The Beauty of the Catholic Faith, Part VI

This is the sixth article in an eight-part series that reflects on fundamental Christian beliefs as expressed in the Creed. There are four main topics, each divided into two sections: (1) Reflecting on the Mystery of God; (2) Gazing on the Face of Christ; (3) Being Church in a Secular Society;  (4) Living in Hope: What Catholics Believe about Death and Eternal Life.

Being Church in a Secular Society (II)

“We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.”

In the previous part of this series on the Creed, we explored the New Testament in order to discover what it says about the nature and mission of the Church. We engaged in this exploration with an awareness of some of the challenges facing the Church in our society: the challenge of living a communal faith in a culture that extols individualism; ideological divisions among Catholics that can make dialogue difficult; the damage to the Church caused by the clergy sexual abuse scandal; the concerns of women in the Church today. In this segment, we will take a brief look at the teaching of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) about the Church and discuss its relevance for our life together as Catholic Christians.

The Second Vatican Council was convened after a century in which the importance of the papacy and other visible structures of Church life had been accentuated. Vatican I (1869-70) had issued definitive teaching about the primacy of the pope in the Church. Much of standard Catholic theology after Vatican I focused on the Church as an institution. When the bishops came together at Vatican II in the fall of 1962, they received drafts of documents on important themes that had been prepared beforehand by an official committee. One of these drafts was a statement about the nature and mission of the Church. The debate about this document was very lively, even contentious. Many of the bishops criticized this draft as too clerical (preoccupied with the role of the clergy), too juridical (focused too much on structures of law), and triumphalistic (failing to recognize that the Church is made up of fallible human beings and is on a journey along with the rest of the human family). The bishops called for a whole new approach to teaching about the Church, one that was more pastoral in tone, that incorporated the biblical images for the Church, and which was sensitive to the concerns of other Christian churches. This led to several new drafts, which were also heavily debated, and eventually to the document that is called The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (the Latin title is Lumen Gentium- “Light of the nations”).  This unexpected action of the bishops showed that they wanted the Council to be an event in which the movements of the Holy Spirit could be discerned together in order that the Church might respond more effectively to the challenges it faces in the modern world. 

One critical change in the format of the constitution on the Church was suggested by Cardinal Suenens, an important leader in the church of Belgium and an influential figure at the Council. Suenens suggested placing a chapter on the Church as the People of God immediately after the opening chapter of the constitution (the Church as mystery). This chapter would appear before the sections of the document that speak of the distinct vocations of clergy and laity. This represented more than just an editorial change. It meant that the Council would speak first about what Christians share in common through baptism before elaborating the distinctions among them. Thus, in its second chapter Lumen Gentium says, “The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, that through all the works of Christian men [and women] they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the perfection of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light” (n. 10). It proceeds to teach that lay people and clergy, each in their own way, share in the threefold office of Christ who is Priest, Prophet and King. All of the baptized are meant to make their lives an offering to God; all share in the work of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ; and all participate in the mission of preparing the world for the coming of God’s reign, God’s gracious rule of life and love.

Recently there have been some headlines in the news about the way in which the Catholic Church views other Christian communities. These headlines were occasioned by a couple of Vatican statements that were intended to clarify the teaching of Vatican II on this important subject. The discussion at Vatican II was of critical importance for the Church’s commitment to the task of ecumenism. In its original draft, the constitution on the Church said that the Church of Christ “is” the Roman Catholic Church. The bishops objected to that statement because it failed to acknowledge the elements of Christian holiness and truth that are found in other Christian communities, including baptism and the proclamation of the Word of God. After further debate, the constitution came to say that the Church of Christ, “constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines. Since these are gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity” (n. 8). In its Decree on Ecumenism (another important statement of the Council), Vatican II said that other Christian communities “have by no means been deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church” (n. 3).

