Ecclesiology and Ecumenism
March 12
Synthetic Review of Course and
Discussion of Paper topic
Review of Last Week’s Class
• Historical Problems with the Primacy
• Historical Problems with Collegiality
• Specific Problems after Vatican II
• “Black week” and the insertion of the Nota
• Content of the Nota
Membership in the episcopal college dependent on
hierarchical communion and ordination
The college cannot act without the head
The pope may choose to exercise his primacy with or
without the college
The pope directs the manner in which the college acts
Review of Last Week’s class (cont.)
• The eschatological nature of the Church
The pilgrim Church, purgatory and the communion of saints
• Mary’s relation to the Mystery of the Incarnate Word
Special relationship with the Trinity
Mary is the New Eve
Brings Christ to others
Contemplates His mystery
Prays and Intercedes
Stands in solidarity with Christ crucified
Obediently Hears God’s Word
Is the greatest Christian disciple
Has an unique role in the economy of salvation
Mary is an object of contemplation in herself
Review of Course
• The Church in the Gospels
The hermeneutic of representation
The Church is the New Israel
The Special Role of Peter in the Church (and its
relation to mercy)
Leadership as service
The Eucharist as the point on which the faith stands
and falls
The primacy of love
Review of Course (cont.)
• The Church in Acts
The Apostolic Succession
Pentecost
The Apostolic life: prayer, breaking of the bread
and the common life
The election of the seven
The Council of Jerusalem (key for paper topic)
Review of Course (cont.)
• The Church in the Epistles
The apostle is a cultic priest (Rm 15)
Roles of non-apostles in the Church
Excommunication (1 Cor 5)
The tension between the deposit of faith and Petrine authority (Gal.)
Diversity of charisms, unity in faith, the headship of Christ (Eph 4, Col)
The Emergence of the three-fold sacrament of order in the Pastoral
Epistles
In addition to other roles
The bishop as the guardian of the faith
Cultic roles for presbyters and closed communion in the Catholic
Epistles
Review of Course (cont.)
• The Apostolic Fathers
The Didache (bishops, deacons, apostles, prophets,
a community life that looks like Acts 2:42, closed
communion)
Clement to the Corinthians (Apostolic Succession,
the necessity for the community to submit to her
ministers)
Epistles of Ignatius (the monarchical episcopate,
three-fold sacrament of orders, the primacy of
the Roman Church)
Review of Course (cont.)
• The Ante-Nicene Fathers
Irenaeus (Apostolic succession and doctrine,
primacy of the Roman Church,
Cyprian (relation of primacy to episcopacy, extra
ecclesiam nulla salus, need for communion
with the bishop)
Review of the Course (cont.)
• Councils of the Church
Nicaea (the development of Canon Law, hierarchical
structuring of communion among bishops,
penitential discipline)
Constantinople I (New Rome, four marks of the
Church)
Chalcedon (more canon law: synods, regulations for
clerics and monks, Constantinople as ‘New
Rome’)
The councils in the two great schisms
Review of the Course (cont.)
• Trent sought to make the Church function
again
Bishops were to be resident in their dioceses
and were given the power to govern them
Clerics were to reside in their benefices and
serve their flock
Seminaries were founded to ensure a welltrained and disciplined clergy
Review of Course (cont.)
• Vatican I
The Church as a motive of credibility
The papacy:
Primacy of jurisdiction that is immediate
The pope is infallible
when speaking ex cathedra
on faith and morals to be held by all the
faithful
Review of the Course (cont.)
• Lumen Gentium 1-8
• The Church as Sacrament
• Analogies for the Church and the Analogy for
the Church
• The Pilgrim Church
• Subsistit in: Visible versus invisible
Review of the Course (cont.)
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Lumen Gentium 9-13
An ecclesiology that starts with the baptized
And the priesthood of the baptized
That exercises a prophetic role (sensus fidei)
It is a People of God that should be universal
And also hierarchically structured
Review of the Course (cont.)
• Lumen Gentium 14-17
• The Church is necessary to salvation
• Membership in it has a visible and invisible
component and is also necessary to salvation
• Non-Catholics experience grace
• Non-Christians are also related to the Church and
salvation is possible for them
• But under very specific conditions
• Damnation is possible for all, thus the Church has
a missionary mandate
Review of Course (cont.)
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Lumen Gentium 18-29
The college of bishops
Episcopal consecration is a sacrament
Membership in the college of bishops is dependent of
communion with Peter
The head is united to the members of the episcopal college
When exercising the teaching office: obsequium religiosum
to bishops and obsequium religiosum of mind and will to
the pope
The infallibility of the episcopal college
The sacramentality of the diaconate and the possibility of a
permanent diaconate including married men
Review of Course (cont.)
• Lumen Gentium 30-38
• Definition of laity
• Threefold munera for the laity
Priestly: worship and sanctification of the
profane
Prophetic: ad intra, ad extra and family life
Royal: personal and social
• Rights and responsibilities for the laity
Review of Course (cont.)
• Lumen Gentium 39-46
• All Christians are called to the perfection of charity, but
in different ways proper to their circumstances
• Clerics find holiness primarily through pastoral charity
• Married people find holiness through faithful love and
the education of children
• Those who work find holiness by doing their work with
excellence and a prayerful spirit
• Profession and living of the evangelical counsels is a
pre-eminent way of fulfilling the universal call to
holiness
Review of Course (cont.)
• “Black week” and the insertion of the Nota
• Content of the Nota
Membership in the episcopal college dependent on
hierarchical communion and ordination
The college cannot act without the head
The pope may choose to exercise his primacy with
or without the college
The pope directs the manner in which the college
acts
Review of Course(cont.)
• The eschatological nature of the Church
The pilgrim Church, purgatory and the communion of saints
• Mary’s relation to the Mystery of the Incarnate Word
Special relationship with the Trinity
Mary is the New Eve
Brings Christ to others
Contemplates His mystery
Prays and Intercedes
Stands in solidarity with Christ crucified
Obediently Hears God’s Word
Is the greatest Christian disciple
Has an unique role in the economy of salvation
Mary is an object of contemplation in herself
Ideas for the paper
• Explain what Papal Primacy is.
• Explain what Episcopal collegiality is.
• Define the content of the Nota regards the
relationship between primacy and collegiality.
• Evaluate whether it was a positive or negative
move using Scripture and the early Fathers of
the Church (pre-325)