CCRS Ecclesiology:
What does it mean for the
Church to be Church?
Session V
Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon
Archdiocese of Cardiff
CCRS Ecclesiology
 What have we been trying to achieve?
An ADULT understanding of church.
Your role is to simplify the teaching for the
appropriate ability group.
 In the assignment, you must show me:
That you understand the topic.
That you know the official Catholic position.
That you have looked at some key sources.
CCRS Ecclesiology
Session V:
The Church is Missionary
The Universal Church and Other Faiths
Listening and Evangelising
Can we take part in ceremonies of other
religions?
Do non-Christians go to heaven?
Dulles and the Universal Church
Any Questions?
TASK 10
Do you have to
be a Christian
to go to
heaven?
The Church is MISSIONARY
 Jesus was a missionary… (Jn 20:21)
 to the Children of Israel (Mt 15:24)
 The Apostles were sent (Mt 10:5-6)
 and the Spirit blessed Gentiles! (Acts 10)
 Saint Paul went everywhere! (Acts 13+)
 despite the “people from James” (Gal 2)
The Church is MISSIONARY








C1-C3 Underground church spread
C4-C6 Catholic = Imperial
C11-C13 Crusades
C16 Japanese Martyrs
C16+ Mission to America (RC)
C18+ Australia & NZ (CoE)
C19 Chinese Martyrs
C20 Algerian Martyrs 1994-96
 newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Algeria.htm
The Church is MISSIONARY






2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
25
24
21
20
37
25
(4
(3
(4
(4
(6
(6
in
in
in
in
in
in
Colombia)
Kenya)
Iraq)
India)
Brazil, 6 in Colombia)
Brazil)
www.fides.org/index.php
The Church is MISSIONARY








Vatican II: Ad Gentes
Paul VI: Evangelii Nuntiandi
John Paul II: Redemptoris Missio
Propaganda Fide: Fides website
US Bishops: Go and Make Disciples
CBCEW: CASE & Life4Seekers
Pontifical Missions in E&W: Missio
A Council for the New Evangelisation
The Church is MISSIONARY
 Go and proclaim?
 Proclaim as you go?




Healthcare – no strings attached
Education
Retreat centres
Witness of a way of life –
• Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Blessed)
• Archbishop Oscar Romero (Martyr)
• Brother Charles de Foucauld (Blessed Martyr)
The Church and Religious Freedom
 Historical position:
 Freedom for Catholicism because it’s true
 Gregory XVI – Mirari Vos, 1832
• X #13 all religions are equally valid paths to God
• X #14 therefore everyone must have liberty
 Pius IX reaffirms.
 Leo XIII – Libertas, 1888
• “... the liberty which is claimed for all to do all
things is not, as We have often said, of itself
desirable, inasmuch as it is contrary to reason that
error and truth should have equal rights.”
Error has no rights.
The Church and Religious Freedom
 Vatican II: Dignitatis Humanae
 “The council intends to develop the doctrine
of recent popes on the inviolable rights of the
human person and the constitutional order of
society.”
 “The truth cannot impose itself except by
virtue of its own truth, as it makes its
entrance into the mind at once quietly and
with power.”
 http://www.zenit.org/article-8747?l=english
The Church and Religious Freedom
 Dallas News editorial 16 Nov 2008
 When competing religious truth claims
clash in America, we typically agree to
disagree. But throughout human history,
and in much of the world today, religious
conflict often turns violent. Religious
tolerance cannot exist if one believes that
to tolerate another's faith is to diminish
one's own by accepting an untruth.
The Church and Religious Freedom
 Is there a way out? In the 1960s, the
Roman Catholic Church, which had long
denied religious freedom to non-Catholics
with the teaching that "error has no
rights," reconciled religious orthodoxy
with modern pluralism. The Second
Vatican Council declared that indeed
error has no rights, but humans do. In
other words, people have a God-given
right to be wrong about God.
The Church and Religious Freedom
 Society of St Pius X Position:
 … We also reaffirm that the Second
Vatican Council has broken away from
the traditional teaching of the Catholic
Church; in particular, but not exclusively,
in the declaration Dignitatis Humanae on
Religious Liberty, the constitution Lumen
Gentium and the decree Nostra Aetate on
ecumenism. …
The Church and Religious Freedom
 Society of St Pius X FAQs #3:
 Among the errors of Vatican II:
 No longer must the Catholic make an act of
Faith, based upon the authority of God who
reveals, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
… Such an evolving and changing concept of
Tradition would not be possible unless religious
truth, like right and wrong itself, were to find it
source in the personal conscience of each man.
