Remarkable change of Roman Catholic Church

Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Led by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.

On November 10th, we had privilege to have Vincent Machozi, a catholic priest. he lectured on the four main changes within Catholic church for the last one hundred years.

After the lecture, our group members talked long about the lecturer’s claim that the attitude of Catholics towards Protestants has been radically changed showing openness. Although all of us welcomed the change, a few students raised questions over the alleged remarkable change of Roman Catholics that they are open to all cultures and theologies. One student observed that Catholics are open to dialogue only as long as authority of pope is not questioned. In this sense, Catholic church is not truly open. The other student agreed with him and added that we should not overlook the fact that Catholics want others to come under their authority when they dialogue with other Christian traditions.

Our talks developed into Catholic Church’s structure and theology. One student commented that Catholics seemed to be closed in structure, but becoming more open theologically to others. But another student rebutted. He claimed that Catholics are not open theologically either pointing out the fact that the RCC does not acknowledge baptism by non-RCC churches because they believe that other traditions lack apostolic succession. He added that basis of dialogue should be recognition of others as body of Christ, but he was doubtful whether Catholics view Protestants as real brothers in Christ. One Korean student in our group mentioned the opposite situation pointing out the fact that many Korean Protestants view Catholics as a heresy. We talked around this issue for a while and concluded that theological intolerance of both Catholics and Protestants is a real stumbling block in the ecumenical movement.

Hye Jin Lee, discussion moderator