Office of Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs

4000 Saint Joseph's Pl. NW
Albuquerque, NM
87120-1714

If you missed the featured speakers at the Commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation Conference on the Fruits of the Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue, you’re in luck!  Click below to watch.

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February 2026

Catholic Church: Divided into United
Is it time for “ecumenism within” the Catholic Church? Have we realized the ferocious division within the Catholic Church–between The Right and The Left–is antagonistic to the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Unity, and the Church's raison d’être, evangelization (John 17: 20-23)?

Leo XIV’s Call for a ‘United Church’
In his May 18 installation Mass, Pope Leo formally called for “a united church, a sign of unity and communion,” quoting St. Augustine, “In the one Christ, we are one,” inscribing a version of it [“In Illo uno unum”] on his coat of arms.

CST (Catholic Social Teaching): A Unitive Vision
CST unites us in the true vision for peace. CST is key to Leo’s name—following Leo XIII, who originally formulated CST.

Media to Unite in the Truth
In the May 12 “Address of the Holy Father Leo XIV to Representatives of the Media,” he challenged the media in particular to “strive for a… communication… that… never separates the search for truth from… love…” (The Holy See).

“Arnold Schwarzenegger on the death of Charlie Kirk” (YouTube, 9/16/25) asked “… ‘How do we stop this?’ … the cause of all of this is the social media companies…, the mainstream media companies… the political parties… that are dividing us….”

Rightly Placed Faith
Will we recognize the financial and political agendas of the media? Or do we trust the media more than CST? Do we recognize the “both-and” balance of CST (unavailable in our bipolar politics)?

January 2026
Antisemitism and Catholics

As Catholic Christians, we are called to be peacemakers – not an easy task in today’s world.

The universality of our faith is meant to bring Christ’s love to all – even our enemies. As we bless ourselves and make the sign of the cross, it is not only to remember the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but to bring us into solidarity with those who are crucified in the wars and violence that surround us.

Recently, our Jewish brothers and sisters in Australia suffered from the ignorant and cruel hands of antisemites. Violence against people because of their religious beliefs affects us all.

As Catholics, “interreligious dialogue with the global Jewish community has proven a sacred space…in which both Jews and Catholics have discerned holiness in each other as a people and in our rituals and traditions….This means that we have special responsibilities to pursue the opportunities…to learn about God together.

Today, the Catholic Church conceives of the Christian-Jewish relationship as one between co-covenanting companions or, to put it another way, between fellow covenanters with God. We both walk in a covenantal relationship with God and have distinctive but resonating responsibilities to that same God.

As a recent Orthodox Jewish text observed, ‘Jews and Christians have a common covenantal mission to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, and they will remain dedicated to the Covenant by playing an active role together in redeeming the world.’ “

May we, the Catholic community, together with our Jewish brothers and sisters, become the courageous peacemakers we are called to be, both in our countries and the world. 
(Catholic-Jewish Relations in the USA Today, Cunningham, P.A., Ecumenical Trends, Jan-Feb 2024)

December 2025

Since Vatican II, the relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches has slowly evolved, beginning with Paul VI and Athenagoras' rescinding of the excommunications of the Great Schism of 1130, toward an “uninterrupted path toward unity”. Today, we see Pope Leo XIV continuing this same “path toward unity” with the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew.

To delve deeper into the theology and spirituality of the Orthodox world, Alexander Schmemann’s small book “For the Life of the World” is an excellent introduction. The following is a brief excerpt from his book.

“What are the Church and each Christian to do in this world? What is our Mission?

To these questions, there exist no answers in the form of practical “recipes.” “It all depends” on thousands of factors – and to be sure, all faculties of our human intelligence and wisdom organization and planning are to be constantly used. Yet – and this is the one “point” we wanted to make in these pages – “it all depends” primarily on our being real witnesses to the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit, to that new life of which we are made partakers in the Church. The Church is the sacrament of the Kingdom – not because she possesses divinely instituted acts called “sacraments,” but because first of all she is the possibility given to us to see in and through this world, the “world to come,” to see and to “live” it in Christ. It is only when in the darkness of this world we discern that Christ has already “filled all things with Himself” that these things, whatever they may be, are revealed and given to us full of meaning and beauty. A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in Him. And this joy transforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and actions, making all his mission the sacrament of the world’s return to Him who is the life of the world” (Schmemann,A. For The Life of The World, p 113) 

Within our Archdiocese of Santa Fe, there are several Orthodox Churches. Next time you go by one, like our Church leaders, pay them a visit!

For those interested in ecumenical presentations for your parish community, as well as available support material and resources, please contact Jim Gilroy at [email protected] or 575-779-8142.

“That they may be one” – these were the words Jesus Himself prayed on the night before He died (John 17:11). Evidently Jesus intended unity among us and the Father, as well as unity among ourselves as His disciples. How can we foster this unity in the face of so much painful division among Christians today? 

We can learn to practice true ecumenism. Genuine ecumenism is not about convincing non-Catholics to become Catholics – or to pretend that we are not Catholic. Ecumenism is an attempt for mutual respect and understanding, a quest for members of different traditions and denominations to honor everything that unites them, even as they discuss respectfully the things that divide them. True ecumenism starts with mutual love and respect.

We pray for healing of all divisions, and we long for the day when all God’s people will be gathered around His table in complete unity and love.

Paragraph 44 of Pontificium Consilium Ad Christianorum Unitatem Fovendam (The Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism) lists the following as functions of the Ecumenical Commission, and indicate our mission to the Church: 

• Put into practice the decisions of the diocesan bishop for implementing the teaching and directives of the Second Vatican Council on ecumenism, as well as those of the post-conciliar documents emanating from the Holy See, Synods of Eastern Catholic Churches and Episcopal Conferences.

• Maintain relations with the territorial ecumenical commission, adapting the latter's recommendations and advice to local conditions. When circumstances suggest, information about experiences and their results as well as other useful information should be sent to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

• Foster spiritual ecumenism according to the principles given in the conciliar Decree on Ecumenism and in other sections of this directory about public and private prayer for the unity of Christians.

• Offer help and encouragement by such means as workshops and seminars for the ecumenical formation of both clergy and laity, for the appropriate realization of an ecumenical dimension to all aspects of life, and giving special attention as to how seminary students are prepared for the ecumenical dimension of preaching, catechetics and other forms of teaching, and pastoral activity (e.g., pastoral care in mixed marriages) etc.

• Promote friendliness and charity between Catholics and other Christians with whom full ecclesial communion does not yet exist according to the suggestions and guidelines given below (especially nn. 205-218).

• Initiate and guide conversations and consultations with them, bearing in mind the adaptation to be observed in accordance with the diversity of the participants and subjects of dialogue.

• Propose experts to undertake dialogue on the diocesan level with other churches and ecclesial communities.

• Promote, in collaboration with other diocesan bodies and with other Christians joint witness to Christian faith, to the extent that this is possible, as well as cooperation in such areas as education, public and private morality, social justice, matters connected with culture, learning and the arts.

• Propose to the bishops the exchange of observers and guests on the occasion of important conferences, synods, installation of religious leaders and other similar occasions.

Church List: Who's Who?

Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs Handbook 2009

Octave for Christian Unity

Who Is My Neighbor?