OPENING PRAYER

THE ECCLESIOLOGY
OF VATICAN II
 ECCLESIOLOGY

• Ecclesia
• Its etymology brings out the idea of being
summoned – “those who are called out”.
• Assembly of God’s people.
 THE CHURCH IS
NOT ONLY THE
COMMUNITY OF
THOSE WHO ARE
SAVED BUT ALSO
THE COMMUNITY
THROUGH WHICH
ONE IS SAVED.
I. A DECENTRALIZED ECCLESIOLOGY
 I. A DECENTRALIZED ECCLESIOLOGY
• Edward Schillebeeckx, OP, has described
what was novel in Vatican II’s ecclesiology
in terms of successive decentralizations:

1. A vertical decentralization towards

Christ.
2. A horizontal decentralization of
Rome towards the universal
episcopacy (Collegiality)
 I. A DECENTRALIZED ECCLESIOLOGY
3. A horizontal decentralization of the
hierarchical ministry towards the People
of God (Common priesthood of the
baptized/believers).
4. A decentralization of the Roman
Catholic Church towards the other
Churches.
5. And lastly the giving up of a certain
ecclesiocentrism.
II. A TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY
 A TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

A.Vatican II's ecclesiology is consciously Trinitarian. The

first four articles of Lumen Gentium see the Trinity as
the origin, form and goal of the Church.
 A TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

1. Beyond Christomonism: Vatican II proposes an

“Ecclesia de Trinitate.” (Church of the Trinity).
Vatican II does away with the pre-conciliar, narrow
focus on Jesus as founding such-and-such offices, and
its focus on the past
ORIGIN: LG 2- on the Father; LG 3- on the Son: LG 4-
on the Spirit.
 A TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

The Church comes from the saving plan of the

Father. This plan, born in the heart of the Father, is
one of communion.
LG 13: The Father wishes to gather all to himself,
one with him and one with one another.
 A TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

• Key moments in the founding of the Church (compare

these with the former focus on Matthew 16):
• Preaching of the Kingdom: Jesus inaugurates the
Kingdom in his preaching and by his miracles;
indeed, in his very Person (cf. LG 5):
• Paschal Mystery: On the cross, at Jesus' death, the
Church was born from his pierced side (cf. LG 3)
 A TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

LG 4 says that the Holy Spirit is the co-founder of

the Church, constantly building up the Church.
 2. BEYOND VISIBILISM: THE CHURCH AS MYSTERY

• "The Church is a mystery. It is a reality imbued with the

hidden presence of God." (Pope Paul VI at the 2nd session
of the Council)
• The Church is a divine, transcendent, salvific mystery.
You can't understand the Church by looking only at its
laws and structures. You have to see it as the temple of the
Holy Spirit. We have to make room for his surprises.
3. BEYOND HIERARCHOLOGY: THE CHURCH AS COMMUNION

• Ecclesia de Trinitate: not only "from" but also “of”

the Trinity, that is, taking its FORM from the
Trinity. The Trinity becomes the model for the
Church.
3. BEYOND HIERARCHOLOGY: THE CHURCH AS COMMUNION

• Congar writes: "There has been a transfer from the image

of the Church as a set and unchangeable society, a kind of
smooth running sacred machine, to an image of the
Church as being actively and currently molded by God.
3. BEYOND HIERARCHOLOGY: THE CHURCH AS COMMUNION

• "Once you think of the Church on a Trinitarian model you

are led to see in the nature of the Church a communion of
persons, a diversity of situations and the necessity of
mutual communication and exchange.
 4. BEYOND ECCLESIOCENTRISM: THE CHURCH AS
PILGRIM

• If the Trinity is the GOAL of the Church, then the

Church is not yet perfect.
 4. BEYOND ECCLESIOCENTRISM: THE CHURCH AS
PILGRIM
• LG 8: “The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom,
at once holy and always in need of purification, follows
constantly the path of penance and renewal." This brings out
the idea of the constant reformability of the Church: ecclesia
semper reformanda…

“the Church is always in need of reformation“.

