Introduction
The ecclesial self-understanding of the Roman Catholic Church underwent a significant re-vision at the Second Vatican Council. [1] Here we consider an important aspect of the re-vision. In light of the changes to the church’s [2] self-understanding initiated by Vatican II we ask, what is the church’s teaching on the relationship between the church’s mission and Christian unity? An approach to understanding the changes made by Vatican II to the particular connection between the church’s missionary mandate and an ecumenical imperative is the subject of this study. I consider that this relationship is vital for contemporary ecclesiology. That is, to respond to the question of the association between mission and unity for the church is to respond to a question of a central aspect of the nature and purpose of the church in our time.
For example, Kenneth Himes reflects on the significance of the change in the church’s self-understanding in relation to the term mission. His focus is the opening words of the council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) (GS). [3] Himes attests that the council placed the church as a community of faith squarely within human history. In this way Christian discipleship as embodied and historical finds its meaning and purpose in the world.
Immediately, therefore, this document shifts our self-understanding as Church away from images like the water-tight barque of Peter sailing majestically through the roiling waters of history, occasionally tossed by the waves of human existence but essentially distinct from, and unchanged by, the sea of temporal life. Rather, this is a Church which will focus its mission on human persons and not just on souls. A Church which is in the modern world, not above the world or set at odds with it. For it is in the world that the God of history will be encountered. [4]
Simultaneously, and explicitly tied to this revised relationship of the church with the modern world is the council’s significant revision of its approach to the emerging ecumenical movement. [5] David Bosch notes that this change is illustrated by the shift in language used by the church to articulate its relationship with Protestants. There is a movement from the use of such terms as “children of Satan” and “heretics” or “schismatics.” These terms are modified to refer to “dissenters”, “separated brethren”, and eventually, “brothers and sisters in Christ.” However, [i]t was … especially the Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio) [UR] that spoke in clear language about the need for improved relations and mutual acceptance. … In its first paragraph it describes “the restoration of unity among all Christians” as one of the principal concerns of the Council and states that division among Christians “contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the most holy cause, the preaching of the Gospel to every creature”. AG [Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity] 6 takes up the same theme and intimately links the unity of the church to its mission. [6]
These significant ecclesiological revisions can be interpreted as a response by the church to a reconsideration of its fundamental self-understanding. Roger Haight interprets the symbol mission as not simply a type, a classification of the church, or one paradigm among others. Rather, mission is constitutive of the church as the “church came to be the church in the faith recognition that it is a corporate mission.” [7] Haight argues that the symbol mission provides the basis for a theology that is determinative for all models of the church.
[T]he symbol points to or mediates a fundamental perception or self-understanding that is both inclusive and exclusive. As inclusive, it includes or embraces within itself and does not negate a pluralism of models or images for understanding the church. But at the same time, all valid models of the church must meet its demands. [8]
This stance directs that any inclusive expression of the church, for example, of the notion of full ecclesial unity, is directly related to the meaning of the church’s mission. The statement Toward Common Witness (1997) from the World Council of Church’s (WCC) concurs and also links the church’s missionary imperative to all ways of being the church.
As the body of Christ, constituted, sustained and energized by the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit, the church is missionary by nature. …
Participating in God’s mission is imperative for all Christians and all churches, not only for particular individuals or specialized groups. It is an inner compulsion, rooted in the profound demands of Christ’s love, to invite others to share in the fullness of life Jesus came to bring (cf. John 10: 10). [9]
On the fortieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican II its re-vision of the church’s self-understanding is the impetus for our study. The council’s ecclesiology provides an authoritative point of departure [10] for the church’s ongoing renewal for its self-understanding and a theological pivot for our study on the relationship between mission and unity. We ask, in what ways did Vatican II’s ecclesiology revise the link between the church’s missionary mandate and what it considers to be the church’s ecumenical imperative?
Our study of the relationship between the terms of mission and unity develops in three parts. First, we investigate the pre-Vatican II church’s approach to its mission and its understanding of ecclesial unity. A number of magisterial documents from the period are addressed. [11] Out of this context in part two the revision in ecclesial self-understanding taken by Vatican II is investigated in terms of a continuity and discontinuity in church teaching. [12] Here we investigate the revision of the church’s mission and its understanding of Christian unity as to how they are changed and so linked in a new way. We conclude our study in part three with a brief investigation of the relationship between the church’s self-understanding of its mission and ecumenical mandate for the Australian context. The Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Oceania [13] presents the church in Australia with an instance of recent teaching regarding the link between these aspects of ecclesial self-understanding for its particular context.
The Pre-Vatican II Ecclesial Understanding of Mission and Ecumenism
Our investigation of the period of approximately the half century prior to Vatican II serves as the background to what has been named as a paradigmatic change in how the church’s understands the relation between its mission and ecclesial unity. [14] However, it is well to point out at this stage of our study that even with the changes initiated by Vatican II there remains continuity in the church’s self-understanding. Bosch notes that in the natural sciences a new paradigm usually replaces the old “definitely and irreversibly,” but in theology “old” paradigms live on. [15] Following Hans Küng he clarifies this notion of continuity and discontinuity.
Contrary to the natural sciences, theology relates not only to the present and the future, but also the past, to tradition, to God’s primary witness to humans. Theology must undoubtedly always be relevant and contextual, but this may never be pursued at the expense of God’s revelation in and through the history of Israel and supremely, the event of Jesus Christ. Christians take seriously the epistemological priority of their classical text, the Scriptures. [16]
Vatican II holds a similar stance with regard to the church’s teaching. That is, while the council understands that it is engaged in the reform and renewal of the church it also considers that it is in continuity with the church’s tradition. [17] Important to our study is how the church’s teaching at Vatican II is both continuous and discontinuous with its pre-conciliar understanding. The terms mission and unity are a part of the church’s self-understanding in its pre-conciliar, conciliar and post-conciliar teaching. However, I propose that with Vatican II the church understands the link between these terms in a new way.
Our investigation of what the church teaches in regard to its mission and unity in this first part is in two sections. First, we present a brief outline of the context in which the church’s teaching occurs. [18] Second, we direct our attention to the following documents: the encyclical Sancta Dei Civitas (1880) [19] by Leo XIII is included as representative of something of a turning-point in the church’s self-understanding at the end of the 19th century; the Apostolic Letter Maxium Illud (1919) [20] by Benedict XV, the Encyclicals Rerum Ecclesiae (1926) [21] and Mortalium Animos (1928) [22] by Pius XI, the Holy Office’s instruction On the Ecumenical Movement (1949), [23] the Encyclical Evangelii Praecones (1951) [24] by Pius XII, and the Encyclicals Princips Pastorum (1959) and Ad Petri Cathedram (1959) [25] by John XXIII represent the period immediately prior to Vatican II. Together, these two sections afford a basis for an interpretation of the teaching of Vatican II.
Pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Ecclesial Self-Understanding
Joseph Komonchak argues that “the church never exists in a vacuum. It becomes the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit always in interaction with surrounding historical and cultural situations and by participating in humanity’s common historical projects.” [26] That is, the church is not immune from its interaction with human history. [27]
Looking back then on the church in the pre-Vatican II period we understand that the church’s self-understanding developed in reaction to the Enlightenment. It took on a distinct sociological and historical form that set it apart from previous ecclesial self-understandings. [28] In reaction to the Enlightenment neo-scholastic theology rose above other theological approaches that sought to accommodate the Enlightenment principles of freedom and historical consciousness. In this way neo-scholasticism became the dominant and officially sanctioned theological approach for reflecting the nature of the church. This type of theology supported the formation of the Catholic Church as a particular sub-culture in terms of the notion of a self-sufficient “perfect society.” The ecclesiology of this period was particularly characterised by the movement toward centralisation around the papacy and uniformity in understanding and practice. [29] The church’s approach to Christian unity was one whereby other Christians were welcome to return to the one true Church of Christ, which is the Roman Catholic Church. [30]
Tony Arthur puts forward a number of characteristics of this movement toward centralisation and uniformity in regard to the church’s approach to mission. He begins with the centralised bureaucratic administration of the missions in the 17th century together with the practice of appointing Vicars Apostolic to connect the new mission territories with Rome. These characteristics afforded a close supervision and unity in the church based on conformity, often modelled on European colonial administrations. It also meant that there was little sensitivity to local cultural environment, so that Christianity was delivered as a European import in its theology, devotional practices, structures and forms of ministry. [31]
However, the above dominant self-understanding began to change in 20th century. Bosch notes that the church’s mission encyclicals of the first half of the 20th century provided hesitant steps toward a new understanding of mission. [32] Arthur points out that within the church there was the significant emergence of an emphasis on the localisation of clergy in mission areas, the development of greater reflection on the distinctive role of the laity in the church and the renewal in theological and biblical studies, along with the nascent revision of the church’s liturgy and a growth in the ecumenical movement. [33] Changes in the world also have a significant impact on the church’s nascent shift in self-understanding. Arthur highlights the Second World War and in its aftermath the rise of indigenous independence movements in traditional mission areas. With these movements the shift to an emphasis on the local nature of the church becomes more prevalent. [34]
This brief view of ecclesial self-understanding prior to Vatican II provides a context for our reading of the selected pre-Vatican II magisterial documents noted above. Our reading of these documents is presented through a framework of questions developed by Peter Phan. [35] The questions Phan poses for his study of mission in the pre and post Vatican II church’s self-understanding are what for, to whom, by whom, with whom and how. These questions are used here to elicit some general principals of the church’s understanding of the relationship between mission and unity in the pre-conciliar period.
