Divinity School Plans Ecumenical Conference

Leading Protestant theologians and representatives of the Roman Catholic Church have been invited to attend a three-day conference at the Harvard Divinity School in March "to discuss the issues that both unite and divide them," Samuel H. Miller, dean of the Faculty of Divinity, said yesterday.

The conference, the first of its kind to be held at the University, is a response to the Ecumenical Vatican Council II now in progress in Rome, and represents "a deep concern for serious mutual understanding with our Catholic colleagues," Dean Miller stated.

One of the principal figures at the Vatican Council, Augustin Cardinal Bea, Vatican secretary for Christian unity, may come to Harvard himself to represent the Catholic Church. Richard Cardinal Cushing, archbishop of Boston, announced Sunday that Cardinal Bea was considering attending the conference.

Miller said yesterday that the Divinity School had contacted Cushing before sending the invitation to the Vatican, and that Cushing had been "very interested" in the proposed conference.

In addition, two members of the Divinity School who are attending the Vatican Council, Douglas Horton, dean of the Faculty of Divinity, emeritus, and Heiko A. Oberman, associate professor of Church History, spoke with Vatican representatives about the conference before the invitation was sent.

A full list of participants in the conference cannot be released because many of those invited have not yet responded, Dean Miller said. However, the list includes theologians, biblicists, and churchmen, some to participate as individual observers and some as representatives of theological faculties and church groups, he explained.

Pusey Takes Direct Interest

President Pusey has taken a direct interest in the conference, Dean Miller reported, and invitations to the convocation have gone out from his office.

Plans for the conference are still in the formative stage, Miller stressed, with the dates of the convocation and the principal speakers still to be announced. The conference will probably include several lectures which will be open to the public, as well as a series of closed discussions for scholars.

The conference is being offered under the auspices of the Chauncy Stillman Chair of Catholic Studies, which has been left vacant by the return to England of Christopher Dawson, the first holder of the chair.

The Divinity School had hoped to bring the Thomist scholar Etienne Gilson from France to fill the professorship. When a sudden illness prevented Gilson from coming, it was decided to use the funds from the chair to sponsor the conference.

The chairman of the committee which is organizing the conference is Amos N. Wilder. Hollis Professor of Divinity.