Racial Justice and the People of God: The Second Vatican Council, the Civil Rights Movement, and American Catholics

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. McGreevy
1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-254
Author(s):  
John T. McGreevy

Catholic participation in the southern civil rights movement culminated at Selma in March 1965. As was customary in much of the South, Selma's Catholic churches were strictly segregated, with the priests in charge of the African American “mission” parish ignored by the city's other clergy. (One attempt at integration of the city's “white” parish by a group of African American Catholic teenagers met with fierce resistance.) In addition, the bishop of Montgomery, Thomas Toolen, attempted to prevent northern Catholics from responding to the pleas of civil rights activists for assistance, maintaining that outsiders were “out of place in these demonstrations—their place is at home doing God's work… .” Regardless, priests from fifty different dioceses, lay people, and nuns flocked to Alabama to join in the marches.


2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (106) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
José Raimundo de Melo

A multiplicidade e variedade dos serviços ministeriais que se fazem presentes na celebração litúrgica do povo de Deus é elemento chave na compreensão da comunidade cristã, pois os ministérios, em definitivo, exprimem e definem a própria realidade da Igreja. A inteira assembléia é ministerial porque a Igreja mesma é toda ministerial. E esta ministerialidade se expressa na liturgia através da diversidade de funções e ofícios que cada um é chamado a desempenhar. Ao contrário do que quase sempre sucede no mundo, porém, a hierarquia de funções na Igreja não denota prestígio e nem pode conduzir à acepção de pessoas. Ancorada na mais pura linha evangélica, deve ela indicar compromisso cristão e serviço fraterno em total doação a Deus e aos irmãos. Para uma reflexão sobre esta importante realidade eclesial, que a partir sobretudo do Concílio Vaticano II a Igreja tem aprofundado e se esforçado em viver, empreenderemos a seguir, ancorados em alguns textos litúrgicos, um estudo a respeito dos ministérios presentes no momento celebrativo da comunidade cristã. Publicamos aqui a primeira parte do artigo.ABSTRACT: The multiplicity and variety of ministerial services which are present in a liturgical celebration of the People of God is a key element in the understanding of the Christian community, since ministries, of themselves, express and define the very reality of the Church. The entire assembly is ministerial because the Church itself is all ministerial. And this ministeriality expresses itself in the liturgy through the diversity of functions and offices which each one is called on to fulfill. Contrary to what almost always happens in the world, however, the hierarchy of functions in the Church does not denote prestige, nor can it lead to the classification of persons. Anchored in the purest evangelical tradition, it should indicate Christian commitment and fraternal service in total self-giving to God and to others. For a reflection on this important ecclesial reality, which, especially from the Second Vatican Council, the Church has struggled to live out, we undertake a study – anchored in some liturgical texts – of the ministries present in the celebrative moment of the Christian community. We publish here the first part of the article. 


Author(s):  
Ormond Rush

For 400 years after the Council of Trent, a juridical model of the church dominated Roman Catholicism. Shifts towards a broader ecclesiology began to emerge in the nineteenth century. Despite the attempts to repress any deviations from the official theology after the crisis of Roman Catholic Modernism in the early twentieth century, various renewal movements, known as ressourcement, in the decades between the world wars brought forth a period of rich ecclesiological research, with emphasis given to notions such as the Mystical Body, the People of God, the church as mystery, as sacrament, and as communio. The Second Vatican Council incorporated many of these developments into its vision for renewal and reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Over half a century after Vatican II, a new phase in its reception is emerging with the pontificate of Pope Francis.


Author(s):  
Francis Appiah-Kubi ◽  
Robert Bonsu

The nature and the missionary role of the laity in the church is one of the issues currently vital to the church and theologians. From the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) perspective, the word laity is technically understood to mean all the faithful except those in holy orders and those in the state of religious life specially approved by the Catholic Church (LG31). These faithful are by baptism made one with Christ and constitute the People of God; they are sharers in the priestly, prophetic and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the church and in the world. However, the distinction between the ordained and the lay is a real one. A great deal of attention has been paid to the ordained ministry of the Church, its nature, its authority and its functions. The laity tends, by way of contrast, to be taken very much for granted, as though in their case no special problems arise. This study discusses the nature, role, and participation of lay people in the mission of the Church as proposed by the Second Vatican Council. It treats succinctly the historical development of the Laity and the challenges and opportunities inherent in their mission.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
George Ludwig Kirchberger

