When did it appear?

            The roots of Ecumenism must be sought in the Protestant realm, in the middle of the 19^th century.  At the time, when certain Christian Confessions began to notice that their followers were deserting them on account of an increasing religious indifference and the appearance of organized anti-religious movements, they resorted to a rallying of their forces and a mutual collaboration.

            This unifying activity of theirs eventually took on an organized form -an Ecumenical Movement- in the 20^th century and specifically in 1948, with the founding of the World Council of Churches (W.C.C.) in Amsterdam, Holland, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

            It must of course be stressed that the W.C.C. would never have been able to acquire an “ecumenical” character and would have remained an inter-Protestant affair only, if certain local Orthodox Churches had not participated in it.  The Roman Catholics had originally refused to participate, however, later on, without actually becoming incorporated in the W.C.C., they too joined in the Ecumenical Movement.  With a relative decree of the 2^nd Vatican Synod (1964), they founded their own Ecumenism, which aspires to unifying all the Christians under papal domination.