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The "Subsists In" Controversy

This Rock Volume 20, Number 1   January 2009     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   Why Wheat Bread? By David P. Lang   Gnosticism at the Heart of the Problem   A Little Is Enough   Further Reading   Both Pharisee and Publican Call the Church Home By Jeffrey A. Mirus   Do Not Destroy Him for Whom Christ Died   The Healthy Do Not Need a Physician   Hitler’s Mufti By Matthew E. Bunson   Child Murderer   Further Reading   Is Ecumenism a Heresy? By Fr. Brian W. Harrison, O.S.   The "Subsists In" Controversy   Damascus Road The Endless Gift By Mary L.   By the Book No Rocks Required By Tim Staples   Eyes to See We Have Seen the Light By Michael Schrauzer   Truth be Told The Syllabus, the Controversy, and the Context By Robert P. Lockwood   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

In June 2007, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith released a statement, Commentary on the Document: Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church, which sought to clarify some of the Second Vatican Council’s teachings on authentic ecumenism. The CDF statement was met with some controversy because it stated that non-Catholic Christian "ecclesial communities" (with the exception of Orthodox traditions) could not be termed true "churches." In saying this, however, the CDF was merely reiterating what Unitatis Redintegratio had already established:

Catholic ecumenism might seem, at first sight, somewhat paradoxical. The Second Vatican Council used the phrase " subsistit in " in order to try to harmonize two doctrinal affirmations: on the one hand, that despite all the divisions between Christians the Church of Christ continues to exist fully only in the Catholic Church, and on the other hand that numerous elements of sanctification and truth do exist without the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church whether in the particular churches or in the ecclesial communities that are not fully in communion with the Catholic Church. For this reason, the same Decree of Vatican II on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio introduced the term fullness ( unitatis/catholicitatis) specifically to help better understand this somewhat paradoxical situation. Although the Catholic Church has the fullness of the means of salvation, nevertheless, the divisions among Christians prevent the Church from effecting the fullness of catholicity proper to her in those of her children who, though joined to her by baptism, are yet separated from full communion with her. The fullness of the Catholic Church, therefore, already exists, but still has to grow in the brethren who are not yet in full communion with it and also in its own members who are sinners until it happily arrives at the fullness of eternal glory in the heavenly Jerusalem. This progress in fullness is rooted in the ongoing process of dynamic union with Christ: Union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself. I cannot possess Christ just for myself; I can belong to him only in union with all those who have become, or will become, his own. Communion draws me out of myself towards him, and thus also towards unity with all Christians. ( Commentary on the Document: Responses to Some Questions)