La natura e la missione della Chiesa nel dialogo ecumenico internazionale riformato – cattolico romano

Abstract

The international bilateral dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in the last forty years has completed three sessions (concluding in 1977, 1990 and 2007 respectively) and has produced three documents underpinning three key concepts about the Church. They are: Creatura Verbi, Sacramentum gratiae and Sacramento del Regno. This brief article critically examines and hints at aspects until now overlooked in relation to the nature and mission of the Church. In so doing, it surfaces a hope that we have learned to express the same truths of faith in a new way. In the majority of cases we can see that the new treatment is complementary and an enrichment and not in opposition to the original. One of the most significant results of the dialogue is the importance of the integral and contextual approach that takes account of orthodoxy and orthopraxis.