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THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1964
SUPPLEMENT
force us to express our teaching with great
fairness, and it will reward us for the work of
having explained it in accordance with the objec
tions of another or despite his slow assimila
tion of our teaching. The dialogue will make us
wise; it will make us teachers.
And how is the dialogue to be carried on?
Many, indeed, are the forms that the dialogue
of salvation can take. It adapts itself to the needs
of a concrete situation, it chooses the appro
priate means, it does not bind itself to ineffec
tual theories and does not cling to hard and fast
forms when these have lost their power to speak
to men and move them. The question is of great
importance, for it concerns the relation of the
Church's mission to the lives of men in a given
time and place, in a given culture and social
setting.
To what extent should the Church adapt Itself
to the historic and local circumstances in which
its mission is exercised? How should it guard
against the danger of a relativism which would
falsify its moral and dogmatic truth? And yet,
at the same time, how can it fit itself to ap
proach all men so as to save all, according
to the example of the Apostle: "I became all
things to all men that I might save all" (I Cor.
9, 22)?
The world cannot be saved from the outside.
As the Word of God became man, so must a man
to a certain degree Identify himself with the
forms of life of those to whom he wished to
bring the message of Christ. Without invoking
privileges which would but widen the separa
tion, without employing unintelligible terminology,
he must share the common way of life-pro
vided that it is human and honorable—especial
ly of the most humble, if he wishes to be listened
to and understood.
And before speaking, it is necessary to listen,
not only to a man's voice, but to his heart. A
man must first be understood; and, where he
merits it, agreed with. In the very act of trying
to make ourselves pastors, fathers and teachers
of men, we must make ourselves their brothers.
The spirit of dialogue is friendship and, even
more, practice according to the example and
commandment that Christ left to us (cf, Jn,
13, 14-17).
But the danger remains. The apostle's art is
a risky one. The desire to come together as
brothers must not lead to a watering-down
or subtracting from the truth. Our dialogue must
not weaken our attachment to our Faith. In our
apostoiate we cannot make vague compromises
about the principles of faith and action on which
our profession of Christianity is based.
An immoderate desire to make peace and sink
differences at all costs is, fundamentally, a kind
of skepticism about the power and content of the
Word of God which we desire to preach. Only
the man who is completely faithful to the teach
ing of Christ can be an apostle. And only he who
lives his Christian life to the full can remain
uncontaminated by the errors with which he comes
into contact.
We believe that the council, when it comes to
deal with questions on the Church's activity in
the modern world, will indicate a number of
theoretical and practical norms for the guid
ance of our dialogue with men of the present-
day, We believe, too, that in matters concern
ing the apostolic mission of the Church, on the
one hand, and, on the other, the diverse and chang
ing circumstances in which that mission is ex
ercized, it will be for the wise, attentive govern
ment of the Church to determine, from time to
time, the limits and forms and paths to be fol
lowed in maintaining and furthering a living and
fruitful dialogue.
Accordingly, let us leave this aspect of the sub
ject and confine ourselves to stressing once
again the supreme importance which Christian
preaching maintains, an importance which grows
greater daily, for the Catholic apostoiate and spe
cifically for the dialogue. No other form of com
munication can take its place; not even the eno
rmously powerful technical means of press,
radio and television. In a sense, the apostoiate
and preaching are the seme.
Preaching is the primary apostoiate. Our apo
stoiate, venerable brothers, is above all the minis
try of the Word. We know this very well, but it
seems good to remind ourselves of it now, so as
to direct our pastoral activities a right. We must go
back to the study, not of human eloquence or
empty rhetoric, but of the genuine art of the
sacred Word,
We must search for the laws of its simplicity
and clarity, for its power and authority, so as
to overcome our natural lack of skill in the use
of the great mysterious spiritual instrument of
speech and to enable us worthily to compete
with those who today exert so much influence
through their words by having access to the or
gans of public opinion.
