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Church, know thyself

On 4 December, a day full of significant interventions, yet another Jocist bishop, Gerard Huyghe of Arras, called for the Church to apply the Socratic maxim ‘know thyself’. ‘It happens that the Church, far from leading souls to Christ, turns them away from him,’ Huyghe warned.

‘The world expects that the Church will question itself’ and ‘discover its true face,’ he continued, adding that the documents to be drafted would ‘commit the Church for centuries.’

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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Church as a communion

On 28 November 1962, another former JOC chaplain, Léon-Arthur Elchinger, called for an ecclesiology inspired by ‘pastoral concern’ based on the Church ‘as a communion’ rather than as ‘an institution.’

‘In the past, theology affirmed the value of the hierarchy,’ Elchinger noted, ‘now, it is discovering the People of God.’ Moreover, where ‘in the past, the theology of the Church considered its internal life above all; now it sees the Church turned towards the world,’ he added.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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De Smedt hits out at hierarchism, clericalism, episcopolatry and papolatry

In one of the first speeches on the De Ecclesia schema, Bishop Emile-Joseph De Smedt hit out at what he characterised as the dangers of “hierarchism, clericalism, episcopolatry and papolatry.”

In the first chapters of the Draft the traditional picture of the Church predominates. You know the pyramid: the pope, the bishops, the priests, who preside and, when they receive the powers, who teach, sanctify, and govern; then, at the bottom, the Christian people who instead receive and somehow seem to occupy second place in the Church.

We should note that hierarchical power is only something transitory. It belongs to our status on the way. In the next life, in the final state, it will no longer have a purpose, because the elect will have reached perfection, perfect unity in Christ. What remains is the People of God; what passes is the ministry of the hierarchy.

In the People of God we are all joined to others and have the same basic rights and duties. We all share in the royal priesthood of the People of God. The pope is one of the faithful; bishops, priests, lay people, religious: we are all the faithful. We go to the same sacraments; we all need the forgiveness of sins, the eucharistic bread, and the Word of God; we are all heading towards the same homeland, by God’s mercy and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But as long as the People of God is on the way, Christ brings it to perfection by means of the sacred ministry of the hierarchy. All power in the Church is for ministering, for serving: a ministry of the Word, a ministry of grace, a ministry of governance. We did not come to be served but to serve.

We must be careful lest in speaking about the Church we fall into a kind of hierarchism, clericalism, episcopolatry, or papolatry. What is most important is the People of God; to this People of God, to this Bride of the Word, to this living Temple of the Holy Spirit, the hierarchy must supply its humble services so that it may grow and reach perfect manhood, the fullness of Christ. Of this growing life the hierarchical Church is the good mother: Mother Church.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

A Tidbit from Vatican II: Reflecting on the “Hierarchy” (Deacons Today: Musings on Diakonia and Diaconate)

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The schema De Ecclesia

The final schema up for debate in the First Session was De Ecclesia with debate taking place from 28 November – 4 December was De Ecclesia.

Again, the Jocist bishops took the lead. In fact, trouble had begun inside the Doctrinal Commission when Léger and Garrone refused to endorse the proposed schema, Léger even threatening to resign from the Commission if he were not free to criticise it in the plenary.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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Schema on Social Communications

The discussion on the schema on social communication took place over three days from 23 November and was the least controversial topic to be discussed, writes Stefan Gigacz.

Indeed, René Stourm, introducing the discussion, joked that it was introduced to provide an opportunity for relaxation! But he was completely serious in his proposals.

‘There are three things that we have always kept in mind,’ Stourm noted:

a) We wanted to affirm that the Church has a duty to teach that it cannot fulfil … if does not place the press and other means of communications at its service;

b) We wanted to affirm the Church has a right to educate, and thus the duty to encourage the press… and the duty to remind all those … concerned by these obligations of their obligations and responsibilities…

c) We wanted to affirm that the work of the Church in this field must be coordinated… (Emphases added)

Such an organisation needs to be established at international, national and diocesan levels.

In other words, the Church’s work in the field of social communications must serve, educate and represent (or be coordinated), Stourm proposed, explicitly following the old Jocist formula.

Moreover, a major criticism of the schema, coming from those with a Specialised Catholic Action background, such as Cardinals Tarancon and Léger was that the media was an area more suitable for lay people than priests.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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First preliminary meeting of Conciliar Lay Apostolate Commission

The new Commission on the Apostolate of the Faithful, as it had been named despite the protests of its secretary, Mgr Achille Glorieux, and others held a preliminary meeting on 22 November to discuss its new mandate to draft an abbreviated ‘Decree on the Laity’ – not on ‘lay apostolate’ – in place of the Constitution originally proposed.

Still informally known as the “Lay Apostolate Commission,” its mandate was to establish ‘general principles’ under three main headings:

a) the apostolate of the laity in the service (actio) of the reign of Christ;

b) the apostolate of the laity in charitable and social works;

c) societies of the faithful, based on a schema for a ‘Decree on the Societies of the Faithful’ which had been prepared by the Preparatory Commission for the Discipline of the Clergy and Faithful.

These instructions clearly maintained the structure of the original schema that had frustrated Cardijn.

Worse, writes Stefan Gigacz, the change in name of the Commission from ‘Apostolate of the Laity’ to ‘Apostolate of the Faithful’ amounted to an unambiguous rejection of the line he had championed, although it continued to be known (in protest) as the Lay Apostolate Commission.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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Two petitions on world and Church

On 20 November 1962, two overlapping groups of bishops, many of whom were linked to Cardijn and had met him during his visit to Rome, addressed two petitions to Pope John XXIII on the twin themes of the world “ad extra” and the Church.

Stefan Gigacz writes:


Although it is not possible to definitively establish a link with Cardijn’s visit, which concluded on 20 November, it is highly suggestive that the next day, two overlapping groups of bishops, including several whom Cardijn had just met, addressed petitions to Pope John via Cardinal Cicognani dealing with the twin themes of world and Church.

At least eight of the first group, namely Himmer, Larrain, Ancel, Angerhausen, Marcos McGrath, Cooray, Helder Camara and Bernard Yago, were all closely linked to Cardijn.

Citing the pontiff’s own insistence that the problems of the world have always been in the heart of the Church and appealing for solutions based on the dignity of man and the Christian vocation, they called for the establishment of a secretariat or commission that would discuss the role of the Church ‘ad extra’ in responding to ‘the most important issues of today’s world.’

The same day the second group of eleven bishops addressed another letter to Cicognani calling for greater clarity in the organisation of the work before the Council and proposing that the next session of the Council should begin with a discussion on the Constitution on the Church. Overlapping with the signatories on the first letter, this group included Camara, McGrath,

Larrain and Cooray as well as another three Jocist bishops, Jean Zoa, Pierre Veuillot and Maurice Baudoux.

In any event, it is clear that lobbying for the Council to adopt a twin focus on Church and world was making significant progress.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)