Page "editorial" Paragraph 854

Ecumenical hopes

when his Holiness Pope John 23, first called for an Ecumenical Council, and at the same time voiced his yearning for Christian unity, the enthusiasm among Catholic and Protestant ecumenicists was immediate.

With good reason it appeared that a new day was upon divided Christendom.

But as the more concrete plans for the work of the Council gradually became known, there was a rather sharp and abrupt disappointment on all sides.

The Council we now know will concern itself directly only with the internal affairs of the Church.