ECUMENISM AS A WAY OF LIFE

CATHOLIC HERALD REPORTER
-ECUMENISM must no longer be regarded as a pastime for cranks, writes Archbishop Heenan of Westminster in the February issue of the Cathedral Chronicle.
Clergy and faithful must now accept—what two Popes have said plainly — that practical ecumenism is to be made part of our Catholic way of life, he adds.
Archbishop Heenan says that English Catholics have not hitherto felt any urge to approach the Eastern Churches. Our Anglican brethren, on the other hand, have been seeking contact with the Orthodox for more than fifty years.
"It would be ironic but splendid," Archbishop Heenan adds, if the Eastern Christians were to become instrumental in drawing their separated brethren of the West more closely together."
ACADEMIC WORLD
Archbishop Heenan adds that ecumenism has so far mainly attracted those living in the academic world. These were least likely to be able to present it to the faithful, who were rightly jealous for the Faith and recoiled from any attempt to soften the lines of difference between the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations.
"The time has come for priests with pastoral experience to lead their people gently in the direction in which the Holy Father is calling us," he adds. "They must be reminded of our common duty as loyal children of the Church to make earnest efforts to cooperate with other Christians of goodwill."