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An Occasion of Singular Import
T. Federici

Vatican Council II — The role played by the Cardinal and his Secretariat in its preparation and realization.

The death of a great personality causes an immediate feeling of emptiness in his former circle of associates; deeds, facts, events linger for some time in the memory of a smaller or larger public. Then little by little, everything is levelled out and vanishes in myth. With the lapse of time it is permissible to wonder what, in effect, of these great personalities remains active and alive.

The same question may also be asked in relation to the late Augustin Bea, renowned religious, bishop, cardinal, member of many Catholic curial-bureaucratic institutions and, above all, President of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, an efficient body within the Catholic Church. The answer to this inquiry must strip away much of pomp and circumstance and, if possible, get to the heart of the matter. Cardinal Bea had, in a certain sense, worked for the unity of Christians throughout his life, but since this was especially the case during Vatican II, we must ask ourselves if it is not precisely in the conciliar documents that we shall best find the stamp of his work, and, if valid, in what sense. The answer — as we might anticipate — is largely positive. Not only can we find the imprint of the Cardinal's personality, but that imprint is destined to exert a lasting influence, if indeed the Catholic Church is to, and has the will to, reform herself and finally to be conformed to the Gospel according to the life programme mapped out by Pope John and sanctioned by Vatican II in many documents.

From the numerous tributes to Cardinal Bea offered by persons who had collaborated with him, rarely was it possible to guess if his work could have been equally well carried on by another or whether we owe to him something so original indeed as to pervade the whole authentic Christian renewal of our day. A notable exception was the homily delivered on November 26th 1968 in the Church of the Gesii, Rome, by Mgr. J. Willebrands, Secretary to the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, and undoubtedly in these last years the Cardinal's closest, most ready and competent collaborator, and consequently able to pick out the essential points in the late Cardinal's thought.

We will take a brief look therefore at the extent of Cardinal Bea's contribution to the Council: in action, in writings, in stimulus, courage, and tenacious resistance to the ubiquitous activity of an anti-conciliar minority.

At the outset of the second Vatican Council the Church moved so slowly in the matter of ecumenism as to be harmful to the cause. It is true that for centuries popes and bishops had takenindividual initiatives, not all fortunate and not all opportune, in order to lead Christians towards complete unity. To limit ourselves to modern times, countless ecumenical ventures of Leo XIII, for example, were almost all annulled after his death. Among Catholics, initiatives of pioneers (Cardinal Mercier, Fr. Wattson of the Atonement, Abbe P. Couturier and, pre-eminently, Dom L. Beauduin of Chevetogne, to cite only a few) were launched with difficulty but with providential insight in view of present-day movements to which they were to prove indispensable. Cardinal Roncalli himself had accumulated rich ecumenical experiences first in the Christian East, then in the West.

Fr. Augustin Bea also, through his long life spent in the service of Christian formation, —first in his homeland, then in Rome — had the possibility of welding precious ties with Christians of other confessions, with believers and non-believers. His rigorous fidelity to the Catholic Church did not allow him to forget, as happened with too many of his contemporaries, that "the others" are Christians too. For him the problems were rather why unity had been lost; how it could be ref orged; what could give the initial impetus towards the first step in a return to unity, and then maintain it in vitality and action. To these and other questions not only a lived Christian experience and contacts with Christian brethren but also a profound study of the Word of God, the Scriptures, were of the utmost help in providing an answer. Perhaps discussions could find a basis in the one Word and therefore in the same premiss: the divine Will, grace, the grace of union. The means had yet to be found but the way was clear. Following it was not easy; in the Catholic field opportunities were lacking. The existing inter-Christian meetings, much less private contacts, were not sufficient to stimulate, extend, and deepen it, and make it common practice. The whole Church had to be assailed by the urge to unity; the fund of latent energy, especially among the young, had to be stirred, lost time regained; one must keep pace, and not miss future opportunities.

A man was destined to reach the summit of the Catholic Church — Pope John. This man was to offer to the Catholic Church, as well as to other Christians, an occasion of singular import —a Council. This man was to choose, among endless possibilities, another man — Fr. Augustin Bea of the Biblical Institute in Rome. Catholic ecumenism was off to a start that, even among present-day uncertainties and obscurities, could not be halted. Two old men, of the age when one generally prepares for death but who had spiritual energies with the freshness of springtime, were to discover each other in order to renew systems and mentalities quite outworn.

For this reason, Cardinal Bea's contribution to and in the Council is all the more striking: above all, that of an indisputable faith, then a humility that brought him the esteem of even irreconcilable adversaries; further, an invincible tenacity and patience before which the most redoubtable opponents were forced to retire discomfited; and finally his generosity in not profiting mercilessly from situations but leaving the way open to eventual agreement with the antagonist. Unfailing patience and humble tenacity were for him the tools of sure success. Then there was his positive witness of Christian living (increasingly noticeable as his action became intensified) along the axis of Bible, Liturgy, and Ecumenism. Besides the testimony of his collaborators, the contribution of his thought, steeped as it was in the Bible, is witnessed by his innumerable conciliar interventions in the Aula and in the often laborious work of drafting some of the principal documents: on the Church, on the Eastern Catholic Churches, on Ecumenism, on Religious Freedom, and on Non-Christian Religions. We shall return to this subject later.