Pre-Vatican II Church Teaching on Mission and Unity
What is mission for?
In a discussion on the aim of the various associations and societies formed to aid the church’s missions Leo XIII notes their singular purpose: “by the diffusion of the Gospel light to bring the largest possible number of those outside the Church to the knowledge and worship of God and Jesus Christ Whom He has sent (5).” [36] That is, by the spread of the gospel the missions will save souls, (11) and in doing so bring glory to “God’s name” and have a civilising effect on those who accept the Christian faith. [37]
The theme of the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of souls as a fundamental purpose of mission continues through the church’s teaching in this period. Benedict XVopens his letter quoting Mk 16:15 and acknowledges the preaching of the gospel is to continue “as long as there should be men (sic) to be saved by the teaching of the truth.” [38] Similarly, Pius XI sees that the church has no other reason for existence than to develop “the Kingdom of Christ on earth, to make mankind (sic) participate in the effects of His saving redemption (1).” That is, to extend the “light of the Gospel and make easy for heathen nations the way unto salvation (3).”Likewise, Pius XII outlines the principles and norms that guide Catholic missionaries and says of those who are called to be missionaries:
He (sic) must, therefore, consider the country he is going to evangelize as a second fatherland and love it with due charity. Furthermore let him not seek any earthly advantage for his own country or religious Institute, but rather what may help towards the salvation of souls (20).
On the fortieth anniversary of Maximum Illud John XXIII acknowledges Benedict XV’s work as furthering the cause of Catholic missions by “establishing new rules” and providing “new zeal”(4). In continuity with Benedict, Pius XI and XII, John also seeks to further the cause of the missions: that is, to extend God’s kingdom throughout the world by the establishment of “new branches of the Church” (4). At the heart of this extension is the need to ensure the “salvation of souls,” especially from those souls who cry out “Help us!” (6), those “who have not yet been suffused with the light of the Gospel” (6). For John the propagation of the “truth of Jesus Christ is the truest function of the Church (22).
Simply, it can be said that the salvation of individual “souls” is a dominant focus of the church’s missionary activity at this time. However, increasingly, as will also be noted below, there is the companion emphasis of the establishment of the “new churches” as not only the way but a predominant reason for mission.
To whom is the Church’s Mission Directed?
Leo XIII directs his encyclical to the associations and societies [39] that have been set up to assist the missions in places where the gospel needs still to be heard. That is, where
new routes have been opened, in consequence of more complete exploration of places and populations, towards countries hitherto accounted impracticable; numerous expeditions of the soldiers of Christ have been formed, and new stations have been established; and thus many labourers are now wanted to devote themselves to these missions(8).
This mission of the church is, as Benedict XV points out, to “the numberless heathen who are still sitting in the shadows of death,” [40] and for Pius XI to “those unfortunate souls who live in error outside the Fold (5).” The dominant understanding of to whom the church’s mission is directed is for those in the world but beyond the Christianised world. However, while Pius XII follows this direction of mission to the “pagan lands” (1), he also cites, without details, “Christian lands” as other places in need of the church’s missionary activity (1). There is a nascent shift in understanding for what might be termed a mission-at-home.
Further, Pius XII advances the church’s understanding of its relationship with those to whom mission is directed in another way. He explicitly notes that the transplantation of European culture with the gospel is not to be the task of the missionary (60). Rather, because cultures already have what is “naturally good, just or beautiful” in their own right (56), and human nature is itself somehow “naturally Christian,” (57), the church has not necessarily rejected pagan philosophies or repressed the variety of customs and traditions of other peoples (58). Quoting his first encyclical Summi Pontificaus (1939) he notes:
Persevering research carried out with laborious study, on the part of her missionaries of every age, has been undertaken in order to facilitate the deeper appreciative insight into the various civilizations and to utilize their good qualities to facilitate and render more fruitful the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Whatever there is in the native customs that is not inseparably bound up with superstition and error will receive kindly consideration and, when possible, will be preserved intact (59).
John XXIII continues in the line of Pius XII. Missionaries are required in “foreign” lands because of the “vastness of territory” to be covered, because there is an increasing number of converts, and because there is still the “vast multitude of those who have not yet benefited from the doctrine of the Gospel (12). He also emphasises Pius XII’s focus on the relationship between the church and culture. He reiterates Pius XII’s words and adds that it is through the Holy Spirit that the church is able
at all times, to recognize, welcome, and even assimilate anything that redounds to the honor of the human mind and heart, whether or not it originates in parts of the world washed by the Mediterranean Sea, which, from the beginning of time, had been destined by God’s Providence to be the cradle of the Church (19).
The primary subjects of the church’s mission in the pre-Vatican II period are people in “other lands” who have not heard the Gospel. However, an understanding of the “already present” goodness of other cultures that in a sense cooperates with the Gospel begins to emerge as a significant understanding. Also, as Pius XII briefly notes the church’s mission might also be directed to traditional Christian peoples.
By whom is the Church’s Mission Carried Out?
The fundamental theological principles for understanding the missionary activity of the church are cited by Leo XIII as the “infused power” of the Founder of the church (Jesus Christ) and the “interior breathing and help of the Holy Spirit (1).”
He goes on then in the second paragraph of his encyclical and cites “two offices” in the church that provide the “external” manner for “extending wider the borders of the Kingdom of heaven” (2). First, there is the office of those who “preach the Word of God,” which belongs to those “admitted to minister sacred things (1)”: the ordained. Second, there are those “wont to supply in external matters or to bring down heavenly graces by prayers (1).” Benedict XV follows Leo: the theological principals of the church’s mission are Christ and the Holy Spirit. [41] However, Benedict opens up a new understanding of who carries out the church’s mission. He certainly affirms the central role of the papacy with bishops, vicars and prefects apostolic as those whose “first and direct care” is to propagate the faith. [42] Also, he reiterates the place of the whole church in their prayer and almsgiving for the missions. [43] However, he introduces an emphasis on “native clergy” as integral to the ongoing success of missions. [44] The development of an indigenous clergy as equal partners in the ongoing mission of the church is critical for introducing the faith as these people are “by bonds of origin, character, feelings and inclinations” often a more significant influence than a foreign priest. [45]
Pius XI, Pius XII and John XXIII look back to and cite Benedict and continue this emphasis on the development of the role of indigenous clergy. For example Pius XII states:
It is clear, however, that the Church cannot be properly and duly established in new territories, unless all is there organised as time and circumstances require and especially unless a native clergy equal to the need has been properly educated and trained (25).
John XXII repeats Pius XII’s words in recognition that countries on other continents have progressed beyond the missionary stage and have their own ecclesiastical hierarchy. These church communities for John are able to offer both spiritual and material gifts in return to those church communities from which they once received these gifts. These new communities are as much church/s as the church from which they were formed!
With whom does the Church carry out its Mission?
As noted briefly immediately above the primary collaborators of those in the missions are those who remain “back home.” Leo XIII seeks their assistance.
But from the remaining priests, from the Religious Orders of both sexes from all the faithful, in short, entrusted to your care, required with all urgency, that by their unremitting prayers they obtain the Divine assistance for those who sow the seed of the Word of God. (12).
However, negatively, Leo focuses on other Christians who are missionaries. He takes a polemical stance against what he names as the “difficulties and obstacles arising from contradictions (8).” That is, against those “deceivers, sowing error (who) simulate the Apostles of Christ,” and who “raise pulpit against pulpit” (8).
Benedict follows Leo and cites the pontifical aid societies and the support of prayer, the recruitment of missionaries and almsgiving as the principle supports for the church’s mission. [46] However, there is no mention of other Christian missionaries, either positively or negatively in this particular document. Pius XI follows Benedict in the same vein: societies (12), alms (2 & 14) and prayer (7 & 8) are the emphases for cooperation. Though, interestingly, in the context of discussing “native clergy” in the line of Benedict, and the need for recruitment in terms of the scriptural warrants of Matt 9: 35 and Luke 10:2 he states:
Europe from whence most of the missionaries have come is itself in need of priests, and this at a time when, with the help of God, it is important that our separated brethren be led back to the unity of the Church and that non-Catholics be convinced of and delivered from their errors (23).
