Church and State: History and Ecumenism in the Modern Era

Posted on Jan 31, 2025 in Religion

History of the Church in the Contemporary Age

The Relations of Church and State in the Contemporary Age

The Church has had to carry out its mission in very different environments and situations:

  • Living with countries anchored in absolutism
  • With liberal or conservative political regimes
  • Relations with countries seething with revolutionary or authoritarian governments

Major Events

The Enlightenment

  • Criticized the Church’s power
  • Relativized the Christian revelation
  • Cried out against ignorance and religious superstition
  • Proclaimed the necessity of tolerance and freedom of conscience in religious matters
  • Reason is the only way that leads to truth and progress
  • Man is good by nature; bad laws and society corrupt him. Man moves from God and becomes the very heart of everything
  • The past is a hindrance to mankind; the main culprit is the Church

The French Revolution

  • The Rights of Man and of the Citizen
  • The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, to control the Church, all ecclesiastics had to swear. This supposed:
    • The loss of the privileges the clergy had enjoyed
    • The suppression of religious orders and seizure of property
    • The election of parish priests and bishops by their municipalities

Ecumenism

Ecumenism is an interfaith religious movement that aims to promote Christian unity.

  • Monophysites: They refused to accept that heretics had two natures in Jesus Christ: divine and human.
  • Nestorians: 5th-century heresy spread by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who professed the existence of two separate persons in Christ, the divine nature and the human.

How Ecumenism is Born

In 1910, several Protestant churches met in Edinburgh to try to resolve the scandal caused by the division of churches in mission areas. These churches, little by little, approached their doctrinal and pastoral positions and in 1948 founded the World Council of Churches. Its objectives were to live the brotherhood between the churches, equality, and dialogue to eventually work towards forming one Church.

The Second Vatican Council

Pope Pius XII died in 1958. He was succeeded by John XXIII who, at 77 years old, shocked the world with his humor, humanity, and simplicity. He was known as the “Good Pope.”

On January 25, 1962, he announced the conclusion of an ecumenical council, with these objectives:

  • The renovation and adaptation of the Church to better perform its mission in today’s world.
  • To achieve dialogue and Christian unity.

On October 11, 1962, John XXIII inaugurated the council but could not finish it, as he died on June 3, 1963. Paul VI continued with the second stage of the council on September 29, 1963.

Paul VI finished the council on December 8, 1963, fulfilling the prophetic gesture of John XXIII: to bring the Church into contemporary society.

On the Roads of Dialogue

Since the end of the Second Vatican Council (1965), great progress has been made in dialogue and meetings with our separated brethren:

  • Popes Paul VI and John Paul II have spoken with all the churches.
  • The Church has entered the World Council of Churches.
  • There is collaboration and dialogue about texts (ecumenical Bible) and common documents (on the Eucharist, the monasteries, etc.).
  • In many places, shared pastoral duties are carried out and efforts are made towards the same causes: justice, human rights, peace, ecology, etc.