Perspectief 2014-26

Perspectief 38 Prof. dr. Peter De Mey The relatio , being the official justification of the new paragraph by the subcommission of the theological commission responsible for the drafting, written by the Louvain peritus Gérard Philips, reveals that a.o. the intervention of archbishop Antoine Grauls in the name of 55 bishops of Burundi and Rwanda during the general congregation of October 10, 1963, had made a profound impression on the Council fathers. Grauls made the suggestion that a new paragraph would have to be written dealing with the catholicity of the Church which would thus pay attention to the fact that “the Church is decorated both with wonderful unity and with diversity.” Apart from the one faith, the one baptism and the one Eucharist, he argued, the Church “is also outstanding through its diversity.” Thanks to the “economy of the incarnation” she is able to “imbibe all human values proper to each culture.” The archbishop also was convinced that “such diversity finds its origin in God” and he saw it as the mission of the Church to promote “unity in diversity and diversity in unity.” 1 The relatio itself returns to the two parts or aspects of LG 13. Both “the unity of human nature” and its mission “by Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Church“ first of all make it clear that God’s people is “of a universal nature.” It reflects “a unity” which “transcends all particularities” and is therefore able “to be present among all the people of the earth.” Secondly, the Council wants to underline in unusually strong words that its understanding of “universality or catholicity” “despises uniformity” ( uniformitatem respuit ).” It is “at the service of diversity in unity ( diversitatem in unitate servat ), by promoting communion and cooperation among different peoples and different states in the Church.” 2 1 AS II/2, p. 69-70. 2 Constitutio dogmatica de Ecclesia Concilii Vaticani II Synopsis in ordinem redigens schemata cum relationibus necnon patrum orationes atque animadversiones. Lumen Gentium Synopsis , ed. Francisco Gil Hellín (Roma: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1996), p. 103: “De indole universali Populi Dei, fundata in principiis huius Populi, nempe in unitate naturae humanae et in missione Christi, Spiritus Sancti et Ecclesiae. (…) Haec unitas Populi simul transcendens et immanens exstat, et sic, quia est supra particularia , omnibus terrae populis inesse potest. Haec universalitas seu catholicitas uniformitatem respuit : diversitatem in unitate servat, procurando communionem et cooperationem inter diversos populos et diversus ordines in Ecclesia.”