Pius XI does not continue the polemics of Leo in regard to the missions and articulates positively a Christian relationship by the notion of “brethren.” Yet, his model of unity is that of return by other Christians to the Catholic Church. Pius further articulates his understanding of Christian unity two years later in Mortalium Animos (1928). In this document he sets forth the “principles and arguments” for Catholic thinking and activity for Christian unity (5). For Pius the fundamental theological principle for unity is that the one church of Christ is not divided (6). The church is instituted by Christ “as a perfect society, external of its nature and perceptible to the senses, which should carry out in the future the work of salvation of the human race, under the leadership of one head” (6). He argues against those who see the one Church of Christ as divided and an ecumenical impetus based on the equality of Christian churches (7). That is, the arguments of those who he names as “pan-Christians” who seek a form of Christian Federation (9). Importantly, for Pius there is no room for compromise in developing relations with other Christian around any degree of what is or is not essential for bringing about the unity of the church: the church is already unified! So, he goes on:
it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ those who have separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it.
Twenty-one years later an instruction from the Holy Office On the Ecumenical Movement reiterates the notion of return as the way to Christian unity, sets out what are considered to be the “dangers of the ecumenical movement” (1) and puts forward the very specific and limited ways in which Catholics are able to meet with other Christians in regard to the issue of unity.
In the teaching on mission by Pius XII selected here there are the themes of prayer and material aid (2) by those at home and an expansion in regard to lay Catholic assistance through an extensive discussion on Catholic Action (30-40). He states:
The same conditions which prevailed in the early days of the Church are still to be found in many areas which have been evangelized by missionaries; … it is imperative that the laity should in great numbers enter the serried ranks of Catholic action, and thus cooperate generously, earnestly and diligently with the Hierarchy in promoting the apostolate (37).
Eight years later John XXIII in his first Encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram takes up the issue of unity in broad terms which includes Christian unity. He does this within his teaching on the terms of truth, unity and peace. On the basis that all humanity shares a common history and destiny (24-27) and the fundamental theological principal of charity, John calls for unity among the nations of the world (30-35), within society (36-40), between “classes” in society (41-42), within the family (51-58) and – in an extended discussion - between Christians (59-96).
In difference from Pius XI there is a more positive recognition of the existent movements toward unity by other Christians (63-64). However, like Pius XI, fundamentally, Christian unity is achieved when other Christians return to the unity of the Roman Catholic Church (80). The basis for Christian unity is found in the Catholic Church through its unity of doctrine (69-72), unity in organisation (73), and unity in worship (74-78). Yet, John reverses Pius XI’s teaching with regard to the issue of a distinction between what is essential and not essential in regard to unity. He acknowledges that the Catholic Church leaves some questions open and quotes John Cardinal Newman recognising that discussions over controversial issues can lead to fuller and deeper understanding of religious truth by the church. He states further:
[T]he common saying, expressed in various ways and attributed to various authors, must be recalled with approval: in essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things charity (72).
How does Mission happen?
While the missions of the church are directed toward the goal of “saving souls,” the principal way that this will be accomplished for Leo XIII is by the spread of the church and hence the growth of “Christian nations” (1). Leo also equates the church in its geographic spread with the kingdom of heaven (2 & 10). For Benedict too, the preaching of the Gospel will be accomplished “more successfully” by the foundation of “mission stations and centres, which will grow into so many seats of new vicariates and prefectures, into which the mission should be divided as soon as opportunities allow.” [47] In his introduction of the notion of the necessity of a “native clergy,” he says:
Wherever, therefore, there exists an indigenous clergy, adequate in numbers and in training, and worthy of its vocation, there the missionary’s work must be considered to have been brought to a happy close; there the Church is founded. [48]
Pius XI parallels the continued “foundation” of the church by the missions with the model of the early church. In his discussion on the principle of “native clergy” he asks: “How can the Church among the heathens be developed today unless it be built of those very elements out of which our own churches were built; that is to say, unless it be made up of people, clergy, and religious orders of men and women recruited from the native populations of the several regions (21)?” Pius XII is quite clear about the ultimate goal of missionary activity.
The object of missionary activity, as we all know, is to bring the light of the Gospel to new races and to form new Christians. However, the ultimate goal of missionary endeavour, which should never be lost sight of, is to establish the Church on sound foundations among non-Christian peoples, and place it under its own native Hierarchy (22).
And summing up the immediate past tradition of church teaching he says:
It was laid down that the missions would have as the final goal of their activities the establishment of the Church in new territories. … The missionary’s appointed task is to promote ever more rapidly in district after district till the last man (sic) in the most remote corner of the earth has been reached, the Kingdom of the Divine Redeemer Who rose triumphant from the dead and to Whom is given all power in heaven and on earth (24).
Summary
In broad terms, and somewhat simplistically, it can be said that the church’s teaching immediately prior to Vatican II images missionary activity as the salvation of non-Christian souls. This activity is conducted primarily by the church in response to Christ and through the Holy Spirit predominantly by clerical members of the church with the prayerful and material support of all its members, to establish the church throughout the world. This church is at times directly equated with the notion of the kingdom of God. However, with the introduction by Benedict XV of the focus on “native clergy” it must also be noted that there is a development in thought on the church’s missionary activity. The church begins to revise its teaching and takes account of the local and concrete nature of its missionary activity.
In regard to the church’s teaching on Christian unity the fundamental understanding is of a return to the Roman Catholic Church by those Christians who are separated from the one true Church of Christ. There is certainly a movement away from the polemical language and stance of Leo XIII, but ecumenism is not a substantial issue in regard to the church’s mission as this is carried out by the one Church of Christ which exists as the Roman Catholic Church. In a study of papal documents from Leo XIII – Pius XII (1958) Gregory Baum suggests a disassociation between the church’s missionary activity and its impetus for ecumenism. In these documents he suggests that
[t]here is never a suggestion that the concern for Christian unity belongs to the missionary activity of the church. The documents employ a terminology which brings out the distinct character of ecumenical work; the work of reunion aims at a reconciliation, a restoration, a re-integration, a return of dissident Christian communities to the one fold of Christ. …The Roman documents of our period keep in complete separation the Church’s role among separated Christians and her missions properly so-called. They consider the world for which Christ died as divided into three areas: the Catholic Church, dissident Christianity, and finally the regions where Christ is not yet known. [49]
However, I think it can also be said that mission and unity are in fact linked in the church’s self-understanding in this period. That is, the unified church of Christ which is the Roman Catholic Church substantially exists and has primacy in the proclamation of the gospel to the ends of the earth by establishing this same church throughout the world.
Our study now looks to the continuity and discontinuity with the above ecclesial self-understanding with regard to the link between mission and unity in the teaching of Vatican II.
Vatican II: A Shift in Ecclesial Self-Understanding
A key to our investigation into how the church at Vatican II is in continuity and discontinuity with the above is the council’s opening words.
The sacred Council has set out to impart an ever increasing vigour to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more closely to the needs of our age those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help all mankind (sic) into the Church’s fold (SC 1). [50]
This passage signifies that the four-fold aim of the council is pastoral and ecumenical in nature. Vatican II directs its work to the concrete lives of Christians, who it realises, live in a new age that calls for a reassessment of unity both among Christians and between Christians and all people. The church will achieve this unity through some form of necessary adaptation of its structures. These conciliar aims reflect the initiative and program for updating and renewal taken by John XXIII in convoking the council. The Pope calls for a
doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciousness in faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through modern methods of research and through literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented another. And it is the latter that must be taken into great consideration with patience if necessary, everything being measured in the forms and proportions of a magisterium which is predominantly pastoral in character. [51]
Updating and renewal by the council provides the church with a basis for a renewed exploration of the church’s sources and a simultaneous review of the new conditions of life in the modern world that goes beyond a mere repetition of the past. [52] From the beginning, the council sought to reassess the theological approaches by which the church would develop its ecclesial self-understanding. The theology of Vatican II breaks with the dominant neo-scholastic framework. It adopts to a large degree the theological enterprise of the nouvelle theologie, for example, the work of Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac and others like Karl Rahner. [53]
The latter theological renewal that arose in the middle of the first half of the twentieth century critically accepted the sciences of human understanding that had developed out of the Enlightenment. In using these methods of interpretation the “new theology” approached the sources and the church’s tradition in an innovative way. The result was, for example, a retrieval of an emphasis on the sacramental nature of the church, a return to the whole membership of the church its rightful place and dignity in its relationship with God and a shift toward an understanding of the church as a community in an eschatological movement through history. [54] The renewed approaches to ecclesial self-understanding shifted away from the predominant understanding of a static centralisation of the church that is concentrated around the papacy. Rather, these theological approaches sought critical interaction by the church with the particular cultural and political contexts in which the church finds itself and opened theological reflection by the church in its local reality. This renewal in self-understanding runs through the conciliar documents. Frans Joseph Van Beeck characterises the new ecclesial vision of the council in terms of openness, particularly with regard to theological recognition of other Christians, other world religions and humanity as a whole. [55]
Our question here is how are these changes in ecclesial self-understanding articulated in the teaching of Vatican II with regard to a revision and linking of the relationship between the church’s understanding of its mission and its approach to Christian unity?
