Professor of Theology Says Union Impossible for Christian Churches

"An organic union of the Christian Church is impossible given the Roman Catholic fact," the Rev. Gustave Weigel, S.J., professor of Theology at Woodstock College, said last night. "This should not discourage us," he emphasized, "from living in a union on the secular level."

The two other speakers at the Law School Forum, the Rev. Douglas Horton, Dean of the Divinity School, and Julian V. Casserley, professor at the General Theological Seminary, agreed with Fr. Weigel that a real Christian union at this time is "extremely doubtful," but the panelists emphasized the desirability of such a union.

Conversion, compromise and comprehension were the types of unification outlined by Fr. Weigel. He said that he and the Roman Catholic Church preferred conversion, by which "all the 250 to 300 Christian churches would adopt one as the real church of Christ."

Dean Horton disagreed with Fr. Weigel, declaring that comprehension, or understanding, which would allow the retention of "every single value anywhere," is the only feasible method of unification.

Casserley pointed out that "a degree of unity already does exist. Somewhere in back of the schisms is a relation of every baptized Christian to Christ and to all other Christians," he said.