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PACE 8 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1964 CHURCH IN IDENTITY CRISIS’ Collegiality Most Radical Step SinceCoimter-Reformation BY JOHN COGLEY Religious News Service Special Correspondent VATICAN CITY (RNS)—Since the Second Vatican Council be gan two years ago, world Catho licism has been going through a traumatic “identity crisis," an upheaval psychiatrists main tain can hit an individual at any time during his life. It may seem absurd to say that an institution as venerable and highly structured as the Catholic Church, after 20 cen turies, is still debating just what it is, but that is pre cisely what the 2,300 bishops gathered here from every cor ner of the globe have been doing since they were first summoned to Rome by the late Pope John, TWO thousand years from now, another gathering of Christian bishops may be pur suing the same goal. For, in the final analysis, to the Catho lic his Church is a mystery, not a conundrum but a super natural fact defying rational explanation. He can count its clergy and lay members, tabu late its rules and regulations, describe its rich liturgy, or ganize its dogmas and teachings into a brilliant theological syn thesis, and recite its history in detail. But the essential Church, described usually in metaphors like ‘The Bride of Christ," ‘The Mystical Body of Christ," or the currently favorite phrase 'The People of God," remains forever unfathomable. There is an organic spiritual principle which unites clergy and laity, men and women of all races and climes, and, ac cording to the ancient doctrine of the Church, even links the living with those who went be fore them and have joined the Church triumphant. That prin ciple too is in the realm of theological mystery: it is faith in the man Jesus Christ who claimed to be divine and who millions of divided Christians 2,000 years later still believe was the Son of God, WrTHOUT the faith, the solemn debates carried on in the great aula of Saint Peter’s Basilica must have been in explicable, With it, no expla nations were necessary. For the Fathers of the Coun cil were discussing what Jesus intended His Church to be. An institution governed solely by His vicar, the successor of Saint Peter, who would dele gate His supreme powers to other men called bishops in order to enable them in flis name to sanctify, to teach, and to govern their portions of the kingdom? Or did the Lord, rather, establish a ‘ college" of bishops, successors of the apostles, with the successor to Peter as its hea d and chief spokesman, who would preside over the Church universal? IN sacramental language, the questions might be put this way: Does episcopal consecration merely create a special rank in the priesthood comparable to but not equal to that exercised by the Pope of Rome? Or, rather, has every bishop by his very consecration received the "fullness of the priesthood" to which nothing can be added? These were the issues under lying the Council Fathers’ lofty arguments about "collegial ity." The question was basical ly scriptural and theological, though its resolution will affect the daily life of the Church in many concrete ways. New ac counts which ineptly stressed the power factors at work were misleading when they gave the impression that the controversy was merely a jealous struggle between "papalist" and "anti- papalist" forces in the Church, This should be evident from the fact that Pope Paul VI himself encouraged the controversy. A year ago he put it first in im portance among the many topics facing the Council. THE supremacy of the Pope was never in doubt. What had been in question was whether the bishops of the Church, in union with the Pope as their head, were empowered "by di vine right"— as successors to the apostles— and acting as a "college"— to share in the supreme government of the uni versal Church, As the votes on specific ques tions relating to the doctrine were read to the Fathers, it became quickly evident that by far the majority upheld the "collegial" understanding of episcopal consecration, au thority, and spiritual mission. Of course opinion was not unanimous. Three hundred- odd Fathers voted no on some of the questions presented to them. But that still left almost two thousand giving their placets. So sharply was opinion divid ed among highly placed theolo gians here in Rome that two re lations (opening presentations) were made to the Council be fore the discussion began. THE anti-collegial presen tation was given by Bishop Franjo Franic, a Yugoslav, who questioned not only the sacramentality of episcopal consecration and the doctrine of collegiality but threw in a warning against establishing a new order of terminal deacons, married or unmarried. If they were celibate, the bishop held, they would detract from the number of men in the priest hood. If they were married, their families would be a bur den on the Church. To the surprise of almost everyone but his old students who knew he taught the doc trine years ago, Archbishop Pietro Parente, assessor of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, delivered the pro-col- legiality introduction. It was generally known in Rome that his superior, the indestructibly conservative Alfredo Cardinal Ottiviani, had