Benedict XVI and ecumenism

Abstract

Joseph Ratzinger said that one of the consequences of Vatican II is that theology already could not be otherwise but to have an ecumenical dimension, and this is something that has been maintained in all his work. And thus, from the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI assumed as an important mission, the work for the union of the Churches, which explains why the interventions he has carried out, related to ecumenism, are so numerous. This article analyses, on the one hand, the underlying themes, which we may consider as connecting themes of his ecumenical thought, and which appear in one form or another in his writings or actions: the passion for truth, the understanding of unity which is at the basis of his interventions, the need for conversion of all Christians in order to reach that unity… On the other hand, he pauses in some concrete themes which have in a special way taken up the theological work of the present Pope, and which have a great ecumenical repercussion, as for example the Petrine ministry, the issue of the “subsistit in”, or the relation between the universal Church and the local churches.