Religion: The Supreme Realist

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Mountains to Scale. Bea is described by associates as "a master in the art of the possible, a supreme realist." Bea's realism has led him into occasional conflict with the powerful minority of stand-fast conservatives on the Roman Curia. At one meeting of the Central Commission for the Council, one prelate proposed that all bishops be forced to take an official oath for the council, composed of the Nicene Creed and the oath drawn up against the Modernist heresy (a turn-of-the-century attempt to reject dogmas and sacraments that could not be reconciled with contemporary philosophy and science). Bea protested; the majority of other clergymen present upheld him.

Bea knows that the union of Christendom is far off. "There is no need to fool ourselves about the prospects for union," he says. "There are veritable mountains to scale. In addition to the work of the divine spirit of union, there must be cooperation of all the baptized in a long and patient effort, gradually to come closer and to understand each other."