been a powerful opponent of the doctrine. BISHOP Franic, attacking the schema before the Fathers, did not flatly deny any of the pro posals that went under the head ing of "collegiality." But he stated that he and many others had certain theological difficul ties connected with them. That in itself made it premature for the Council t o take such a de finitive step at this time, he said. He recalled, for example, that the first Vatican Council— which a century ago was brought to an untimely end before the exact status of the bishops could be gone into— taught that the Pope was "supremely and fully" powerful in the Church. How, then, could such a teach ing be reconciled with the idea that the college of bishops (even keeping in mind that the Pope is the head of such a college) is also fully powerful? Wasn’t there a contradiction there? THE bishop also questioned how firmwere the scriptural and theological bases for the doctrine. As for tradition— well, the Fathers of the Church, ecclesiastical writers saintly doctors, and especially past Popes all affirmed without hesi tation that the powers of the Pope were received directly from Christ while those of the bishops come immediately from the Pope and only mediately from Christ. Archbishop Parente carefully disposed of each of these diffi culties, HE pointed out that there was no whiff of either Gallicanism or "conciliarism" in the draft documents the Fathers were called to vote upon. This was a wise move for both these move ments in the past to break away from the authority of Rome or attempts to subordinate the Pope to the will of an Ecumeni cal Council, Archbishop Parente then stated that there is no contra diction between ' primacy" and "collegiality," since the Pope’s power cannot be divorced from that of the bishops nor theirs from his. When the Pope exer cises his power, he does so with the assent of the bishops whose chief and spokesman he is, HE asserted that the scrip tural basis for the doctrine- based largely on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew- had been approved by the Bibli cal Pontifical Commission, At for tradition, Archbishop Parente pointed to the history and practice of the early Church, the writings of Augus tine and other Fathers of the Church, and even the recent examples of Pope Pius IX and Plus XU, who proclaimed, re spectively, the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Vir gin Mary. Both pontiffs assid uously sought out the views of the entire episcopate before they made their declarations. THE doctrine of collegiality, he told the Fathers, "inte grates" the ancient ecclesi- ology of Catholicism (the the ology concerned with the nature of the Church) with the juri dical concept of the Church which began to prevail from the 11th Century onwards. He even predicted that stressing the participation of the bishops in the government of the Church would make the teaching of papal supremacy "more solemn and more attractive." The last point is borne out somewhat by leaders of the ecumenical movement. THE notion of collegiality is in accord with the beliefs and practices of the Eastern Ortho dox Churches. The difference was that the Orthodox would have no part of papal supremacy as it.yras understood. The Vati can u presentation oicoiiegiai- ity may still annoy them be cause it puts such nervous stress on papal primacy. Prac tically every time the episcopal college is mentioned, there is another reference to the fact that the Pope is the head of the college and that it is power less without him. The constant BY FATHER FREDERICK R. McManus (N.C.W.C. News Service VATICAN CITY—When Pope Paul VI and more than 20 bish ops concelebrated the opening Mass of the Second Vatican Council’s third session, two points were made clear. The Pope and all the other bishops together make up a body, called a "college," with a common responsibility to serve, teach and make holy the universal Church. Ane the lit urgical reform decreed In De cember, 1963, by the council Is well under way. ACCORDING to the 19& Constitution on the Liturgy, the Church’s real nature is perfect ly manifested when the whole body assembles at the altar: the bishops surronded by his priests, ministers and all the faithful taking part in the cele bration on the Eucharist. On the occasion of the first Mass of the council’s third session (Sept. 14), it was the chief bish op, the pope, surronded by the other bishops who make up the apostolic college, by the priests and other members of the clergy, and by a huge crowd of AT INFIRMARY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 this reason that he is sym bolized by the Eagle which soars into the heights. THE Equilateral Triangle is symbolic of the Trinity—the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Flanking th e Altar are two large proscenium figures car ved in lindenwood and with gold leaf representing St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin. An unusual feature of the Chapel is the placement of the Stations of the Cross as free standing sculptural groups in individual niches. The Stations are very impressive thirty-six inches high three dimension al figures hand carved from lindenwood with a twenty-three Karat gold leaf finish. These figures are placed on five foot bronze pedestals, bringing