A point of departure for understanding the conciliar teaching on the church’s mission and unity is the ecclesiology developed in the council’s major documents on the church: these are Lumen Gentium (LG): Dogmatic Constitution on the Church; and Gaudium et Spes (GS): The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. [56] The former, promulgated simultaneously with Unitatis Redintegratio (UR): Decree on Ecumenism [57] and a year before the decree on the missionary activity of the church, Ad Gentes (AG), [58] is proposed for the benefit of all the faithful and of the whole world, as setting forth the church’s nature and universal mission (LG 1) [59] . The latter, promulgated simultaneously with Ad Gentes, in the light of conciliar teaching on the mystery of the church – the starting point of LG - is addressed to the whole of humanity setting forth the way the church understands its presence and function in the contemporary world (GS 2). [60] Along with these documents we also refer here to Nostra aetate (NA), Declaration on the Relations of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. [61] In terms of synthesis and clarity this part of our study is in two sections. They are, the church as a unified Christian mission in and with the world and how the church is missionary.
The Church as a Unified Christian Mission in and with the World
The Church Missionary by Nature
As noted above the dominant theological self-understanding of the church in the period immediately prior to Vatican II was that of a “perfect society.” However, Vatican II chose to reflect on the church as the mystery of God’s presence in the world. The opening words of LG are directive:
Christ is the light of humanity; and it is, accordingly, the heart-felt desire of this sacred Council, being gathered together in the Holy Spirit, that, by proclaiming his Gospel to every creature (cf. Mk. 16:15), it may bring to all men (sic) that light of Christ which shines out visibly from the Church. Since the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men (sic) – she proposes, for the benefit of the faithful and of the whole world, to set forth, as clearly as possible, and in the tradition laid down by earlier Councils, her own nature and universal mission. The condition of the modern world lends greater urgency to this duty of the Church; for, while men (sic) of the present day are drawn ever more closely together by social, technical and cultural bonds, it still remains for them to achieve full unity in Christ (LG 1). [62]
In these words the council de-centres the church in favour of Christ of which it is to be the sacramental light of unity between all people and between people and God. In this way the church is not simply equated with the kingdom of God, but it is acknowledged as the “seed” of God’s reign (LG 5) in the world. The church is sent (Mk 16:15) to proclaim the gospel and be instrumental in bringing about a divine-human unity along with other human unifying factors already active in the world. This activity of the church in and with the world is important in the present and for the future, so that the church’s activity for unity “in Christ” moves toward eschatological fulfilment.
LG continues with an articulation of the foundational theological principles for this understanding of the church’s nature and mission in terms of the mystery of God. Like the pre-conciliar documents already examined, but in far greater detail and nuance, LG proposes the “sending” of the Son and the Spirit, as the origin of the nature and purpose of the church and its task of unity (LG 3 & 4). However, differently from the pre-conciliar documents it precedes these “sendings” with reference to the one who sends: the eternal Father (LG 2, 3 & 4). So that, “the universal Church is seen to be a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (LG 4) and has its identity of “being sent” in the “being sent” of the missions of Son and Spirit.
The foundation of the church’s nature and mission in the Trinity is considered to be a fundamental revision by the council for the church’s self-understanding. [63] This basis certainly provides the ground for the understanding of the church’s missionary activity, but more, emphasises that the church is missionary “by nature:” the church is understood to continue God’s mission sacramentally in the world.
[T]he Lord, who had received all power in heaven and on earth (cf. Mt 28.18), founded his Church as the sacrament of salvation; and just as he had been sent by the Father (cf. Jn 20.21), so he sent the apostles into the whole world. … The mission of the Church is carried out by means of that activity through which, in obedience to Christ’s command and moved by the grace and love of the Holy Spirit, the Church makes herself fully present to all men (sic) and peoples in order to lead them to the faith, freedom and peace of Christ by the example of its life and teaching, by the sacraments and other means of grace. Its aim is to open up for all men (sic) a free and sure path to full participation in the mystery of Christ (AG 5). [64]
In this revised ecclesial self-understanding whoever belongs to the church participates personally in the missionary character of the church. The conclusion to chapter two of LG, the People of God articulates the missionary character of all those who are the church.
Each disciple of Christ has the obligation of spreading the faith to the best of his (sic) ability. … Thus the church prays and likewise labours so that into the People of God, the Body of the Lord and the Temple of the Holy Spirit, may pass the fullness of the whole world, and that in Christ, the head of all things, all honour and glory may be rendered to the Creator, the Father of the universe (LG 17). [65]
Important for our study is how the council articulates who these disciples are; who constitutes the communion of the church? That is, who forms the People of God, the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the sacramental missio dei in and with the world?
An Ecumenical Imperative
Chapters One (8) and Two (14-16) of LG lay the foundations for understanding who constitutes the church, which is further articulated in the Decree on Ecumenism. These documents revise the church’s pre-conciliar understanding of an exclusive identification of the one holy catholic and apostolic church with the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, LG 8 uses the term “subsists in” for articulating the revised understanding of the relationship between the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and the Catholic Church. [66] The council further acknowledges in this instance that “many elements of sanctification and truth are found outside” the visible confines of the Catholic Church. [67] The council offers a more detailed explanation of “subsists in” in UR 3 where it also explicitly accepts and encourages participation in the ecumenical movement (UR 4) [68] and expands upon the relationship between the Catholic Church and other individual Christians, ecclesial communities and Churches. [69] Division within the communion of the church is also understood not as a one-way separation by those who are considered to have “left” the Catholic Church. Rather, division is attributed to people on “both sides” of the Christian divide. Fundamentally, and despite varying degrees of separation in regard to doctrine, discipline or structure, the council teaches that all who have been justified by faith in baptism are incorporated into Christ (UR 3). [70]
Moreover, some, even very many of the most significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements (UR3).
Importantly, the liturgical life of other Christian churches and communities is included with regard to these visible elements, which are understood to engender a life of grace and give access to the communion of salvation. This means for the council that the Spirit of Christ uses other Christian churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation. [71]
However, with this significant revision in understanding the council teaches that other churches and ecclesial communities “suffer defects” in regard to full communion, it is the Catholic Church that retains the fullness of the means of salvation (UR 3). Yet, the council also appreciates that members of the Catholic Church fail to live by all the means of grace and revealed truth with which it has been endowed (UR 4). In this way the imperative for ecumenical endeavour is understood as an integral part of the continual renewal and reform of the church in fidelity to its identity (UR 6). As Bernard Leeming states that this identity is to be inclusive of the diversity of expressions of what it is to be the church of Christ, where
the re-integration of Christian unity, which is the first sentence of the Decree (on Ecumenism), there need be no surrender, capitulation, submission, or absorption; there will be integration, reconciliation, restoration of perfect communion, instead of a merely imperfect communion, and all their endowments will be retained. [72]
The Church’s Unified Mission in the World
As a consequence of the council’s missionary self-understanding of the church and its approach to ecclesial unity it offers a renewed way of perceiving the relationship between the church and the world. The church is a visible divine-human concrete historical community that is established and sustained by Christ and the Spirit (LG 8). The council founds the church’s relationship with the world on the principle of dialogue (GS 40) and proposes a relationship with the world in which the church shares the same joy and hope, the grief and anguish of all people, especially those who are poor and afflicted in any way (GS 1).
