Roman Catholic Church

Ecumenical Service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Joel, Dominik & Dušan — From l. to r; Mgr Joel Ruml, Archbishop Dominik Duka, Bishop Dušan Hejbal leading the Ecumenical Service © Aleš Cejka and used with his permission

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place each year in the northern hemisphere, between 18^th -25^th January. On the evening of Monday 23^rd January, Sybille and I, along with three other members of the St. Clement’s Anglican congregation, attended the main service held in Prague to mark this important week.

This Ecumenical Service was held in Kostel sv. Vojtecha, a large modern Church attached the Roman Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University. It was led by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Prague, Dominik Duka and the preacher was Mgr. Joel Ruml, the Moderator of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, (by far the largest Protestant Church in the Czech Republic), who is also the Chair of the Czech Ecumenical Council. They were assisted by my Czech boss, Bishop Dušan Hejbal of the Old Catholic Church, who is also Vice-Chair of the Czech Ecumenical Council.

Members of various other smaller Czech Churches also took part by reading from scripture and in leading intercessions. It was noticeable that amongst all of these there was only one woman! Obviously the service was all in Czech so I didn’t understand too much though I did get the response to Psalm 122. ‘Do domu Hospodinova pujdeme s radostí’ – ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord with joy’.

I was disappointed that at the end of the service, the host Roman Catholic Church had made no provision of light refreshments to encourage those who attended to stay around for post-service fellowship. Also, there was no opportunity to meet with the various Church leaders who had taken part – they all just processed out during the last verse of the last hymn and disappeared! Thus there was sadly, little opportunity to build good ecumenical relationships.

The other matter that saddened me was the actual way the service was officially organised. The invitation to attend came jointly from the Czech Ecumenical Council and the (Roman Catholic) Czech Bishops’ Conference. The reason for this is that the Roman Catholic Church is only affiliated to the Czech Ecumenical Council, rather than being a full member Church. The evidence of this can be seen on the order of service below. On the left is the logo of the Ecumenical Council, whilst on the right is the logo of the RC Czech Bishops’ Conference.

This situation reflects the official attitude of the Roman Catholic Church in any country where it can be described as the ‘majority Church’, which is the reality in the Czech Republic, even allowing for the general low level of Church attendance and Christian belief that there is here. When the Roman Catholic Church is a minority Church, as it is in England, Wales & Scotland, then it chooses to become a full member of the national ecumenical body.

This is not a criticism of individual Roman Catholics, many of whom are very ecumenically minded. Nor is it a criticism of Archbishop Duka himself as I have a great admiration for him as he spent time in prison during the Communist era, because of his underground Church activities. I’ve twice previously had the privilege of meeting him and found him warm and very supportive towards the English-speaking Anglican Church in Prague.

Rather, it is a criticism of the official view that emanates from Rome, which is that it alone is the Catholic (i.e. universal) Church and that the only way to bring about Christian unity is for everybody to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church! Sadly, under the current Pope, that attitude is unlikely to change.

Encouragingly, there are movements within Roman Catholicism that are calling for change such as ‘We are the Church ‘and the Pfarrer Initiative in Austria. I think there are one or two more blog posts coming shortly to address these issues. Watch this space!

Some reflections on the Croat-Serb Conflict

Catholic Church in Karlovac with partially repaired war damage © Ricky Yates

I’m sorry for the two week delay in posting my final piece about our time in Croatia. Since being back in Prague we’ve had a succession of visitors which has left little time for blogging!

We spent the night of Monday 20^th July, our last in Croatia, in the town of Karlovac. Although considerable work has been done to repair the damage caused to buildings in Karlovac during the 1991-95 conflicts that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, there still remains much to do.

The picture on the left is of part of the outside wall of a Roman Catholic Church attached to a Franciscan Monastery in the centre of the town. You can clearly see where holes caused by bullets and shrapnel have been filled in at lower levels whilst higher up, they remain un-repaired. Within the nave of this Church there were three modern stained-glass windows, presumably replacing ones damaged beyond repair during the fighting.

Orthodox Church Seminary & Admin Offices in Karlovac © Ricky Yates — Orthodox Church Seminary and Administrative Offices in Karlovac © Ricky Yates

Sign on Orthodox Church building in Karlovac © Ricky Yates

However, on another street corner not very far away, was this completely boarded up building that had clearly also been badly damaged in the conflict. The plaque on wall offered a partial explanation in Croatian, English and German. Until the ‘Croatian War of Independence’, it had served as an Orthodox Seminary and the administrative headquarters for the Orthodox Church in the surrounding area. The sign acknowledged that the building had been badly damaged in the war, but offered no further explanation as to why nothing has been done to repair it since.

The explanation unfortunately lies in the division between West and East that took place in the history of the Christian Church more than a thousand years ago. The division between Rome and Constantinople, between Roman Catholic and Orthodox which in turn is, the division between Roman Catholic Croat and Orthodox Serb. As with the area around Knin, when the Croatian army regained full control of Karlovac and the surrounding area, the vast majority of the Serb Orthodox population were either driven out or chose to flee. There is therefore now very little of the Serbian Orthodox Church functioning in Croatia so far as I could ascertain.

Much as we both enjoyed our time in Croatia, I did feel that this situation is a very bad reflection on Christianity as whole, regardless of different traditions. Christians ought to be at the heart of the important work of reconciliation. Instead, it seems that the respective Churches have allowed themselves to be far too closely associated with ardent nationalism.

The Roman Catholic Church is remarkably strong in Croatia. But I very much sense that this is in part due to its close association with the resurgence of the Croatian national identity which has shown very little concern for any minorities. Likewise, the Serbian Orthodox Church has been very much at the heart of the rise of Serbian nationalism with once more, very little concern for non-Serbs. This phenomenon is unfortunately not unique to the former Yugoslavia. The Russian Orthodox Church, seeking to recover from its suppression during the Soviet Communist era, is now very strongly associated with the rise of Russian nationalism and shows very little tolerance for anyone of a different persuasion.

Of course, these are the reflections of an outsider on a two week visit. There may be groups of Christians on either side of the divide who are working to bring about reconciliation. I hope there are! For whilst many buildings have been or are in process of being repaired, many lives have be irreparably damaged. The Christian Church, regardless of tradition, ought to be playing its part in bringing healing to the lives of those on both sides of the Croat-Serb divide, who have suffered so much as a result of this conflict.