Vatican II Series - Part III - Notes

Session 3 – The People of God in the Modern World

• Pope John Paul II
• Born on May 18^th
• 42 years old at Vatican II
• Called a synod in 1985 to review Vatican II
• Promoted the idea of the Church as “The People of God”
• Strongly interested in ecumenism
• Beatified ~1500 and canonized ~400 people, many indigenous peoples
• The Church before Vatican II
• “Perfect society”
• Think of “Church”, you think of “hierarchy”
• “The Church teaches…” means “The Magisterium teaches…”
• We tend to think of the “Church” as the leaders
• Role of the laity
• To support the ministry and mission of the clergy
• To support the apostolate of the hierarchy
• Factors leading up to Vatican II
• Luther “came up with” the idea of the priesthood of all believers (cf. 1 Peter 2:9)
• Luther was a “silent father” at the Council
• Vatican I (suspended in 1870)
• Had a document on the Church in the works, but it was never promulgated
• Didn’t mention papal infallibility in the original schema
• Pope Pius XII
• Encyclical on the Mystical Body of Christ in 1943 (Mystici Corporis Christi)
• Very biblical view of the Church as the Body of Christ
• The Church is divinely inspired and constructed, although also made up of human elements
• Address on the Lay Apostolate in 1957
• Avery Cardinal Dulles summary from 2004
• In the decade after WWII, the Church experienced a number of movements categorized as “ressourcement.” Vatican II built on biblical and patristic studies, liturgical movement, kerygmatic theology, catechetical renewal, lay apostolate, ecumenical movement, and social apostolate. The Council avoided language like “reformation” but did enact some of the desiderata of Luther and other Protestant reformers
• Schema De Ecclesia
• Preoccupied with authority
• Refuted Protestant positions
• Leo Joseph Cardinal Suenens (Belgium) intervened on 4 December 1962
• The Church needs to engage in three dialogues
• Self (Lumen Gentium)
• Other Christians (Unitatis Redintegratio)
• The World (Gaudium et Spes, Ad Gentes, Nostra Aetate, Dignitatis Humanae)
• Going back to the Early Church Fathers
• The Kingdom of God is not just about Heaven
• Augustine said that there are many in the Church who are not God’s, and many who are God’s who are not in the Church (source?)
• God made the world, and He made it good, so the Spirit of God is active in the whole world, not just in the Church
• The Church is the normative means of God’s saving work, but God can work outside the Church
• Backed by Montini (future Pope Paul VI)
• Lumen Gentium, “Light to the Nations” (21 November 1964) passed 2,151 to 5
• Outline
• The Mystery of the Church (1-8)
• The People of God (9-17)
• On the Hierarchical Structure of the Church and in Particular on the Episcopate (18-29)
• The Laity (30-38)
• The Universal Call to Holiness (39-42)
• The Religious (43-47)
• The Pilgrim Church (48-51) – “Church Militant/Church Triumphant” in modern language
• Our Lady (52-69)
• Church as Sacrament
• The Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a union with God and of the unity of all humanity; describing her inner nature and universal mission (LG 1)
• This Church subsists in the Catholic Church; there are elements of sanctification and of truth found outside her visible structure; these elements, which belong to the Church of Christ, impel toward Catholic unity (LG 8)
• The Church always follows the way of penance and renewal; she is always in need of being purified (LG 8)
• The People of God
• Christ instituted a new covenant, making Jew and Gentile one people in the flesh, the People of God (LG 9)
• Baptismal priesthood differs in essence and degree from the ordained priesthood, but there is a participation in the three offices of Christ, priest, prophet, and king (LG 10)
• See Pope Pius XII’s Mediator Dei:
• 88. Nor is it to be wondered at, that the faithful should be raised to this dignity. By the waters of baptism, as by common right, Christians are made members of the Mystical Body of Christ the Priest, and by the "character" which is imprinted on their souls, they are appointed to give worship to God. Thus they participate, according to their condition, in the priesthood of Christ.
• 99. This offering in fact is not confined merely to the liturgical sacrifice. For the Prince of the Apostles wishes us, as living stones built upon Christ, the cornerstone, to be able as "a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." St. Paul the Apostle addresses the following words of exhortation to Christians, without distinction of time, "I beseech you therefore, . . . that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service." But at that time especially when the faithful take part in the liturgical service with such piety and recollection that it can truly be said of them: "whose faith and devotion is known to Thee," it is then, with the High Priest and through Him they offer themselves as a spiritual sacrifice, that each one's faith ought to become more ready to work through charity, his piety more real and fervent, and each one should consecrate himself to the furthering of the divine glory, desiring to become as like as possible to Christ in His most grievous sufferings.
• Universal Call to Holiness
• All are called to holiness, the fullness of Christian life, and perfection of charity (LG 40)
• The laity are not called to liturgical ministry, but ministry in the world
• The Blessed Virgin Mary
• Mary is truly the Mother of God and Mother of the Redeemer, redeemed by the merits of her Son and united to him by an indissoluble tie (LG 53)
• There is one mediator (see 1 Tim); Mary’s maternal duty in no way obscures or diminishes Christ’s power or mediation (LG 60)
• INTERMISSION
• Question about Mary as Co-Redemptrix
• Gaudium et Spes (7 December 1965) passed 2,307 to 75
• Outline
• Preface (1-3)
• Man in the Modern World (4-10)
• The Church and Man’s Calling (11-45)
• Some Problems of Special Urgency (46-93)
• Foundation of Paul VI’s 1975 encyclical on evangelization in the modern world
• The joys, hopes, griefs, anxieties of all men are the same of the followers of Christ; nothing genuinely human fails to echo in a Christian’s heart (GS 1)
• The Church addresses herself in relation to the whole of humanity, explaining her presence and activity in the world today (GS 2)
• Ecumenism
• Non-Catholic observers at Vatican II
• Pope Paul VI very committed to gestures of friendship with non-Catholics, especially Anglicans
• Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox lifted excommunications from each other
• Dialogue
• Unitatis Redintegratio (21 November 1964) passed 2,137 to 11
• Restoration of unity
• Christ summons the Church to continual reformation insofar as she is an institution of men on earth; deficiencies in conduct, discipline, or even formulation of doctrine (distinguished from the deposit of faith itself), rectification is appropriate (UR 6)
• Dignitatis Humanae (7 December 1965) passed 2,308 to 70
• On religious freedom and the dignity of the human person
• The Church “leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ.” (DH 1)
• Contribution of the Catholic Church in America and our experience in an essentially Protestant country
• Fr. John Courtney Murray, S.J.
• Originally silenced for his views
• Came along to Vatican II as Cardinal Spellman’s expert on religious freedom
• Summary: God created man with dignity, so faith is a response to a gift from God which must be made freely; people can’t be forced or coerced to believe
• QUESTIONS
• What about Vatican II document regarding Judaism among other religions (Nostra Aetate)?