In Search of Unity

Foundational Beliefs

The Church in Phoenix is called to vibrantly live out the identity and mission that it has received from Christ: to be “a sign and instrument of communion with God and of unity among all men” (CCC 775).

  • The Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. “These four characteristics, inseparably linked with each other, indicate essential features of the Church and her mission” (CCC 811).
  • Charity is the invisible bond and vital source of communion within the Church. From this life-giving union with Christ flows a share in his threefold munera: communion of faith (prophetic), communion of worship (priestly), and hierarchical communion (kingly). These constitute visible bonds of the Church’s communion (CCC 815; 1822; 758).
  • Within these bonds of communion, there is a great richness of diversity. “Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and cultures is gathered together. Among the Church’s members, there are different gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life” (CCC 814).

Departmental Goals

In response to this call, which is so near to the heart of Christ (John 17), we aim:

  1. To engender a more widespread desire for communion and pray for its realization.
  2. To foster a properly nuanced understanding of communion through catechetical instruction, prayerful meditation, and fraternal dialogue.
  3. To facilitate a more deeply lived communion by providing clear guidelines regarding ecumenical and interreligious relations in the Diocese of Phoenix.