Communio and Controversy

"Controversy within communio can lead to
the emergence of truth and the deepening of charity."

This essay has two main parts. The first is autobiographical and historical. The second has to do with an analysis of controversy in its relationship to unity in the Church.

If someone asked me how I felt about being part of this new publishing venture, called Communio, the answer would be easy. Nervous! I feel like someone poised precariously halfway up a sheer cliff, roped to other climbers, none of us quite sure how we got this far or whether we can hang on, yet hopeful of making it to the top.

The purpose of Communio has been stated elsewhere in this initial issue. It might be of interest, however, to let people know something about the background of this venture. Some of the details were relayed to me personally by Hans Urs von Balthasar at a meeting in Vienna last September. He has been the main source of inspiration and the sustaining presence of the project. The idea originated with a few of the theologians who are members of the International Theological Commission at one of their meetings in Rome sometime in 1970. After a certain amount of discussion, their ideas found a common focus. They felt that there was a real need for a journal which would communicate a sense of the communion which is the inner life of the Church. It would not be a purely theological, or ascetical journal. It would, however, approach topics of concern to Catholics from two sides--from a reflective depth, and from the aspect of the koinonia which makes up the life-bonds of the Church.

THERE FOLLOWED an effort to interest different parties--lay, religious, priests--in various countries, with varying degrees of success. The German edition got off the ground in 1971. It caused something of a splash, and people wondered "What will this child be?" Was it liberal, conservative, anti-Concilium, right or left? In the following year an Italian edition was started. Its beginnings were auspicious, but its future looks a little shaky.

In 1972 efforts were made, mainly through personal friends of von Balthasar, to get an American edition started. English translations of the German editions had already been made, but the tone remained European and foreign-sounding. In September, 1972, an exploratory meeting of interested and half-interested people took place in Los Angeles. The questions which were raised there concerning the advisability of starting an American edition of Communio were the obvious ones: Is there room for such a journal? Need? Financially viable? Would it be sufficiently American in tone? The state of Catholic publishing being what it is, why try to add another journal? Would it serve a purpose not already taken by one of the current Catholic journals? Of course, these questions did not have pat answers.

More meetings followed. Some interested parties attended the meetings of the Communio staff in Europe, and returned enthusiastic. Financial support was sought from different sources. An editorial board was formed of "believers." An editor and editorial chairman were selected. Issues were planned. Articles and authors suggested. The result is what you see before you.

What is different about Communio? It aims at creating communio, not merely talking about it. For this reason, it presupposes among those who contribute to it, as well as its readership, an experience of this life-bond of the Church, which John describes as fellowship (1 John 1:3). It is an experience of the Church in its catholicity as well as its particularization, its depth as well as its breadth, its interiority as well as its visible witness. Not an easy goal to achieve, as everyone will concede. Nevertheless, it is a goal worth striving for. At least the editors of Communio think so. One interested party wrote: "An international Catholic journal devoted to the building of community is a most important and timely undertaking. I know of no other journal which serves such a need and which directs itself also towards a community of readers who share more than a common subscription price."

After these autobiographical and historical remarks, we come to the main topic of this paper, the phenomenon of controversy and its role in either building up or obstructing communio. One's first impression might be that, if we are speaking about oneness, it is hardly the place to write about controversy, one of the factors most opposed to the koinonia to which we all aspire. However, it is our contention that controversy has an important role to play in effecting unity.

John R. Sheets