This disintegrating principle of “private judgment” in matters of Divine Revelation has been at work since the inception of Protestantism.  By the very force of its dissolving power the primary elements of a supernatural religion have fast disappeared from the various creeds.  One by one the different Churches have drifted away from their Christian moorings and taken to the high seas of Rationalism.  Assailed by the storms of unbelief they are breaking on the rocks of religious indifference.  Empty churches are the natural outcome of empty creeds.  “The dominant tendencies are indeed increasingly identified with those currents of thought which are making way from the definiteness of the ancient Faith, toward Unitarian vagueness.”  If Bishop Kinsman, Anglican Bishop of Delaware, a recent convert to the Catholic Faith, gave this statement as one of the reasons for leaving the Anglican Creed, with how much more truth could it not be made of the kaleidoscopic tenets of other denominations?

This process of dissolution of doctrinal grounds is bound to continue.  The fluid condition of the various churches testifies to the uncertainty of their actual position and forces them to seek the lowest doctrinal level.  “Their standard is determined by the minimum, rather than by the maximum view tolerated, since their official position must be gauged, not by the most they allow, but by the least they insist on.” (F.  Kinsman.) The remnants of Christianity that were still to be found in their teachings are now looked upon as “obsolete dogmas” and, as such, obstacles to unity.  The very fundamental mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption are fast growing dim in the minds and hearts of men.[3]

The Protestant Churches will never come back to their former position.  In this Church-union movement they are burning their bridges behind them.  The gospel of pure “humanitarianism,” which is the absolute negation of a supernatural religion, will eventually be the last result of this present unity.

Destructive criticism, to be profitable, should be followed by constructive suggestions.

“That they may be all one!” This ideal of the Master, this supreme wish of His last hours, remains the ideal, the wish of His Church.  But its realization cannot be at the expense of truth.  Cardinal Gasparri outlined to the promoters of the “World Congress on Faith and Order” the view and position of the Catholic Church in this most important issue.  “The Holy See has decided not to participate in the Pan-Christian Congress which it is proposed to hold shortly, as the Catholic Church considering her dogmatic character, cannot join on an equal footing with the other Churches.  The feeling at the Vatican is that all other Christian denominations have seceded from the Church of Rome, which descends directly from Christ.  Rome cannot go to them; it is for them to return to her bosom.[4] The Pope is ready to receive the representatives of the dissenting churches with open arms, since the Roman Church has always longed for the unification of all Religious Christians.  Pope Leo XIII. was deeply interested in this question and wrote two famous encyclicals on the subject of the unification of the Christian Churches.”