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THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1964 SUPPLEMENT purpose of discovering truth where it coincides with objective reality, does not prevent the exer cise of the conscience from manifesting to the one who undertakes the same, thefactof his own exis tence, of his own spiritual dignity and of his own ability to know and to act. It is well known, moreover, that in recent years the Church has undertaken a deeper study of her self through the work of outstanding scholars, of great and profound minds, of competent theologi cal schools, of pastoral and missionary endea vors, of remarkable experiences in the field of religion, and above all, of noteworthy teachings of the popes. It would take too long even to allude to the abun dant theological literature dealing with the Church and produced by her during the last and the present centuries. It would also take too long to recall the documents which the episcopacy and this Apostolic See have issued on this so vast and important sub ject. From the time the Council of Trent sought to repair the consequences of the crisis which sepa rated from the Church many of her members in the 16th century, the doctrine concerning the Church herself was studied by eminent scholars and consequently made great progress. Suffice it for us here to refer to the teachings of the First Ecumenical Vatican Council in this field to understand how studies on the Church are a subject that claims the attention of pastors and teachers, of the faithful and of all Christians. Thus they are made to dwell on a theme which is a necessary step on the path leading to Christ and His work. So much so that, as has already been said, the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council is but a continuation and a complement of the first, pre cisely because of the ta3k incumbent upon it to take up again for study and definition the doctrine dealing with the Church. And if out of a desire for brevity, we say no more, inasmuch as we are addressing those who are well acquainted with this subject of instruction and of spirituality currently of wide interest throughout the Church, there are two documents which we cannot fail to honor with specific mention: the encyclical Satis Cognitum of Pope Leo XXI (1896) and the encyclical Mystici Corporis of Pope Pius XII (1943). These docu ments offer us ample and clear teachings on the divine institution by which Christ continues His work of salvation in the world, and which today is the subject matter of these words of ours. Let it be enough to cite the opening words of the second of these encyclicals which has become, one might say, a highly authoritative text on the theology of the Church and a rich source of spiri tual meditations on this work of divine mercy which concerns us alL Let it suffice to recall these masterful words of our great predecessor: “We first learned of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, from the lips of the Redeem er Himself. Illustrating, as it does, the great and inestimable privilege of our intimate union with a Head so exalted, this doctrine is certainly cal culated by its sublime dignity to draw all spiritual ly minded men to deep and serious study, and to give them, in the truths which it unfolds to the mind, a strong incentive to such virtuous conduct as is conformable to its lessons’* (A.A.S., XXXV, p. 193; 1943). It is an answer to such an invitation, which we consider still vital and meaningful and expres sive of one of the fundamental needs of the Church in our times, that We propose it again today. With an ever-growing knowledge of this same Mystical Body we may come to appreciate its God-given im portance, and in this way strengthen our souls with this Incomparable source of consolation and always increase our ability to fulfil the duties of our mission and to meet the needs of mankind. Nor does it seem to us a difficult thing to do, when on the one hand we notice, as we have said, a vast renascence of studies on the Church, and, on the other, we know that it is the principal ob ject of attention of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. We should like to pay special tribute to those scholars who, especially during these last years, with perfect docility to the teaching authority of the Church and with outstanding gifts of research and expression, have with great dedication under taken many difficult and fruitful studies of the Church. These scholars, both in theological schools and in scientific and literary discussions, as well as in apologetics and in the populariza tion of dogma, in the spiritual assistance render ed to the faithful and in conversations with the separated brethren, have offered many and di verse illustrations of the teaching on the Church. Some of these are of great value and utility. And so we are confident that the work of the council will be assisted by the light of the Holy Spirit. It will be carried out and brought to a happy conclusion with such docility to His divine Inspirations, with so much effort made to under take fuller and deeper Investigations into the pristine thinking of Christ and into the necessary and legitimate developments which have followed in the course of time, with such eagerness to make of divine truth an argument for union and not a reason to divide men in sterile discussions or regrettable divisions, it will rather lead them to greater understanding and concord; the result will be a source of glory for God, joy for the Church, and edification for the world. In this encyclical we are deliberately refraining from passing any judgment of our own on doctrinal points concerning the Church which are at present under examination by the Council itself over which we have been called to preside. It is our desire to leave full liberty erf study and discussion to such an important and authoritative assembly. In virtue of our office of teacher and pastor, and place at the head of the Church of God, we reserve to ourself the choice of the proper moment and manner of expressing our judgment. We are most happy if we can present it in perfect accord with that of the conciliar Fathers. However, we cannot avoid alluding rapidly to the results we hope will derive from the council itself, and from the efforts we mentioned above, which the Church must make to come to a fuller and Prologue firmer