What Is the Church? The Church of Christ "Subsists" in the Catholic Church

Tuesday July 17, 2007

Since Vatican II, one enduring source of tension between more "liberal" elements in the Catholic Church and more "conservative" ones has been the statement of the Council Fathers, in the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium ("The Light of the Nations"), that the Church of Christ, "constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him."

The tension arose from the phrase "subsists in," which both sides interpreted the same way--as an implicit renunciation of the Catholic Church's traditional claim to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church founded by Christ. The "liberals" welcomed this supposed change, which they thought would lead to an increase in ecumenism and prospects for Christian unity; while the "conservatives" pointed out that true unity can only occur when everyone embraces the Truth, and they argued that this phrase was, at best, obfuscating the truth.

The recent document "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church," issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) at the direction of Pope Benedict XVI, has made it clear that both sides are wrong. The document poses five questions, and the second one reads: "What is the meaning of the affirmation that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church?" The answer is not surprising to those who understand the Latin meaning of subsist or know that the Church cannot change fundamental doctrine: " . . . ‘subsistence’ means this perduring, historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the Catholic Church, in which the Church of Christ is concretely found on this earth."

While acknowledging that "the churches [meaning the Eastern Orthodox] and ecclesial Communities [Protestants] not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church" have "elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them," the CDF reaffirms that "the word 'subsists' can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe . . . in the 'one' Church); and this 'one' Church subsists in the Catholic Church." Subsistence means "to remain in force, being, or effect," and only in the Catholic Church does the one Church founded by Christ "and instituted it as a 'visible and spiritual community'" subsist.

The extent to which "elements of sanctification and truth" are present in the Orthodox Churches and Protestant communities is discussed in the fourth and fifth questions of the document, and I'll have separate posts on each of them later this week.