Many argue that the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on
the Church (“Lumen Gentium”) stands as the jewel in the council’s
crown.
Pope John XXIII convened the 21st ecumenical council with the
hope that the Catholic Church would engage in “aggiornamento” or
updating.
His desire was that the bishops would consider ways that the church
might contribute meaningfully to the decisions facing the modern world.
Achieving this required the church to look seriously at itself so that
it could better understand and articulate the wisdom it had to offer.
In the centuries preceding Vatican II, especially those following the
Protestant Reformation, Catholic thinking about the church often adopted
a defensive character. External challenges to its authority led the
church to describe itself in clear, precise and juridical terms as a way
of demonstrating its ability to overcome the threats it perceived.
At the convocation of Vatican II, many bishops expressed hope that Pope
John XXIII’s vision would promote a more comprehensive view of the
church including a more positive articulation of its relationship with
the world.
During the council’s first session, however, many were disappointed to
find that the preparatory draft on the church was little more than a
reassertion of the existing defensive model. Inspired by the pope’s
leadership, the majority of bishops were unwilling to persist with such
an imbalanced view and they overwhelmingly rejected the document.
Theologians debate about the single most important development at
Vatican II, but many claim that it was the proposal during the council’s
second session to begin the document on the church with the chapter
“The Mystery of the Church.”
By identifying the church as a mystery, rooted in the mystery of Christ,
the council fathers sought to recover the church’s spiritual and
communal dimensions. They returned to more biblical and patristic images
as a means of expressing fundamental elements of the church and
people’s experience of Christ within it.
This first chapter aptly refers to the church as a sacrament, a
description that promotes appreciation of the church’s outward
structures and the deeper, invisible reality of God’s presence in the
ecclesial community.
The constitution’s second chapter on “The People of God” is extremely
significant in terms of its content and placement. It affirms the common
identity and equal dignity of all the church’s members. It embraces the
biblical image of a priesthood of all the faithful, and presents a
vibrant idea of catholicity, not as uniformity, but as unity in
diversity.
In the original preparatory document, the second chapter was dedicated
to examining the church’s hierarchy. By placing consideration of the
people of God ahead of such an examination, the council fathers
powerfully affirmed that what unites members of the ecclesial community
is more significant than what distinguishes them.
The third chapter, on the hierarchy, focuses on the issue of
collegiality (shared authority among the bishops and the pope). The
success of this chapter is a rediscovery of the theological importance
of local ecclesial communities that affirms that they are not just
branch outposts of Rome, but that they are fully church.
This section articulates a robust view of episcopal authority, yet it
presents this authority not as competitive with papal power but as
complementary to it.
The succeeding chapters on the laity, the universal call to holiness,
the religious, and the pilgrim church examine the roles played by the
people of God who are not ordained. These chapters stress the critical
importance of baptism and acknowledge the existence of a variety of ways
that the faithful advance the church’s mission. The final chapter on
Mary provided some of Vatican II’s most vigorous debates.
Primarily, the dispute was between those who were adamant that a council
about the church’s self-understanding should honor Mary with her own
separate chapter and those who wondered whether this was theologically
and ecumenically appropriate.
By an extremely narrow vote (1,114 to
1,074) it was decided that the last chapter of “Lumen Gentium” would be
dedicated to Mary, a placement that pays tribute to her role as mother
of the church.
The constitution’s shift to understanding the church as a mystery opens
the way for many of the council’s subsequent and remarkable
achievements.
For example, the affirmation of religious freedom, more robust roles for
lay participation and ministry, greater ecumenical openness, and a
positive view of non-Christians, all flow from an understanding of the
church’s fundamentally sacramental character.
Vatican II’s willingness to embrace the notion of the church as mystery
reflects a dynamic sense of God’s presence throughout creation and a
confidence that the church is not isolated; rather, the church’s mission
calls it to engage the world in order to transform it.
While the council achieved many things, it can be argued that its
greatest achievement is not found in any one of its teachings but in the
way that it renewed the church’s understanding of itself and its
relationship with the world.
This fundamental shift is the aspect of Vatican II that most fully
captures Pope John XXIII’s vision and the one that most profoundly
shapes our experience of the church today.