Vatican clarifies

 

Today, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s fomer office – released an interesting document with a rather unwieldly title: “Responses to some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.” They don’t go for pithy there. Leaves too much room for detractors. Which sort of gets back to the point of this document…

“The Second Vatican Council, with its Dogmatic Constitution ‘Lumen gentium,’ and its Decrees on ecumenism (‘Unitatis redintegratio’) and the Oriental Churches (‘Orientalium Ecclesiarum’), has contributed in a decisive way to the renewal of Catholic ecclesiology. The Supreme Pontiffs have also contributed to this renewal by offering their own insights and orientations for praxis: Paul VI in his Encyclical Letter ‘Ecclesiam suam’ (1964) and John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter ‘Ut unum sint’ (1995).

“The consequent duty of theologians to expound with greater clarity the diverse aspects of ecclesiology has resulted in a flowering of writing in this field. In fact it has become evident that this theme is a most fruitful one which, however, has also at times required clarification by way of precise definition and correction…

In other words, there’s been a lot of attention, for better or worse, on what the church believes (ecclesiology: study of church doctrine) since Vatican II. And since some of that has been….uh…for worse, we need some clarity. The CDF is doing that rather politely here.

“The vastness of the subject matter and the novelty

(there’s some nuance, “novelty”)

of many of the themes involved continue to provoke theological reflection. Among the many new contributions to the field, some are not immune from erroneous interpretation

(a nice way of saying ‘some are just plain wrong’) 

which in turn give rise to confusion and doubt. A number of these interpretations have been referred to the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Given the universality of Catholic doctrine on the Church, the Congregation wishes to respond to these questions by clarifying the authentic meaning of some ecclesiological expressions used by the Magisterium which are open to misunderstanding in the theological debate.

Good.

“First Question: Did the Second Vatican Council change the Catholic doctrine on the Church?

“Response: The Second Vatican Council neither changed nor intended to change this doctrine, rather it developed, deepened and more fully explained it.

A lot of folks don’t get this. They think Vatican II essentially threw out the “dark ages” when it threw open the windows of the Church to a new engagement with the modern world…with all the teachings and tradition it has always held.

What Christ willed, we also will. What was, still is. What the Church has taught down through the centuries, we also teach. In simple terms that which was assumed, is now explicit; that which was uncertain, is now clarified; that which was meditated upon, discussed and sometimes argued over, is now put together in one clear formulation.’ The Bishops repeatedly expressed and fulfilled this intention.

That’s clarity.

And while this document answers a handful of specific questions, it really asks people to read Lumen Gentium, which covers it all.