them to eye level. THE candlabra and other Altar fittings repeat the bronze of the pedestals and the Com munion rail. The baldachin, or canopy, over the altar relates to the wood grille over die door ways whose gold leaf ventricles recall the pipes of a great cathe dral organ. Ths Sisters of Mercy, who repetition of this theme inci dentally also struck some of the Protestant observers here as excessive. At the same time, they are agreed that the adoption of the collegial principle by the Council will mark a long step in the thousand-mile journey to a united Christendom. Earlier this year Patriarch Maximos VI Saigh, the leader of the Melkite Rite Catholics throughout the world, stated: "Collegiality ... is a doc trine-key to open the door to all the answers that the Church needs in her dialogue with Or thodoxy." DR. Robert McAfee Brown of Stanford University, who served as a Presbyterian observer during the second session of the Council, declared when he re turned to the United States that for the Catholic Church to turn its back on collegiality would mean "the end of really serious ecumenical discussion between Catholicism and the rest of Christendom." After three days of pre liminary voting on sections of the schema "On The Church" which deals with collegiality, the Fathers of the Council ex pressed their mind on such questions as these: the faithful all taking their full part. This form of Mass, with a chief celebrant presiding and with other concelebrating bish ops (or priests), is a concrete symbol of what the ecumenical council will proclaim in its doc trinal pronouncement on the Church, expected in the next few weeks. Central to this Is the council’s teaching on the "collegiality" of bishops; all the bishops as a body or college succeed the band of Apostles, as the chief one among them, the pope, succeeds the chief Apos tle, Peter. THIS doctrine, agreed upon by four-fifths of the bishops at the 1963 session, strongly support ed by Pope Paul In his opening address, and voted f or ovei> whelmingly by council Fathers at the meetings of Sept. 22 and 23, is reflected on the diocesan level in the collaboration pf the priests with the bishop, on the parish level in the colaboration of assistant priests with the pastor and, finally, in the common action of ell the Church’s members, lay and clerical. In the Mass concelebrated in St. Peter's basilica the com own and operate St. Joseph’s Infirmary, begin and end their day in this House of God. This is a semi-public oratory and is open to the patients, personnel and visitors who wish to visit the Blessed Sacrament and give honor and glory to God. Stained glass, sculpture, mosaic and Altar fittings in the Chapel were executed by Da- prato Studios of Chicago. YOUNGEST person to swim Golden Gate is 12-year-old Mike Lynch, 7th grade stu dent at St. Cecilia’s school, San Francisco. • The apostles were or ganized after the manner of a college with Peter in charge. • The bishops are the suc cessors of the apostles as teachers and pastors of the Church. • Episcopal consecration confers the plenitude of the priesthood. • Just as Peter and the other apostles formed a college, so do the Pope and the bishops. • An individual becomes a member of the episcopal body by virtue of his consecration and by communion with the head and members of that body. • The college of bishops has no authority except with the Roman Pontiff, the latter’s pow er of primacy remaining intact. • The bishops, in union with the Pope, are the subject of su preme and full power over the universal Church. • Individual bishops repre sent their churches and all of them together with the Pope represent the entire Church in the bond of peace, love, and unity. • The supreme power of munity nature of the Church was a little obscured by the almost lnveitable grandeur of the oc casion. The altar was practi cally hidden from view by the concelebrating bishops gather ed around it, there was a multi plicity of prayers said in com mon by the concelebrants reception of Communion anc. other rites were complex in appearance, and only a handful of the laity received Com munion. BUT none of this can ob scure the powerful teaching effect of concelebration, show ing the order of bishops unit ed to the priests and other clergy, united to all the peo ple, in the Church's life of prayer and work. It was a sign of the unity of the Church. All attention was focused on the celebration of the ’’same Eucharist, the single prayer, at one altar." Clergy and faith ful sang the sacred chants and refrains to psalms. The role of the chief celebrant, in this case Pope Paul, and of the other cele brants, in this case other bish ops, was made clear: to pre side over and serve the whole Church. Last Januray, the Pope set up a new commission to re vise the Church's liturgy in ac cordance with the council’s commands. In the spring, the commission announced that a new rite of concelebration was being prepared. Next Holy Thursday it should become a common parish experience. And, wherever there is an a- bundance of priests, the prac tice of celebrating Masses in dividually and privately should gradually give way to the single community Mass concelebrated as a sign of unity. THE Mass in St. Peter’s also gave Indications of revisions which, when