Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:57:24.278Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Looking at Vatican I's Pastor aeternus 150 Years Later: A Fresh Consideration of the Council's Significance Yesterday and Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2019

Kristin Colberg
Kristin Colberg*
Affiliation:
College of St. Benedict/Saint John's University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many pressing issues facing the church today require a deeper appreciation of Vatican I, marking its one hundred and fiftieth year. We can now return it to its context and accept its “incompleteness” rather than insist upon its “wrongness.” The distance provided by time shows that its teachings are not as rigid or extreme as they are often perceived to be, but rather stand open to significantly broader interpretations. Pastor Aeternus has faced Vatican II, the social leveling brought about by democracy and the mass media, and an erosion of confidence in hierarchical institutions. Yet the council cannot be left behind. This essay's goal is to contextualize Vatican I's voice so that we can hear what it intended to say in its own day and see how it might contribute to some of our own most urgent conversations today.

Keywords

Vatican IPastor aeternuspapal infallibilityecclesiology
Type
Editorial Essay
Information
Horizons , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , December 2019 , pp. 323 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © College Theology Society 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 John Henry Newman to Alfred Plummer, April 3, 1871, The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, ed. Dessain, Charles, et al. , 32 vols. (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), volume 24, 310Google Scholar.

2 For more on this topic, see Colberg, Kristin, Vatican I and Vatican II: Councils in the Living Tradition (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016), 4–22Google Scholar.

3 Kasper, Walter, “Introduction to the Theme and Catholic Hermeneutics of the Dogmas of the First Vatican Council,” in The Petrine Ministry: Catholics and Orthodox in Dialogue, ed. Kasper, Walter (Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 2006), 7–20, esp. 17Google Scholar.

4 Alberigo, Giuseppe, “Preface,” in History of Vatican II, vol. 1: Announcing and Preparing Vatican Council II, eds. Komanchak, Joseph and Alberigo, Giuseppe (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995), xi–xv, esp. xiGoogle Scholar.

5 O'Malley, John, Vatican I: The Making of the Ultramontane Church (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2018), 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 O'Malley, John, What Happened at Vatican II (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2008), 8Google Scholar.

7 Anne Bentes, “Synodality, Collegiality: Two Keys to the Coming Francis Reform.” https://cvcomment.org/2013/08/28/synodality-collegiality-two-keys-to-the-coming-francis-reform/.

8 Pope Francis, “Address” Ceremony Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops, October 17, 2015. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/october/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50-anniversario-sinodo.html.

9 Ellis, John Tracy, “The Church Faces the Modern World: The First Vatican Council,” in The General Council: Special Studies in Doctrinal and Historical Background, ed. McDonald, William (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1962), 135Google Scholar.

10 O'Malley has considered this question in several forums. Among these are: “Vatican II: Did Anything Happen?,” Theological Studies 67 (2006): 3–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar and What Happened at Vatican II (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008)Google Scholar.

11 Schloesser, Stephen SJ, “Against Forgetting: Memory, History, Vatican II,” Theological Studies 67 (2006): 275–319CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Pottmeyer, Hermann, Towards a Papacy in Communion: Perspectives from Vatican Councils I and II (New York: Herder and Herder, 1998)Google Scholar.

13 Schatz, Klaus, Papal Primacy: From Its Origins to the Present, trans. Otto, John and Maloney, Linda M. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996), 143Google Scholar.

14 See Aubert, Roger, “Welt und Kirche am Vorabend des Konzils,” in Vaticanum I (Mainz: Matthias-Grunewald-Verlag, 1982), 9–46Google Scholar.

15 Ulrich Horst treats this sense of insecurity in his Unfehlbarkeit und Geschichte: Studien zur Unfehlbarkeitsdiskussion von Melchior Cano bis zum I. Vatikanischen Konzil (Mainz: Matthias-Grunewald-Verlag, 1982)Google Scholar.

16 Cf. Schatz's section “From the French Revolution to Vatican I,” in his Papal Primacy, 143–55.

17 On the development of the Ultramontanist position see van Arx, J., Varieties of Ultramontanism (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1998)Google Scholar and O'Malley's chapter “The Ultramontanist Movement,” in his Vatican I, 33–95.

18 See Ollivier, Émile, L’église et l’état au Concile du Vatican (Paris: Garnier fréres, 1879), 314Google Scholar.

19 Kertzer, David I., The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe (New York: Random House, 2018), 341Google Scholar.

20 Mirari vos can be found at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/gregorius-xvi/it/documents/encyclica-mirari-vos-15-augusti-1832.html.

21 On the rise of conciliarism, see Tierney's, BrianFoundations of the Conciliar Theory: The Contribution of the Medieval Canonists from Gratian to the Great Schism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010)Google Scholar and Oakley's, FrancisThe Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church 1300–1870 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 For an excellent study of Gallicanism, consult Costigan, Richard F. SJ, The Consensus of the Church and Papal Infallibility: A Study in the Background of Vatican I (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005)Google Scholar.

23 Arx, Von SJ, Jeffrey, “A Post-Traumatic Church,” America 212, no. 20 (2015): 22–24Google Scholar, https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/post-traumatic-church.

24 Butler, Cuthbert, The Vatican Council: The Story Told from Inside from Bishop Ullathorne's Letters, vol. 1 (London: Longman's Green, 1930), 81Google Scholar.