awareness of herself. These results are the aims we have set for our apostolic ministry as we undertake its consoling and tremendous re sponsibilities. They are, so to speak, the pro gram of our pontificate. We tell you this, venerable brethren, briefly but in all sincerity, so that you will be willing to help us put it into effect by your advice, by your support, by your collaboration. We think that by opening our heart to you, we are open ing it not only to all the faithful of the Church of God, but especially to those whom our voice can reach beyond the wide limits of the flock of Christ. The first benefit to be reaped from a deepened awareness of herself by the Church is a renewed discovery of her vital bond of union with Christ. This is something that is very well known, but is something that is fundamental and indispensable and never sufficiently understood, meditated upon, and honored. What should we not say about this central theme of all our religious inheritance? Fortunately, you already have an excellent grasp of this doctrine. We will say no more at this time except to urge you to keep it always before your eyes as a di rective principle both in your spirituality and in your preaching. Rather than to our words, listen to the exhortation of our predecessor already men tioned in his encyclical Mystici Corporis: “we must accustom ourselves to see Christ in the Church. It is Christ who lives in the Church, who teaches, governs and sanctifies through it. It is Christ who manifests Himself differently in dif ferent members of His society" (A.A.S., ib. p. 238). How we should like to dwell on the thoughts that come to mind from Sacred Scripture, from the Fathers, the doctors and the saints when we con sider this enlightening truth of our Faith. Did not Jesus Himself tell us that He Is the vine and we the branches (Jn. 15, Iss)? Do we not have be fore us all the riches of St. Paul's teaching, who never ceases to remind us; “you are all one per son in Jesus Christ" (Gal. 3, 28)? And to recom mend to us “...let us grow up, in everything, into a due proportion with Christ, who is our head; on Him all the body depends" (Eph.4, l5-l6)?And to admonish us: “there is nothing but Christ in any of us" (Col. 3, 11)? Suffice it to recall St. Augustine as the one teacher among many who could be cited: “Let us rejoice and give thanks that we have become not only Christians but Christ. My brothers, do you understand the grace ofGodourhead? Stand in ad miration, rejoice; we have become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we are the complete man... Therefore, the fullness of Christ is constituted by the head and members. What is the head and the members? Christ and the Church" (In Jo. Tract. 2l, 8—P.L. 35, 1568). We know well that this is a mystery. It is the mystery of the Church. And if, with the help of God, we fix our gaze on this mystery, we will re ceive many spiritual benefits, the very ones we believe the Church today stands in greatest need of. The presence of Christ, His very life will be come operative in each one and in the whole of the Mystical Body by reason of the working of a living and life-giving faith, according to the words of the Apostle: "may Christ find a dwelling-place, through faith, in your hearts" (Eph. 3, 17). Indeed, awareness of the mystery of the Church is a result of a mature and livingfaith. From such a faith comes that “feeling for the Church," which fills the Christian who has been raised in the school of the divine word. He has been nourished by the grace of the sacraments and of the ineff able inspirations of the Paraclete, has been train ed in the practice of the virtues of the Gospel, has been imbued with the culture and community life of the Church, and is profoundly happy to find himself endowed with that royal priesthood proper to the people of God (cf. I Petr. 2, 9). The mystery of the Church is not a mere object of theological knowledge; it is something to be liv ed, something that the faithful soul can have a kind of connatural experience of, even before arriving at a clear notion of it. Moreover, the community of the faithful can be profoundly certain of its par ticipation in the Mystical Body of Christ when it realizes that by divine institution, the ministry of the hierarchy of the Church is there to give it a beginning, ti give it birth (cf. Gal. 4;l9, I Cor. 4;l5), to teach and sanctify and direct it. It is by means of this divine instrumentality that Christ communicates to His mystical members the mar vels of His truth and of His grace, and confers to His Mystical Body as it travels its pilgrim’s way through time its visible structure, its sublime unity, its ability to function organically, its har monious complexity, its spiritual beauty. Images do not suffice to translate into meaning ful language the full reality and depth of this mys tery. However after dwelling on the image of the Mystical Body, whichwas suggested by the Apostle Paul, we should especially call to mind one sug gested by Christ Himself, that of the edifice for which He is the architect and the builder, an edi fice indeed founded on a man who of himself is weak but who was miraculously transformed by Christ into solid r<£ck, that is, endowed with mar velous and everlasting indefectlbillty: "it is upon this rock that I will build my Church" (Mt. 16, 18). If we can awaken in ourselves such a strength giving feeling for the Church and install it in the faithful by profound and careful instruction, many of the difficulties which today trouble students of ecclesiology, as for example, how the Church can be at once both visible and spiritual, at once free and subject to discipline, communitarian and hierarchical, already holy and yet still being sanctified, contemplative and active, and so on, will be overcome in practice and solved by those who, after being enlightened by sound teach ing, experience the living reality of the Church herself. But above all, the Church's spirituality will come forth enriched and nourished by the faithful reading of Sacred Scripture, of the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church 3nd by ail that brings about in the Church such an awareness. We mean systematic and accurate instruction, participation The Paths Of The Church POPE RECEIVES CHAMPION—Rocky Marciano, who retired as heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was received with