 4. BEYOND ECCLESIOCENTRISM: THE CHURCH AS
PILGRIM

• The Church is on a common pilgrimage with all

mankind toward the Father.
III. THE CHURCH AS "PEOPLE OF GOD"
 A. SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS IMAGE

1. It stresses the communitarian and pilgrim nature of

the Church.

a. It stresses the fundamental equality: one people

sharing a common dignity and a common
responsibility.
 A. SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS IMAGE
The common dignity is that we are all baptized Christians.
By God's mercy and kindness, we are made a new people.

• The common responsibility is the call for all to share in the

triple messianic functions of Christ
• As priest: <WORSHIP >
• As prophet: <WORD/WITNESS>
• As king: < WORK>
 A. SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS IMAGE

b. It is the image of Israel in the desert, still on a

journey, still imperfect, subject to temptations and
failure. The emphasis is on the humanity and the
historicity of the community.
 A. SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS IMAGE

2. It emphasizes the priority of commonality

rather than the priority of distinctions.
 A. WHEN DISTINCTIONS COME FIRST:

Pius X wrote in Vehementer Nos (1906):

"In the hierarchy alone reside the right and the authority
necessary for promoting and directing all the members [of the
Church] toward the end of society. As far as the multitude (the
laity) is concerned, its only right is to let itself be led by its
pastors and, in all docility, to follow them." Hence, a purely
passive laity.
 A. WHEN DISTINCTIONS COME FIRST:

Pius XI: In 1922-23 he officially recognized "Catholic Action"

(Catholic workers, students, et al.), understood as participation
of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy. Here there is
improvement (the laity are allowed to help the clergy) but still
revolves around hierarchy.
 Not a total ecclesiology: some are fully members of the
Church; some are as it were only partially members of the
Church.
 B. WHEN WHAT IS COMMON COMES FIRST:

• Before the distinctions, underlying the distinctions,

and the goal of the distinctions, is a much more
important and fundamental unity.
 B. WHEN WHAT IS COMMON COMES FIRST:

• Having what is common/shared as a theological

starting-point (rather than what is
different/separates). This is very much in keeping
with the "spirit of the Council that was more
pastoral, dialogical, conciliatory, inclusive and
therefore more ecumenical.
B. WHO CONSTITUTE THIS PEOPLE OF GOD?
 B. WHO CONSTITUTE THIS PEOPLE
OF GOD?
1. Background: Extra ecclesiam nulla salus is a phrase with a
solid patristic pedigree (c.g., Cyprian of Carthage). Some people
today mistakenly believe that Vatican II has once and for all
done away with it. The truth is that the Church has never
repudiated this saying, although the practice nowadays is to state
the positive, rather than the negative, import of the expression.
 B. WHO CONSTITUTE THIS PEOPLE
OF GOD?
2. CCC 846: "How are we to understand this affirmation,
often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated
positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ
the Head through the Church which is his Body."
 B. WHO CONSTITUTE THIS PEOPLE
OF GOD?
LG 48 declares that the Church is the “universal
sacrament of salvation." As a sacrament, she is a sign and
an instrument of Christ for the salvation of all. It is to the
Church that Christ entrusted “the fullness of the means of
salvation" which are intended for all people.
The Church is not only the community of those who are
saved but also the community through which one is saved.
 B. WHO CONSTITUTE THIS PEOPLE
OF GOD?
LG 14: "Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the
Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through
Christ, would refuse to enter it.”
LG 16: "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know
the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek
God with a sincere heart and. moved by grace, try in their
actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of
their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.”
 B. WHO CONSTITUTE THIS PEOPLE
OF GOD?
In other words, all grace comes from Christ
through the Church, and men and women
attain salvation by being connected to it (by
being a part of it) in some way.