VIDEO-CONFERENCE TUESDAY 30 MAY 2006

“The Collegial Affect, the love of the Church, the appreciation of the Pontifical Magisterium and the grateful acceptance at all levels”.

The love of the Church expressed in a concrete acceptance of the Magisterium.

Prof. Rodney Moss

The Magisterium can only be understood in terms of the Church’s own self-understanding. The self-communication of God in Jesus Christ is the manifestation of His love and truth as a triumphant, victorious, historical truth. This truth is given an ongoing presence through the Church, his Body. As Rahner suggests, the fact of the victorious nature of this truth means that it can never be lost by the Church[1]. This is not to deny that humanity can pervert the truth, but the triumph of Jesus Christ, in the words of Rahner “… has already encompassed every conceivable rejection, and has really redeemed man’s freedom and his history into God’s life, into his truth and into his love”[2]

Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, states therefore, that “God graciously arranged that the things that he has once revealed for the salvation of all people should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations”[3] God has therefore bestowed upon the Church, through the Holy Spirit, the gift of infallibility. Through this gift the People of God are guaranteed the real objective possibility of knowing God’s self communication free from error.

That this infallibility belongs to the whole Church is stated clearly in Lumen Gentium: “The whole body of the faithful who have an anointing that comes from the holy one … cannot err in matters of belief”.[4] However, this infallibility is under the guidance of the Church’s living Magisterium.[5] The Magisterium is at the service of the Word and is its sole authentic interpreter by virtue of an authority that comes from Christ.[6] In the Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian the position outlined above is clearly stated: “By virtue of the divine mandate given to it in the Church, the Magisterium has the mission to set forth the Gospel’s teaching, guard its integrity, and thereby protect the faith of the People of God”.[7]

Thus in recognising the nature of the Church and her mission of salvation and truth and her guardianship of that salvific truth, all the baptised should be animated by a deep love for the mystery the Church as a communion of Head and Body. The faithful are therefore enjoined to “strive with sincere hearts for a harmonious unity in doctrine, life and worship (cf. Acts 2:42 )”[8].

The problem of dissent can cause serious harm to the Church’s communion and witness and arises from various contemporary isms, values and positions such as philosophical liberalism that would extol individual judgment over authentic tradition; the influence of the mass media in attempting to limit church pronouncements to what public opinion considers relevant and worthy of comment; theological positivism which would render doctrines to which the charism of infallibility is not attached, a certain non-obligatory binding power[9] and relativism which does not recognise anything as certain and has as its highest good the individual’s own ego and desires.

In conclusion, then, an interrelated understanding of God’s plan of salvation, the mission of the whole People of God in the unfolding of that plan and the role of the Magisterium as vigilant guardians of that truth that sets us free will lead the faithful to understand more fully how the love of and for the Church can be expressed in a respectful concrete acceptance of the function of the Magisterium in the life of the Church.

[1] Rahner, K. Foundations of Christian Faith, New York: Crossroads, p.380

[7] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, n. 37