French-language journal focuses on the challenge of the one Church
Beirut (AsiaNews) – The Université de St-Joseph (St Joseph University) in Beirut hosted a conference (12-13 November) marking the relocation of Proche-Orient Chrétien (Christian Near East), a journal published by the White Fathers (Society of the Missionaries of Africa) in Jerusalem since 1951, to the Centre de Recherches et de Publications de l'Orient chrétien (Research and Publication Centre on the Christian East, CERPOC), which is part of the university’s Faculty of Religious Studies
“The meeting focused on the challenge of the one Church, as the mission of the ecumenical French-language magazine, and on the evolution of journals like Proche-Orient Chrétien*, Irénikon, Unité chrétienne (Christian Unity), and Istina.
It goes without saying that the fate of Proche-Orient Chrétien touches first and foremost people in the East. In fact, as its counterparts prospered in Europe, the journal, caught up in the uncertainties and turmoil of the Middle East, has directly experienced the history that has troubled the region.
During one of the debates, one of the journal’s former editor, Fr Frans Bouwen, spoke about its particularly rich ecumenical history, one that has been marked historically by the creation of the State of Israel and the Palestinian exodus it provoked, and by the conquest of Jerusalem in 1967 as well as the hazards that this situation has created in terms of people’s mobility, the journal’s distribution, censorship by authoritarian regimes, the fears of its employees working for a journal published under Israeli occupation, the Lebanon War, blocked mail delivery, and an ‘Arab spring’ that has gone over the enemy.
The journal’s ecumenical vocation was clear from the outset. "The Middle East is thirsty for unity," it said in its first issue in 1951. At the time, "ecumenism within the Catholic Church was in its infancy and remained the prerogative of a small circle of people,” Fr Bouwen said.
The journal itself was aimed at both East and West so that they could understand each other. It also sought to help Eastern Churches understand and get closer to one other. One of his greatest strengths was its timelines detailed the various events in the history of the Middle East, published alongside its feature articles. This provided readers, even those with little knowledge about the region, with particularly useful historical background.
However by 2005, time and an aging management and editorial team led to questions about the journal’s relevance, and its possible fusion with other like-minded publications. Fortunately, in 2009, Fr Salim Daccache, SJ, dean of the Faculty of Religious, which is close to White Fathers, proposed to take over and publish Proche-Orient Chrétien. Gradually, administrative functions were moved to Beirut. Printing followed in 2010, and finally management was handed over to the Université de St-Joseph.
As its editor, Father Gabriel Hachem said, at the start of the conference, "the journal will remain the faithful witness of the Arab Church, whose advent we are still hoping for,” a reference to a ferment of life, an ecclesial reality longed for and to be hastened in prayer by Father Jean Corbon.
Competence and rigour
Like its related journals, Proche-Orient Chrétien marked the renewal of hope born from the shift from "unionism to ecumenism," a change in perspective that developed gradually in all the Churches before reaching an irreversible tipping point during the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
At the start of the conference, Father Christoph Theobald SJ, editor of Recherches de sciences religieuses (Religious Studies Research, included in his lecture the evolution of this process, of this kairos or “supreme moment to seize”. From the start, his addressed focused on unfailing competence and rigour, and “the smallest of the theological virtues that is the hope."
Adroitly, Fr Theobald spotted the historical milestones of a reinterpretation of the faith that elevates various Christian communions from the rank of "separate Churches" to that of "Sister Churches", “mindful of the otherness of existing traditions as a necessary contribution to a future united, and yet still uniting Church”.
He also looked at the reasons for the collapse of this wave of hope, which started in the 1980s, one of which was the emergence of "cultural situation that prevents the faithful from understanding the entire body of knowledge, not to mention the differences (. . .),” a new cultural situation in which differences may no longer make sense.
Has ecumenism’s “right moment” been lost before it could be grasped? he wonders. Whilst not trying to answer this question directly, the German theologian tried to map out a new theological time in which "the quest for unity calls for pushing into the background considerations that still matter.”
"This spiritual courage of differentiation or balancing can rely on a real unity already given in baptism (...),” he added. “It also implies a dual renunciation, that of banning a principle that is a mandatory doctrine in another particular Church, and that of compelling a particular Church to confess a doctrine of another particular Church; otherwise, unity would become an unattainable goal in our human history."
A Eucharistic gesture
"The future visibility of the Church involves a neither-nor of a negative ecclesiology: neither a return to the Roman fold, nor a simple ecumenical federation similar to another version of the Ecumenical Council of Churches,” said Fr Christoph Theobald. In other word, it is a "neither nor ..." that "opens history," he added surreptitiously.
“Perhaps now we might be allowed to hope that in the middle of a low point in the ecumenical movement, many of our Church leaders and pastors might undertake, in the middle of the aforementioned neither-nor, a shared Eucharistic gesture to extract the communion of the altar from its status as the ultimate expression of unity in faith and make it the ‘place’ where this grace is happily received by all, right away, ‘so that the world may believe’," he boldly said.
Echoing the hope thus expressed, the audience came up with some examples of how unity might be achieved without the views of the leaderships, the least surprising being a proposal for “dual communion” between the Syriac Orthodox Church with both Rome and world Orthodoxy to which it belongs. Would this mean that two Church in communion with a third one would also be in communion with each other? Does the sensus fidei that is pushing Orthodox and Catholics in Lebanon to benefit from each other’s Eucharistic hospitality translate the faithful’s impatience to see finally the incarnation of a long overdue unity?
Fr Theobald wisely answered these questions by quoting Pope Francis who is receptive to the sensibilities about the Church found among the faithful, i.e. the "sheep smell" that is familiar to the shepherd. He also quoted theologian Henri de Lubac who said that if the Church makes the Eucharist, we could also say that "the Eucharist makes the Church." No Orthodox ear was there to hear this, and that is unfortunate.
Others speakers at the conference included Fr Lambert Vos, editor of Irénikon, a journal published in Chevetogne (Belgium); Fr Frank P. Lemaître, a member of the editorial board of Istina, a journal that took over from Russie et Chrétienté (Russia and Christianity); Anne-Noëlle Clement, head of Lyon-based Unité chrétienne (Christian Unity), a journal created to continue the work of Abbé (Abbot) Couturier; Christophe Varin, head of the Centre d’études pour le monde arabe moderne (Centre for Studies of the Modern Arab World, CEMAM) at the Université St-Joseph; and Fr Thom Sicking, head of the Centre d’études et de documentation du fait religieux (Centre for Studies and Documentation on Religion, CEDIFR), a former Dean of the Faculty of Religious Studies at Université St-Joseph, who moderated the conference’s roundtable summary.
(*) Subscriptions to the biannual magazine is US$ 25 (Middle East), and US$ 50 or €35 euros for other countries. For information on how to pay, write to poc@usj.edu.lb or call 01-421000, 5814 post.
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24/07/2021 12:11
