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PAGE 2 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY AUGUST 20, 1964
JESUIT CORRESPONDENT ASSERTS
Pope Paul’s Encyclical Reveals ‘Surprisingly Modest Scope’
BY FATHER EDWARD DUFF, S. J.
NEW YORK (RNS) — Pope Paul’s first ency
clical, Ecclesiam Suam (His Church), has a
surprising modest scope. The world expected a
program paper, detailing the policies his Pon
tificate would espouse, indicating the major or
ientations it would impose on world Catholicism.
It got whay many will deem an Inconclusive
causerie.
These expectations were based on forgetful
ness. Paul VI had already set forth his program
and announced his aims. In his first radio mes
sage to the world following his election His
Holiness had declared: "The chief task of our
Pontificate will be the progress of the Ecumeni
cal Council, Vatican II, on which the eyes of all
men are fixed.”
TO THIS "principal work” of his reign
he promised to devote "every last bit of energy
the Lord has given us.” In his allocution open
ing the second session of the Council last Septem
ber 29 he had indicated the central idea provid
ing focus for the new Pontificate and for the con
tinuing Council with clarity, simplicity and direct
ness; "We should proclaim Christ to ourselves
and to the world around us; Christ our begin
ning, Christ our life and our guide, Christ our
hope and our end.”
The encyclical, His Church, then, has a simple
objective. It is to "reveal the mind” of the Holy
Father, especially to his fellow bishops in a
"simple conversational letter,” For while aware
that his audience includes the entire Catholic
world and the millions of others who have
grown to listen with respect to Papal pronoun
cements, Pope Paul's first encyclical is pri
marily addressed to his fellow bishops to share
with them his preoccupations and to suggest the
attitudes that should be theirs when the Church
is in Council.
The mind of Paul VI was known to be an acute,
profound and subtle one. Of an intense interior
spirituality, absorbed by the mystery of the
identification of the Christian with Christ
through grace, aware of the achievements and
perils of technology, it was recongnized to be a
mind unhurried in judgment. It was a studious
mind, alert to and avid of developments in
theology, philosopy and culture, but also one
that had long been exercised on the larger
administrative problems of the Roman Church
in the contemporary world.
NOW IT appears to be a mind made cautious
by the complexities of the historical situation
and made sober by the responsibilities of the
pastoral charges of the pontifical office. It is
likewise a mind conscious of the participation of
the universal Catholic episcopate in the direc
tion of the Church.
Sensitive to the role of the Council, the ency
clical deliberately eschews treating themes that
fall within its province which is to say all of the
concerns of the Catholic Church in her efforts
to achieve internal renewal and to enlarge the
area of peace, justice and brotherhood in the
world. It contents itself with offering some
"methodological considerations.”
Although there is no specific allusion to "col-
legiality,” the word currently employed to indicate
the solidarity and shared responsibility of the
bishops of the Catholic world as successors of
the twelve apostles with and under the succes
sor of Peter in ruling the Church, the encycli
cal, is marked by a striking deference to the
collective authority of the Council Fathers and by
a touching reliance on their active collabora
tion. The Council is adverted to 22 times.
Phrases soliciting fraternal cooperation abound.
Pope Paul asks his fellow bishops "the com
fort of your agreement, your counsel and your
example." His Holiness continues: "We look to
you as the authoritative voice. . . We look to you
to say how we should together propose for the
life of the Church. . . The Council is to give us,
too, new and salutary instructions and all of
us must certainly prepare ourselves now to hear
them and carry them out."
TWO SIGNIFICANT, if passing, points in the
encyclical might be missed in a rapid reading;
the hint that the Council may not at all be near
ing its end and a frank espousal of religious
freedom.
Thus, the Council’s merits are praised "even
at this moment when we are still awaiting the
major part of its deliberations.” Again, the
proclamation of the gospel, the encyclical as
serts, "will not be introduced in the armor of
external force, but simply through the legiti
mate means of human education, of interior per
suasion, of ordinary conversation and it will
offer its gift of salvation with full respect for
personal and civic freedom." Moreover, "religi
ous liberty” is listed among the "common ideals"
of all theistic religious.
The "methodological considerations” outlined
in the encyclical include those encouraging a
deeper awareness of the essential inner nature
of the Church as the prolongation of Christ in
time, those indicating the proper character of the
reform of the Church and those detailing the dif
fering dialogues with different categories of fel
low men.
A continuing meditation on the Church, the ob
ject of contemporary theological exploration and
of Pius XII's encyclical on the Mystical Body,
will yield "many spiritual benefits, the very
ones we believe the Church stands in need of,”
the encyclical promises. A freshening of spiri
tual faith through study of the mystery of Christ
in the Church has long been a preoccupation
of the present Pontiff.
