One of the first things I learned about the pope in theology school was that the office of the papacy is ordered towards the unity of the entire church. That the pope, by virtue of his office, has a charism for unity — a gift that comes with a call. Today, through the wonders of the internet, I witnessed an extraordinary1 exercise of that charism by Pope Francis.
The screenshot above is from the Ecumenical Prayer Vigil held in Rome on the evening of September 30, as preparation for the Catholic Church’s third stage of the Synod on Synodality. I gather that the inspiration and much of the planning for this prayer service came from Taize: an ecumenical monastic community in France, explicitly not a Catholic monastery, which hosts pilgrims from all over the world, especially young people, who come to pray together. Taize is best known for the particular style of song that it uses: ostinato refrains, in Latin, with verses in varying languages.2
What you see there, from the close of the prayer service, lined up in a row near the top of the central aisle, is Pope Francis in white, seated in his wheelchair in the center, together with the leaders of other Christian churches who participated in the prayer service:
- The Patriarch of Constantinople, head of the Eastern Orthodox church.
- The Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria.
- The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican communion.
- The head of the Old Catholic church, which formed in response to Vatican 1.
- Representatives from a number of additional Eastern and Orthodox churches.
- The head of the World Council of Churches, the institutional embodiment of the international ecumenical movement, now more than a century old.
- The president of the Lutheran World Federation: a clergywoman, in her collar.
- Leaders from the Pentecostal World Fellowship, the World Evangelical Alliance, the World Methodist Council, the World Baptist Alliance.
All assembled, by Pope Francis’ invitation, to join him in the closing gesture of blessing the crowds, at the end of the final prayer.
Many of the prayers in the vigil contained a symbolic component, and I believe this was a symbol of Francis’ closing address to the assembly. It wasn’t long; he made three clear points, and I recall that he mentioned that Jesus prayed for the unity of the church. This was about 8 hours ago, and I don’t have the text in front of me, but I think the basic vibe3 of the speech was, What if we just started to act like it?
What if we just started to act like it. What if we just… acted like one family, one church, all the Christian traditions, like we did here, today. What if the next step on the road to unity is to… just… act as if it’s true?
This is extraordinary.
In that same ecclesiology class, we spent some time pondering what the role of the Pope would be, in a united church. If there would be no ecumenism of return, all the wandering sheep obediently coming back home to Rome — which was explicitly rejected at Vatican 2 in favor of a recognition of the real though partial unity of baptism — then what would the Pope do? Would he be a spiritual leader? A figurehead? How could the papal charism of unity be exercised? What would it look like?
Maybe it looks like this.
I note that a decision to just start acting as if it’s true would be quite consistent with the experience of the United and Uniting Churches formed during the 70s or thereabouts, when the ecumenical movement had a particularly energetic burst. I researched them for one of my ecclesiology papers, and in almost every successful case, the decision to be united came first, and the details were hammered out to make it so. I remember one case in particular, a Uniting Church forming from traditions that had different practices around baptism: some held to infant baptism, while others held to believer’s baptism as an adult. How can you be one church if you can’t even agree on how the most basic initiation rite should be celebrated?? Well, it wasn’t easy, and it took time and effort, but they found a way, because the important thing was to be one church, and they weren’t going to let this stop them.4
The opening prayer today was Adsumus, Sancte Spiritus, which the Vatican News commentators noted is traditionally prayed over the Council Fathers when a church council is convened. By Pope Francis’ request, the traditional text was set to a simpler melody, so that all those assembled could participate in the sung prayer. After this vigil, the Synodal Fathers and Mothers were heading off to a three day retreat, a time of prayer, reflection, and most importantly, listening to the Holy Spirit in preparation for the Synod.
Please pray for them, and for our one, holy, small-c catholic, and apostolic church in all its many forms, that this Synod on Synodality may produce an abundant harvest of good fruit.
Gracious God, we pray for your holy catholic church.
Fill it with your truth; keep it in your peace.
Where it is corrupt, reform it.
Where it is in error, correct it.
Where it is right, defend it.
Where it is in want, provide for it.
Where it is divided, reunite it;
for the sake of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
- In the colloquial sense of “extraordinary”, which is a word that sometimes has a technical meaning in church discussions. ↩︎
- Yes, Latin. No, it’s really not a stealth Catholic community. Latin lets them avoid choosing a modern language which some visitors would know and some wouldn’t. ↩︎
- This is the vibe I got, based on my far from perfect recollection, of what Francis was gesturing at. He did not say those words, please don’t go off and tell people that he said those words. I’ll post a followup at some point after I have the text in hand and have done a close read. ↩︎
- Basically, they agreed that families could decide how their children would be baptized, and clergy would sub for each other if the local priest’s conscience wouldn’t permit him to preside: respecting consciences all around. ↩︎
Gaudete Theology 
Thank you for this bit of good news.