The role of the Bishop of Rome in ecumenical dialogue

By Jean-Charles Putzolu

The study document of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity "The Bishop of Rome" was first presented on June 13, 2024 in its Italian version. The release of the French edition, published by Cerf, provided a platform for Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant representatives involved in the Synod to engage in a discussion on the primacy of the Successor of Peter.

Starting from Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint,  the document  which was prepared by Dicastery experts with the support of about fifty consultors, gathers almost all ecumenical dialogue texts from the past thirty years concerning primacy, particularly focusing on the role of the Bishop of Rome in the path toward unity. Dominican theologian Hyacinthe Destivelle, director of the Œcumenicum  of Rome's Angelicum University), coordinated the project. He intended for this collection to be useful to those working on this issue, especially in light of the 25th anniversary of Saint John Paul II's encyclical, and to renew his  invitation  to all Christians and religious leaders to reflect on possible forms of exercising the Petrine ministry as a service of love recognized by all.

Primacy and synodality

At first glance, perhaps too hastily, primacy and synodality seem like contradictory terms. However, advances in ecumenical dialogue have now made them almost inseparable.

According to Father Destivelle, one of the surprises in compiling the fifty documents used to draft the synthesis presented on Thursday evening in Rome is that there is a convergence in all the dialogues and responses to Ut Unum Sint about the necessity of a universal ministry of unity, thus a certain form of primacy.

Reverend Anne Cathy Graber, while not claiming to speak on behalf of all Protestant churches, confirmed this trend, emphasizing that they indeed feel a structural deficiency at the level of global representation. The Mennonite nun noted that "the choice of diversity" is "a fundamental characteristic of Protestantism."

Brother Alois, former Prior of Taizé, whose community experiences ecumenism and diversity daily, explained that "the Pope is a brother who confirms me, and as a community, we need confirmation."

Taizé, as Brother Alois, a Catholic, explained, recognizes "real communion with the Bishop of Rome without formally belonging to the Catholic Church." And while the Roman Pontiff, who has regularly received the priors of Taizé in audience since Paul VI, "confirms" the community, "he is not the only one to do so. We have also received this confirmation from Patriarch Bartholomew."

Learning from one another

Metropolitan Job of Pisidia sees the Synod as a time of mutual learning, beyond the fact that the event is primarily a time for listening. "We all need to learn to make the Church more synodal and to reflect on the practice of primacy, on the significance of this charism, which means being the first among all."

He also highlighted  the link between primacy and synodality: "If we say that the Orthodox are champions of synodality and the Catholics champions of primacy, we separate primacy and synodality, whereas the two must go hand in hand."

So, what form should primacy take? The roundtable  highlighted a form of convergence around the Successor of Peter. Bishop Paul Rouhanna, auxiliary bishop of Joubbé for the Maronites, spoke of the union with Rome of the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches worldwide and "the difficulty of aligning the Eastern Church with a post-Tridentine ecclesiology, where the Bishop of Rome exercises universal jurisdiction over both Latins and Easterners."

The Lebanese bishop expressed the desire of Eastern Churches to "restore some autonomy within the Catholic communion. There are steps to be taken gradually." He also noted that the example of Eastern Catholic Churches could be important for dialogue with the Orthodox.

Father Destivelle noted that "it will probably be necessary to distinguish the functions of the Pope, who is both Bishop of Rome, head of the Latin Church, and therefore primate of the Western Church, but also serves the communion of Churches."

This is precisely one of the suggestions of the document "The Bishop of Rome": to reflect on this distinction so that the Bishop of Rome can genuinely serve the communion of Churches, with his role differing within the Catholic Church and in his service to the communion of Churches in general.

Primacy and communion

Primacy is at the service of communion, the Dominican continued, "and the two are inseparable." They are not two competing principles but "mutually constitutive." In the same way, "both serve the communion between primacy and synodality."

The value of the document “The Bishop of Rome” lies precisely in placing synodality in a broader context, offering a very broad understanding of synodality as the articulation of three great dimensions of the Church: the one, the few, and the many—the primacy of one, the collegiality of the few, and the communal dimension of the "many." Thus, if synodality is understood in this way, "it necessarily integrates primacy, but also collegiality and the communal dimension, allowing synodality to be understood as a dynamic rather than a principle to be balanced with primacy."

The role played by Popes in advancing ecumenical dialogue

The manner in which recent Popes have presented themselves has played a key role in advancing ecumenical dialogue. Anne Cathy Graber recalls John Paul II’s apology in Ut Unum Sint: "For what we are responsible for, I ask for forgiveness, as my predecessor Paul VI did." The Mennonite pastor believes that many things became possible after this statement, such as the significant rapprochement between Catholics and Lutherans.

Pope Francis' first words on the evening of his election on March 13, 2013, before giving his blessing, were: "You know that the task of the Conclave was to give Rome a bishop. [...] The diocesan community of Rome has its bishop." Francis did not refer to himself as Pope, but as Bishop of Rome.

"It is because he is the Bishop of Rome that he is the bishop of the Church that presides in charity, according to the expression of Ignatius of Antioch, and therefore it is this Church that is called to play this particular role of unity for all churches and Christian communion as a whole," explained Father Hyacinthe Destivelle. "The Pope, as Bishop of Rome is thus called to this particular service of unity, which we Catholics believe is part of the essence of his ministry."

In this perspective, a new form of exercising the primacy of the Bishop of Rome before full unity  would even be envisageable.  Orthodox Patriarch Job of Pisidia acknowledged this, and Father Destivelle believes that "this is already what we are experiencing."