In pursuing its own salvific purpose not only does the Church communicate divine life to men (sic) but in a certain sense it casts the reflected light of that divine life over all the earth, notably in the way it heals and elevates the dignity of the human person, in the way it consolidates society, and endows the daily activity of men (sic) with a deeper sense and meaning. The Church, then, believes it can contribute much to humanizing the family of man and its history through each of its members and its community as a whole (GS 40). [73]
The notion of dialogue-with-the-world presents the church with a further revision in its understanding. As we noted above, explicit in the teaching of Pius XII is the understanding that the church interacts with “foreign” cultures and peoples which are good in themselves and so should not suppress what it finds as good in these cultures and peoples. Vatican II is in continuity with this teaching and explicitly recognises that the church also “receives from the world” (GS 44). The council acknowledges that the church has and does profit from the progress of science and the richness of cultures that throw light on human nature and further truth to be “opened up” (GS 44). Based on its historical tradition of “adaptation” to language, peoples and the wisdom of the world, it notes that
this kind of adaptation and preaching of the revealed Word must ever be the law of all evangelisation. In this way it is possible to create in every country the possibility of expressing the message of Christ in suitable terms and to foster vital contact and exchange between the church and different cultures (GS 44). [74]
Relevant here is the conciliar development in theological thought and practice in regard to the church’s relationship with other world religions. LG 16 recognises that there are people who do not know Christ or the church, yet they attain salvation through God’s grace. This understanding is given a more explicit Trinitarian foundation in GS 22 and particularly developed in the council’s document Nostra Aetate. The declaration talks of ‘ways’, consisting of teachings, rules of life and sacred ceremonies that are somehow connected to God’s action of salvation for people of other religions. [75] The document bases its relation with non-Christian religions on the common origins and destiny of all people in God (NA 1) and affirms that these religions have dimensions of truth and holiness (NA 2), so that it urges members of the church “to enter with prudence and charity into discussions and collaboration with members of other religions (NA 2). [76] NA notes the “high regard” in which it holds Islam (3), and presents an important discussion on the integral relationship between Christians and Jews (NA 4). This affirmation of non-Christian religions is held in tension with the church’s self-understanding. In relations with these religions the church is
[d]uty bound to proclaim without fail, Christ who is the way, the truth and the life (Jn 1: 6). In him, in whom God reconciled all things to himself (2 Cor. 5: 18-19), men (sic) find the fullness of their religious life (NA 2). [77]
The council also affirms this duty particularly in regard to the missionary activity of the church to the whole world.
[I]t is not sufficient for the Christian people to be present or established in a particular nation, nor sufficient that it should merely exercise the apostolate of good example; it has been established and it is present so that it might by word and deed proclaim Christ to non-Christian fellow countrymen (sic) and help them towards a full reception of Christ (AG 15). [78]
The church is in and with the world, as the sacramental expression of God’s mission to bring all into unity with God’s self. This unity already exists to varying degrees within the communion of the Catholic Church, also in degrees with other Christian churches and ecclesial communities and with other religions and all people. We now look to how the council revised its self-understanding for the ways in which the church might achieve this self-expression more fully.
How the Church is Missionary
In looking to the council’s articulation of how the church might sacramentally expresses itself as a unified mission in and for the world, it is appropriate to focus on how the council extended the nascent shift to the church’s reflection on itself in particular localities as noted in our first section. The council provides the church with a significant theological impetus in reflection on its local or particular character. [79]
The theological reality of the local church is introduced by the council’s ecclesiology as integral to the church’s self-understanding. [80] The first document promulgated by the council, Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC), notes that the “principal manifestation of the Church consists in the full, active participation of all God’s holy people in the same liturgical celebrations, especially in the same Eucharist, in one prayer, at one altar, at which the bishop presides, surrounded by his college of priests and by his ministers (SC 41).” [81] However, it is LG that develops this focus on the theological validity of the local church. LG 13 explains the catholic nature of the church as a gift from “the Lord” that brings about human unity by the way in which it enters into the concrete lives of peoples and their cultures. The church enters particular cultures so much so that “she purifies, strengthens and elevates them.” The document continues in articulating the unity of this catholic communion as it is concretely lived in particular contexts.
In virtue of this catholicity each part contributes its own gifts to other parts and to the whole Church, so that the whole and each of the parts are strengthened by the common sharing of all things and by the common effort to attain to fullness of unity (LG 13). [82]
LG further emphasises the theological significance of particular churches in regard to the local concrete communities of the church when they come together for the Eucharist. The one Church of Christ
is really present in all legitimately organised local groups of the faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also quite appropriately called Churches in the New Testament. For these are in fact, in their own localities, the new people called by God, in the power of the Holy Spirit and as the result of full conviction. … In these communities, though they may often be small and poor, or existing in the diaspora, Christ is present through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is constituted (LG 26). [83]
The shift to a theological inclusion of the nature of the church in its particularity and so the notion of the church as a communion of local churches has a significant impact on how the church perceives its missionary activity with other Christians in relationship with the world.
Vatican II certainly emphasises that the church is “in” the world as a historical community of persons and it is definitely one “with” the world as an agent of salvation and humanisation, as noted above. However, the council also emphasises that the church is “for” the world in this manner of agency in a particular way and for a particular purpose: that is as a communion of local churches in an intimate association with other Christian churches.
Through Christ and the Spirit the church enters fully into particular places and times by Christian example and its sacramental life, freeing others so they too may to participate in Christ (AG 5). [84] The church’s sacramental agency continues the missio dei, and draws together the object and ultimate goal of missionary endeavour: the proclamation of the gospel and planting of churches (AG 6 & 13). The fulfilment of missionary activity in the world is achieved by forming Christian communities that are “deeply rooted” in their particular contexts (AG 15).
The special end of this missionary activity is the evangelization and implanting of the Church among peoples or groups in which it has not yet taken root. … The principal instrument in this work of implanting the Church is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (AG 6).
Integral to the way the church expresses its missionary activity is, as Bosch notes, linked to how the church understands its unity. AG 6 connects the missionary activity of the church to its nature as extending the faith of the church, expanding and perfecting its catholic unity, as it is sustained by its apostolicity and as witness to its holiness. [85] Missionary work ad gentes is distinguished from pastoral care and the restoration of Christian unity yet they are closely connected.
Because of the Church’s mission, all baptised people are called upon to come together in one flock that they might bear unanimous witness to Christ their Lord before the nations. And if they cannot yet fully bear witness to one faith, they should at least be imbued with mutual respect and love (AG 6).
The council further emphasises that an “ecumenical spirit” needs to be an integral dimension of missionary activity of implanting new churches.
Insofar as religious conditions permit, ecumenical action should be encouraged, so that, while avoiding every form of indifferentism or confusion and also senseless rivalry, Catholics might collaborate with their separated brethren, insofar as possible, by a common profession before the nations of faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and by a common, fraternal effort in social, cultural, technical and religious matters, in accordance with the Decree on Ecumenism. Let them cooperate, especially, because of Christ their common Lord. May his name unite them (AG 15)! [86]
Summary
In continuity with the self-understanding of the pre-Vatican II church the council’s teaching retained the connection between the church’s mission and its unity. However, how both the terms mission and unity and the relationship between them are conceived underwent radical revision. Basic to this revision is the recovery of the understanding that the church is both missionary by nature as it finds its origin and source in the mystery of the Trinity and is in the nature of a sacrament of the missio dei in and with the world. Also basic is the simultaneous recovery of an understanding whereby the entire communion of the baptised are united in Christ through the Spirit and sent on mission together for the transformation of the world in all the particular places the church finds itself. While the church’s mission ad gentes is fundamental to its sacramental activity, it cannot be simply equated with the meaning of the term mission. Similarly, ecclesial unity is not simply defined by the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, the movement toward a visible catholic unity is the imperative for all those incorporated into Christ. The one, holy, catholic and apostolic church fulfils its nature and purpose when each and all the baptised together as the church through Christ and the Spirit proclaim the gospel and effect the unity begun in the divine mission in the many and diverse places that is the world.
Our final section of the paper now looks to what the above revision in ecclesial self-understanding might mean with regard to the church’s teaching for the particular Australian context forty years after Vatican II.
Mission and Ecumenism in the Australian Context
The final section of our study on the relationship between the church’s missionary mandate and its imperative for unity leads us into the meaning of this relationship for the church in Australia forty years after the opening of the council. The teaching of the council is not the end of the discussion on the meaning of the relationship between mission and unity, particularly with regard to the council’s call for contextualising the church’s self-understanding. The multitude of official dialogues which the church has entered into after Vatican II with a variety of churches and ecclesial communions in their local, national and international dimensions, the church’s subsequent teaching on mission and unity and continued theological reflection on the issues at hand have produced an enormous amount of literature. It is not possible to assess this body of work here. However, in the light of a few brief remarks by Paul VI, John Paul II and from the International Theological Commission setting the post-conciliar context, we look to the church’s teaching on the relationship between mission and unity in the Australian context.
The Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Oceania provides the material for the church’s recent teaching in the Australian context. Promulgated for the region of Oceania in 2001 the document is the result of the Synod of Oceania which culminated in the bishop’s meeting in Rome in 1998. [87] Our question in this final section is how does this particular aspect of the church’s magisterial teaching provide the church in Australia with a meaning for understanding the association between mission and unity today?
Unity and Mission Subsequent to Vatican II
Ten years after Vatican II in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi: On Evangelisation in the Modern World, Paul VI explicitly tied evangelisation to the witness of unity given by the church (77). [88] For Paul, evangelisation is directly related to the meaning of the church’s missionary nature.
