THE LATE ABBE COUTURIER

Some Rectifications
SIR,-Wc have been privileged for sonic time to read weekly your splendid newspaper and have many occasions to admire its content and editing. But I trust that you will not take it amiss if we make a few observations on an article which appeared in your May 22nd issue. bearing the title : "The late Abbe Couturier; Fighter for Christian Unity." It is not with the intention of casting reflections on a zealous priest that we write this, but only in the interests of accuracy and truth.
Relative to the origin of the Octave, the facts are these : The Rev. Spencer Jones and the Rev. Paul James Francis Wattson, S.A., were Anglican clergymen of the Papalist school. In the course of correspondence which took place the Rev. Jones suggested that sonic day should be chosen for special prayers and sermons on Christian Unity and indicated June 29th (SS. Peter and Paul) as his preference; Father Paul made another suggestion which was ultimately adopted, namely, that the period between January IS and 25 be chosen instead. In 1908, the first "Octave" was observed. As events turned out. Father Paul and his community, the -Society of the Atonement," were received into the Catholic Church on October 30. 1909 (not 1911).
Relative to the observance of the Octave, the facts are these: Through the activities of Father Paul and his community, the Octave has spread all over the world and not mainly among Anglicans. It received the approval of Blessed Pius X at the time of the community's entrance into the Church. Pope Benedict XV in 1916 enriched it with indulgences, and the favour of the Holy See has served to promote it further ever since those days. On December of the past year Pope Pius XII in his encyclical, "Orientalcs Ecclesias," urged the spread of the Octave. So, the Chair of Unity Octave is not mainly an Anglican movement, but a Catholic movement.
Relative to the purpose of the Octave: When a Catholic prays for the reunion of Christendom he can have no other object than die return of all baptised persons to communion with the Holy Sec; every papal directive on reunion work stresses this fact. The Octave, as promoted by the Society of the Atonement, has never veered from this objective. Further, the Octave, as promoted by the community, does not envision the formal corporate reunion of the Anglican communion with the Holy See (even though the Papalist Anglicans do promote this objective). It is not according to truth and charity to give countenance to an objective which is illusory and which serves to keep people out of the Church who give indications of sufficient light to enter it. The only way to foster the reunion of Christendom in so far as Protestants are concerned is to secure great numbers of individual conversions; if they are really working for union with the Holy See and are in possession of full Catholic Faith, they will fulfill the purpose of their movement by their own conversion.
Relative to Abbe Couturier : hi 1932, on the occasion of a visit to the Benedictine Priory at Amay, Belgium, he discovered the Chair of Unity Octave, Shortly thereafter he drew up an idea of a "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity" using the same period and the same official prayer. It was a diluted form of the Octave in which the objective was clouded by Vagueness. giving the impression of working for some kind of unity in general; this was more acceptable to Protestants as would be expected. This type of procedure, however, does not quite seem to correspond with the instructions of the Holy Sec and, indeed, the "imprudent irenicism" referred to by Pope Pius XII would seem to issue from such an approach. A careful reading of the Instruction of the Holy Office of December 20. 1949, will reveal a confirmation of the Chair of Unity Octave position as distinguished from the approach of Abbe Couturier's "Week" : ". . . Certain attempts, that are being designated by diverse names in different countries, have hitherto been made by various persons, either individually or in groups, to effect a reconciliation of dissident Christians with the Catholic Church. Such initiatives, however, do not always rest upon correct principles, although inspired by the best of intentions, and even when sprung from sound principles they do not avoid besetting particular dangers, as past experience has shown. . . . Bishops will not allow recourse to a perilous mode of speaking which engenders false notions and raises deceitful hopes that can never be fulfilled. . . . The whole and entire body of Catholic doctrine is therefore to be proposed and explained. Nothing embraced in the Catholic truth concerning the true nature and means of justification, the constitution of the Church, the Roman Pontiffs primacy of jurisdiction and the only real union effectuated by a return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ, must he passed over in silence or cloaked under ambiguous language. . . All this must be truly set forth clearly and intelligibly for the double reason that they arc really seeking the truth and that outside the truth no true union can ever be attained." So, without prejudice to his goodness of character and zeal, we would say with St. Paul : "If the trumpet give forth an uncertain sound. who will prepare for battle?" (I Corinthians xiv. 8).
(Res.) Edward F. Hanahoe, S.A., National Director, Chair of Unity Octave.
Franciscan Friars of the Atonement,
Graymoor. Garrison, N.Y.