Paul Wattson Christian Unity Award to Recognize Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity & World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission
Walter Cardinal Kasper & Rev. Dr. John Gibaut to Accept Award from Franciscan Friars of the Atonement on January 24, 2008 in Rome, Italy during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Rome, Italy, January 8, 2008
On Thursday, 24 January 2008 at 4:30pm, the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement will present the Paul Wattson Christian Unity Award jointly to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches during the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity observance at the Centro Pro Unione, the friars' ecumenical research center located on the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. Accepting the award will be Walter Cardinal Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Rev. Dr. John Gibaut, the new Director of the Faith and Order Commission.
“We are pleased to be able to commemorate our centenary celebration of prayer for Christian unity by awarding the Paul Wattson Christian Unity Award to two ecumenical agencies that are integral to the future of Christian unity and who themselves are celebrating 40 years of collaboration,” said Fr. James F. Puglisi, SA, Minister General of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement and Director of the Centro. “One hundred years ago, our founder, Fr. Paul Wattson, SA, began an annual period of prayer devoted to the cause of Christian unity and it is fitting that on this important anniversary we acknowledge the progress that has been made in the ecumenical movement since 1908.”
The Paul Wattson Award is given in memory of Father Paul James Francis Wattson, SA, co-founder of the Society of the Atonement and pioneer ecumenist who began the Church Unity Octave in January 1908. Following Vatican II, the Octave was joined with other prayer movements and is now collectively known as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (celebrated each January 18-25). The award has had only 11 previous recipients since its inception in 1961 including such well-known ecumenists as Cardinal Augustin Bea, Dr. Martin Marty, the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission (ARCIC), and The Reverend John F. Hotchin, S.T.D., Père Yves Congar, OP and Professor George A. Lindbeck, Ph.D. It was last presented in 2004 to the University of San Francisco, which since 1980 has co-sponsored with the Atonement Friars an annual lecture on ecumenism honoring Fr. Paul Wattson.
Each year in Rome, the Centro Pro Unione, the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas and the Vincent Pallotti Institute observe the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with a lecture and ecumenical prayer service. This year the lecture will be given by Cardinal Walter Kasper and the Rev. Dr. John Gibaut will preach at the Ecumenical Celebration of the Word following the lecture. The Most Rev. John Flack, Director of The Anglican Centre of Rome will be the presider.
About the recipients
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was originally established by Pope John XXIII on June 5, 1960 in connection with the Second Vatican Council to deal with ecumenical affairs. In 1966, Pope Paul VI confirmed the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity as a permanent dicastery of the Holy See. Its purpose is promote within the Catholic Church an ecumenical spirit according to the conciliar decree Unitatis redintegratio and to name Catholic observers at various ecumenical gatherings and invite observers of other Churches or ecclesial Communities to major events of the Catholic Church.
The Faith and Order Commission evolved from the Faith & Order movement, which held its first world conference in 1927 in Lausanne, Switzerland attended by over 400 participants, representing 127 Orthodox, Anglican, Reformation and Free churches . At the second world conference (1937) in Edinburgh, particpants agreed to unite with the movement for Life and Work to form a council of churches – a decision which led to the formation of the World Coucnils of Churches (WCC) in 1948. Since 1948, the tasks of the F&O movement have been carried on by the commission on Faith & Order within the WCC. Its aim is, "to proclaim the oneness of the church of Jesus Christ and to call the churches to the goal of visible unity". It has 120 members who are men and women from around the world — pastors, laypersons, academics, church leaders — each nominated by his or her church.
Since 1968, twelve Catholic theologians have been members of the Faith and Order Commission and the two bodies have jointly prepared materials for the annual observance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
For more information contact the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement at 845-424-3671 or communications@atonementfriars.org.
