Let's Get Together

Fifty years ago John F. Kennedy was running for the Presidency of the United States of America.  He was a young, attractive and intelligent senator from Massachussets. However, he was a member of a group which had so far been unsuccessful in seeking the nation's  highest office --- he was a Catholic. This had  not  disqualified him from serving is the Navy and risking his life in his country's service in World War II, but for many citizens it barred him from the Presidency. Catholics were "second-class citizens."


Catholics also had their bigots. The strident preaching of Fr. Leonard Feeney in Boston assured his audience that all non-Catholics, and especially Jews, were going straight to hell. His thesis was undermined by a papal document on the Mystical Body of Christ published in 1943; Feeney was finally silenced by Cardinal Cushing in 1953.

Essentially, the Catholic Church taught that salvation is through Jesus Christ and depends on the individual's relationship with God, not with the visible Church. John Kennedy grew up during the Feeney years and was undoubtedly clear about the difference when he faced an audience of ministers to reassure them that his election would not subject them to "Rome rule."

Vatican II changed our understanding of the differences between Catholics and other Christians. The Decree on Ecumenism was clear: "All those who have been justified by faith in Baptism, are incorporated into Christ, they..... are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church." Another document said, "The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of the faithful, which are also quite appropriately called churches in the New Testament."

Ecumenical activity takes many forms. Various official Church groups study and pray together to achieve clearer understanding of our doctrinal differences. Common undetandings on certain beliefs have been established and differences on others clarified.  Christians come together in local assemblies from time to time to pray together and to achieve a better understanding of their different traditions. And much more often local churches cooperate or combine their efforts to serve the outcasts, the homeless, the poor with whom Christ identifies.  In doing so they often realize that they are the recipients of far more than they can ever give.