Catholic Ecumenism: The Reunion of Christendom in Contemporary Papal Documents
- Product Code: ce
- Publication date: June 1, 2026
- Pages: 260
- Size: 5.5 x 8.5
$19.95
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Catholic Ecumenism, in its special sense, is that divinely-commanded and divinely-sustained work of reconciliation, which has for its object the conversion and return of baptized dissidents to the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, which involves their acceptance of the faith and communion of the See of Peter and the Catholic Church throughout the world.
Originally published in 1953, this work, under the guidance of Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton, the editor of The American Ecclesiastical Review, is sure to be an illuminating study on this often contentious but important issue in the Church.
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Many contemporary Catholics believe that the Church’s ecumenical outreach only took off in the wake of the Second Vatican Council; not a few, in addition, have serious reservations about it, wondering whether it does not contribute to the watering down of the Church’s claims to possess the truth. This present volume shows quite clearly that ecumenism was already a reality before the 1960s and that in fact, it is possible to engage in ecumenical activity in a way that is in line with the Church’s traditional doctrine.
—Dr. Thomas Cattoi, William and Barbara Moran Chair in Early Christian Theology and Interreligious Relations, Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome, ItalyEcumenism is one of those topics on which opinions not only range widely but tend toward extremes—either toward dissolution of the uniqueness and necessity of the Catholic Church in favor of a broad confederation of Christians (as one finds among those afflicted with “the spirit of Vatican II”) or toward flat denial that any such thing ought to exist or so much as be named (which might be found among some traditionalists). Happily, Fr. Hanahoe, writing from a position of preconciliar strength, offers a definitive treatise on what genuine ecumenism consists in, how it has been rightly promoted by the popes, and why it is an urgent task stemming from the essential mission Christ imparted to His Church. This work could serve as a complement to, and, in a way, corrective of, Unitatis Redintegratio and Ut Unum Sint. The author’s detailed discussions of the problems of Protestant disunity and the special cases of the Orthodox and the Anglicans are especially enlightening.
—Dr. Peter A. Kwasniewski
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