Evangelization is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection (14). [89]
Further, in a discussion on the relationship between evangelisation and Christian unity he speaks of their deep interconnection and emphasises, “the sign of unity among all Christians as the way and instrument of evangelization (77).” [90] For Paul VI how the church effects its deepest reality of evangelisation is by way of its coming to unity.
In 1990 John Paul II also linked the church’s missionary and ecumenical activities in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio: On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate (50). [91] In the context of his emphasis on mission ad gentes John Paul is concerned with two factors. First, that Christian division weakens the church’s ability for effective witness and reconciliation. Second, that Christian unity already exists between all those baptised into Christ (50) although it is an imperfect communion. [92] In this light,
[e]cumenical activity and harmonious witness to Jesus Christ by Christians who belong to different churches and ecclesial communities has already borne fruit. But it is ever more urgent that they work and bear witness together at this time… [93]
Contemporary studies by the International Theological Commission (ITC) are in continuity with the above magisterial teaching. As preparation for the Holy Year of 2000 in the document The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life (1997) [94] the commission reflects on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the church by way of the traditional marks of the church. It is the Holy Spirit who works to accomplish perfect unity and joins all Christians together already in a “real unity.” The Spirit also creates the diversity of the church by “granting a variety of charisms and gifts to individual faithful as well as to local Churches (see LG 13), without harming unity (see 1Cor. 12: 4-11).” [95] In conclusion to its remarks on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the church, like Paul VI, it too links unity with evangelisation, quotes John Paul II’s Ut Unum Sint on unity and links these remarks to the missionary nature of the church.
If believers want to be genuine, they can only become Church and live communion as a style of evangelization, experiencing the unity whose source is the Spirit. ‘To believe in Christ means to desire unity; to desire unity means to desire the Church; to desire the Church means to desire the communion of grace which corresponds to the Father’s plan for all eternity.’
Thus, the mission of the Church in today’s reality is to be the sign and ferment of universality. … The Church, because it is a communion and unity in diversity, is the universal sign of salvation, a messianic people in dialogue between Christianity and society and between Christianity and religions. [96]
A few years later the ITC again addresses the issues of unity and mission in the document Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past. [97] At one point the work refers to UR 7 where Vatican II asked pardon of God and other Christians for forgiveness for the church’s part in creating division, in the light of Paul VI’s similar plea for pardon at the opening session of the council (5.2). In this context the document acknowledges that Christian unity should be the source and the form of the communion of human life with the Triune God. This unity is not the case. However, the way is opened to overcome difference as a result of a new clarity given to these divisions through doctrinal development which is animated by mutual love. [98] The document continues and acknowledges that the church has at times wrongly used force in its attempts to evangelise (5.3) and further, the lives of Christians continue to play also a part in what is named as “the evils of today (5.5).” [99]
When the church takes responsibility for its faults of the past and present it has implications for how the church finds ways of acting with repentance and for reconciliation in its pastoral and missionary activity. The document notes implications explicitly for mission ad gentes, ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, dialogue with cultures and with civil society. It cites John Paul II:
The request for forgiveness…primarily concerns the life of the church, her mission of proclaiming salvation, her witness to Christ, her commitment to unity, in a word, the consistency which should distinguish Christian life. [100]
The above selection of church teaching, although brief is set out here primarily to show the post-conciliar continuity and development of the integral interconnection between the missionary nature of the church and its unity. Second, that the church consciously recognises that its expression of this integrity has not simply been deficient, but in need of penitential reform. This recognition reflects an important teaching of Vatican II. The church is to be like Christ who emptied himself taking on the nature of a slave (Phil 2: 6, 7) as it brings good news to the poor, heals the contrite of heart (Lk 4:18) and seeks and to save what was lost (Lk 19:10) and simultaneously as it acts in this way the church serves Christ in the poor and those who suffer (LG 8). However, as the church is to be both like Christ and the servant of Christ, its self-realisation is that it is at once holy and always in need of purification, as it follows constantly the path of penance and renewal, precisely as the church (LG 8). [101]
We now turn to the church’s teaching of Ecclesia in Oceania on mission and unity for the Australian context.
Mission and Unity in the Church in Australia
The Apostolic Exhortation [102] Ecclesia in Oceania (EO) is a magisterial document which results from the consultation process for the Synod of Oceania. [103] This process concluded with the Synod Assembly of Bishops from the region of Oceania in 1998 which is the pen-ultimate ecclesial action for the pope’s writing of EO. In the light of our study of the church’s revision with regard to the relationship between the church’s missionary mandate and its ecumenical imperative, at issue here is how might the church in Australia determine its movement into the future in the light of the way this relationship is articulated in EO? John Paul II acknowledges an orientation toward a determination of the future in the introduction to EO by a direct link to the deliberations of the Synod Assembly of Bishops in 1998.
The Assembly analysed and discussed the present situation of the Church in Oceania in order to plan more effectively for the future. [104]
There are four chapters in EO. The first three are of interest to our study: Jesus Christ and the Peoples of Oceania; Walking the Way of Jesus Christ in Oceania; Telling the Truth of Jesus Christ in Oceania. Each of these chapters refers to the church’s mission, respectively: Mission and Culture; The Call to Mission; Evangelisation in Oceania: the third chapter also refers to ecumenism. How is the relationship between the church’s mission and its unity related in these chapters?
The section Mission and Culture in chapter one of EO provides a basic historical context for an understanding of mission in the region of Oceania. Positively the church has its origins in the exchange between the missionaries who brought the Gospel to this region and the already profound and developed religious sense embedded in the cultures of the region, especially in the peoples’ natural sense of community. The document notes on the latter point that there is a significant cooperation between the various Christian communities in the region. However, negatively, the exchange between the church and region was at times flawed by some missionary activity and aspects of colonialism. The latter is such that in “New Zealand and even more in Australia, the colonial and post-colonial policies of immigration have made the indigenous people a minority in their own land and, in many ways, a disposed cultural group.” [105]
This section also includes an assessment of the region in regard to the modern world. Positively, the human values of respect for inalienable human rights, the introduction of democratic procedures, the refusal to accept structural poverty, the rejection of terrorism, torture and violence as means of political change and the right to education, health care and housing for all have gained a higher profile. Negatively, however, a large part of the region, again notably New Zealand and Australia, are marked by an increasing secularisation. In this situation religion is moved to the margins, becomes a private affair and lacks a voice in public life. [106]
In presenting Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Church must respond in new and effective ways to these moral and social questions without ever allowing her voice to be silenced or her witness to be marginalized. [107]
The historical context of the first chapter and the call for the church to respond sets the scene for the section in chapter two, The Call to Mission. The missionary mandate to “present Jesus” belongs to the present generation of the church which “is called and sent now to accomplish a new evangelization.” [108] Each member of the church is called to mission, which is most often expressed in the concrete ordinary circumstances of their lives, “in the family, in the workplace, in schools, in community activities.” [109] Missionary activity is also expressed by local communities reaching out beyond boundaries of ecclesial insulation to bring the Gospel to the world of local circumstances and by missionaries who go beyond their local churches as missionaries to the nations. In a world often marked by secularism and consumerism the church is directed toward the young, those who suffer misery, injustice and poverty, the unemployed, the marginalised, those who are sick in body or soul, those addicted to drugs and the lost. [110]
The above is followed by a discussion on the relationship between the Gospel and culture. It is noted that the bishops of Oceania frequently emphasised the importance of inculturation for an authentic expression of Christian life in Oceania. Inculturation is grounded in the notion of the incarnation and it names the process of encounter and engagement with cultures since the Gospel was first preached. [111] On the one hand, cultures offer positive values which enrich the way the Gospel is preached understood and lived. On the other hand, the Gospel also challenges cultures and requires that some values and forms of culture change. “The process of inculturation engages the Gospel and culture in a dialogue which includes identifying what is and what is not of Christ.” [112]
EO sets the scene of mission in chapter one, provides both the subjects and objects of the call to mission in chapter two, then sets out the initiative for pastoral planning of the church’s mission in chapter three. The focus here is how the church in Oceania concretely goes about its mission of telling the truth of the Gospel. This ecclesial task of evangelisation is accomplished as the church expresses itself as a sacramental communion initiated by Christ in and for the world. [113] The task belongs to all the baptised and the chapter explicitly outlines the understanding that bishops, priests, religious and laity are all agents of evangelisation. [114] The obstacles the church encounters in the world that challenge its evangelising mission are again considered as the consequences of modernity. [115] The church in Oceania faces a “twofold” challenge.
