Towards Christian Reunion: Vatican I, Obstacles and Opportunities.

Abstract

Pope Paul VI told the Secretariat for Christian Unity in 1967 that papacy constitutes the greatest obstacle to the reunion of the Christian Churches. The author elaborates on this greatest obstacle to unity, and on a possible way out, in the various chapters of this valuable book. The definition of Vatican I on the Papal jurisdictional primacy and on the Papal Infallibility has been consistently and firmly rejected by all the other Churches-Orthodox, Anglican and. Protestant-as "a colossal lie", "an error" and "a heresy". Inside the Council a strong minority had been fighting tooth and nail, right up to the end, against such a definition. And today, one hundred years after the definition, Catholic theologians have started fresh discussions on Vatican I and on its definitions of Papal Primacy and Infallibility. Father Luis Bermejo, the Jesuit theologian from Pune, India, is one such theologian who writes boldly, lucidly and in a scholarly way raising serious ques- tions against the truth and validity of the dogmas of Papal Primacy and Infallibility as defined by Vatican l.