Ecumenical Meeting

On Friday after lunch the Secretariat had arranged for the non-Catholics present to have a meeting with one of the focolarine from Centro Uno. I was expecting to seen Joan Back (aka Pavi), but gather that she is now in Ireland. We had a Lutheran popa who could share her experience of being the only non-Catholic in her focolare in Centro Uno. Apart from Anthea and me (Fiona) there were four Reformed Dutch Volunteers, and two or three Catholic Dutch Volunteers who work in ecumenical settings. One, for instance, is married to a Reformed Christian and lives in the Mariapolis Centre. We were joined by some Volunteers from Spain, mainly Barcelona, and one or two from Italy who were interested in ecumenism. We met in the Ecumenical Chapel, behind the main chapel of the Mariapolis Centre for an hour. We were joined by Dagmar from Germany who is now one of the Volunteers with Patience in the Secretariat.
After introducing ourselves we were asked whether we had any particular thoughts on the theme of the Eucharist, anything that was difficult for us as non-Catholics. Maria from Holland started off by saying that she didn't like the idea of our bodies being Eucharist for the Earth, or redeeming the earth, as it can lead to a disregard for ecology. She regarded the Movement as a whole as very backward in taking on ecological concerns, and that if we have the idea that we do our bit for creation by receiving the Eucharist and then being buried, we are ignoring the pressing need to be responsible for ecological issues now, in our daily lives. I shared that I also didn't like this part of the theme, not because I don't understand what Chiara was saying - differences are often presented as difficulties of comprehension rather than interpretation. I understand that it is not official Catholic teaching, but is in line with a form of materialism that was also evident when I visited Chiara's tomb yesterday (more of that later, I love it really but as an observer, it doesn't resonate personally). I see the earth as the body of God, to use a common metaphor, already divinised as it always was and will ever be. The incarnation was for us as human beings. Other species and parts of creation have their own trajectory.  It is human beings who needed Christ to incarnate in Jesus. Maybe rocks and sheep, trees and rivers, have their own incarnate deities, but I doubt they need them in the way we do. They are probably better at fulfilling the role for which they were created. It transpired that this was the one sticking point for all the non-Catholics present, for similar reasons. I wonder whether this is the case more widely or only for the small group of us here?

The other issue that was common to all the non-Catholics present was a sense of hurt and sadness that when Catholic friends from the Movement attend their services they feel the need to go to mass as well. It is a clear way of saying that God is not also present in that service, or that form of worship, and that they are attending out of love or friendship, but not as a religious act. This is unintentionally quite offensive, although most of those there had never said as much before, and would probably not raise it outside of this sort of space. The problem was more acute since the renewal of barriers to intercommunion.

 It was much appreciated to have this time together, although also sad that we are so few. Whether it is getting harder to bring non-Catholics into the Movement is a mystery at the moment. I can only speak for myself, but I find the current official RC attitudes to LGBT issues, and things like the place of divorced and remarried Christians, do present a formidable barrier to non-Catholics, or at least the liberal ones I usually mix with. The meeting did highlight the value for us of having a separate space, although we know that many of our Catholic Volunteers would also welcome a forum like this.

The other point we talked about was the importance of language. When warmly welcomed by Friederike on the first day we were referred to as 'people of other religions'. We have been around long enough not to take offence, but it remains inappropriate and could certainly be taken the wrong way be newer people. Dagmar too this point and said that she would feed it back. There is a growing sensitivity of the need to be careful in how we use language, brought about mainly by contacts with Islam. The fact several Catholics felt the need to join us so as to understand non-Catholics better was lovely, and something quite new for me at least.