In the sphere of liturgy, besides his contribution to the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, we must not forget the unconditional support he gave the liturgists — especially Cardinal G. Lercaro, later eliminated from the scene — in their pioneer-work, as well as his vigilant and dynamic presence at some of the first realizations of the tormented and now nearly static liturgical reform. How many recall that on June 21st 1964, Cardinal Bea was one of the only four cardinals present (together with Lercaro, Ritter and Meyer) at the first Catholic concelebration in the Church of St. Anselmo on the Aventine?

The Cardinal's ecumenical role was greatly enhanced by the contacts that, in virtue of his office, he had had with biblical scholars or among the faithful and in corresponding circles of the Protestant community, especially in Germany. It was his principle that where one of the most irreparable tragedies in the life of the Catholic Church in modern times had been begun — its dismemberment at the Reformation — there a movement should be inaugurated of benefit to all tile Churches. Thus, he had established with innumerable Protestants, some of great renown, a loyal friendship, veritable beginning of a communion in faith in the one Lord. The capacity for forming deep human relationships was an outstanding gift of Cardinal Bea's, and those who have known him personally remember this, as the generations do who attended his biblical courses. But it has been rightly noted that this singular capacity for sincere, gracious and generous human friendship was at once transformed into an impulse and an openness towards genuine spiritual communion.

When the admission of observers to the Council was being discussed, the members of Cardinal Bea's secretariat recall the plenary session in which, at a tense moment, — because the whole future ecumenical orientation of the Catholic Church could depend on a positive or negative decision; also, the "Catholic" possibilities of reunion with the other Christians were at stake — Cardinal Bea asked those present, one by one, if the observers were to be invited or not. As the increasingly positive answers were heard, a wave of relief spread through the assembly: a battle had been won and its effects still endure.

If we are to examine closely the specific contribution of Cardinal Bea to the document on ecumenism, we must focus our attention on the lasting value of ecumenism, that which is qualified not by denominational adjectives but by a pneumatological one: "spiritual ecumenism". This kind is universal; all Christians without exception should participate in it, from the experienced ecumenists to the youngest, most innocent of the old divisions. Specific high level action is assigned to "experts" (and for this every Christian community has its appropriate bodies), but all Christians must try to live the Lord's grace in four respects as outlined in numbers 6 to 8 of the Decree on Ecumenism where it is said the pillars of ecumenical action prompted by the spirit of God are four: 1) the conversion of heart of every single Christian, that is, from the personal " confession of sin to the "conversion from sin", according to a happy modern expression; 2) the continual reform of the Church and the Churches; 3) a return to "prayer in common" (for example, during the Church Unity Octave); 4) the elimination of all opposition to the action of providence and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These four points make up the real essence of ecumenism; they assure its lasting endurance even after eventual unity is reached. Now, if these four points are present in the document, two are due to the personal thought of Cardinal Bea. In fact for decades he had been studying and probing the New Testament doctrine of baptism, particularly in Paul: "For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — " (1 Cor. 12:13).

This baptismal life, lived in and based on the one faith in the Lord Jesus Christ risen for the glory of the Father, is participated in by all Christians, even though divided by outward opposition. And because the fruit of the Spirit received in baptism is also faith, hope, and charity it follows that by living these basic realities all Christians already participate in a primary and genuine form of unity which permits a first, irreplaceable common witness before the world, "that the world may believe" (Jn. 17:21). From this follows a decisive consequence, very well grasped by the thought of Cardinal Bea. If the one Spirit of God has given the faith and has sealed it in the baptism of death and resurrection, it is only the one Spirit of God who will be able to reconstruct that unity which man's sin has violently ruptured. The necessary corollary to this is the common action of Christians to seek this union, in the same spirit in which Jesus Christ asked it of the Father, on the very night « when he was delivered" to death, during the Last Supper.

This can be said to be the central core of the thought incorporated in Vatican II, as it was also the more or less expressed thought of Pope John. To Cardinal Bea goes the merit of having been among the first to understand it. He presented it objectively on countless occasions and had it introduced into the concrete dictates of the Council.

In conclusion, Dr. Carson Blake's appreciation of Cardinal Bea's life seems very appropriate. "The ecumenical movement has lost a great crusader in the death of Augustin Cardinal Bea, who during his lifetime became a symbol of the search for unity within the Christian Church. He was a man of great courage and always prepared to take responsible risks, at times even going beyond the law of prudence, to further the search for unity. He possessed a firmly positive mind and the great gift of graciousness. During the second Vatican Council the weight of his winning personality and profound biblical scholarship led the bishops to use, for the first time, the term 'separated brethren' when speaking of other Christians rather than previous terms of condemnation... In Cardinal Bea's life the power of hope always found new ways to overcome seemingly unsurmountable obstacles to a fuller expression of the essential unity of the whole people of God." (Cf. "Appreciation for Cardinal Bea's life voiced by Dr. Blake", Ecumenical Press Service, No. 42/35th Year, 21st November, 1968, p. 3.)