REFORM OF the Church is to be pursued,
the "aggiornamento” of John XXIII being kept
in mind "as our program of action.” What this
program of action is in fact to be, so far as
legislation goes, "naturally, it will be for the
Council to say.” But Pope Paul admonish
es; "The Church will rediscover her renewed
youthfulness not so much by changing her ex
terior laws as by interiorly assimilating her
true spirit of obedience to Christ. ...”
Indeed, the Pope ^appears alarmed that the spirit
of reform may have gotten out of hand, that
a wordly spirit is abroad "so that a danger bord
ering almost on vertiginous confusion and bew
ilderment can shake the Church’s very founda
tions and lead men to embrace most bizarre
ways of thinking, as though the Church should
disavow herself and take up the very latest and
untried ways of life.” The demand for conces
sions to "secular norms” engenders "the ten
dency of throwing overboard every restraint
and incovenience from the conduct of life. . . "
The very mission of the Church, the ency
clical Ecclesiam Suam argues, requires that
"we must meet the world and talk with it" in
a dialogue characterized by clearness, meekness,
trust and pedagogical prudence. These differ
ing conversations are envisaged as involving a
series of circles including unbelievers, those
"who above all adore the one, supreme God whom
we, too, adore,” the circle of Christianity and
finally those of the household of the Catholic
fairh.
WHILE IT is noted that "the dialectic of this
exercise of thought and patience will make us
discover elements of truth in the opinions of
others,” its purpose is unabashedly missionary
and intransigently uncompromising in maintain
ing the essentials of the Catholic faith, including
the primacy of the Pope as the center of autho
rity and unity.
The attitude, a stiffening undoubtedly of that
of John XXIII, is frankly justified by the ency
clical in these words: "An immoderate desire
to make peace and sink differences at all costs
is, fundamentally, a kind of scepticism about
the power and content of the word of God which
we desire to preach.” Such an assertion of abso
lute claims should not disconcert the member
ship of the World Council of Churches. It has been
accustomed to a similar attitude expressed by
the Orthodox Churches from the beginning of the
ecumenical enterpirse.
Tedious and so far unfruitful negotiations with
the governments of Czechoslovakia and Hun
gary to obtain freedom of action for the
Church in those countries has made sorrowfully
clear the difficulty of dialogue with atheistic
communism. Invoking the distinction of Pacem in
Terris, between an ideology and those who pre
‘by mnmE majorut
sum ably profess it, Pope Paul promises con
tinued efforts, not least in the interest of peace
between men which y explicitly listed as one of
his ministries.
WITH NON-CHRISTIAN religions, the encycli
cal expresses a desire "to join with them in
promoting and defending common ideals of reli
gious liberty, human brotherhood, good culture,
social welfare and civil order.”
Stressing "what we have in common rather
than what divides us” is the encyclical's recom
mendation on the subject of the dialogue with
fellow Christians. An evident affection and res
pect for other Christian traditions shines through
the paragraphs on this theme. The silences in
dicate the intractable problems involved. The
seriousness of the task of fulfilling Christ's clear
will that his followers be one as a sign of their
unity in Him rules out all shallow and super
ficial solutions. No program of action is indica
ted, again undoubtedly in deference to the Coun
cil which will discuss this precise point; no
schedule of theological conversations is announc
ed. The attention of Catholics is directed to the
purfication of their own Church as a prerequis
ite for "the longed-for reconcilation.”
The spirit of dialgoue within the Catholic Church
itself is set down in ringing hopes of a respon
siveness "to all truth and virtue and to all the
reality of our doctrinal and spiritual inheri
tance, sincere and sensitive in genuine spiri
tuality, ever ready to give ear to the manifold
voice of the contemporary world, ever more
capable of making Catholics truly good men, men
wise, serene and strong.”
Certainly not comprehensive in content, scarce
ly decisive on several points, sometimes not
even definite in conclusions, the encyclical Ec
clesiam Suam is best considered as margina
lia on the magistral themes of the Pope’s allo
cution opening the Second Session and as practi
cal suggestions, the fruit of his 13 months of
pastoral responsibility, for the prayerful con
sideration of fellow—bishops as they prepare to
resume the Council.
FLOWERS
Radio Forecasts Approval Of Unity Schema
TOitAe*
PAUL D. WEST
SUPERINTENDENT
OF
SCHOOLS
FULTON COUNTY
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The
Schema on Ecumenism or Chri
stian unity is "likely to be
approved without susbstantial
amendments by the immense
majority of the Council Fath
ers" when the Second Vatican
Council convenes for its third
session Sept, 14, Vatican Ra-
/ n |’.'St
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dio stated.
It said its prediction was bas
ed on assurances by Augustin
Cardinal Bea, president of the
Secretariat for Promoting Ch
ristian Unity, and other spon
sors of the schema.