This is the clear presupposition of the document
on religious liberty, Dignitatis Humanae.
TASK 11
What did you see
on your visit?
What could you
take part in as
a Christian?
The Church and Other Religions
 Vatican II: Nostra Aetate
 #2 “… other religions found everywhere
try to counter the restlessness of the
human heart, each in its own manner, by
proposing ‘ways’, comprising teachings,
rules of life, and sacred rites. The
Catholic Church rejects nothing that is
true and holy in these religions.”
The Church and Other Religions
 Vatican II: Nostra Aetate
 #2 “… other religions found everywhere
try to counter the restlessness of the
human heart, each in its own manner, by
proposing ‘ways’, comprising teachings,
rules of life, and sacred rites. The
Catholic Church rejects nothing that is
true and holy in these religions.”
 So which bits are “true and holy”?
25 years later…
 Secretariat for Non-Christians –
renamed Pontifical Council For
Inter-Religious Dialogue
 “Reflection And Orientations On
Interreligious Dialogue
And The Proclamation Of The Gospel
Of Jesus Christ.”
 Dialogue and Proclamation (abridged)
Dialogue and Proclamation
 PCID Profile: Dialogue is a two-way
communication. It implies speaking
and listening, giving and receiving, for
mutual growth and enrichment. It
includes witness to one's own faith as
well as an openess to that of the
other. It is not a betrayal of mission
of the Church, nor is it a new method
of conversion to Christianity.
Dialogue and Proclamation
 We do not deny that we wish all
people to become Christian.
 In the course of this dialogue, we are
not actively seeking to convert you.
 We are genuinely seeking to develop a
richer mutual understanding.
 During the conversation, we will
present the truths which our church
has received from God.
With the Jewish People
 NA #4:
 God has not revoked His covenant
with the children of Abraham
 Today’s Jews are not to be held
guilty of the death of Christ.
 The Church deplores Anti-Semitism
Commission Formed
 John Paul II – Lenten Act of
Repentance for the Jubilee Year
With Islam
 NA #3: We have in common with
Islam:
 We adore the One God of Abraham
 We revere Jesus and Mary
• Islam regards Jesus as a Prophet
 We expect a Day of Judgment
 We practice prayer, fasting, alms
With Islam
 Benedict XVI:
 Regensberg speech 2006
 “Mohammed’s only new teachings were
evil” – the emperor proclaimed, with
unacceptable brusqueness
 Islamic Scholars: A Common Word
 Who speaks for Islam?
 Vatican and Islam continue talking:
 Annual Ramadan Message
 February 2009 joint statement
With Hindus
 NA #2:
… in Hinduism, men contemplate the
divine mystery and express it through an
inexhaustible abundance of myths and
through searching philosophical inquiry.
They seek freedom from the anguish of
our human condition either through
ascetical practices or profound
meditation or a flight to God with love
and trust.
 Annual Diwali Message
With Buddhists
 NA #2:
 … Buddhism, in its various forms,
realizes the radical insufficiency of this
changeable world; it teaches a way by
which men, in a devout and confident
spirit, may be able either to acquire the
state of perfect liberation, or attain, by
their own efforts or through higher
help, supreme illumination. …
 Annual Vesakh Message
Assisi Meetings for Peace
 Assisi I – 1986
John Paul II & the Dalai Lama
 Assisi II – 2001 (after 9/11)
 Bringing together 200 religious leaders for a
day of prayer has taken a lot of planning.
The Pope and his guests have travelled here
by train from Vatican City. … The shared
mode of transport underlines the message
that this is a day when the different faiths
have come together with a common
purpose.
Assisi Meetings for Peace
 The Pope, a believer in the power of
prayer to influence world events, is fond
of making reference to "the spirit of
Assisi". The different faiths are praying in
separate parts of the Franciscan convent,
each according to their own rites. Among
them are imams, patriarchs, monks and
rabbis.