On the one hand, the traditional religions and cultures, and on the other, the modern processes of secularisation. … Whether faced with traditional religion or refined philosophy, the church preaches by word and deed that the truth is in Jesus Christ (Eph 4:21; cf. Col 1:15-20). [116]
As a response to these challenges the bishops in Synod Assembly discerned “new perspectives” for the church’s future in Oceania and consider the first step as a renewal of mind and an inner renewal of the church with mission as its goal. [117] The inner renewal of the church is to be occasioned by a number of concrete pastoral strategies. The church acts as a sacramental communion through a spirit of fellowship at its liturgies and in its social and apostolic activities; by reaching out to non-practising and alienated Catholics; by strengthening the identity of Catholic schools; by providing opportunities for adults to grow in their faith through programmes of study and formation; by teaching and explaining Catholic doctrine effectively to those outside the Christian community; and by bringing the social teaching of the Church to bear on civic life in Oceania. [118] The chapter further highlights the need for the church’s astute use of the media and the possibility to devise pastoral plans for its use at national, diocesan and parish levels.
It is at this stage that the document connects mission with ecumenism. That is, after EO deals with A New Evangelization including the sub-headings Agents of Ecumenism, the Primacy of Proclamation, and Evangelization and the Media, it presents The Challenge of Faith Today which includes the sub-headings, Catechesis, Ecumenism, Fundamentalist Groups and Inter-religious Dialogue. In the discussion on ecumenism disunity is recognised as a “great obstacle to the credibility of the Church’s witness” and an earnest desire for “new efforts of reconciliation and dialogue” are made. [119] There is the recognition that difference once meant competition and opposition between the churches, but this situation is now changed. There exist positive expressions of unity “aimed at greater mutual understanding and enrichment,” through a desire for unity in faith and worship, cooperation in areas of charity and social justice. [120] Further, there is the call for Catholics to understand their expression of the Christian faith in its doctrine, tradition and history so as to be able to dialogue and cooperate with other Christians. Also, the needs for a spiritual ecumenism - of prayer and conversion of heart - , for ecumenical prayer texts, greater pastoral attention to inter-church families, and cooperation between various agencies of the churches and its leaders are posed.
Conclusion
The relationship between the church’s understandings of its mission and how it is a unity are intimately linked. In the pre-Vatican II period the Roman Catholic Church made a particular association between mission and unity. As unity resides in the one church of Christ which is the Roman Catholic Church it is understood that this church also provides the rightful missionary salvific outreach to those who did not know Christ through the expansion of the church. The church’s missionary mandate was distinct from its imperative toward full Christian unity. The latter was directed toward a Christian unity that resides in the Roman Catholic Church. However, the church’s teaching also developed during this period providing some foundations for shifts in self-understanding that took place at Vatican II.
At the Second Vatican Council the church revised its understanding of the link between its mission and how it is a unity. The church remains in continuity with its pre-Vatican II self-understanding, yet is also discontinuous with this self-expression. While the mark of unity subsists in the Roman Catholic Church full Christian unity is inclusive of other churches and ecclesial communities which are expressions of divine salvation through Christ and the Spirit. In further reflection on Vatican II Paul VI points out that the church’s missionary nature and activity as a sacrament in, for and with the world, is fulfilled through its ecumenical imperative. The church accomplishes its mission as it expresses its progress toward unity with other churches and ecclesial communions.
Yet the integrity of the connection as made by Paul VI is not as explicit in the recent magisterial teaching Ecclesia in Oceania. The latter presents a substantial understanding of the church’s missionary nature in continuity with the teaching of Vatican II. The pastoral activity of the church to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ is guided by an ecclesial self-understanding as the sacrament of healing in dialogue with the particular context of Oceania. However, the impact of the way of mission as accomplished through the ecumenical imperative is overshadowed. Ecumenical activity by the church is certainly important, but as simply one activity among others of the church’s mission. At a time when churches in Australia have already made significant advances of agreement on many issues, [121] it might have been hoped that the integrity of the understanding of mission through unity would have been emphasised allowing for a further impetus toward the church’s fulfilment of its self-expression.
[1] The opening words of the council present a four-fold ecumenical and pastoral vision for its work that is initiated through a “reform and promotion of the liturgy.” Austin Flannery. Ed. “The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium,” (SC 1), in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Documents. New Revised Edition. Northport, New York: Costello Publishing Company.1992. 1.
[2] The term church here refers to the Roman Catholic Church unless otherwise stated.
[3] “The joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.” Flannery. Vatican Council II. 903.
[4] Kenneth Himes. “Part I of the Constitution: Foundations Renewed,” Woodstock Report: The Church in the Modern World: A 30 Year Perspective. Woodstock Theological Center. June 1995. http://www.georgetown.edu/centers/woodstock/report/r-fea42.htm
[5] “It was in 1948 that the World Council of Churches was formed.” David J. Bosch. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Missionary Theology. Maryknoll, New York. Orbis Books. 1992. 370.
[6] Bosch. Transforming Mission. 461-462. My highlighting in this text.
[7] Roger Haight. “The ‘Established’ Church as Mission: The Relation of the Church to the Modern World.” The Jurist 39 (1979) 10.
[8] Roger Haight. “The ‘Established’ Church as Mission.” 10.
[9] World Council of Churches. Toward Common Witness. (1). http://www.bostontheological.org/ecudocs/commn.htm
[10] “The supreme authority over the whole Church, which this college (of bishops) possesses, is exercised in a solemn way in an ecumenical council. There is never an ecumenical council which is not confirmed or at least recognized as such by Peter’s successor.” Flannery. Vatican II. 375.
[11] “It is of course true that magisterial documents … are not the only source in which one can find the Catholic tradition as it has been handed down from generation to generation. … It is the church as a whole, then, and not only its leaders and official teachers, that has perpetuated and handed on all that she is and all that she believes. … (However), these documents represent key moments in the development of the Catholic tradition of faith in which they stand and of which they seek a contemporary understanding.” Francis Sullivan. Creative Fidelity: Weighing and Interpreting Documents of the Magisterium. New York: Paulist Press. 1996. 9-10.
[12] The notions of continuity and discontinuity in regard to church tradition are taken up below in part one.
[13] John Paul II. Ecclesia in Oceania. Strathfield: St Paul’s Publications. 2001.
[14] “During the last three decades, in particular, Roman Catholic understanding of mission has undergone a most profound change. The catalytic event was the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).” Bosch. Transforming Mission.237.
[15] Bosch. Transforming Mission. 186.
[16] Bosch. Transforming Mission. 187.
[17] For example, see Sacrasantum Concilium 3 & 4 and Lumen Gentium 1. Flannery. Vatican Council II. 2 and 350
[18] On the steps for interpretation of magisterial documents Francis Sullivan states: “The first is to determine the meaning of the document in its historical context, and the second is to determine the contemporary meaning of that document, and to express that same meaning in concepts and language that will make it intelligible to people of faith today.” Creative Fidelity. 5.
[19] Leo XIII. Sancta Dei Civitas: On Mission Societies. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_1-xiii_enc_03121880_sancta-dei-civitas_en.html
[20] Benedict XV. “Maximum Illud: On the Propagation of the Faith Throughout the World,” in Raymond Hickey ed. Modern Missionary Documents and Africa. Dublin: Dominican Pub. 1982. 30-47.
[21] Pius XI. Rerum Ecclesiae: On Catholic Missions. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_28021926_rerum-ecclesiae_en.html
[22] Pius XI. Mortalium Animos: On Religious Unity. http://www.newadvent.org/docs/pi11ma.htm
[23] Holy Office. On the ‘Ecumenical Movement.” http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFECUM.HTM
[24] Pius XII. Evangelii Prasecones: On Promotion of Catholic Missions. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_pxii_enc_02061951_evangelii-pracones_en.html
[25] John XXIII. Princeps Pastorum: On the Missions, Native Clergy, and Lay Participation. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_28111959_princeps_en.html John XXIII. Ad Petri Cathedram: On Truth, Unity and Peace, in a Spirit of Charity. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documentshf_j-xxiii_enc_29061959_ad-petri_en.html
[26] Joseph Komonchak. “Interpreting the Second Vatican Council,” Landas: Journal of Loyola School of Theology 1 (1987) 84.
[27] “It can be rightly said that missionary activity has always been shaped and influenced by the contemporary vision of the Church and the world.” Tony Arthur. “The Second Vatican Council and Critical Developments in the Theological and Anthropoligical Understanding of Missio Ad Gentes.” Compass 32 (1997) 29.
[28] Komonchak. “Interpreting the Second Vatican Council.” 84.
[29] Arthur. “Critical Developments.” 25.
[30] Bosch. Transforming Mission. 237.
[31] Arthur. “Critical Developments.” 25.
[32] Bosch. Transforming Mission. 371.
[33] Arthur. “Critical Developments.” 26. Also, Bosch. Transforming Mission. 371, and Felipe Gomez. “The Missionary Activity Twenty Years After Vatican II,” East Asian Pastoral Review 23 (1986) 29-30.
