Unity & Rome

From the Vatican last month came a strongly worded warning to Roman Catholics: they must not participate in religious conferences, prayers or worship with non-Catholics, without special permission from Rome. As the Protestant world prepared for this summer's great conference of 140-odd church groups in Amsterdam,* the repercussions still rumbled.

In his pulpit at Manhattan's Calvary Church, Episcopal Rector Samuel M. Shoemaker said: "Many of us non-Roman Christians have great respect for the present Pope, and respect also some of the stringencies of the Roman system . . . But if there cannot even be conference, with a view to better understanding one another, where differences may be frankly aired and honestly considered, then we are forced to say that, by its own admission, the Roman Catholic communion is simply another totalitarianism demanding complete submission from everyone else as the only condition of fellowship."

Churchmen of all faiths were beginning to suspect that the movement toward a united Protestantism might paradoxically increase the scandal of Christian disunity by making the cleavage between Protestant and Catholic sharper than ever. But others, like Italian Waldensian Leader Jean Gonnet, felt that the Vatican would be just as happy about the Protestant movement toward unity as the most ecumenically minded Protestant. Said Professor Gonnet: "Rome is well pleased to see other Christians marching towards unity, because in her opinion this will inevitably lead to a return to the fold under one sole shepherd--the Pope."

* To which the Church of Rome will send an official "observer."

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