Washington D.C., Dec 20, 2006 / 22:00 pm
In a letter sent to Catholic News Agency, the Rev. James Massa, Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, has clarified that no agreement has yet been signed between Roman Catholic and Reformed Christian officials regarding the joint recognition of one another’s baptisms.
Fr. Massa was making reference to a story published by CNA on November 28th in which the title and the first paragraph implied that such and agreement had been “signed.”
The USCCB official stated that while the members of the Reformed-Catholic Consultation will continue to work towards an agreement, “only after such a document has been reviewed by the entire dialogue team, and then submitted for review, revision, and final approval by several churches in the dialogue could there be any consideration of a joint ‘signing.’”
As noted by Bishop Patrick Cooney, Bishop of Gaylord, Michigan, and Co-chair of the Reformed-Catholic Consultation, in CNA’s initial article, the continuing discussions between the Churches “clarify where (the Churches) are one and where we differ, so that we may find the road to closer unity in our common apostolic Christian faith.”