The Ecumenical Study Days of Chevetogne

This contribution offers a substantial analysis of the work of the first international association of Catholic ecumenists, the Catholic Conference for Ecumenical Questions, which organized nine consultations in between 1952 and 1963 under the leadership of its secretary, Johannes Willebrands. After sketching the complex history of the creation of a workable structure for the CCEQ, the attention goes to its two major achievements, which chronologically follow one another. Sections 2 and 3 show how the CCEQ has made an attempt to provide a Catholic response to themes of interest to the World Council of Churches. Sections 4 and 5 demonstrate how the CCEQ and its board through the composition of a position paper on Christian unity and through the organization of the 1960 and 1961 conferences contributed to the renewal of Roman Catholic ecclesiology and ecumenism. The final section describes the attempts of CCEQ to organize interconfessional meetings of theologians.