Assisi Meetings for Peace
 After a frugal lunch, the day will end with
a joint assembly, with representatives of
each religion making a "common
commitment to peace". The Pope will
draw the event to an end by lighting a
symbolic lamp of peace.
 news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1779680.stm
 Benedict XVI goes to Assisi 27 Oct 2011
 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_
xvi/travels/2011/index_assisi_en.htm
Can we pray together? * *
 We can MEDITATE (think about)
 but not mind-emptying
 Vatican on meditation
 We might pray with Jews (psalms)
and Muslims to the One God
 But our prayer is “Through Christ”
 We might perform rituals in
parallel with respectful listening.
 But we cannot say AMEN to rites
based on unshared beliefs.
Dialogue and Proclamation
 Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (3rd C)
 Fr Leonard Feeney SJ – 1940s
 Become Catholic or go to Hell!
 Other Christians:
 church MEMBERS but imperfect
communion
 Non-Christians?
Salvation
 Lateran IV (1215)
 “outside which no-one at all is saved”
 Boniface VIII (1302)
 “it is absolutely neccessary for the
salvation of all human beings that they
submit to the Roman Pontiff”
 Florence (1442)
 no-one remaining outside the Catholic
Church (pagans, Jews, heretics,
schismatics) can become partakers of
eternal life.
Salvation
 Pius IX (1854)
 “whoever does not enter it [the
Catholic church] will perish...”
 “those who live in ignorance of the
true religion are not subject to any
guilt in this matter before the eyes of
the Lord”
Salvation
Pius IX (1863: QCM 7 & 8)
 “There are, of course, those who are
struggling with invincible ignorance about
our most holy religion...”
 “[God’s] supreme kindness and clemency
do not permit anyone at all who is not
guilty of deliberate sin to suffer eternal
punishments.”
 ”Eternal salvation cannot be obtained
by those who ... are stubbornly
separated from the unity of the Church
and also from the successor of Peter.”
God’s nice, so everyone
goes to heaven...
 Universalism (Origen d. 254)
 Not automatic
 Depends on us
 CAN WE MAKE THE FIRST MOVE?
 NO!
 PELAGIANISM – “The English Heresy”
You’ve got to be a signed-up
Catholic to go to heaven...
 Feenyism
 Baptism of Blood
 Baptism of Desire
 Imperfect Communion is possible
 Pagans saved by doing good
 Romans 2:12-16 * Mt 25:31-46
Shhh! The ignorant
can’t reject God!
 Gradualism
 Permitted for moral issues
 God’s law cannot be compromised
 But we come to understand it gradually
 We are commanded to evangelise!
 Mt 28:18-20 * Mk 16:15-16
 Lk 24:46-48 * Acts 2:38-39
What is most pleasing to God?
 The most perfect possible
relationship with God is to be a
member of the Catholic Church
during our earthly life and to make
full use of all the means of grace.
We are called to offer this
opportunity to the whole world!
 Light – Salt - Yeast - Seed
The Dulles Models and
the Universal Church
 Institution
 The Papacy has authority to guide the
development of doctrine and the
possibility, rarely exercised, of speaking
infallibly. It also makes disciplinary
decisions helping the church to act with
unity, enabling it to be an effective
Sacrament.
The Dulles Models and
the Universal Church
 Mystical Communion
 We rarely see the Universal Church
made manifest but World Youth Day and
other big papal gatherings are
expressions of worship by the Universal
Church.
The Dulles Models and
the Universal Church
 Servant
 In our world divided between rich and
poor nations, we show solidarity across
international boundaries: Cafod, Caritas.
The Dulles Models and
the Universal Church
 Herald
 This doesn't negate the Great
Commission to make disciples of all
people - our call is still to bring people to
the fullness of the means of grace which
uniquely exists in the Catholic Church.
The Dulles Models and
the Universal Church
 In our Eucharistic Communities, we are a cell of the
universal church.
 Our prayers and charitable contributions are for the good
of the whole church (at least our bidding prayers ought to
be written this way!).
 We bring people into membership of the Universal Church
through membership of our Eucharistic Communities.
 We grow in love and knowledge of God (formation) and
continue to worship until we are caught up into the great
community of worship which awaits us in heaven or at the
second coming. (LG 48-51)
TASK 12
Any questions?
TASK 13
Closing Liturgy
Presentation © Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon
2009, 2011 except for photographs
included as fair use for educational
purposes. It may be freely used as a
Catholic educational tool.
www.drgareth.info/ccrs