrusted to a single member. Its text was carefully discussed by the group but each author was responsible for embodying the result of this discussion in bis own version. Thus, although anonymous, each of the appendices is ‘personal'. In theological approach and in style, this Part Two, far more than Part One, bears the imprint of the authors who drafted the various fragments.

It should also be noted that this compilation was made before the Uppsala Assembly, Section I of which produced a report on ‘The Holy Spirit and the Catholicity of the Church'. Some have pointed out that the two texts cannot be read independently and that it would be useful to compare them and at some time to integrate them. Quite clearly, however, they differ appreciably in character: one is the report of a full Assembly of the World Council of Churches, approved in substance by the Assembly and commended to the Churches for study and appropriate action; the other is a study document which the Joint Theological Commission on ‘Catholicity and Apostolicity' was asked to produce by the Joint Working Group between the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church ‘to study the fundamental issues that continually arise between the Roman Catholic Church and the other Churches'. It is still true that in studying the present compilation the Uppsala Section I report cannot be ignored.

ENDNOTES

1. In speaking of Joint Action for Mission, the World Council of Churches distinguishes presently three degrees of missionary collaboration: surveying the possibilities of missionary action, joint planning; and joint action. The meaning of common witness is wider than that of joint action for mission.

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