We must beg the Lord for the great and up
lifting gift of speech (cf. Jer. I, 6), to be able
to confer on faith its practical and efflciacious
principle (cf. Rom, 10, 17), and to enable our
words to reach out to the ends of the earth
(cf. Pa, 18, 5 and Rom, 10, 18),
May we carry out the prescriptions of the
council's Constitution on Sacred Liturgy with
zeal and ability. And may the catechetical teach
ing of the Faith to the Christian people, and to
as many other* as possible, be marked by the
pat ness of its language, the wisdom of its method,
the zeal of its exercise supported by the evi
dence of real virtues, and may it strive ar
dently to lead us hearers to the security of the
Faith, to a realization of the intimate connec
tion between the divine Word and life, and to the
illumination of the living God.
We must, finally, refer to those to whom our
Dimensions
dialogue is directed. But, even on this point,
we do not intend to forestall the council, which,
please God, will soon make its voice heard.
Speaking in general on the role of partner
in dialogue, a role which the Catholic Church
must take up with renewed fervor today, we
should like merely to observe that the Church
must be ever ready to carry on the dialogue
with all men of good will, within and without
its own sphere. There is no one who is a strang
er to its heart, no one in whom its ministry
has no interest. It has no enemies, except those
who wish to be such. Its name of catholic is
not an idle title. Not in vain has it received the
commission to foster in the world unity, love and
peace.
The Church is, not unaware of the formidable
dimensions of such a mission; it knows the dis
proportion in numbers between those who are
its members and those who are not; it knows
the limitations of its power. It knows, likewise,
its own human weaknesses and failings. It recog
nizes, too, that the acceptance of the Gospel de
pends, ultimately not upon any apostolic efforts
of its own nor upon any favorable temporal con
ditions, for faith is a gift of God and God alone
defines in the world the times and limits of sal
vation.
But the Church knows that it is the seed, the
leaven, the salt and light of the world. It sees-
clearly enough the astounding newness of modern
times, but with frank confidence it stands upon
the path of history and says to men; *'I have that
for which you search, that which you lack."
It does not thereby promise earthly felicity,
but it does offer something—its light and its
grace—which makes the attainment as easy as
possible; and then it speaks to men of their trans
cendent destiny. In doing this it speaks to them
of truth, justice, freedom, progress, concord,
peace and civilization.
These are words whose secret is known to the
Church, for Christ has entrusted the secret to
its keeping. And so the Church has a message
for every category of humanity; for children, for
youth, for men of science and learning, for the
world of labor and for every social class, for
artists, for statesmen and for rulers. Most of
all, the Church has words for the poor, the out
casts, the suffering and the dying; for all men.
In speaking in this w»y, we may seem to be
allowing ourselves to be carried away in the con
templation of our mission and to be out of touch
with reality as regards the actual relations of
mankind with situation quite clearly. To give a
brief idea of it, we think it can be described
as consisting of a series of concentric circles
around the central point in which God has plac
ed us.
The first of these circles is immense. Its
limits stretch beyond our sight and merge with
the horizon. It Is that of mankind as such, the
world. We gauge the distance that lies between
us and the world; yet we do not consider the
world a stranger. All things human are our con
cern.
We share with the whole of mankinds common
nature; human life with all its gifts and prob
lems. In this primary universal reality we are
ready to play our part, to acknowledge the deep-
seated claims of its fundamental needs, to applaud
the new, and sometimes sublime, expressions of
its genius.
We possess , too, vital moral truths, to be
brought to men's notice and to be corrobora
ted by their conscience, to the benefit of all.
Wherever men are trying to understand them
selves and the world, we can communicate
with them. Whereever the councils of nations
come together to establish the rights and duties
man, we are honored when they allow us to take
our seat among them. If there exists in men
"a soul which is naturally Christian," we desire
to show it our respect and to enter into conver
sation with it. Our attitude in this, as we
remaind ourselves and everyone else, is, on the
one hand, entirely disinterested. We have no
temporal or political aim whatever. On the other
hand, its purpose is to raise up and elevate to
a supernatural and Christian level every good
human value in the world. We are not civiliza
tion, but we promote it.