[34] Arthur. “Critical Developments.” 26.
[35] Peter Phan. SEDOS: Articles in English. “Proclamation of the Reign of God as Mission of the Church: What for, to Whom, by Whom, with Whom, and How?” http://www.sedos.org/english/phan.htm
[36] Leo XIII. Sancta Dei Civitas. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_1-xiii_enc_03121880_sancta-dei-civitas_en.html
[37] The numbers in brackets in the text refer to the paragraph numbers of the particular document associated with the respective pope as cited.
[38] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 30.
[39] He names the Society of the Propagation of the Faith (5), The Society of the Holy Infancy of Jesus Christ and The Society of the Schools of the East (4). Leo XIII. Sancta Dei Civitas. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_1-xiii_enc_03121880_sancta-dei-civitas_en.html
[40] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 32.
[41] For example: “[I]t is also with glad and grateful feelings that we watch the movement, inspired by the Holy Ghost, that is taking place throughout the Catholic world, for promoting and developing the missions.” Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 32.
[42] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 32.
[43] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 42-43.
[44] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 35.
[45] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 35.
[46] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 42-45.
[47] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 33.
[48] Benedict XV. Maximum Illud. 35.
[49] Gregory Baum. That They May Be One: A Study of Papal Doctrine (Leo XIII – Pius XII). Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press. 1958. 80.
[50] Flannery. Vatican Council II. 1.
[51] John XXIII. “Pope John’s Opening Speech to the Council,” in Walter M. Abbot, ed. The Documents of Vatican II. New York: Herder and Herder. 1966. 715.
[52] Joseph Komonchak. “Vatican II and the Encounter Between Catholicism and Liberalism,” in R.B. Douglas and D. Hollenbach, eds. Catholicism and Liberalism: Contributions to American Public Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1994. 79.
[53] Gerald McCool. From Unity to Pluralism: The Internal Evolution of Thomism. New York: Fordham University Press. 1989. 225.
[54] “I venture to think that it is the modern sciences of historical interpretation and criticism that has made it possible for our generation to realize better than its predecessors that the gospel yields more of its mystery to those who think in terms of history and eschatology – incarnational eschatology – than those who think in terms of Aristotle.” Christopher Butler. The Theology of Vatican II. Revised and Enlarged Edition. Westminster, Maryland: Christian Classics Inc. 1981. 140-141.
[55] Frans Joseph van Beeck. Catholic Identity After Vatican II. Chicago: Loyola University Press. 1985. 19.
[56] Arthur. “Critical Developments.” 29. Bosch. Transforming Mission. 371. McConville. “Mission.” 665.
[57] Flannery. Vatican II. 452-469
[58] Flannery. Vatican II. 813-862.
[59] Flannery. Vatican II. 350.
[60] World is defined as, “the whole human family seen in the context of everything which enevelops it: it s the world as the theatre of human history, bearing the marks of its travail, its triumphs and failures, the world which in the Christian vision has been created and is sustained by the love of its maker, which has been freed from the slavery of sin by Christ, who was crucified and rose again in order to break the stranglehold of the evil one, so that it might be fashioned anew according to God’s design and brought to its fulfilment.” Flannery. Vatican II. 904.
[61] Flannery. Vatican II. 738-741.
[62] Flannery. Vatican II. 350.
[63] “The central thrust of the mission theology of Vatican II is to locate what the Church does in the activity of the Triune God.” Knights. “Missio Dei: Some Aspects of Contemporary Missiology.” http://cms.org.uk/Research/misso.dei.doc Also, Arthur. “Critical Developments.” 29.
[64] Flannery. Vatican II. 817-818.
[65] Flannery. Vatican II. 369.
[66] Francis Sullivan recognizes this inclusion as a “momentous change” in the church’s doctrine about the salvation of “non-Christian Catholics” and comments: “practically all commentators have seen in this change of wording a significant opening toward the recognition of ecclesial reality in the other Christian churches and communities.” Salvation Outside the Church? Tracing the History of the Catholic Response. New York: Paulist Press. 1992. 145-146.
[67] Flannery. Vatican II. 357.
[68] “The term “ecumenical movement” indicates the initiatives and activities encouraged and organized, according to the various needs of the Church and as opportunities offer to promote Christian unity.” That is, the move to mutual relations, dialogue between competent experts, cooperation for the common good of humanity and prayer. Flannery. Vatican II. 456-457.
[69] Flannery. Vatican II. 455-456.
[70] Sullivan notes the “second momentous change” as the council’s shift from an either-or approach for understanding who belongs to the church. It introduces the idea of different degrees of fullness of incorporation.” Salvation Outside the Church? 146.
[71] Sullivan. Salvation Outside the Church? 147.
[72] Bernard Leeming. The Vatican Council and Christian Unity: A Commentary on the Decree on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council, Together with a Translation of the Text. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. 1966. 101.
[73] Flannery. Vatican II. 940.
[74] Flannery. Vatican II. 946.
[75] Michael Amaladoss. “Dialogue and Mission: Conflict or Convergence?” East Asian Pastoral Review 23 (1986) 60.
[76] Flannery. Vatican II. 739.
[77] Flannery. Vatican II. 739.
[78] Flannery. Vatican II. 831.
[79] “In the wake of World War I, however, the local church was discovered. Maxium Illud (1919) and Rerum Ecclesiae (1926) paved the way for a new understanding, but it was only Fidei Donum (1957) that constituted a true turning point on which Vatican II was able to build. … The fundamentally innovative feature of the new development was the discovery that the universal church actually finds its true existence in the local churches; that these and not the universal church, are the pristine expression of the church (LG 26).” Bosch. Transforming Mission. 380.
[80] Emmanuel Lanne, "Pluralism and Unity: The Possibility of a Variety of Typologies within the same Ecclesial Allegiance," One in Christ 6 (1970) 446.
[81] Flannery. Vatican II. 15.
[82] Flannery. Vatican II. 365.
[83] Flannery. Vatican II. 381.
[84] Flannery. Vatican II. 818.
[85] Flannery. Vatican II. 820.
[86] Flannery. Vatican II. 830.
[87] John Paul II. Ecclesial in Oceania.
[88] Paul VI. On Evangelization in the Modern World. Boston: St. Paul Books & Media. (No date). 54.
[89] Paul VI. On Evangelization. 8.
[90] Paul VI. On Evangelization. 54.
[91] John Paul II. Redemptoris Missio: On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate. Homebush: St Paul’s Publications. 1991. 83.
[92] John Paul II. Redemptoris Missio. 83.
[93] John Paul II. Redemptoris Missio. 83.
[94] International Theological Commission (ITC). The Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life. New York: Crossroad. 1997.
[95] ITC. The Holy Spirit. 63-64.
[96] ITC. The Holy Spirit. 77.78.
[97] International Theological Commission. Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past. Strathfield: St Paul’s Publications. 2000.
[98] ITC. Memory and Reconciliation. 59.
[99] “[T]he phenomenon of the denial of God in its many forms. (Also) … religious indifference, the widespread lack of a transcendent sense of human life, a climate of secularism and ethical relativism, the denial of the right to life of the unborn child sanctioned in pro-abortion legislation, and a great indifference to the cry of the poor in entire sectors of the human family.” ITC. Memory and Reconciliation. 65.
[100] ITC. Memory and Reconciliation. 75.
[101] Flannery. Vatican II. 358.
[102] “A letter written by the Pope to the Church encouraging its people to take some particular action.” http://www.secondexodus.com/html/catholicdefinitions/apostolicexhortation.html
[103] The synod was the final one in a series of special continental and in this case regional synods called by John Paul II.
[104] John Paul II. EO. 8.
[105] John Paul II. EO. 22.
[106] John Paul II. EO. 24.
[107] John Paul II. EO. 24
[108] John Paul II. EO. 39.
[109] John Paul II. EO. 39.
[110] John Paul II. EO. 40-42.
[111] John Paul II. EO. 45-47.
[112] John Paul II. EO. 48.
[113] “In evangelization, the Church expresses her own inner communion and acts as a single body, striving to bring all humanity to unity in God through Christ.” John Paul II. EO. 52.
[114] John Paul II. EO. 57-59.
[115] John Paul II. EO. 55-56.
[116] John Paul II. EO. 61.
[117] John Paul II. EO. 59.
[118] John Paul II. EO. 59.
[119] John Paul II. EO. 66.
[120] John Paul II. EO .67.
[121] For example see, Raymond K. Williamson. Ed. Stages on the Way: Documents from the Bilateral Conversations between Churches in Australia, Melbourne: The Joint Board of Christian Education. 1994.
___________________________
Paper first given at the ACU-FACIT Conference 2nd October 2002
David Pascoe is the Dean of St. Paul's Theological College in Brisbane.
