The relationship between consultative bodies and the governance of the Bishop - sensus fidei and the experience of Ecclesial Life. 

 
 Prof. Julian Porteous, Sydney

The document, Novo Millennio Ineuente, is the Pope’s call to the Church as it enters the Third Millennium. The Pope says at the outset that it is not a matter of inventing a new programme for the Church. Rather he proposes that the Church concentrate on what it is essentially about – and then goes on to list "certain pastoral priorities". The Church is invited to "start afresh from Christ". The document simply seeks to encourage a pastoral revitalization for the Church. 

It is in this context that the Pope encourages those "structures of participation" within the Church proposed in Canon Law be "cultivated and extended day by day and at every level". (par 45)

The 1983 Code formalized the notion of the shared responsibility of all the faithful for the life and mission of the Church. Can. 212 §3 outlines that "According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which [the faithful] possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons".

Here a clear interplay between the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood is proposed. This interplay is intended to ensure a common witness to the faith.  

The Pope writes in Novo Millennio Ineuente: "There, relations between Bishops, priests and deacons, between Pastors and the entire People of God, between clergy and Religious, between associations and ecclesial movements must be clearly characterized by communion". (par 45) His clear pastoral priority for the Church of the Third Millennium is that of a close cooperation among all members of the People of God for the good of the Church and its mission in the world.

He speaks in clear terms about the importance of receiving the contribution of the least among God’s People: "To this end, we need to make our own the ancient pastoral wisdom which, without prejudice to their authority, encouraged Pastors to listen more widely to the entire People of God. Significant is Saint Benedict's reminder to the Abbot of a monastery, inviting him to consult even the youngest members of the community: "By the Lord's inspiration, it is often a younger person who knows what is best". And Saint Paulinus of Nola urges: "Let us listen to what all the faithful say, because in every one of them the Spirit of God breathes".

At the heart of this is the fresh vision of the nature of the Church which emerged through the documents of the Second Vatican Council. In the document on the pastoral office of bishops, Christus Dominus, the Council Fathers on many occasions incorporated an emphasis on the collaborative dimension to the bishop’s role of governance. Encouragement was given to bring "fresh vigor" to synods and councils (par 36), Episcopal Conferences were strongly recommended (par 37), and collaboration with priests through a senate, or council, or board of consultors, or other appropriate committees was promoted as "necessary in keeping with present day needs" (par 27). The Council recommended the establishment of pastoral commissions comprising of clergy, religious and lay people to "investigate and weigh pastoral undertakings and to formulate practical conclusions regarding them" (par 27).

The 1983 Code was conscious of the great significance of this new appreciation of the nature of the Church when it accorded this understanding as being a significant distinguishing feature of the ecclesiology of the Code. In his Apostolic Constitution on the Code the Pope commented: "Among the elements which characterize the true and genuine image of the Church we should emphasize especially the following: the doctrine in which the Church is presented as the people of God (cf. dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium, chapter 2) and hierarchical authority as service (cf. ibid., chapter 3); the doctrine in which the Church is seen as a communion and which therefore determines the relations which are to exist between the particular churches and the universal Church, and between collegiality and the primacy; likewise the doctrine according to which all the members of the people of God, in the way suited to each of them, participate in the threefold priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ, to which doctrine is also linked that which concerns the duties and rights of the faithful and particularly of the laity".

The ecclesiology of communion drives this "substantial newness" recognized by the Code. The theology of communion lies at the heart of the pastoral vision proposed in Novo Millennio Ineuente.

The role of the bishop in this ecclesiology emerging from the Second Vatican Council is outlined with great clarity in the post synodal exhortation, Pastores Gregis, which states, "A lived ecclesial communion will lead the Bishop to a pastoral style which is ever more open to collaboration with all. There is a type of reciprocal interplay between what a Bishop is called to decide with personal responsibility for the good of the Church entrusted to his care and the contribution that the faithful can offer him through consultative bodies such as the Diocesan Synod, the Presbyteral Council, the Episcopal Council and the Pastoral Council" (par 44).

However, this emphasis on the role of "structures of participation" and of consultative bodies cannot be viewed outside the hierarchical nature of the Church. While emphasising that "all the faithful, by virtue of their Baptism, share in a proper way in the threefold munus of Christ" (par 44), each is to do so "according to his or her respective state and duties" (ibid)

Pastores Gregis refers to the ontological and functional differentiation that sets the Bishop before the other faithful based on his reception of the fullness of the Sacrament of Orders. The Church is an "organically structured community" and while the Bishop promotes a collaborative effort, his role is far more than that of a simple coordinator.

Simply, the bishop has the right and duty of governance. This question of ensuring a clear understanding of the place of the bishop in consultation and collaboration needs clarification for some within the Church who, influenced by the notions of liberal democracy, can misunderstand the nature of the relationship between bishop and clergy and people.

This distinction is emphasised clearly in Novo Millennio Ineuente (par 45) when the Pope speaks of structures of participation not being subject to the rules of parliamentary democracy, because they are, as he says, consultative rather than deliberative. This question of collaboration the clergy and the lay faithful was the subject of an Instruction from the Congregation for the Clergy on "Certain Questions regarding Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests" (15 August 1997) where a number of clarifications were made.

Pastoral governance is understood as a role of service. Yet this does in no way diminish the reality of an authority to lead within the Church which is founded ultimately in Christ: "This is the source of the Bishop's role of representing the Church entrusted to him and of governing it by the power needed for the exercise of the pastoral ministry sacramentally received (munus pastorale) as a sharing in the consecration and mission of Christ himself. As a consequence, Bishops govern the particular Churches entrusted to them as the vicars and ambassadors of Christ" (par 43).

The authority of the bishop finds particular _expression in his teaching role. "At his episcopal ordination, each Bishop received the fundamental mission of authoritatively proclaiming the word of God" (PG par 29). Bishops are endowed with the authority of Christ to be "witnesses to divine and catholic truth". The bishop speaks not his own word, nor echoes simply his own thoughts, but gives a word which nourishes and strengthens the faith of the community. Here the sense of the faith residing within the community is articulated. The authority of the bishop has no more poignant moment when he teaches in communion with the Roman Pontiff as an authentic witness to the apostolic faith. Here, "the 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 to adhere to it with a religious assent of the mind'' (par 29)