CHANGES
What were some of the changes
that the Council brought about? Many of our attitudes, many of the things that
today we take for granted, came about as a consequence of Vatican 2. There are
far, far too many things that could be mentioned – and here are just a few.
1. The Church itself -
Vatican 2 redefined, re-imaged the Church
Since the break-up of
Christendom at the time of the Reformation ( 400 years earlier ) the Catholic
Church had become very inward looking, had become reactionary and had withdrawn
itself from the world. It had seen itself, referred to itself, as a ‘perfect
society’. In reacting to what had happened at the Reformation, it had become a
fortress Church – withdrawn, pulled up draw bridges, isolated.
The Council pushed the Church
back into the world. It used ancient biblical images to redefine the Church –
People of God, the Body of Christ, the Edifice of God, the sheepfold, the
community of believers. Instead of portraying the Church as a perfect society,
it redefined the Church as a community of those believers who are on a
pilgrimage, sharing ‘the joys, the hopes and the anxieties’ of humankind.
The Council said that the
Church was the People of God – it was a community of all the baptised, both
laity and their pastors. “The Church is a priestly people, it is like a pilgrim
in a foreign land, and it presses forward amid the persecutions of the world,
announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes.”
2. Laity
If you re-image an organisation
– you end up redefining those who make up the organisation. So we saw in
Vatican 2 a new place for the laity. The Church was to be less clerical. All
are equal members by Christian Baptism. Roles may differ, but Baptism is the
key sacrament and makes all of us members of the Church. “All are called to be
holy.” Prior to the Council if you wanted to be holy you left the world, you
became a priest or entered a religious order. All can be holy in the world.
The role of women has changed.
They are regarded as equal with men in the lay state. Women today however
challenge the Church towards continuing progress and development. We have seen
much more lay involvement in the Church. The laity are key to the Church’s
mission, because they live in the heart of the modern world and work in its
engine rooms. 99% of the Church is made up of lay people.
Since the Council there is a
huge increase in ministries in the Church. Council reminded us that ministry is
rooted in Baptism not Holy Orders. Today the laity is absolutely vital to every
enterprise of the Church.
3. Liturgy
Perhaps the most obvious change
of all came about in regard to the way in which the Church goes about worship.
Prior to the Council, most saw the liturgy as the domain of the clergy or the
priest. Over time, the liturgy had become clericalised. The laity had become
passive spectators saying their prayers and devotions. The Council decreed in
that famous text, that in regard to its worship, the Church desired nothing
less ‘than the full, active and conscious participation of the faithful’. The
Council ordered a complete revision of the way that all of the sacraments were
celebrated. As a consequence – in 1970 – we finally got a whole new way of
celebrating the Eucharist.
We can recall how altars were
turned to face the people, and Latin was replaced with local language. At the
time many thought that these were brand new ideas. They weren’t new at all. The
Church was just going back to an earlier tradition of how it conducted the
liturgy. Our liturgy today is a lot less clerical, for we now understand that
liturgy is essentially the work of the people.
4. Ecumenism
One area in which the Council
brought about great change was in its understanding and relationship with other
Churches. Prior to the Council it was hoped that Protestants would return to
the ‘one, true Church’ and that the Orthodox schism would end. In the decades
before the Council, Protestants had become more and more involved in what had
come to be called the ‘Ecumenical Movement’. The World Council of Churches had
been founded and there had been many mergers of churches. All of these moves
expressed a hope for unity among the Christian Churches. But the Roman Catholic
Church remained aloof from all of this.
And then came Pope John who
called his Ecumenical Council. He immediately set about inviting the separated
communities to send delegations. He showed how important they were by insisting
that they be seated in the front of St Peter’s just across the aisle from the
patriarchs and cardinals. Until Vatican 2, we as Catholics didn’t recognise the
other Christian Churches. We saw them as heretics and schismatics. At Vatican 2
we recognised the validity of their Baptism and the Council demanded that we
look upon these communities as ecclesial, and that the members of these
churches were indeed ‘our brothers and sisters in Christ’. A revolution!
When Pope Paul VI took over the
Council after John’s death, he spent a great deal of time in his opening speech
at the Council’s second session on the subject of Christian unity. Christ
willed and desired that his Church be one. The ecumenical movement and the
desire for Christian unity continue to our own time. It is a work in progress.
We must, as Christians, pray and work that all who believe in Jesus may be one.
Material compiled by
Monsignor Paul Farmer of the Auckland Diocese
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