CCRS Ecclesiology:What does it mean for the

Church to be Church?

Session VRevd Dr Gareth Leyshon

Archdiocese of Cardiff

CCRS Ecclesiology

What have we been trying to achieve?An ADULT understanding of church.Your role is to simplify the teaching for the

appropriate ability group.

In the assignment, you must show me:That you understand the topic.That you know the official Catholic position.That you have looked at some key sources.

CCRS Ecclesiology

Session V:The Church is MissionaryThe Universal Church and Other FaithsListening and EvangelisingCan we take part in ceremonies of other

religions?Do non-Christians go to heaven?Dulles and the Universal ChurchAny Questions?

TASK 10

Do you have to be a Christian

to go to heaven?

The Church is MISSIONARY

Jesus was a missionary… (Jn 20:21) to the Children of Israel (Mt 15:24)

The Apostles were sent (Mt 10:5-6) and the Spirit blessed Gentiles! (Acts

10) Saint Paul went everywhere! (Acts

13+) despite the “people from James” (Gal

2)

The Church is MISSIONARY

C1-C3 Underground church spread C4-C6 Catholic = Imperial C11-C13 Crusades C16 Japanese Martyrs C16+ Mission to America (RC) C18+ Australia & NZ (CoE) C19 Chinese Martyrs C20 Algerian Martyrs 1994-96

newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Algeria.htm

The Church is MISSIONARY

2005 25 (4 in Colombia) 2006 24 (3 in Kenya) 2007 21 (4 in Iraq) 2008 20 (4 in India) 2009 37 (6 in Brazil, 6 in

Colombia) 2010 25 (6 in Brazil)

www.fides.org/index.php

The Church is MISSIONARY

Vatican II: Ad Gentes Paul VI: Evangelii Nuntiandi John Paul II: Redemptoris Missio Propaganda Fide: Fides website US Bishops: Go and Make Disciples CBCEW: CASE & Life4Seekers Pontifical Missions in E&W: Missio A Council for the New Evangelisation

The Church is MISSIONARY

Go and proclaim? Proclaim as you go?

Healthcare – no strings attached Education Retreat centres Witness of a way of life –

•Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Blessed)•Archbishop Oscar Romero (Martyr)•Brother Charles de Foucauld (Blessed Martyr)

http://www.fmdminternational.co.uk/

The Church and Religious Freedom

Historical position: Freedom for Catholicism because it’s true Gregory XVI – Mirari Vos, 1832

•X #13 all religions are equally valid paths to God•X #14 therefore everyone must have liberty

Pius IX reaffirms. Leo XIII – Libertas, 1888

• “... the liberty which is claimed for all to do all things is not, as We have often said, of itself desirable, inasmuch as it is contrary to reason that error and truth should have equal rights.”

Error has no rights.

The Church and Religious Freedom

Vatican II: Dignitatis Humanae “The council intends to develop the

doctrine of recent popes on the inviolable rights of the human person and the constitutional order of society.”

“The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power.”

http://www.zenit.org/article-8747?l=english

Dallas News editorial 16 Nov 2008 When competing religious truth

claims clash in America, we typically agree to disagree. But throughout human history, and in much of the world today, religious conflict often turns violent. Religious tolerance cannot exist if one believes that to tolerate another's faith is to diminish one's own by accepting an untruth.

The Church and Religious Freedom

Is there a way out? In the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church, which had long denied religious freedom to non-Catholics with the teaching that "error has no rights," reconciled religious orthodoxy with modern pluralism. The Second Vatican Council declared that indeed error has no rights, but humans do. In other words, people have a God-given right to be wrong about God.

The Church and Religious Freedom

Society of St Pius X Position: … We also reaffirm that the Second

Vatican Council has broken away from the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church; in particular, but not exclusively, in the declaration Dignitatis Humanae on Religious Liberty, the constitution Lumen Gentium and the decree Nostra Aetate on ecumenism. …

The Church and Religious Freedom

Society of St Pius X FAQs #3: Among the errors of Vatican II:

No longer must the Catholic make an act of Faith, based upon the authority of God who reveals, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. … Such an evolving and changing concept of Tradition would not be possible unless religious truth, like right and wrong itself, were to find it source in the personal conscience of each man. This is the clear presupposition of the document on religious liberty, Dignitatis Humanae.

The Church and Religious Freedom

TASK 11

What did you see on your visit?

What could you take part in as a

Christian?

The Church and Other Religions

Vatican II: Nostra Aetate #2 “… other religions found

everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing ‘ways’, comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.”

The Church and Other Religions

Vatican II: Nostra Aetate #2 “… other religions found everywhere

try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing ‘ways’, comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.”

So which bits are “true and holy”?

25 years later…

Secretariat for Non-Christians – renamed Pontifical Council For Inter-Religious Dialogue

“Reflection And Orientations On Interreligious Dialogue And The Proclamation Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ.”

Dialogue and Proclamation (abridged)

Dialogue and Proclamation

PCID Profile: Dialogue is a two-way communication. It implies speaking and listening, giving and receiving, for mutual growth and enrichment. It includes witness to one's own faith as well as an openess to that of the other. It is not a betrayal of mission of the Church, nor is it a new method of conversion to Christianity.

Dialogue and Proclamation

We do not deny that we wish all people to become Christian.

In the course of this dialogue, we are not actively seeking to convert you.

We are genuinely seeking to develop a richer mutual understanding.

During the conversation, we will present the truths which our church has received from God.

