Discernere l’azione dello Spirito Santo nel cammino ecumenico

Abstract

The Catholic Church’s ecumenical commitment is sustained by the aware-ness that the Holy Spirit acts in the other Christian denominations in an analogous way to how He acts within the Catholic Church, with a view to the full reunification of the one visible body of Christ. The initial viewpoint is biblical: assisted by the ecclesiological models of Dianich and Repole, we can affirm the synergic action of the Son and of the Spirit in the coming into being and the regeneration of the Church event. Such models allow us to better understand some points from the recent ecumenical teaching which recognises the renewed impulse towards unity as an authentic manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and desires that the road towards full communion be pre-pared by a more abundant exchange of gifts between the different denomi-nations. In conclusion, the proposal is to look at the presence of the Spirit within the Christian denominations in the same way as the presence of char-isms within the Catholic Church is discerned.