his wife and daughter, by Pope Paul VI follow ing a general audience at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer villa. They are shown here kneeling before the Holy Father to receive his blessing. The Marcianos were brought to the papal audience by Msgr. John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, founder of the Boys Towns of Italy. The retired champion visited the Boys Town of Rome with Msgr. Carroll-Abbing. in that incomparable school of words, signs and di vine inspirations which constitute the sacred liturgy and by silent and fervent meditation on the divine truths and finally by whole hearted dedication to contemplative prayer. The interior life still remains the great source of the Church’s spirituality,her own proper way of receiving the illuminations of the Spirit of Christ, the fundamental and irreplaceable mani festation of her religious and social activity, an impregnable defense as well as an inexhaustible source of energy in her difficult contacts with the world. It is necessary to restore to holy Baptism, that is, to the fact of having been incorporated by means of this sacrament into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, all of its significance. It is specially important that the baptized person should have a highly conscious esteem of his elevation, or, rather, of his rebirth to the most happy reality of being an adopted son of God, to the dignity of be ing a brother of Christ, to the good fortune, We mean to the grace and joy of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to the vocation to a new life. It has lost nothing human save only the unhappy fate of original sin and, because it is human, is capable of the finest manifestations and the most precious and sublime acts. To be Christians, to have received holy Bap tism, must not be looked upon as something in different or of little importance, but it must be imprinted deeply and happily in the conscience of every baptized person. He must truly look upon it, as did the Christians of old, as an "illumina tion," which, by drawing down upon him the life giving ray of divine Truth, opens heaven to him, sheds light upon earthly life and enables him to walk as a child of the light towards the vision of God, the spring of eternal happiness. It is easy to see what practical program this consideration imposes on us and our ministry. We are happy to see that this program is already being put into practice throughout the whole Church and that it is being furthered with prudent and ardent zeal. We encourage this activity, we commend it, we bless it. II THE RENEWAL We are taken up by the desire to see the Church of God become what Christ wants her to be, one, holy, and entirely dedicated to the pursuit of per fection to which she is effectively called. Perfect as she is in the ideal conception of her Divine Founder, the Church should tend towards becom ing perfect in the real expression of her earthly existence... This is the great moral problem which is uppermost in the life of the Church, a problem which reveals what she is, stimulates her, accuses her, and sustains her. This search for perfection fills her with groan- ings and prayers, with repentance and hope, with strength and confidence, with responsibility and merits. It is a problem inherent in those theologi cal realities which give meaning to our human life. Without reference to the teachings of Christ and to the magisterlum of the Church it is impossible to pass judgment on man. We cannot judge his na ture, his primeval perfection, the ruinous conse quences of original sin, man’s capacities for good, his need for help to desire and achieve what is good, the meaning of the present life and his final end. We cannot judge those values which man de sires or controls, the criterion of perfection and sanctity, and means and ways of enriching life with the highest beauty and fullness. A strong desire to know the ways of Christ is and ought to remain ever present in the Church, and its discussion must always be fruitful and var ied. As regards the questions having to do with perfection, fresh nourishment is provided in the Church from century to century. We should there fore like to see the unique Interest which the life of Christ deserves reawakened, not so much for the sake of elaborating new theories as for gene rating new energies. They should be used for ac quiring that sanctity which Christ teaches. His ex ample, His word, His grace, and His method sus tained by ecclesiastical tradition, strengthened by . divine action and exemplified In the lives of the saints make it possible for us to know, desire and to follow the path of sanctity. In the pursuit of spiritual and moral perfection the Church receives an exterior stimulus from the conditions in which she lives. She cannot remain unaffected by or indifferent to the changes that take place in the world around. This world exerts its influence on the Church in a thousand ways and places conditions on her daily conduct. The Church, as everyone knows, is not separated from the world, but lives in it. Hence, the members of the Church are subject to its In fluence; they breathe its culture, accept its laws and absorb its customs. This imminent contact of the Church with tem poral society continually creates for her a prob lematic situation, which today has become ex tremely difficult. On the one hand Christian life, as defended and promoted by the Church, must al ways take great care lest it should be deceived, profaned or stifled as it must strive to render it self immune from the contagion of error and of evil. On the other hand, Christian life should not only be adapted to the forms of thought and custom which the temporal environment offers and im poses on her, provided they are compatible with the basic exigencies of her religious and moral program, but it should also try to draw close to them, to purify them, to ennoble them, to vivify and to sanctify them. This task demands of the Church a perennial examination of her moral vigi lance, which our times demand with particular urgency and exceptional seriousness. Also from this point of view the celebration of the council is providential. The pastoral character which it has assumed, the practical objectives of renewing canonical discipline, the desire to make the practice of Christian life as easy as possible in conformity with its supernatural