Fulton Sheen's Ecumenical 'Firsts' as Bishop of Rochester - Printable Version +- The Catacombs (https://thecatacombs.org) +-- Forum: Post Vatican II (https://thecatacombs.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=9) +--- Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism (https://thecatacombs.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=23) +--- Thread: Fulton Sheen's Ecumenical 'Firsts' as Bishop of Rochester (/showthread.php?tid=6615)

Fulton Sheen's Ecumenical 'Firsts' as Bishop of Rochester - Stone - 11-11-2024 Fulton Sheen's Ecumenical 'Firsts' as Bishop of Rochester TIA | November 10, 2024 To implement the ecumenical directives of Vatican II, Bishop Fulton Sheen wanted to be one of the first U.S. Prelates to invite a Protestant to speak at his Cathedral. This was in keeping with his program to make the “little Diocese of Rochester in upper New York State” a catalyst of post-Vatican Council II renewal. So, on September 13, 1968, a “first” occurred at Sacred Heart Cathedral when Mervis Chandler, the Protestant associate executive associate director of the Rochester Area Council of Churches, spoke from the pulpit at all six Sunday Masses at the invitation of Bishop Sheen. Below, see the article in the diocesan paper The Courier Journal of September 13, 1968, p. 7. Click here to see whole page. Then, only four months later in January 1969, Bishop Sheen himself spoke at the Sunday ecumenical ‘service’ in the Third Presbyterian Church before an audience of 1,000. This was another ‘first’ in the Rochester Diocese. This sermon marked the first time he appeared before a Protestant congregation during a regular Sunday morning service. Sheen was commemorating the close of the Week of the Prayer for Christian Unity, another ecumenical innovation coming from Vatican II. The Bishop emphasized “the bonds of unity” in his talk that bind together all “believers” – Catholics and Protestants. Referring to the “person of Christ,” Bishop Sheen told the packed Protestant congregation: “You love Him deeply … We have differences in expressing truth, but these are merely ‘lovers quarrels.’ These are quarrels of great intensity, but merely the words are different. The expressions are the same.” He also insisted that the understanding of “the cross” between Catholics and Presbyterians was the same and united “all friends of the Lord.” The enmity caused by emphasizing differences, he stated, has resulted in a “community of evil,” which “forces us to unite today … to save Christianity.” We have already seen that Bishop Sheen made another “first” when he addressed the congregation of B’rith Kodesh in 1967, becoming the first head of the Rochester Diocese to speak in a Jewish house of worship. At the end of this article, the Courier Journal reports how Bishop Sheen was busy making other ecumenical ‘firsts’ during his two innitial years at Rochester (1967-1968): Sheen addressed an evening Lenten service in Asbury First Methodist Church, spoke at a Lutheran Synod meeting in the Reformation Lutheran church, and gave a talk in Bethany Presbyterian Church on a Sunday afternoon. He also gave the final blessing at an ecumenical service in Christ Episcopal Church Cathedral. Before Vatican II, no Catholic Prelate would go to Protestant temples to address the audience with friendly words, much less would a Bishop invite a minister to speak to a Catholic congregation as if they had a equal right to present their erroneous “truths.” Sadly, the presupposition of the ensemble of Bishop Sheen’s actions and sermons to Protestants is precisely that all religions – at least all those present in those services – can lead to eternal salvation, which is a heresy that contradicts the dogma that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. Among many other solemn declarations of the Church in this regard, we have the Bull Cantate Domino by Pope Eugene IV in union with the Council of Florence, which affirm this truth without possibility of any doubt, see here. Below, see the article in the diocesan paper Courier Journal of January 31, 1969, p. 7. Click here to see whole page.