scholarly journals Roman Catholic Ecclesiology from the Council of Trent to Vatican II and Beyond

2018 ◽  
pp. 262-292
Author(s):  
Ormond Rush
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Church

For 400 years after the Council of Trent, a juridical model of the church dominated Roman Catholicism. Shifts towards a broader ecclesiology began to emerge in the nineteenth century. Despite the attempts to repress any deviations from the official theology after the crisis of Roman Catholic Modernism in the early twentieth century, various renewal movements, known as ressourcement, in the decades between the world wars brought forth a period of rich ecclesiological research, with emphasis given to notions such as the Mystical Body, the People of God, the church as mystery, as sacrament, and as communio. The Second Vatican Council incorporated many of these developments into its vision for renewal and reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Over half a century after Vatican II, a new phase in its reception is emerging with the pontificate of Pope Francis.

The Aggiornamento Phenomenon and the Second Vatican Council

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-105
Author(s):  
Hiermonk Ioann ( Bulyko) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
John Xxiii ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Pope John Xxiii ◽  
The Church

The Second Vatican Council was a unique event in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Initiated by Pope John XXIII, it was intended to make the Roman Catholic Church more open to the contemporary society and bring it closer to the people. The principal aim of the council was the so called aggiornamento (updating). The phenomenon of updating the ecclesiastical life consisted in the following: on the one hand, modernization of the life of the Church and closer relations with the secular world; on the other hand, preserving all the traditions upon which the ecclesiastical life was founded. Hence in the Council’s documents we find another, French word ressourcement meaning ‘return to the origins’ based on the Holy Scripture and the works of the Church Fathers. The aggiornamento phenomenon emerged during the Second Vatican Council due to the movement within the Catholic Church called nouvelle theologie (French for “new theology”). Its representatives advanced the ideas that became fundamental in the Council’s decisions. The nouvelle theologie was often associated with modernism as some of the ideas of its representatives seemed to be very similar to those of modernism. However, what made the greatest difference between the two movements was their attitude towards the tradition. For the nouvelle theologie it was very important to revive Christianity in its initial version, hence their striving for returning to the sources, for the oecumenical movement, for better relations with non-Catholics and for liturgical renewal. All these ideas can be traced in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and all this is characterized by the word aggiornamento.

scholarly journals The Nature and Missionary Role of the Lay People in the Light of Vatican II; Convenience or Conviction?

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
Francis Appiah-Kubi ◽  
Robert Bonsu
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Lay People ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Church

The nature and the missionary role of the laity in the church is one of the issues currently vital to the church and theologians. From the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) perspective, the word laity is technically understood to mean all the faithful except those in holy orders and those in the state of religious life specially approved by the Catholic Church (LG31). These faithful are by baptism made one with Christ and constitute the People of God; they are sharers in the priestly, prophetic and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the church and in the world. However, the distinction between the ordained and the lay is a real one. A great deal of attention has been paid to the ordained ministry of the Church, its nature, its authority and its functions. The laity tends, by way of contrast, to be taken very much for granted, as though in their case no special problems arise. This study discusses the nature, role, and participation of lay people in the mission of the Church as proposed by the Second Vatican Council. It treats succinctly the historical development of the Laity and the challenges and opportunities inherent in their mission.

Exploring the Possible Contributions of the African Palaver towards a Participatory Synodal Church

Exchange ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 209-237
Author(s):  
Stan Chu Ilo
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Church

Abstract This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the African palaver as a model for participatory dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church. The African palaver is the art of conversation, dialogue, and consensus-building in traditional society that can be appropriated in the current search for a more inclusive and expansive participatory dialogue at all levels of the life of the Church. I will develop this essay first by briefly exploring some theological developments on synodality between the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis and some of the contributions of the reforms of Pope Francis to synodality in the Church. Secondly, I will identify how the African palaver functions through examples taken from two African ethnic groups. I will proceed to show how the African palaver could enter into dialogue with other new approaches to participatory dialogue for a synodal Church.

scholarly journals INTRODUCTION

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
John Xxiii ◽  
Charles De Gaulle ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Pope John Xxiii ◽  
The Church

Charles de Gaulle famously called the Second Vatican Council the most important event in modern history. Many commentators at the time saw the Council as nothing short of revolutionary, and the later judgements of historians have upheld this view. The astonishing enterprise of a man who became, quite unexpectedly, Pope John XXIII in 1958, this purposeful aggiornamento of the Roman Catholic Church was almost at once a leviathan of papers, committees, commissions, and meetings. Scholars have been left to confront no less than twelve volumes of ‘ante-preparatory’ papers, seven volumes of preparatory papers, and thirty-two volumes of documents generated by the Council itself. A lasting impression of the impressiveness of the affair is often conveyed by photographs of the 2,200-odd bishops of the Church, drawn from around the world, sitting in the basilica of St Peter, a vast, orchestrated theatre of ecclesiastical intent. For this was the council to bring the Church into a new relationship with the modern world, one that was more creative and less defiant; a council to reconsider much – if not quite all – of the theological, liturgical, and ethical infrastructure in which Catholicism lived and breathed and had its being.

