Prof. George Cottier, O.P., Roma

THE PRIMACY IN THE UNDIVIDED ANCIENT CHURCH

The Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic Constitution Pastor aeternus enunciated and represented in explicit form the Church’s faith regard to the primacy of Peter’s successor whose charisma has the objective of "the unity of faith and communion" of all the faithful.

The Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic Constitution on the Church entitled Lumen gentium repeated these teachings analysing in depth the doctrine of the nature of the Episcopal College.

The Pontiff’s primacy is a reality of the faith. The practice of the primacy has taken on various forms in the course of history and can also be modified. It is on this second aspect which concerns the Church’s visibility that John Paul II, in the encyclical on ecumenism entitled Ut unum sint, invited all theologians to meditate, also those belonging to other Churches not fully in communion with the Catholic Church.

This is the context for our current meditation. During my speech I will remain on the subject of the ministry of the truth. A unity of faith and of communion: the Church’s certainty is that the unity of communion depends on the unity of faith. It is in fact a question of access to the divine revelation, which dispenses the Word of life to us. In a few lines the dogmatic Constitution on the Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum (no. 10) enunciates the reason for the magistery of truth in the Church: "It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls".

The Second Vatican Council strongly emphasised the unity of the episcopate and the Episcopal characteristics of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. The treasure of the faith is entrusted to the College, in communion with its Head. The unity of the moments mentioned in the document Dei Verbum, which I have quoted, has its foundations in the work of the Holy Spirit, who is attributed the charism of the revelation and the charism of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures interpreted by Tradition.

It is also the Holy Spirit who, with His charism of assistance, supports the Magistery in its task involving the totally faithful transmission of the message of the revelation. These are the words of life, this indicates that this transmission is a vital act; I mean that it expresses the Church’s living reality. The presentation of this message of life implies the homogenous implementation of the dogma, be it induced by the power of the mercy of God’s people, by challenges originating in mistakes concerning religious issues or other historical factors. The ways in which the Holy Spirit applies His charism of assistance are varied due to the nature of things. The College and its Head have received from Christ the Lord the mission of announcing the Word for the redemption of all nations. Hence the spreading of the Word of God also includes the responsibility of evangelization.

"Evangelization represents the very grace and vocation of the Church, her most profound identity" (see Paul VI. Ev. Nun. no.14). This task entrusted to the Roman Pontiff involving the spreading of the Word of God is extended to the whole Church. This means that her magisterial office is "supreme and universal": this task implies for Peter’s successor the assistance of the Holy Spirit, which, in certain cases, involves the prerogative of infallibility.

The Bishops in turn are the witnesses of the divine and Catholic truth when they teach in communion with the Pontiff. When the Magistery of the Church, both through the Roman Pontiff when he speaks "ex cathedra", or through the College of Bishops meeting in a Council, solemnly presents a doctrine as a being divinely revealed, it requires the belief of the theological faith; the same can be said when a doctrine is infallibly presented to the faith of the ordinary and universal Magistery.

Furthermore, the Magistery has the duty of proposing truths, which are not revealed or not yet explicitly acknowledged as such, but thought necessary for maintaining and presenting the consignment of the faith: these truths are owed firm and definite approval. The charism of infallibility promoted by the Church is also extended to them. The approval provided to these truths, which must be maintained in a definite manner, is not per se an act of faith, and leads directly to the revealed truths. But this act is connected to faith because the assistance provided to the Magistery by the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the Magistery’s infallibility is an object of faith.

Finally, the Magistery’s Teachings present truths that are not proposed in a definite manner; hence these truths receive the religious approval of will and intelligence. These distinctions, specified regards to the Professio fidei, have their foundations in Lumen gentium, no. 25. When the Magistery proposes these truths to God’s people, the sensus fidei moves towards them, with a spontaneous movement of welcome. When this movement encounters resistance in us, we are invited to purification and to the conversion of the conscience with faith, initium salutis, which is a gift from God that opens the gates of the heart to all His other gifts. It is only truth that renders us free (see John 8, 32).