officially decreed, will affect all Masses cele brated publicly, notmerely con- celebrations. These include, for example, the service of God’s word (from the Epistle through the Creed) with the celebrat ing priest seated away from the altar and listening to the readings along with the peo ple; the few invocations of a litany after the Creed ; the “prayer of the people" for the needs of the Church and of all mankind; the simple ending of Mass with the dismissal and blessing. If there had been any doubt about liturgical—and other- renewal In the Church, It was dispelled by the concelebrated Mass. Concrete reforms are under way. Their purpose is a fuller, sounder proclamation of doctrine and the spiritual re newal of the Church’s members. COUNCIL EXPERT MEM Concelebration Upheld Basie Council Reforms Archbishop Dedicates Holy Trinity Chapel the bishops is exercised in Ecumenical Councils, though no Council is valid unless it is in voked by, presided over, and confirmed by the Roman pon tiff, There can be no Ecumeni cal Council which is not at least accepted by the successor of Peter. NUMBER five in the above list raises the knotty question of whether, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, the bishops of the Orthodox Church —whose consecration Rome recognizes as valid and whose jurisdiction is also recognized — are al ready, at least in Catholic eyes, in some kind of union wity the Pope. Father George Tavard, the ologian from Pittsburgh, point ed out to a group of newsmen that there is no question but that these bishops are regard ed by Catholics as members of the divinely instituted episcopal college. To be sure, they are not in union with the Roman pontiff in the same way that, say, the Catholic hierarchy of the United States is. Still, Rome recognizes their jurisdictional rights to confer the Sacraments and create new bishops. FATHER John Long, S.J., a specialist on Orthodoxy, in commenting on this anomaly, noted that when Pope Paul VI speaks of Orthodoxy he in variably refers to the "fuH" communion with Rome as the desideratum, implying that— at least in the Pope's view— a measure of communion al ready exists. Perhaps signi ficantly, in his 1964 Easter greeting to Orthodox Patriarch Alexei of Moscow the Pope spoke of "that portion of the Christian flock which is under your pastoral care." Every one of the propositions incorporating the notion of col legiality was endorsed by the Fathers of the Council, with safe margins beyond the two- third majority required. WHAT will be the practical effect on the life of the Church after collegiality if, as is con fidently expected, it is solemn ly proclaimed by Pope Paul and the bishops in their final vote at the end of this session? For one thing, a new verti cal relationship between the bishops can be expected. A bish op of Pittsburgh, as the Most Reverend John J. Wright, the present Ordinary of that dio cese, himself proclaimed, will take a livelier interest in and feel a certain responsibility for, say, the Diocese of Re- conquista, Argentina, or Por- toalegro- Castelo, Portugal. Bishop Wright, an eloquent man, was at his best when he de scribed the possibility of the whole Church working together to make a united attempt to re build Christianity throughout the world. His eloquence drew unaccustomed applause from some of the newsmen and women who heard him. ON the same occasion, Arch bishop Joseph McGucken of San Francisco stated that the complexity of modem life made a collegial mode of action a necessity for the Church. He suggested that in the one-world Church of the future, priests would be shared, the "have- not" diocese would receive help from the wealthy, and the total good of the Church would be served by all. A forerunner in this kind of concern ha s been the ebullient Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing, who has sup plied financial support to the ailing Church in Latin America for some years now and is the founder of a society of priests who volunteer to leave their pleasant parishes in the United States for a few years in order to make up for the dearth of clergy in the neglected lands to the south of us. A second possibility is that some form of episcopal "senate" will be established in Rome to advise and assist the Pope, as well as to represent the entire body of bishops, in the daily governance of the Church. This is not required by the doc trine of collegiality but it is fully expected, in the light of Pope Paul’s repeated hints that he would favor the institution of such a body. THIRD, there will in all like lihood be a cutting back on the influence of the Roman Curia, the bureaucratic arm of the pon tiff which in practice if not in theory will have to account not only to the Pope but to the en tire heirarchy for its decisions. Fourth, the significance of the College of Cardinals, will be diminished somewhat by the new emphasis being placed on the entire college of bishops. THE cardinals traditionally served as a kind of cabinet for the Pope. At least some of their historic functions will be taken over by the proposed "senate" if it comes to be. There are persistent rumors in Rome that no more cardinals will be creat ed, but no one seems ready to take responsibility for the pre diction. Pope John XXIII, incidentally, made