We realize, however, that in this limitless
circle there are many-very many, unfortunate ly-
who profess no religion. We are aware also that
there are many who profess themselves, in var
ious ways, to be atheists. We know that some of
these proclaim their godlessness openly and up
hold it as a program of human education and
political conduct, in the ingenuous but fatal belief
that they are setting men free from false and out
worn notions about life and the world and are,
they claim, putting in their place a scientific
conception that is in conformity with the needs
of modern progress.
This is the most serious problem of our time.
We are firmly convinced that the theory on
which the denial of God is based is utterly erron
eous.
This theory is not in keeping with the basic,
undeniable requirements of thought. It deprives
the reasonable order of the world of its genuine
foundation. This theory does not provide human
life with a liberating formula but with a blind
dogma which degrades and saddens it. This theory
destroys, at the root, any social system which
sttempts to base itself upon it. It does not bring
freedom. It is a sham, attempting to quench the
light of the living God.
We shall, therefore, resist with all our strength
the assaults on this denial. This we do in the su
preme cause of truth and in virtue of our sacred
duty to profess Christ and His Gospel, moved by
deep, unshakable love for men and in the invincible
hope that modern man will come again to dis
cover, in the religious Ideals that Catholicism
sets before him, his vocation to the civilization
that does not die, but ever tends to the natural
and supernatural perfection of the human spirit,
and In which the grace of God enables man to
possess his temporal goods in peace and honor,
- Seed, The
and to live in hope of attaining eternal goods.
These are the reasons which compel us, as
they compelled our predecessors and, with them,
everyone who has religious values at heart,
to condemn the ideological systems which deny
God and oppress the Church-systems which are
often identified with ;economic, social and political
regimes, amongst which atheistic communism is
the chief. It could be said that it is not so much
that we condemn these systems and regimes as
that they express their radical opposition to us in
thought and deed. Our regret is, in reality,
more sorrow for a victim than the sentence of
a judge.
Dialogue in such conditions is very difficult,
not to say impossible, although, even today, we
have no preconceived intention of excluding the
persons who profess these systems and belong
to these regimes. For the lover of truth discuss
ion is always possible.
The difficulties are enormously increased by
obstacles of the moral order: the absence of
sufficient freedom of thought and action, and
the perversion of discussion so that the latter is
not made use of to seek and express objective
truth but to serve predetermined utilitarian ends.
This is what puts an end to dialogue. The
Church of Silence, for example, speaks only
by sufferings, and with her speaks also the
suffering of an oppressed degraded society,
in which the rights of the spirit are crushed
by those who control its fate. If we begin to
speak in such a state of affairs, how can we of
fer dialogue, when we cannot be anything more
than a "voice crying in the wilderness" (Mark
1, 3)? Silence, groaning, patience and always
love, in such conditions, are the witness that
the Church can still offer and not even death
can silence it.
But though we must speak firmly and clearly
In declaring and defending religion and the
human values which it proclaims and upholds,
we are moved by our pastoral office to seek in
the heart of the modern atheist the motives
of his turmoil and denial.
His motives are many and complex, so that
we must examine them with care if we are to
answer them effectively. Some of them arise
from the demand that divine things be present
ed in a worthier and purer way than is, per
haps, the case in certain imperfect forms of
language and worship, which we ought to try to
purify so that they express as perfectly and clear
ly as possible the sacred reality of which they are
the sign.
We see these men full of yearning, prompted
sometimes by passion and desire for the unat
tainable, but often also by great-hearted dreams
of justice and progress. In such dreams noble
social aims are set up in the place of the Ab
solute and Necessary God, testifying thereby to
the ineradicable need for the Divine Source
and End of all things, whose transcendence
and immanence it is the task of our teaching
office to reveal with patience and wisdom.
