In her reflections on the synodal process (The Irish Times, August 1st), Ursula Halligan gives voice to views that are also contained in the recently published synthesis document of the diocesan stage of the synodal process.
In her opinion piece, she criticises Archbishop Eamonn Martin for asserting that “Synodality should not diminish the teaching authority of the pope and the bishops.” The synthesis document likewise bemoans the reality that “decision-making and authority are exercised solely by priests and bishops”. To defend the teaching authority of the pope and the bishops, however, is not to deny the importance of utilising the gifts and wisdom of the laity in exercising this authority.
There seems to be a misunderstanding that authority in this context means the ability to dictate the content of faith and morals and that the hierarchy alone enjoys this privilege. Now, however, the prospect that this privilege will be shared with the laity is on the horizon. As a result we can look forward to a future of unprecedented creativity, particularly in the areas of sexuality, gender and the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Properly understood, however, the authority of the pope and bishops does not mean authority to dictate the content of the faith. No member of the church, the Body of Christ, possesses this kind of authority. All believers are, rather, subject to the rule of faith. In that regard, there is absolute equality.
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The role of the pope and bishops is to receive this faith in the fullness of its integrity and to pass it on intact. With ordination comes the responsibility to teach the true faith, a responsibility shared by all priests, whose duty it is to assist the bishops.
Priest, prophet and king
Vatican II states that the ordained priest “by the sacred power he enjoys, teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the people” (Lumen Gentium 10). In brief, ordination confers a threefold office: priest, prophet and king.
All the faithful, by virtue of their baptism, also share in this threefold office. Vatican II is, however, explicit concerning the great difference between the common priesthood of the faithful, on the one hand, and the ordained priesthood, on the other hand: they differ not only in degree but in essence (Lumen Gentium 10).
The church’s teaching concerning this threefold office is, interestingly, a relatively late development. It constitutes an instance of genuine development of doctrine, a notion that Halligan broaches in her opinion piece.
Development of doctrine, properly understood, does not mean change in the content of the faith. To say that the resurrection is just a metaphor would constitute a clear example of change and, as such, is to be rejected. Development, rather, means making explicit what has previously been implicit in this content.
Nothing new, however, is introduced into the faith. Divine revelation in its fullness was completed with the last of the apostles. Genuine development of doctrine delivers to subsequent generations the faith of the apostles, albeit this faith is made more explicit in various respects.
Sacred tradition
This development unfolds within sacred tradition which, along with sacred scripture, “form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the church”, as Vatican II’s Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, teaches.
Sacred scripture is of course the Word of God as expressed in writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Sacred tradition, for its part, takes the Word of God, first entrusted to the apostles and “hands it on to their successors in its full purity” (Dei Verbum 9).
A little further on, Dei Verbum 10 states that “the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ”. The authentic interpretation of God’s definitive revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ is thus assured by apostolic succession.
Dei Verbum also emphasises a point already made in this present article: the Magisterium or teaching office of the church, is not above the Word of God. Its function, rather, is to serve the Word. It teaches “only what has been handed on” (10).
Finally, it ought to be noted that the church’s teaching concerning the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopacy, belongs to the deposit of faith. One might object that it has not been proclaimed in any dogma.
Dogmas, however, are often proclaimed in order to assert true teaching in the face of widespread erroneous views concerning an article of belief. In this regard, misguided thinking concerning Holy Orders has never been an issue up until recently.
Fr Kevin E O’Reilly, OP, teaches moral theology at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, Rome