To recall the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, in the first place the author describes the basic texture of the council, namely its spirit of renewal and dialogue and its emphasis upon the church as the people of God. Then follows a brief response to the event itself leading to questions that remain open, mentioning some four groups of issues that were not settled by the council. The next section looks at some limitations in councilar teaching which made implementation difficult in the post-counciliar period. These include the non-awareness of the council participants of the need for legally binding decree, and the way in which, time and again, mutually contradictory statements are placed side by side in the documents without any attempt to relate the two contrary directions implied. By making use of these two weaknesses, the Roman Curia in particular has tried to neutralise a number of reforms, among others, by recentralising the decision making processes of the Catholic Church. One challenge we face 50 years after the council was openned, is to implement the principle of subsidiarity as well and as intensive as possible, and to recall the most fundamental principle in the Catholic Church, namely that each one must follow their conscience. Therefore, in openness to the gospel and conscious of the signs of the times, the struggle for renewal should take place in constructive non-obedience to efforts for restoration being undertaken in a number of quarters. <b>Kata-kata kunci:</b> awam, dialog, Gereja, Injil, pembaruan, persekutuan, restorasi, umat Allah


1971 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 329-344
Author(s):  
E. E. Y. Hales

Centenaries are supposed to be occasions when we take stock of the event we are commemorating. In the light of developments in the last hundred years how does the work of the First Vatican Council look today? And since it so happens that the hundred years in question includes the Second Vatican Council, recently concluded, it is natural to put the question in this form: how does the work of Vatican I look today, in the light of Vatican II?I think it would be fair to say that it is widely considered that the work of Vatican I was a little unfortunate, and has since proved embarrassing, because its definitions enhanced the authority of the papacy. Vatican II is supposed to have helped to redress that balance by disclosing the nature of the Church as a whole, from the bishops down to the People of God, or perhaps I should say from the bishops up to the People of God, in view of our preference nowadays for turning everything upside down. Such critics of Vatican I are not, of course, denying either the dogmatic infallibility or the juridical primacy of the Pope, which were defined at that Council; but they are saying that it is a distortion to stress the powers of the papacy and to neglect the powers of the college of bishops or the rights of the rest of the Church, and they are saying that the one-sided definitions of Vatican I tended to create such distortion in men’s minds until they were balanced by the pronouncements of Vatican II.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (105) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
João Batista Libanio

A Conferência de Aparecida vem na seqüência de quatro anteriores, sendo que as de Medellín, Puebla e Santo Domingo trouxeram contribuições pastorais ainda válidas para o dia de hoje. Antes de pensar questões novas, importa captar das três Assembléias e do Concílio Vaticano II as opções inegociáveis que devem ser reforçadas por Aparecida: Primado da Palavra de Deus, eclesiologia do Povo de Deus e suas implicações, opção pelos pobres e sua libertação, inculturação, protagonismo dos leigos, entre outras. Cabe avançar, assumindo os desafios do momento: animação carismática das estruturas internas da Igreja, evangelizar a nova sociedade globalizada e do conhecimento, evangelização inculturada, pastoral dos migrantes, desafio da midiática.ABSTRACT: The “Aparecida” Conference comes in the sequence of four earlier ones, being such that the conferences of Medellín, Puebla and Santo Domingo brought forth pastoral contributions that are until this day still valid. Before thinking of new questions, it is important to captivate from the three Assemblies and the Second Vatican Council the non-negotiable options that must be reinforced for the Aparecida Conference: the Primacy of the Word of God; the ecclesiology of the People of God and its implications; the option for the poor people and their freedom; Inculturation; the protagonism of the lay people, among others. It is fitting to advance, assuming the challenges of the moment: the charismatic animation of the Church’s internal structures, the evangelization of the new, globalized and knowledgeable society, cultural evangelization, the pastoral ministry for migrants and the challenge of mass media.


LOGOS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-65
Author(s):  
Higianes Indro Pandego

Mixed marriage on the canon 1124, the 1983 Code refers to the marriage between Catholic and non-Catholic persons, which means that both of the persons are baptized. So, it must be the Sacrament (see can. 1055 §2). The Second Vatican Council picked the view of the people of God up based on the dignity of baptism. Then the Council expressed the idea of (full) communion in which the Catholic Church and the other Churches and communities have a relationship. To it Thus, The Council fosters the ecumenical movement that develops the union between the Christians, more especially concerning mixed marriage.


LOGOS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-127
Author(s):  
Higianes Indro Pandego

The sacrament of baptism makes a person united with Christ and made a member of God’s People. God’s People in the Codex Pius Benedict (Codex 1917) are understood based on ordained and unbaptized. This concept gave rise to a pyramid image of the God’s People. On the contrary, the Codex 1983, which was influenced by the views of the Second Vatican Council, see the People of God in common baptism. Based on the baptism, they assumed the general priesthood duties of Jesus Christ according to their individual. The special conditions were bornf for those who received ordination and thus became sacred ministers who exercised the priesthood of office. Both of the general priesthood and the office of priesthood, are carried out in the communion of the Church. In the community spirit, each member of God’s People participates in the mission of Church received from Christ.


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