Again, we see them, sometimes with ingen
uous enthusiasm, having recourse to human re
ason, with the intention of arriving at a scien
tific explanation of the universe. This procedure
is all the less reprehensible in that it is often
based upon laws of logical thought not unlike
those of our classical school. It is a procedure
which leads in a direction quite contrary to the
will of those who use it, thinking to find in it
an unanswerable proof of their atheism and its
own Intrinsic validity, for it leads them on
ward towards the new and final metaphysical
and logical assertion of the existence of the strp
reme God.
In this congent process of reasoning the athe
istic politico-scientist stops short wilfully at a
certain point and so extinguishes the sover
eign light of the intelligibility of the universe.
Is there no one among us who ^could help him
to reason on to a realization of the objective
reality of the cosmic universe, a realization
which restores to man the sense of the divine
Presence, and bring to his lips the humble,
halting words of a consoling prayer?
Sometimes, too, the atheist is spurred on by
noble sentiments and by Impatience with the
piediocrity and self-seeking of so many contem
porary social settings. He knows well how to
borrow from our Gospel modes and expres
sions of solidarity and human compassion. Shall
we not be able to lead him back one day to the
Christian source of such manifestations of moral
worth?
Accordingly, bearing in mind the words of our
predecessor of venerable memory, Pope John
XXIII, in his encyclical Pacem in Terris to the
effect that the doctrines of such movements,
once elaborated and defined, remain always the
same, whereas the movements themselves cannot
help but evolve and undergo changes, even of a
profound nature (cf. n. 54), we do not des
pair that they may one day be able to enter Into
a more positive dialogue with the Church than the
present one which we now of necessity deplore
and lament.
But we cannot turn our gaze away from the
contemporary world without expressing a cheri-
ished desire, namely that our Intention of de
veloping and perfecting our dialogue in the var
ied and changing facets which it presents, may
assist the cause of peace between men, by prov
iding a method which seeks to order human
relationships in the sublime light of the langu
age of reason and sincerity, and by making a
contribution of experience and wisdom which can
stir up all men to the consideration of the sup
reme values.
The opening of a dialogue, such as ours would
be, disinterested, objective and sincere, is in
itself a decision in favor of a free and honor
able peace. It excludes pretence, rivalry, deceit
and betrayal. It cannot do other than condemn,
as a crime and destruction, wars of aggres
sion, congression, conquest or domination.
It cannot confine Itself to relationships with
the heads of nations, but must set them up also
with the body of the nation and with its founda
tions, whether social, family or individual, so
Leaven, The Salt
as to diffuse in every institution and in every
soul the understanding, the relish and the duty
of peace.
Then we see another circle around us. This,
too, is vast in its extent, yet it is not so far
away from us. It is made up of the men who
above all adore the one, supreme God whom we
to adore.
We refer to the children, worthy of our affec
tion and respect, of the Hebrew people, faith
ful to the religoon which we call that of the Old
Testament. Then to the adorers of God accord
ing to the conception of monotheism, the Moslem
religion especially, deserving of our admira
tion for all that is true and good in their wor
ship of God. And also to the followers of the
great Afro-Asiatic religions.
Obviously we cannot share in these various
forms of religion nor can we remain indiffer
ent to the fact that each of them, in its own way,
should regard itself as being the equal of any
other and should authorise its followers not to
seek to discover whether God has revealed the
perfect and definitive form, free from all error,
in which he wishes to be known, loved and serv
ed. Indeed, honesty compels us to declare open
ly our conviction that there is but one true religion,
the religion of Christianity. It is our hope that
all who seek God and adore Him may come to
acknowledge its truth.