Catholic theologians and bishops have discussed what exactly the Council meant by its teaching that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church. The Council did not provide a precise definition of this phrase. This discussion has been at the heart of some of the recent debates that have made the media headlines. The most accepted explanation has been given by Francis Sullivan, a prominent Jesuit theologian at Boston College who taught for many years in Rome. Sullivan explains that this statement means that the Church of Christ continues to exist in the Catholic Church with that particular kind of unity, and with all the means of salvation, which Christ gave to it; and it is only in the Catholic Church that it continues so to exist (The Church We Believe In, 28). This understanding has basically been adopted in recent official statements. Thus, the Council teaches that the Church of Christ continues to exist fully in the Catholic Church.  There is a completeness about the Catholic Church that is truly unique and which distinguishes it from other Christian churches and communities. This is a question of the fullness of the means of salvation that are found in it. At the same time, the presence of the Church of Christ is also found in other Christian bodies. In his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint (“That All May be One”), Pope John Paul II referred to the elements of sanctification and truth found in other Christian communities and he said, “To the extent that these elements are found in other Christian communities, the one Church of Christ is effectively present in them” (n. 11). While another Christian community may not have all of the means of salvation found in the Catholic Church, it may be the case that it utilizes the means that it possesses in a very authentic and effective way. Thus this community may embody and communicate the gospel with a depth and integrity that is missing in some Catholic parishes. As individuals and Christian communities, we must make good use of the means of holiness and truth that Christ gives us.

In addition to making some very significant statements about the role of bishops and priests in the Church, the Second Vatican Council broke new ground in its discussion of the vocation of lay men and women.  The constitution teaches that lay women and men carry on the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world. It speaks of the lay person as “a witness before the world to the resurrection and life of the Lord Jesus and a sign of the living God” (n. 38). Because of the involvement of most lay people in the realms of family, business, and the larger society, the Council teaches that they have a particular mission of “engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will” (n. 31). Lay persons have an apostolic vocation that is rooted in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation and is “a sharing in the salvific mission of the Church” (n. 33). The Council speaks of the right and duty of lay men and women to exercise their charisms -- particular gifts of the Holy Spirit given to each one of us for the building up of the Christian community. These seminal ideas of Vatican II have been developed further by the bishops of the United States in their 2005 letter on the laity entitled Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord.

The Council also used an image that seems particularly relevant to our experience of the struggles and problems of the Church in recent years. Lumen Gentium speaks of “the pilgrim Church” (chapter 7). This image builds on the biblical theme of the pilgrim people of God, and it is a kind of antidote to the triumphalism that the bishops rejected in their discussion of the first draft. The Church is on a journey; it has not yet reached its goal. The Constitutions says that the Church, “to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which by the grace of God we acquire holiness, will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven …” (n. 48). In its Decree on Ecumenism, the Council acknowledged that Catholics often fail to live by the means of grace that Christ offers and thus “the radiance of the Church’s face” shines less brightly in the eyes of other Christians and the world at large (n. 4). The Church is holy because it is the Body of Christ, but it always in need of being purified so that it can actualize its identity in Christ more completely and more radiantly.

The teaching of the Second Vatican Council about the nature and mission of the Church is much richer and more nuanced than this brief summary might suggest. As Catholic Christians, we need to familiarize ourselves more completely with this teaching and continue to reflect on its relevance for our life together as believers. Often the divisions in the Church between “traditionalists” and “progressives” result (at least in part) from divergent interpretations of the teaching of Vatican II. It is very important that we continue to dialogue about the meaning and significance of this teaching, searching for “common ground” in our lives as Catholics. The Spirit continues to be alive and at work in the Church today, teaching us what it means to “be Church” in the contemporary world. We must engage in ongoing communal discernment about what the Spirit is saying to us, especially in the face of challenges like: forming Christian community in a culture of individualism; facilitating healing for the Church in the wake of painful scandals; acknowledging the gifts and concerns of women in the Christian community;  reaching out effectively to youth and young adults, who often feel distanced from the Church. This kind of discernment cannot be the work of any individual or single group within the Church. It is the task of the entire Body of Christ, because the Spirit of God speaks in and through the entire Body. “Being Catholic” may be something we were born into sociologically and baptized into as infants. “Being Church”, on the other hand, is an ongoing task that requires faithful commitment to the tradition that we have received, a willingness to listen attentively to the Spirit of God who animates and guides the Church, and the courage to move forward as a pilgrim Church with creativity and dedication to the mission Christ entrusts to us.

Robin Ryan, CP