A Spectator's Notebook
DIE DECREES of the Vatican Council of 1870 made the summoning of any more Councils unnecessary, since they declared that 'definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the church.' Pius XII did not bother to summon a Council to promulgate his dogma of the Assump- tion—nor for that matter did Pius IX summon one before promulgating the dogma of the Im- maculate - Conception. And, since the Vatican decrees also asserted that 'the Roman Pontiff has . . . full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal church. not only in things which belong to faith and morals but also in those which relate • to the discipline and government of the church spread throughout the world,' the Pope obviously has the power to take what steps he thinks desirable to bring about Church unity with- out calling a Council. The fact that has never- theless decided to call one 'as an invitation to the separated communities' to .join. in seeking unity gives further encouragement to those who deplore the dictatorial tendencies of his predecessors. Pre- sumably Pope John's primary objective is to heal the breach with the Orthodox Church. He has had in the past many contacts with the Eastern Churches, but however sympathetic his approach and however sympathetically it is received it would be a colossal and unlikely achievement to end the thousand-year-old schism. Apart from anything else there is an obvious procedural difficulty. If the Roman Catholic Church calls the Council the XXI Ecumenical Council (as accord- ing to its numerology it is) the Orthodox Churches will certainly refuse to attend, since according to their computation there have been only seven Ectimenical Councils, the last of which was held at Nice in 787. The Archbishop of Canterbury has often been caustic about the Roman Church's attitude to other churches and would no doubt welcqine any improvement in that attitude. But Leo X111's regrettable bull' deelaring Anglican orders invalid would make it difficult for Anglican bishops to be invited althOugh iiiterconsecration with the Old Catholic Churches has made the case against the validity of Anglican orders even less tenable than it used to he.
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