the first significant ges ture in the direction of col legiality when he consecrated as bishops all those cardinals who were still simple priests. Among them was the leading anti-collegialist, Alfredo Car dinal Ottaviani. FIFTH, the ecumenical move ment among Christians will have surmounted one more barrier. As long as the im pression was abroad that the Pope of Rome ruled like a lone ly despot without regard to the ideas, inspiration, or counsel of even the bishops of his own Church, a meaningful dialogue was impossible in modern Christendom. Pope John dispelled the des pot image by the sheer force of his personality. The gracious acceptance by his successor of collegiality should sustain the ecumenical advance made under John. FINALLY, one can look for ward to a wider recognition of national viewpoints, diverse cultures, and worldwide deve lopments in the directives com ing from the Vatican. The special characteristics of the Italian clerical mind—summed up in the omnibus word * Ro- manita"—will be balanced with good British common sense, American know-how, Teutonic thoroughness, French intellect ual rigor, Indian reverence for mystery, Australian direct ness, and all the other mani festations of human genius found in the Church called Catholic. Though the Church, according to its own understanding of it self, remains essentially un changed through the ages, it has shown a different face to dif ferent generations of men. Just as history has responded to the Church, so has the Church re sponded to history. There was a primitive Church, a medieval Church , a Rennaisance Church, a tridentine Church, andapost- tridentine Church, which began its death-agony during the pon tificate of Pope John. The acceptance of collegiality by a whopping majority of the Fathers of the Council was the most radical step taken by the Catholic Church since the Coun ter-Reformation. With their placet votes, the Fathers may have laid the cornerstone for yet another building, the Church of the Aggiornamento. BEWARE TERMITES PRIEST ON A DONKEY The Hoij Father't Minion Aid for tbe Oriental Church FATHER HUGH IS A FRANCISCAN PRIEST IN NORTH ERN ETHIOPIA. His “mission” is a miserable, mud-hut village called COCHEN. FATHER HUGH cannot live, or offer Mass, in CO CHEN. however, because he has no church or rectory . . . When he Is ^ called to care for someone dying in ^ rocin v. hr must" travel for miles bv lnnkey tand carry the Blessed Srcramcnt) over narrow, twisting, rocky trails. He spends hours like this in the rain, sun. and heat. Young in years, he looks tired and worn ... To build a church before he dies—to save the Faith of his penniless parishioners—is FATHER HUGH’S ambition. He wants his people to live in the presence of Our Lord . . . The church will also be the village center where FATHER HUGH can teach grown-ups and children about God. and hygiene, and better farming. Don’t you wish you could help him teach? ... All he needs is a simple, plain, inex pensive church. It will cost only $3,200 altogether, and it w«ll serve thousands of people for years to come ... If you d like to build it all by yourself (name it in honor of your favorite saint) in memory of a loved one. write us now. 1 hink about the need, and please send all you can afford ($1. $2, $5. $10, ( $100). Mark it “A Gift for Father Hugh.” You’ll be remem bered at Mass as long as you live. THE POOR BOY WHO WANTS TO BE A PRIEST? □ $l-a-month ($12 a year) pays your membership dues in THE CHRYSOSTOMS, our sponsors’ club for boys too poor to pay their seminary expenses. f] $2 supports one seminarian for a week, n $8.33 supports one seminarian for a month, n $100 supports one seminarian for a year. □ $600 pays the costs of the seminarian’s entire six-year training. IN MEMORY. A CHALICE—A mission church has a chalice inscribed: “In Memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917-1963“ a r ift from his brother, Robert F. Kennedv . . . The late President will be remembered whenever the chalice is used ... If, in someone’s memory, you’d like to give a chalice ($40), a cibor ' ,m ($40), Mass Vestments ($50), Stations ($25), Altar Linens $15). or a Sanctuary Bell ($5). send us the person’s name, and the name and address of his heirs. We’ll send them a SACRED GIFT CARD, telling what you have done. THE MISSIONS: FAMILY PLAN—Why not help the missions AS A FAMILY, and. as a family, be helped in turn? . . . Wlien you enroll your family in this Association, your family is help ing keep priests and Sisters on mission fronts in 18 developing countries. Meanwhile, vour family shares in the Masses and prayers of Pope Paul, Cardinal Soellman. and all our mission priests and Sisters ... The FAMILY MEMBERSHIP offering is only $5 a year, $100 for life . . . We’ll send you a certificate j to frame. ! FOOD ECONOMY—YOUR $10 GIFT enables us to FEED A REFUGEE FAMILY for a month. In thanks, we’ll send you an Olive Wood Rosary from the Holy Land. Dear Monsignor Ryan: Enclosed please find .. . .for Name Street City . Zone .State j^12ear‘£ast(llission$j*i FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN, President M«*f. Jaeepfc T. Ryes, Nell Wy Seed eh ceeueealcetlees let CATHOLIC NEAR EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION SM Meditee Aw. et 47*4 S». New Ye*. N. V. 1M17