Abstract

This study provides a reconstruction of the influence of Augustin Bea SJ, future President of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, upon the activities of the German ecumenical movement Una Sancta, which was lead from 1945 to 1951 by the theologian Matthias Laros and from 1953 to 1963 by the benedictine monk Thomas Sartory. Urged by the archbishop Lorenz Jaeger, referent for the ecumenical questions at the Bishops' Conference of Fulda, Bea, at that time consultor of the Holy Office and private confessor of Pius XII, during Pacelli's pontificate acted as a link between Rome and the circles of Catholic ecumenism, above all the German ones. In particular, the activities of the "Una-Sancta-Bewegung" were cause of concern for the Romans authorities, especially after the Holy Office's "Monitum" of 1948 and the following "Instructio Ecclesia Catholica" of 1950.