With the Jewish People

NA #4: God has not revoked His covenant

with the children of Abraham Today’s Jews are not to be held

guilty of the death of Christ. The Church deplores Anti-Semitism Commission Formed

John Paul II – Lenten Act of Repentance for the Jubilee Year

With Islam NA #3: We have in common

with Islam: We adore the One God of

Abraham We revere Jesus and Mary

• Islam regards Jesus as a Prophet

We expect a Day of Judgment We practice prayer, fasting, alms

With Islam Benedict XVI:

Regensberg speech 2006 “Mohammed’s only new teachings

were evil” – the emperor proclaimed, with unacceptable brusqueness

Islamic Scholars: A Common Word Who speaks for Islam?

Vatican and Islam continue talking: Annual Ramadan Message February 2009 joint statement

With Hindus NA #2:

… in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust.

Annual Diwali Message

With Buddhists NA #2:

… Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. …

Annual Vesakh Message

Assisi Meetings for Peace Assisi I – 1986

John Paul II & the Dalai Lama Assisi II – 2001 (after 9/11) Bringing together 200 religious leaders

for a day of prayer has taken a lot of planning. The Pope and his guests have travelled here by train from Vatican City. … The shared mode of transport underlines the message that this is a day when the different faiths have come together with a common purpose.

Assisi Meetings for Peace

The Pope, a believer in the power of prayer to influence world events, is fond of making reference to "the spirit of Assisi". The different faiths are praying in separate parts of the Franciscan convent, each according to their own rites. Among them are imams, patriarchs, monks and rabbis.

Assisi Meetings for Peace After a frugal lunch, the day will end

with a joint assembly, with representatives of each religion making a "common commitment to peace". The Pope will draw the event to an end by lighting a symbolic lamp of peace. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1779680.stm

Benedict XVI goes to Assisi 27 Oct 2011 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_

xvi/travels/2011/index_assisi_en.htm

Can we pray together? * * We can MEDITATE (think about)

but not mind-emptying Vatican on meditation

We might pray with Jews (psalms) and Muslims to the One God But our prayer is “Through Christ”

We might perform rituals in parallel with respectful listening. But we cannot say AMEN to rites based

on unshared beliefs.

Dialogue and Proclamation

Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (3rd C)

Fr Leonard Feeney SJ – 1940s Become Catholic or go to Hell!

Other Christians: church MEMBERS but imperfect

communion Non-Christians?

Salvation Lateran IV (1215)

“outside which no-one at all is saved” Boniface VIII (1302)

“it is absolutely neccessary for the salvation of all human beings that they submit to the Roman Pontiff”

Florence (1442) no-one remaining outside the Catholic

Church (pagans, Jews, heretics, schismatics) can become partakers of eternal life.

Salvation Pius IX (1854)

“whoever does not enter it [the Catholic church] will perish...”

“those who live in ignorance of the true religion are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord”

SalvationPius IX (1863: QCM 7 & 8)

“There are, of course, those who are struggling with invincible ignorance about our most holy religion...”

“[God’s] supreme kindness and clemency do not permit anyone at all who is not guilty of deliberate sin to suffer eternal punishments.”

”Eternal salvation cannot be obtained by those who ... are stubbornly separated from the unity of the Church and also from the successor of Peter.”

God’s nice, so everyone goes to heaven...

Universalism (Origen d. 254)

Not automatic Depends on us

CAN WE MAKE THE FIRST MOVE? NO! PELAGIANISM – “The English Heresy”

You’ve got to be a signed-up Catholic to go

to heaven... Feenyism

Baptism of Blood Baptism of Desire Imperfect Communion is possible Pagans saved by doing good

Romans 2:12-16 * Mt 25:31-46

Shhh! The ignorant can’t reject God!

Gradualism

Permitted for moral issues God’s law cannot be compromised But we come to understand it gradually

We are commanded to evangelise! Mt 28:18-20 * Mk 16:15-16 Lk 24:46-48 * Acts 2:38-39

What is most pleasing to God?

The most perfect possible relationship with God is to be a member of the Catholic Church during our earthly life and to make full use of all the means of grace.

We are called to offer this opportunity to the whole world!

Light – Salt - Yeast - Seed

The Dulles Models and the Universal Church

Institution The Papacy has authority to guide

the development of doctrine and the possibility, rarely exercised, of speaking infallibly. It also makes disciplinary decisions helping the church to act with unity, enabling it to be an effective Sacrament.

The Dulles Models and the Universal Church

Mystical Communion We rarely see the Universal Church

made manifest but World Youth Day and other big papal gatherings are expressions of worship by the Universal Church.

The Dulles Models and the Universal Church

Servant In our world divided between rich

and poor nations, we show solidarity across international boundaries: Cafod, Caritas.

The Dulles Models and the Universal Church

Herald This doesn't negate the Great

Commission to make disciples of all people - our call is still to bring people to the fullness of the means of grace which uniquely exists in the Catholic Church.

The Dulles Models and the Universal Church

In our Eucharistic Communities, we are a cell of the universal church.

Our prayers and charitable contributions are for the good of the whole church (at least our bidding prayers ought to be written this way!).

We bring people into membership of the Universal Church through membership of our Eucharistic Communities.

We grow in love and knowledge of God (formation) and continue to worship until we are caught up into the great community of worship which awaits us in heaven or at the second coming. (LG 48-51)

TASK 12

Any questions?

TASK 13

Closing Liturgy

Presentation © Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon 2009, 2011 except for photographs included as fair use for educational purposes. It may be freely used as a Catholic educational tool.

www.drgareth.info/ccrs