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DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH |
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DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH (Lumen Gentium) LG presents the
Church as the pilgrim People of God through history in the following of
Christ, affirming its missionary vocation. This document
utilizes biblical terms (vs. juridical categories) to describe the church.
It gives weight to the role of the bishops. It describes the church as the
people of God, a pilgrim people, changing the defensive and inflexible
stance of the Church. The constitution
stressed a biblical understanding of the Christian community's
organization, rather than the juridical model. Terming the church the
"people of God," it emphasized the servant nature of offices
such as those of priest and bishop, the collegial, or shared,
responsibility of all bishops for the entire church, and the call of all
church members to holiness and to participation in the church's mission of
spreading the gospel of Christ. In the past, the
Church is described in terms of a perfect, independent society, often in
competition with other social systems. Others preferred to see it as a
complexity of legal systems, issuing laws to control man's spiritual
destiny. Others, again, looked at age-old institutions, its fine buildings
and palaces, the splendor of its ornaments, vestments and ceremonies, and
saw in all these things evidence of triumph and victory --
"ecclesiastical triumphalism." The Constitution
sees the Church, as "the sacrament of union with God, the sacrament
of the unity of the whole of the human race." A sacrament is a sign
which brings about what it signifies. The Church is the sign of unity.
Through it, Christ, its founder, shows the power and presence of God,
acting upon society, upon mankind, The Church is
the sign because it is the community of the People o God. Divine
redemption and the power of the Holy Spirit, act in and through God's
people to save all mankind. The People of God are being sanctified; yet
they remain weak and human, subject to temptation, liable to sin. This is
not a Church of triumph, whose members can lord it over others, while
remaining secure within its walls. It does not compete with other social
systems and other cultures; it adapts itself to these systems, because it
is an instrument which God uses to save mankind. It is a missionary Church
-- the People of God are missionaries. They seek that union with God which
is true holiness; they are the instruments through whom God unites and
sanctifies mankind. The Catholic
Church professes that it is the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church of
Christ; this it does not and could not deny. But in its Constitution the
Church now solemnly acknowledges that the Holy Ghost is truly active in
the churches and communities separated from itself. To these other
Christian Churches the Catholic Church is bound in many ways: through
reverence for God's word in the Scriptures; through the fact of baptism;
through other sacraments which they recognize. The
non-Christian may not be blamed for his ignorance of Christ and his
Church; salvation is open to him also, if he seeks God sincerely and if he
follows the commands of his conscience, for through this means the Holy
Ghost acts upon all men; this divine action is not confined within the
limited boundaries of the visible Church. The Constitution
then turns to the structure of the hierarchy which Christ established in
his Church. It uses the word "college" in the sense of a
unified, corporate body of men (just as cardinals are said to belong to a
"sacred college"). Christ formed his Apostles "after the
manner of a college," and over this college he placed Peter, whom he
had chosen from their midst. The mission which Christ entrusted to the
Apostles must last until the end of the world; accordingly the Apostles
chose others to succeed them. It is therefore by divine institution that
bishops have succeeded the Apostles. The college or body of bishops,
however, has authority together with the Pope as its head. The Pope is the
foundation of unity, of bishops as well as of the Faithful; so that
supreme authority can be exercised by the college of bishops only in union
with the Pope and with his consent. Bishops give to
other individuals a share in the ministry. Priests and bishops are united
in the priestly office. At a lower level is the hierarchy are deacons.
When regional conference of bishops deem it necessary--and when the Pope
consents--bishops can confer the diaconate upon men of mature years, even
if these men are married. In the third
session of the Council, practical applications of the principle of
collegiality were left over to await discussion in the draft scheme
concerning bishops. These practical applications affect such problems as
the division of dioceses and the powers to be used by episcopal
conferences. Another important problem, related to the principle that the
bishops and the Pope together form a "college," is the
establishment of a central advisory council of bishops. The form which
this advisory council takes is likely to resemble a "cabinet" in
a civil state, in which the president or prime minister chooses a group of
ministers and advisers. When Pope Paul VI, in February 1965, created many
new cardinals and greatly increased the number in the "Sacred
College" of cardinals, he spoke of the great importance of this
senate of the Church. Since each cardinal is consecrated bishop (if he is
not already a bishop), and since the College of Cardinals includes
representatives from every part of the world, it seems to many observers
that the cardinals themselves will form the "central advisory
council," in which the collegiate responsibility of the bishops will
be expressed. The Holy See has
also continued the work of "reforming" the roman Curia, adapting
its structure and activities to bring it into harmony with the needs of
modern times and including among its officials a greater proportion of
non-Italians. An important instance of this reform is in the Holy Office,
which now includes bishops of dioceses in France and in the United States.
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