The broadcast said the
schema on ecumenism is to be
voted on by the Council as a
while, and two declarations or
appendices — one on religious
liberty and the other on Jews
and non-Christians — are to
be discussed and voted on. The
schema is one of 13 before the
Council.
’The Second Vatican Coun
cil is, therefore, one of expe
ctation, of confident expecta
tion," said Vatican Radio. "It
looks forward to a more wide
spread and more fraternal par
ticipation in its own authentic
ecumenicity. This note of confi
dent expectation, as the world
kows by this time, runs
through every line of the schema
on Christian unity.”
MEANWHILE, it said, ’The
same note of confident yearning
has marked the numerous con
tacts of the Holy Father of our
bishops and our Catholic laity
with our separated brethren in
groups large and small during
these past months of the in
terval between the second and
third sessions of the Council.”
The station went on to note as
"particularly moving and com
forting" the welcome extended
in July by the Second biennial
convention of the Lutheran
Church in America to Bishop
John J. Wright of Pittsburgh,
a ranking member of the Vati
can Council’s Theological
Commission, It recalled that
Bishop Wright earlier had
been accorded "a most cour
teous hearing" at the quadrenn
ial General Conference of The
Methodist Church in the United
States,
IN THE former instance, the
Vatican Radio said, Bishop
Wright was "at pains to point
our certain heartening signs of
the times which underscore the
Holy Father's observation that
union is well on the road to
reality when it becomes the ob
ject, however frail and obscure,
of our sincere desire, a de
sire which unites instead of one
that devides.”
The station then went on to
quote lengthy excerpts from
Bishop Wright's talks to U.S.
Lutherans and Methodists on
ecumenism.
EARLY in its broadcast the
station recalled that in his ad
dress opening the Vatican
Council's second session, Pope
Paul VI had set forth the four
main goals of the Council —
awareness of the Church, re
form of the Church, bringing
together all Christians in unity,
and the dialogue of the Church
in the contemporary world.
'The Pope," it said, ’laid
particular stress, as Pope John
XXIII had done before him, on
the promotion of Christian un
ity, on the dialogue with our
separated brethren.
‘THIS third object of our
yearnings and our delibera
tions,’ said the Vicar of Christ
on Sept. 29, 'is one which may
be called its spiritual drama.
It directly affects the other
Christians who believe in
Christ, but whom we have not
been numbering among our
selves in the perfect unity of
Christ which only the Catholic
Church can offer them.'
" ' This unity, objectively
speaking, ' Pope Paul added,
‘should be theirs by baptism.
It is something which, virtually
at least, they already desire.
Recent movements, at present
in full development within com
munities of Christians separa
ted from us, make two things,
plain; the first is that th^hurch
of Christ is one and one alone,
and therefore must be unique;
the second is that this mystic
union cannot be obtained ex
cept in identity of faith, by
participation in the same sac
raments, and in the organic
harmony of a single ecclesi
astical control, though this al
lows for a great variety of ver
bal expressions and move
ments and lawful institutions,
and personal preferences with
regard to manners of acting."
VATICAN Radio said the
Council had "left no doubt about
the attitude toward the great
numbers of our separated bre
thren, nor about the possibi
lity of multiple external mani
festations within the unity of
the Church.”
‘The Council," it added,
"aims at complete and univer
sal ecumenicity. That is what
it desires, that is what it prays
and prepares for. It does so
today_ in the hope that tomorrow
it may see the reality. Whilst
calling and counting its own
sheep who belong in the full
est and truest sense to the
flock of Christ, it opens the
door and calls out, too, to the
many sheep of Christ who are
not at present within the uni
que fold.”
THE 12 schema still before
the Vatican Council, in addition
to the one onecumenism, areas
follows:
1. Divine Revelation— to be
discussed and voted on.
2. The Church — chapters on
the Virgin Mary and the saints
to be discussed, and the whole
to be voted on.
3. Pastoral Duties of Bishops
in the Church (formerly Bis
hops and the Government of
Diocese) — the chapter includ
ed from the former schema
on pastoral work to be discuss
ed, and the whole to be voted on.
4. The Eastern Churches—
proposition-to be voted on.
5. Missions — proposi
tion to be voted on.
6. Members of Religious Or
ders (formerly States of Per
fection)— proposition to be vot
ed or.,
*\ Priests (formerly Clergy)
— proposition to be voted on.
8. The Lay Apostolate— sch
ema to be discussed and voted
on.
9. The Sacranr^ent of Marriage
— a votum on which the Fath
ers are required merely to
vote.
10. The T raining of Priests
— aproposition to be voted on.
11. Catholic Schools— a
proposition to be voted on.
12. The Presence of tRe
Church of the Church in the
Modern World— schema to be
discussed and voted on.
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who is mother general; Sister Christine, principal of the
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