Catholics, evangelicals in new alliance: 'unofficial' declaration deplores division, outlines political agenda

National Catholic Reporter, April 8, 1994 by Michael J. Paquette

NEW YORK -- Evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders released what they term an "unprecedented" declaration outlining common convictions and differences, proclaiming the two communities are "bound together in contending against all that opposes Christ and his clause."

The 25-page document, Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium, was made public at a March 29 news conference here.

Although the document specifically addresses the relationship between evangelical Protestants and Catholics, it acknowledges that "the one Christ and one mission includes many other Christians, notably the Eastern Orthodox and those Protestants not commonly identified as evangelicals."

The drafting committee of the declaration, all of whom were present at the news conference, consisted of Charles Colson, the former Watergate figure and founder of the Prison Fellowship ministry; Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, the former Lutheran turned Catholic priest and head of the Institute on Religion and Public Life here; Kent Hill, president of Eastern Nazarene College near Boston and former director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington; George Weigel, director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington; and TV evangelist Pat Robertson.

The signers included Cardinal John O'Connor of New York, Archbishop Francis Stafford of Denver, Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute and Jesuit Fr. Avery Dulles of Fordham University.

Introducing the document, Neuhaus contended that not since the 16th century have Protestants and Catholics "joined in a declaration so clear in respect to their common faith and common responsibility."

However, he clearly labeled the document an "unofficial statement" that "does not presume to speak for the Catholic church or official organizations within evangelical Protestantism."

Nonetheless, Neuhaus said he had "been in contact with appropriate parties at the Holy See and they have given their strongest encouragement" for the project. Neuhaus declined to say whom he had contacted at the Vatican.

The document calls the evangelical and Catholic communities the most "evangelistically assertive and most rapidly growing religious bodies in the world today."

It admits, however, that the "relationship between these communities is marked more by conflict than by cooperation, more by animosity than by love, more by suspicion than by trust, more by propaganda and ignorance than by respect for the truth."

That disharmony, the document's signers say, is cause to "confess our sins against the unity that Christ intends for all his disciples."

Some areas the two groups say they "contend together" concerning Christian mission include:

* Taking responsibility, both individually and corporately, for the "right ordering of civil society" while resisting "the utopian concept that it is within our powers to build the kingdom of God on earth."

* Fighting for "religious freedom" as the "first human freedom upon which all others are based."

* Protecting human life, "especially the lives of the most vulnerable among us" and securing "legal protection for the unborn."

* Promoting "parental choice in education" and asserting that moral public education is needed to produce "responsible citizenship and social behavior."

* Battling against pornography and "antireligious bigotry in entertainment media."

* Upholding free societies with "vibrant market economies."

* Renewing appreciation for Western culture by affirming multiculturalism when it pays "respectful attention to human differences" rather than meaning "affirming all cultures but our own."

Responding to suggestions at the news conference that the declaration sounded like the basis for a partisan conservative agenda, Neuhaus said, "It's just not true." The purpose of the document is not "to align with one particular party or another."

Neuhaus attributed developments of the past 20 years -- most notably the "Catholic charismatic renewal movement and pro-life causes" -- as the catalysts that helped "articulate in public what evangelicals and Catholics are discovering about one another."

Colson agreed, saying that evangelical Protestants "have much more in common with Bible-believing Catholics" than with liberal Protestants.

The document, said Colson, is "profound not only in its theological and missiological implications but in its being able to articulate a common worldview" by those who believe the Bible to be God's word.

Neuhaus added, "It does not mean to suggest that we have arrived at comprehensive agreement."

Members of the drafting committee acknowledge that the two groups have not come to a mutual theological understanding, and the document clearly lists points of difference between evangelical and Catholic "doctrine, worship, practice and piety."

Such differences include the meaning of sacraments, ordinances, and the Lord's Supper; remembrance of, versus devotion to, Mary and the saints; and baptism as a testimony to regeneration or sacrament of regeneration.