Forgotten Teachings of the Council
Lay Witness Online Exclusive

Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin
From the May/Jun 2003 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine

It’s been just over 35 years now since the end of the Second Vatican Council, almost two generations in human terms, but in the long history of the Church, not much more than a blink of an eye. During this time, members of the Church and our neighbors in the world have spent considerable time and energy studying, understanding, interpreting, and implementing the teachings of the Council, and have done so with varying degrees of success.

There’s no doubt that the Second Vatican Council is one of the great moments in the history of Christ’s Church on earth. Clearly, it was a work of the Holy Spirit, an event that brought new life to the Church, and through the Church to the world. Pope John Paul, who participated in the Council as a young bishop, has written: “The Second Vatican Council is often considered as the beginning of a new era in the life of the Church . . . . The Council’s enormously rich body of teaching and the striking new tone in the way it presented this content constitute as it were a proclamation of new times” (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, no. 18, 20).

Many are well aware of the primary teachings of the Council, including: the call for the renewal of the priesthood and religious life; the reform of the liturgy; the invitation to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue; the unfolding of the mystery of the Church with rich Scriptural images; the need for the Church to be in dialogue with the world; the vocation of the laity in transforming the secular order into the Kingdom of God; and the primacy of human conscience and religious freedom. These teachings, while not new in Christian thought, were certainly expressed with a new clarity and thus inspired the renewal of the Church envisioned by Pope John XXIII when he convened the Council.

Nevertheless, the implementation of the Council has been quite uneven, a trying time for the Church, to say the least. The clarity of the Council’s teachings has sometimes been lost. Some people have misunderstood the teachings of the Council. Others have relentlessly evoked an undocumented “spirit of Vatican II” while ignoring its precise teachings. Still others have deliberately abused the Council to further their own agendas.

One author has offered his view of the wake of the Council in these words:

Comparing the preconciliar Church and the aspirations of Vatican II with events of the past 30 years forces us to ask: What went wrong? Can anyone pretend that things have improved? There are some bright spots, but it is undeniable that the faith of Catholics has been shaken and that our way of living no longer distinguishes us from other Americans. Astonishingly, this decline in the Church has come about under the banner of Vatican II. And sometimes it seems as if we are being told that this bad news is good news if only we can understand the spirit of the Second Vatican Council (Ralph M. McInerny, What Went Wrong with Vatican II, p. 13).

It is important to emphasize that the author doesn’t reject the teachings of the Council. In fact he writes that the Council “is the central event of Church history in our time. Clearly it was a providential occurrence. Its 16 documents, although with varying force, are the measure of the faith of Roman Catholics. Properly understood it was a great blessing for the Church—properly understood” (ibid., p. 14).

Mr. McInerny highlights the need to “properly understand” the teachings of the Council, and I agree. In that spirit, I’d like to outline seven important teachings of the Council that have been forgotten, abandoned, or undervalued in the implementation and application of the Council. In so doing, I readily admit that each of these points has a broader context. That’s why it’s always important to read the documents in their entirety and not settle for just a few favorite passages.

The Hierarchical Nature of the Church
The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, employs several Scriptural images to describe the nature of the Church. These include the Church as God’s farm, as God’s building, as the Spouse of Christ, as the Body of Christ and, of course, as the People of God (cf. Chapters I and II). But the Council also strongly reemphasized the hierarchical nature of the Church, a truth that’s been overlooked sometimes in the wake of the Council. In fact, the entire third chapter of Lumen Gentium addresses this theme. For example:

“In calling this vast assembly of bishops, the latest and humble successor to the Prince of the apostles who is addressing you intends to assert once again the Church’s Magisterium (teaching authority), which is unfailing and perdures until the end of time, in order that this Magisterium, taking into account the errors, the requirements, and the opportunities of our time, might be presented in exceptional form to all men throughout the world.”

Lumen Gentium makes the same point:

“Among the more important duties of bishops that of preaching the Gospel has pride of place. For the bishops are heralds of the faith, who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ; . . . who preach the faith to the people assigned to them, the faith which is destined to inform their thinking and direct their conduct” (no. 25).

And in the same paragraph:

“[T]he faithful, for their part, are obliged to submit to their bishop’s decision, made in the name of Christ, in matters of faith and morals, and adhere to it with a ready and respectful allegiance of mind.”

Finally, Lumen Gentium doesn’t hesitate to emphasize once again the infallible nature of the Church’s teaching authority, a charism that belongs to the Roman Pontiff and the body of bishops when they exercise the supreme teaching office (cf. no. 25).

The Primacy of the Catholic Church
“The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council” (Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, no. 1). Indeed, in this document as in other places, the unity of Christians and the dialogue with other religions is strongly encouraged. In so doing, however, the Council isn’t embarrassed to proclaim the primacy of the Catholic Church, a principle that has been reaffirmed again recently in the much-maligned document, the declaration Dominus Iesus.

For example, in Unitatis Redintegratio (the Decree on Ecumenism), the Council wrote: “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained” (no. 3). In Lumen Gentium we read: “This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him” (no. 8). And Dignitatis Humanae (the Declaration on Religious Liberty), begins by affirming: “We believe that this one true religion continues to exist in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus entrusted the task of spreading it among all men” (no. 1).

The Special Nature of the Ministerial Priesthood
In Presbyterorum Ordinis (the Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests), as well as in other places, the Council taught that “. . . all the faithful are made a holy and kingly priesthood, they offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ . . . there is no such thing as a member that has not a share in the mission of the whole Body” (no. 2).

The Council also taught, however, that the ordained ministerial priesthood has a particular place and irreplaceable service in the Church.

“all the sons [and daughters] of the Church that the cult, especially the liturgical cult, of the Blessed Virgin, be generously fostered, and that the practices and exercises of devotion toward her, recommended by the teaching authority of the Church in the course of centuries be highly esteemed, and that those decrees, which were given in the early days regarding the cult images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the saints, be religiously observed” (no. 67).

The Council encouraged other devotions in the Church as well.

“The spiritual life, however, is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy . . . popular devotions of the Christian people, provided they conform to the laws and norms of the Church, are to be highly recommended” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, nos. 12, 13).

It’s clear then, that the fathers of the Council understood the spiritual needs of the faithful and recognized that the Catholic Church wouldn’t be complete without the popular devotions that add such warmth and richness to the practice of our faith.

As we conclude . . . I hope this survey of the forgotten teachings of the Council will be helpful. There are probably other teachings that could and should be added to the list. And as I indicated at the beginning, these lessons must be considered in their full context. That’s why a complete and objective reading of the Council documents is the only way to understand the greatness and lasting impact of the Council and to avoid the imposition of personal agendas, from any perspective.

In his Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the beginning of the New Millennium), our Holy Father has written once again of the lasting significance of the Vatican Council and the incomparable beauty of its documents:

What a treasure there is, dear brothers and sisters, in the guidelines offered to us by the Second Vatican Council. With the passing of the years, the Council documents have lost nothing of their value or brilliance. They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium. Now that the Jubilee has ended, I feel more than ever duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: There we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning (no. 57).

Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin is a contributing author to Servants of the Gospel and the author of Without a Doubt. To order these or other great Emmaus Road Publishing books, visit www.emmausroad.org, or call (800) 398-5470.