The Catholic Standard and Times

Ecumenical office gets new leader

By NADIA POZO
CS&T Staff Writer

Father Gregory Fairbanks, who returns to Philadelphia fresh from Rome, is the newest director of the often misunderstood Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

The office has two distinct missions. Its ecumenical mission involves a movement toward Christian unity, whereas its interreligious mission is to build bridges between the Christian religion and other world religions.

The post has been vacant for the past two years, since Bishop Joseph Martino left to become Bishop of the Diocese of Scranton. During that time, Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Josephine Kase has served as acting director of the office.

Father Fairbanks, a native of Philadelphia from Epiphany of Our Lord Parish in Plymouth Meeting, has spent the last five years obtaining his doctorate in Church history at the Gregorian Pontifical University, where he gained a greater understanding of the work of ecumenism, he said.

Father Fairbanks said he has gained a clearer historical context for the divisions between individual Christian groups — and he realizes that, in some cases, those divisions are based on issues that should no longer separate Christians, although prejudices on both sides have grown over the centuries.

“The value of historical lessons is that they remind you of the initial dispute and root of the problems, to be better equipped to work toward unity in the future.”

He added, however, that reconciliation “isn’t going to happen overnight.”

Father Fairbanks spent the first eight years of his priesthood as an Ecumenical Vicariate Coordinator for the Northeast, while he was the parochial vicar of Christ the King Church.

He believes the work of ecumenism is important for two reasons.

First, ecumenism — the movement that works toward Christian unity — is what Jesus desired of all His followers: that they be one in Him.

In fact, Father Fairbanks said, the modern ecumenical movement grew out of the realization by Protestant Christians more than 100 years ago that they could not evangelize to non-Christians in mission territory if they did not do so as a united front.

He said the ecumenical movement grew out of their general agreement regarding evangelization in order to spread the same Gospel understanding effectively.

The Catholic Church joined that dialogue after the Second Vatican Council, under the mandate of the Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio.

The decree recognizes that the ecumenical movement is a sign of the Holy Spirit’s action, and states that the promotion of this movement is one of the principal tasks of Christians, since “[s]uch division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature.”

“The goal should be to seek out the unity of the truth, which is Jesus Christ,” Father Fairbanks said.

The second reason is that when Catholics and other Christians are in dialogue with each other their misconceptions are dispelled; frienships are built which allow both to rely on personal experience when talking about their faith; and both begin to realize that they really have more in common than they think.

And, Father said, one benefit of such dialogue is that Catholics, themselves, come to understand their faith in a more profound way.

“It affords the opportunity for people of all Christian denominations to reflect on their own understanding and belief in Jesus Christ,” Father Fairbanks said. “One end result of that is that you end up learning more about your own faith when you honestly dialogue with other faiths. It’s like when you teach — you learn the subject better than when you were a student, because you have to be able to present it. That’s what it’s like to be in an ecumenical dialogue. ... If you believe you have the truth, you have nothing to fear.”

All of this is also important in interreligious dialogue.

“This understanding of the Christian faith goes even deeper when you are in dialogue with non Christians,” he said. “You realize how universal the message of Christ is for the whole world. With that understanding, the interfaith dialogue tries to recognize how different religions interpret, and experience, the reality of God. For religions such as Judaism and Islam, we have the common starting point that we all worship the same God — the God of Abraham.”

Father Fairbanks said he takes over his new post with enthusiasm after seeing Pope Benedict XVI’s commitment and zeal for unity and peace, especially among the Orthodox Christians. He is ready to expand the work of the Office, which he says is vital to lay Catholics, priests and religious.

As the Vatican works toward unity at the top levels, those in the local Church must also work for unity on the grassroots level, Father Fairbanks said. He suggested that lay Catholics get involved at the parish level, as parish ecumenical coordinators, who serve as liaisons between pastors and the Office. If those positions are filled, he said, volunteers can assist parish ecumenical coordinators by encouraging parish participation in the ecumenical meetings the Office sponsors throughout the year.

The Office also sponsors conferences for the clergy of various Christian and non-Christian faiths, and Father said he encourages priest and religious to become involved in the work.

As he prepares to begin his work, both at the Office and as a member of the faculty at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where he will teach Church history, Father Fairbanks said he is grateful for his time in Rome — and for his new assignments.

Not only was he able to be present for the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI, but he also witnessed the great ecumenical moment of the transfer of the relics of St. John Chrysostom and of St. Gregory Nazianzen to the See of Constantinople, at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov., 27, the Feast of the Miraculous Medal. This gave him renewed inspiration in the ecumenical movement.

The relics of St. Gregory Nazianzen were brought to the Vatican during the 8th-century iconoclastic controversy, when the emperors outlawed the veneration of relics. Crusaders took the relics of St. John Chrysostom from Constantinople in the 13th century. The Orthodox Church complained over the centuries that the relics belonged to the Constantinople See, since both saints were Bishops of Constantinople. The transfer was a great symbolic gesture of the deep communion that exists between the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Even after such profound experiences of his faith, Father Fairbanks said, he is delighted to return to Philadelphia for his new assignment. In fact, after 15 years, he still loves his life as a priest.

“I’ve been in parish work, campus ministry work, I’ve studied in Rome, I’m teaching at the Seminary, and now I’m going back to ecumenical work,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful experience, and I wouldn’t trade this life for anything.”

To contact the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, call (215) 587-3624.

CS&T staff writer Nadia Pozo may be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.