character—all these factors confer on the council an especial merit even at this moment when we are still awaiting the major part of its deliberations. In fact it awakens in pastors as well as in the faithful the desire to preserve and increase in Christian life its character of supernatural au thenticity and reminds all of their duty of effec tively and deeply imprinting that character in their own personal conduct, thus leading the weak to be good, the good to be better, the better to be gene rous, and the generous to be holy. It gives rise to new expressions of sanctity, urges love to be genial, and evokes fresh outpourings of virtue and Christian heroism. Naturally, it will be for the council to suggest what reforms are to be introduced in the legisla tion of the Church. The postconciliar commis sions, especially the one instituted for the revision of Canon Law and already nominated by us will formulate in concrete terms the deliberations of the ecumenical synod. However, it will be your task, venerable broth ers, to indicate to us the means by which to rend er the face of our holy Church spotless and youth ful. But let our determination to bring about such a reform be once again made manifest. How many times in centuries past has this resolve been asso ciated with the history of the councils, and so let it be, once more. But this time it is not to re move from the Church any specific heresies or general diaorders, which, by the grace of God, do not exist within her today, but rather to infuse fresh spiritual vigor into the Mystical Body of Christ, insofar as it is a visible society, purify ing it from the defects of many of its members and stimulating it to new virtue. In order to be able to bring this about with di vine help, let us place before you some prelimi nary considerations suited to facilitate the work of renewal and to instill into it the courage which it requires together with sacrifice, and to indicate here some broad outlines along which the reform could be better effected. We should remember above all certain norms to guide us in this work of reform. The reform can not concern either the essential conception of the Church or its basic structure. We would be putting the word reform to the wrong use if we were to employ it in that sense. We cannot attribute in fidelity to this beloved and holy Church of God to which, as we believe, belongs the highest grace and from which rises up to our spirit the testi mony “that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:16). Oh, it is neither pride nor presumption nor ob stinacy nor folly but a luminous certitude and our joyous conviction that we are indeed living mem bers of the Body of Christ, that we are the au thentic heirs of the Gospel of Christ, those who truly continue the work of the Apostles.. There dwells in us the great inheritance of truth and morality characterizing the Catholic Church, which today possesses intact the living heritage of the original apostolic tradition. If all this re dounds to our glory, or to use a better expres sion, the reason for which we must “always give thanks to God" (Eph. 5:20), it also constitutes our responsibility before God Himself to whom we are accountable for so great a benefit and also before the Church, in which we must Instill the firm desire and resolution to guard the “deposit" about which St. Paul speaks (I Tim. 6:20). We have a responsibility, also before our brothers who are still separated from us, and before the entire world so that all share with us the gift of God. Hence, if the term reform can be applied to this subject, it is not to be understood in the sense of change, but of a stronger determination to pre serve the characteristic features which Christ has impressed on the Church. We should rather always wish to lead her back to her perfect form corresponding, on the one hand, to her original design and on the other fully consistent with the necessary development which like a seed grown into a tree has given to the Church her legitimate and concrete form in history. Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that the edifice of the Church which has now become large and majestic for the glory of God as His magnificent temple, should be reduced to its early minianal proportions as if they alone were true and good. Nor should we be fascinated by the de sire of renewing the structure of the Church through the charismatic way as if that ecclesias tical expression were new and good which sprang from particular ideas, zealous no doubt and some times even claiming their origin from divine in spiration, thus introducing an arbitrary scheme of artificial renewal In the very constitution of the Church. We must serve the Church and love her as she is, with a clear understanding of history, and humbly searching for the will of God who assists and guides her even when at times He permits hu man weakness to eclipse the purity of her features and beauty of her action. It is this purity and beau ty which we are endeavoring to discover and pro mote. We must deepen within us these convictions if we are to avoid the other danger which the desire for reform can produce not only in us pastors, who are held back by a watchful sense of respon sibility, but also in the many faithful who think that the reform of the Church should consist pri marily in adapting its sentiments and habits to those of the world. The fascination of worldly life today is very powerful indeed. Conformity appears to many as an inescapable and wise course. Those who are not well rooted in Faith and in the observance of ec clesiastical law easily think that the time has come for concessions to be made to secular norms of life, as if these were better and as if the Christian can and must make them his own. This phenomenon of adaptation is noticeable in the philosophical field (how much fashion counts even in the world of thought, which ought to be autonomous and free and only avid and docile be fore truth and the authority of approved masters!) as well as in the practical field, where it is be coming more and more uncertain and difficult to point out the line of moral rectitude and right conduct. Naturalism threatens to render null and void the original conception of Christianity. Relati vism, which justifies everything and treats all things as of equal value, assails the absolute character of Christian principles. The tendency