At Synod ecumenical vigil Pope emphasizes link of ‘unity and synodality’

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At Synod ecumenical vigil Pope emphasizes link of ‘unity and synodality’
Marking the anniversary of Vatican II's opening, Pope Francis led Synod participants and ecumenical delegates in a 

prayer vigil at the Vatican, during which the link between Synodality and ecumenism were emphasized.



Michael Haynes

Oct 11, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted]) — Pope Francis joined with ecumenical delegates and participants of the Synod on Synodality in an ecumenical prayer vigil at the Vatican this evening, during which the link between ecumenism and synodality were once more affirmed.

Closing the full day of Synod meetings Friday, October 11, the participants took part in a highly anticipated ecumenical prayer vigil in the Piazza of the Protomartyrs in the Vatican – the traditional site of St. Peter’s martyrdom.

Joining the Pope and the Synod were a number of ecumenical delegates, escorted by Cardinal Kurt Koch who is the prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

The date was deliberate, as it marked the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the opening of which “marked the entry of the Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement,” Koch told reporters Thursday.

Exhibiting a sign of fatigue, Francis skipped his scheduled homily during the vigil, though the Holy See press office later published it online.

Pope Francis Oct 11. Credit: Michael Haynes

In his prepared text, Francis reiterated what has been a consistent and prominent theme throughout the three-year Synod: “Christian unity and synodality are linked.”

“The journey of synodality… is and must be ecumenical, just as the ecumenical journey is synodal,” he said, continuing talking points expounded at length by Cardinal Koch during an October 10 press briefing.

Noting that the Holy Spirit “guides us towards greater communion,” Francis argued that it was not clear what such a unity would resemble:

Just as we do not know beforehand what the outcome of the Synod will be, neither do we know exactly what the unity to which we are called will be like…As Father Paul Couturier used to say, Christian unity must be implored “as Christ wills” and “by the means he wills.”

Francis also emphasized the Synod’s particular aspect of ecumenical relations, saying that the event “is helping us to rediscover the beauty of the Church in the variety of its faces.”

Echoing a commonly repeated phrase of his, Francis said that “unity is not uniformity, or the result of compromise or counterbalance.”

Instead, he stated that “Christian unity is harmony among the diversity of charisms awakened by the Spirit for the building up of all Christians.”

Synod and ecumenical attendees at the Oct 11 Vigil. Credit: Michael Haynes




Synod and ecumenical attendees at the Oct 11 Vigil. Credit: Michael Haynes

Not just the date but also the location for the vigil was pivotal. Francis and the entire ecumenical assembly were seated in the square where Tradition records that St. Peter was martyred, crucified upside down. “In this place, the Roman protomartyrs remind us that today too, in many parts of the world, Christians of different traditions are laying down their lives together for their faith in Jesus Christ, embodying an ecumenism of blood,” commented Francis.

He also spoke of “shame” at the “scandal of division among Christians, the scandal of our failure to bear common witness to the Lord Jesus.”

Francis presented the Synod as a possible solution to this, and as “an opportunity to do better, to overcome the walls that still exist between us.”

Once again employing themes from the Synod, Francis emphasized the “common ground of our shared Baptism, which prompts us to become missionary disciples of Christ, with a common mission. The world needs our common witness; the world needs us to be faithful to our common mission.”

While the “common ground of Baptism” was tonight referenced in an ecumenical endeavor, in the Synod it is also being used to call for increased lay ministry and governance in the Catholic Church.


Ceremony drawing from Vatican II texts

The ceremony itself comprised an opening hymn, followed by a “litany of praise” which was formed of sections read aloud from Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, each suffixed by a prayer of intercession.

Then came a reading from Isiah (25:6-8) and Psalm 122, before a reading from John’s Gospel (17:20-26). This Gospel text is the Scriptural passage so often used in ecumenical endeavors, and almost always truncated in its use to further aid ecumenical unity. During the vigil the passage was read in full, though in Francis’ prepared homily it was truncated in customary fashion – pointing simply to unity rather than unity in the Catholic Church.

Credit: Michael Haynes




Credit: Michael Haynes

After abbreviated versions of the Gospel were repeated in Portugese, Chinese, Swahili, Arabic, Malayalam there came another sung chant before the “prayers of intercession,” which consisted of six paragraphs read from Vatican II’s decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, each suffixed with a prayer of intercession.

In the place of his homily, Francis led a joint recital of the Our Father, before delivering a closing blessing in English.


Catholic ecumenism

In recent years since the Council, Catholic involvement in ecumenism has grown exponentially, while correspondingly the Church’s promotion of the faith has greatly diminished.

As taught by the catechisms, authentic Catholic ecumenism involves enacting the command of Christ to preach the Gospel and bring souls to the Church. (Matt 28:19)

Pope Leo XIII in Libertas, referring to the Church’s relationship with other religions, wrote that the Catholic Church tolerates “certain modern liberties, not because she prefers them in themselves but because she judges it expedient to permit them, she would in happier times exercise her own liberty; and, by persuasion, exhortation, and entreaty would endeavor, as she is bound, to fulfill the duty assigned to her by God of providing for the eternal salvation of mankind.”

Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos also firmly warned against the “false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule.”

In light of the – formerly regularly noted – danger of the consequences of faulty ecumenism, a 1949 Vatican decree from the Holy Office instructed bishops charged with promoting true ecumenism to draw souls to the Church, and that they must always teach the fullness of the Church’s priority. The document read:

By no means is it permitted to pass over in silence or to veil in ambiguous terms the Catholic truth regarding the nature and way of justification, the constitution of the Church, the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, and the only true union by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ.

Current practice from the Vatican is much more conciliatory than in previous decades, prioritizing ecumenical unity over the prior practice of doctrinal integrity.