25 Ollivier, Émile, L’Église et l’État au Concile du Vatican, vol. 1 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library, 2010), 57Google Scholar.

26 This text and a helpful commentary are found in van der Horst, Fidelis, Das Schema über die Kirche auf dem I Vatikanischen Konzil (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1963)Google Scholar.

27 See Costigan, The Consensus of the Church and Papal Infallibility, 35–62.

28 Sullivan, Francis SJ, “The Meaning of Conciliar Documents,” in The Convergence of Theology: A Festschrift Honoring Gerald O'Collins, SJ, eds. Kendall, Daniel and Davis, Stephen (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001), 73–86, esp. 74Google Scholar.

29 Howard, Thomas Albert, The Pope and the Professor: Pius IX, Ignaz von Dollinger, and the Quandary of the Modern Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 133CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Pottmeyer, Towards a Papacy in Communion, 83.

31 Butler, The Vatican Council, 2: 162.

32 Mozley, T., Letters from Rome on the Occasion of the Oecumenical Council, 1869–70, vol. 2, (London: Longmans, Green, 1891; Gregg International, 1969) 445–46Google Scholar. Mozley was Newman's brother-in-law.

33 Butler, The Vatican Council, 2: 164.

34 Cardinal Walter Kasper, email to author, December 11, 2018.

35 All references to Pastor aeternus are taken from: Tanner, Norman, ed., The Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols. (Washington, DC: Georgetown University, 1990)Google Scholar.

36 This point is developed in Gerard Kelly's excellent article “The Roman Catholic Doctrine of Papal Infallibility: A Response to Mark Powell,” Theological Studies 74, no. 1 (2013): 129–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Ibid., 132.

38 Ibid.

39 This issue was at the heart of one of the council's most critical moments: the intervention by Bishop Vincent Gasser charged by the Deputation de Fide to persuade the minority that the final version of Pastor aeternus was not in conflict with their views. In his address, Gasser states unequivocally that consultation between pope and bishops is a normal and appropriate element within the development of an infallible teaching and that this is not excluded by the present formulation. Yet he argued that it was inappropriate for the definition to formalize the necessity or means of such a consultation. Such consultation, he asserted, is a moral necessity and therefore “cannot have a place in the definition of a dogmatic constitution.” See Gasser, Bishop Vincent, The Gift of Infallibility: The Official Relatio on Infallibility of Bishop Vincent Gasser at Vatican Council I, ed. O'Connor, James (Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1986), 51Google Scholar.

40 Sullivan, Francis SJ, “Primacy of the Pope,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11 (Farmington Hills, MI: Cengage Gale, 2002), 708–09, esp. 708Google Scholar.

41 Cf. Pottmeyer, Towards a Papacy in Communion, 51–109, and Dulles, Avery, The Catholicity of the Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 121–40Google Scholar.

42 Ford, John CSC, “Infallibility—Terminology, Textual Analysis, and Theological Interpretation: A Response to Mark Powell,” Theological Studies 74, no. 1 (2013): 119–28, esp. 22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Cf. ibid., 123. Here I am building on the conditions identified by Ford.

44 Kelly, “The Roman Catholic Doctrine of Papal Infallibility,” 133.

45 Ibid.

46 Bringing equilibrium to Vatican I's understanding of these subjects of authority—and our overall understanding of ecclesial authority—requires developing our knowledge and exercise of other forms of authority, especially lay authority. Given Vatican I does not significantly treat this topic, however, our focus here will be on bringing greater balance to that which it does treat.

47 For more on this see Colberg, Kristin, “Recognizing Vatican I as a Context for Vatican II,” in Vatican I and Vatican II: Councils in the Living Tradition (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016), 85–114Google Scholar.

48 See Eyt, Cardinal P., “La collégialité épiscopale,” in Le deuxième concile du Vatican 1959–65. Actes du colloque organisé par l’École française de Rome en collaboration avec l'Université de Lille 3 (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1989), 54Google Scholar.

49 John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Ut unum sint makes the same choice to consider papal primacy without ever adding the phrase “of jurisdiction.” On the significance of this choice in efforts to receive Vatican I's teachings, see Scatena, Silvia, “From Medellín to Aparecida: The ‘Lesson’ of a Regional Experience in Searching for Forms and Styles of Effective Collegiality,” For a Missionary Reform of the Church: The Civiltà Cattolica Seminar, eds. Spadaro, Antonio SJ, and Galli, Carlos Marìa (New York: Paulist, 2018), 266–90Google Scholar.

50 Cf. Colberg, Vatican I and Vatican II, 115–36.

51 Schatz, The Origins of Papal Primacy, 175.

52 John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint (May 25, 1995), http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25051995_ut-unum-sint.html.

53 Kasper, “Introduction to the Theme and Catholic Hermeneutics of the Dogmas of the First Vatican Council,” 22.

54 Multiple chapters in For a Missionary Reform of the Church deal with the significance of Lumen gentium's third chapter in Francis’ papacy; particularly valuable is Hervé Legrand, OP's contribution entitled “Communio Ecclesiae, Communio Ecclesiarum, Collegium Episcoporum,” 159–95. Also valuable on this topic is Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: Evangelii Gaudium at the Papal Agenda (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)Google Scholar.

55 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (November 24, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html.

56 Legrand, “Communio Ecclesiae, Communio Ecclesiarum, Collegium Episcoporum,” 184.