But we do, nevertheless, recognize and respect
the moral and spiritual values of the various
non-Christian religions, and we deisre to join
with them in promoting and defending common
ideals of religious liberty, human brother
hood, good culture, social welfare and civil
order. For our part, we are ready to enter into
discussion on these common ideals, and will not
fail to take the initiative where our offer of dis
cussion in genuine, mutual respect, would be
well received.
And so we come to the circle which is near
est to us, the circle of Christianity.
We want to give our assurance, once again,
that we have an attentive, reverent interest in
the spiritual movements connected with atten
tive, reverent interest in the spiritual move
ments connected with the problem of unity,
which are stirring up vital and noble religious
sentiments in various invidivuals, groups and
communities. With love and reverence we greet
all these Christians, in hope that we may pro
mote together, even more effectively, the cause
of Christ and the unity which He desired for His
Church, in the dialogue of sincerity and love.
And lastly we turn to sepak with the children
of the House of God, the one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church, of which this Roman Church is
"mother and head." It Is our ardent desire that
this conversation with our own children should
be full of faith, of charity, of good works,
should be intimate and familiar.
We would have it responsive to all truth and
virtue and to all the realities of our doctrinal
and spiritual Inheritance. Sincere and sensitive
in genuine spirituality, ever ready to give ear to
the manifold voice of the contemporary world,
ever more capable of making Catholics truly
good men, men wise, free, serene and strong;
that is what we earnestly desire our family
conversation to be.
This desire to impress upon the internal re
lationships of the Church the character of a dialo
gue between members of a body, whose const
itutive principle is charity, does not do away
with the exercise of the virtue of obedience
where the right order necessary in all well
constructed societies. Above all, the hierarchic
constitution of the Church requires that, on the
one side, authority should be exercised accord
ing to its proper function and that, on the other
side, there should be submission.
In this field the dialogue, which has come to be
called ecumenclal, has already begun, and in
some areas is making real headway. There is much
to be said on this complex and delicate subject,
but our discourse does not end here. For the
moment we limit ourself to a few remarks—
none of them new.
The principle that we are happy to make our
own is this: Let us stress what we have in com
mon rather than what divides us. This provides
a good and fruitful subject for our dialogue.
We are ready to carry it out wholeheartedly.
We will say more: on many points of differ
ence regarding tradition, spirituality, canon,
law, and worship, we are ready to study how we
can satisfy the legitimate desires of our Chris
tian brothers, still separated from us. It is our
dearest wish to embrace them in a perfect un
ion of faith and charity-.
But we must add that it is not in our power
to compromise with the integrity of the faith
or the requirements of charity. We foresee
that this will cause misgiving and opposition, but
now that the Catholic Church has taken the ini
tiative in restoring the unity of Christ’s fold, it
will not cease to go forward with all patience
and considration.
It will not cease to show that the preroga
tives, which keep the separated brothers at a
distance, are not the fruits of historic ambi
tion or of fanciful theological speculation, but de
rive from the will of Christ and that, rightly
understood, they are for the good of all and make
for common unity, freedom and Christian per
fection. The Catholic Church will not cease, by
prayer and penance, to prepare herself worth
ily for the longed-for reconciliation.
In reflecting on this subject, it distresses
us to see how we, the promoter of such re
conciliation, are regarded by many of the sep
arated bretheren as being its stumbling-block,
because of the primacy of honor and juris
diction which Christ bestowed upon the Apostle
Peter, and which we have inherited from him.
Do not some of them say that if it were not
for the primacy of the pope, the reunion of
the separated churches with the Catholic Church
would be easy?
We beg the separated brethren to consider the
inconsistency of this position, not only in that,
without the pope the Catholic Church would no
longer be Catholic, but also because, without the
supreme, efficacious and decisive pastoral of
fice of Peter the unity of the Church of Christ
would utterly collapse.