scholarly journals Monastic and Lay Life in the Roman Catholic Church in the Light of Decisions of Vatican II

2020 ◽  
pp. 136-145
Author(s):  
Антоний Борисов
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Consecrated Life ◽  
Vatican Council

Второй Ватиканский собор (1962-1965) поставил перед монашескими орденами задачу обновить принципы жизни, вернувшись к корням понимания монашеского делания и аскезы. В дальнейшем реформа фактически приравняла монашеский путь спасения к пути мирянина, что послужило причиной неоднозначных изменений в католических обществах посвящённой Богу жизни. В статье проводится анализ последствий этих изменений, произошедших в жизни Католической церкви с инициативы Второго Ватиканского собора. В частности, отмечается, что собор запустил процесс административного и прежде всего смыслового реформирования католического монашества. Этот процесс идёт до сих пор и периодически принимает форму кризиса. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) challenged the monastic orders to renew the fundamentals of their way of life returning to the original understanding of monastic practice and asceticism. Later the reform virtually equated the monastic way of salvation to the layman’s way, and this caused ambiguous changes in catholic societies of consecrated life. The article analyzes the consequences of these changes brought into the life of the Roman Catholic Church due to Vatican II. In particular, it is indicated that the council started the process of administrative and, above all, conceptual reforms in the catholic monasticism. This process is still ongoing and periodically takes the shape of a crisis.

scholarly journals Missiological Implications of Conscience in Present-Day Roman Catholicism

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Reid Karr
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Gaudium Et Spes ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Letter Exchange

During Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Papacy, The Theology Of Conscience Has Taken On A Significant Role. A Developed Theology Of Conscience Emerged During The Second Vatican Council, Most Notably With Gaudium Et Spes, And Later Developed As Essential In Moral Theology. Francis Is The First Pope To Fully Embody Vatican II Teachings, In Particular In His Incorporation Of The Conscience Into Theology And Practice. During The First Months Of His Papacy, He Made It Clear That Conscience Is Crucial To His Theology And, In A Letter Exchange With A Prominent Italian Journalist, He Underscored Obedience To One’s Conscience As The Key To Receiving Forgiveness Of Sins. This Development Has Tremendous Theological And Missiological Implications For The Roman Catholic Church. KEYWORDS: Roman Catholicism, Pope Francis, conscience, missiology, morality, Vatican II, Gaudium et spes

The First Vatican Council

1971 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 329-344
Author(s):  
E. E. Y. Hales
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Vatican I ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

Centenaries are supposed to be occasions when we take stock of the event we are commemorating. In the light of developments in the last hundred years how does the work of the First Vatican Council look today? And since it so happens that the hundred years in question includes the Second Vatican Council, recently concluded, it is natural to put the question in this form: how does the work of Vatican I look today, in the light of Vatican II?I think it would be fair to say that it is widely considered that the work of Vatican I was a little unfortunate, and has since proved embarrassing, because its definitions enhanced the authority of the papacy. Vatican II is supposed to have helped to redress that balance by disclosing the nature of the Church as a whole, from the bishops down to the People of God, or perhaps I should say from the bishops up to the People of God, in view of our preference nowadays for turning everything upside down. Such critics of Vatican I are not, of course, denying either the dogmatic infallibility or the juridical primacy of the Pope, which were defined at that Council; but they are saying that it is a distortion to stress the powers of the papacy and to neglect the powers of the college of bishops or the rights of the rest of the Church, and they are saying that the one-sided definitions of Vatican I tended to create such distortion in men’s minds until they were balanced by the pronouncements of Vatican II.

scholarly journals The ‘enemy within’ the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham A. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church History ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
History Of

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) is regarded as one of the most significant processes in the ecumenical church history of the 20th century. At that time, a younger generation of Roman Catholic theologians began to make their mark in the church and within the ecumenical theological scene. Their work provided an ecumenical bridge between the Reforming and the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical traditions, notwithstanding the subsequent negative response of the Roman church hierarchy. Despite important advances, recent pontificates significantly altered the theological landscape and undermined much of the enthusiasm and commitment to unity. Roman Catholic theological dissent provided common ground for theological reflection. Those regarded as the ‘enemy within’ have become respected colleagues in the search for truth in global ecclesiastical perspective. This article will use the distinction between the history and the narratives of Vatican II.

African Ecclesiologies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stan Chu Ilo
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church Of Christ ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
African Ecclesiology ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the key issues in scholarship on the identity and mission of the Christian church in Africa, while also exploring in depth the identity of the Roman Catholic Church in Africa. First, the chapter discusses the methodological questions in scholarship in this area, while highlighting the types and models of African ecclesiology in general. Second, it historicizes the narrative of the church in Africa, showing the theological trajectories of scholarship on ecclesia in Africa in the Roman Catholic tradition. Finally, it briefly surveys the key themes being developed in African Catholic ecclesiology from the Second Vatican Council (1962–5) to the Second African Synod (2009). It concludes with a thematic account of how the priorities and practices of the church of Christ are being enacted in the mission of the church in Africa with regard to the challenges facing the Christian faith there.

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