It would be vain to look for other principles
of unity in- place of the one established by
Christ himself. As St, Jerome Justly wrote:
"There would arise in the Church as many
sects as there are priests" (Dial, contra Lucl-
ferianos, n. 9). We should also like to observe
that this fundamental principle of Holy Church
has not as its objective a aupremacy of spiri
tual pride and human domination. It is a pri
macy of service, of ministration, of love. It
is not empty rhetoric which confers upon the
Vicar of Christ the title of "servant of the
servants of God."
It is along these lines that our dialogue is alert,
and even before entering into fraternal conver
sation, it speaks in prayer and hope with the
heavenly Father.
The Church's authority is instituted by Christ;
it is, indeed, representative of Him; it is the
authorized channel of His word; it is the ex
pression of His pastoral charity. Obedience,
therefore, is motivated by faith, develops into
a school of evangelical humility, and links the
obedient man to the wisdom, unity, construc
tiveness and charity by which the body of the
Church is sustained. It confers upon him who
imposes it and upon his who conforms himself
to it the merit of being like Christ who was
"made obedient unto death" (Phil. 2, 8).
By obedience, therefore, in the context of dia
logue, we mean the exercise of authority in the
full awareness of its being a service and minis
try of truth and charity, and we mean the obser
vance of canonical regulations and respect for
the government of legitimate superiors in the
spirit of untroubled readiness as becomes free
and loving children.
The spirit* of independence, of criticism, of re
bellion ill accords with the charity which gives
life to the Church’s solidarity, concord and peace,
and easily transforms the dialogue into argument,
dispute and disagreement. This most regret
table attitude, so easy, also, to produce, is con
demned by the Apostle Paul in his warning words;
"Let there be no divisions among you" (I Cor.
K ! 0)
It is, therefore, our ardent desire that the dial
ogue within the Church should take on new fervor,
new- themes and speakers, so that the holiness
and vitality of the Mystical Body of Chris ton earth
may be increased.
Anything that makes known the teachings of
which the Church is both custodian and dispenser
receives our approbation. We have already men
tioned the liturgy, the interior life and preaching.
We could add also; schools, the press, the social
apostoiate, the missions, the exercise of char
ity.
All these are themes to which the council
will direct our attention. And we bless and en
courage all those who, under the guidance of
competent authority, take part in the life-giving
dialogue of the Church, priests especially and
Religious, and our well-loved laity, dedicated
to Christ in Catholic Action and in so many
other associations and activities.
It is a cause of Joy and comfort for us to see
that such a dialogue is already in existence
in the Church and in the areas which surround
it. The Church today is more than ever alive.
But it seems good to consider that everything
still remains to be done; the work begins today
and never comes to an end. This is the law of our
temporal, earthly pilgrimage. This is the ordin
ary task, venerable brothers, of our ministry,
which everything today stimulates ui to renew
and to make more devoted and Intense.
As for ourself In speaking to you of these
things, we are pleased to trust In your coopera
tion and offer you our own in return. This union
of aims and labor we ask for and offer not long
after our elevation to the Chair of the Apostle
Peter, bearing the name and sharing, please
God, something of the spirit of the Apostle of the
Gentiles. And so celebrating the unity of Christ
among us, we send to you with this, our first
letter, in the name of the Lord, our blessing as
brother and father, a blessing which we gladly
extend to the whole Church and to all mankind.
We must observe, venerable bretheren, with
joy andconfidence.that the vast and varied circle
of separated Christians is pervaded by spiritual
activities which seem to promise consoling de
velopments in regard to their reunion in the one
Church of Christ. We beg that the Holy Spirit
will breathe upon the "ecumenclal movement,"
and we recall the emotion and joy we felt at
Jerusalem in our meeting, full of charity and hope,
with the Patriarch Athenagorss.
We wish to greet w ith gratitude and respect the
participation of so many representatives of sep
arated churches in the Second Vatican Ecumeni
cal Council.
From the Vatican, 6 August 1964.
On the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord
Jesus Christ.