The Hierarchical
Constitution of the Church
The following words of Pope Paul VI
can serve as a short synthesis of the will of Christ for the
constitution and makeup of his Church:
'Christ promised and sent two
elements to constitute his work, to extend in time and over all the
world the kingdom founded by him and to make of redeemed mankind his
Church, his mystical body, in expectation of his second and
triumphal return at the end of the world. These elements are the
apostolic college and the Spirit. The apostolic college works
externally and objectively. It forms, one might say, the material
body of the Church and gives her a visible and social structure. The
Spirit works internally, within each person and within the community
as a whole animating, vivifying and sanctifying. These two agents,
namely the apostolic college whose successor is the sacred
hierarchy, and the spirit of Christ, which makes the Church Christ's
ordinary instrument in the ministry of the word and the sacraments,
work together. On Pentecost morning they are seen in a marvelous
harmony at the beginning of Christ's great work.'[6]
For the remainder of this article we
will be concerned with the first of these two elements.
The Catholic Church teaches as a
doctrine of faith that Christ gave the Church, in his apostles, a
hierarchical structure of an episcopal nature and that within the
hierarchy and the Church he established a primacy of authority in
the successor of St. Peter.
'All the faithful, from the Pope to
the child who has just been baptized share in one and the same
grace.'[7] Nonetheless, when it is affirmed that the Church is a
hierarchical society we are in substance saying that in spite of the
'radical or fundamental equality' which is to be found among the
People of God, the Church has structures, features and
differentiations by virtue of which she is a society in which there
is a 'functional inequality.'[8] That is to say: not all the
faithful have the same function or mission. For this reason Pope St.
Pius X could say that 'the Church is essentially an unequal society,
that is, a society composed of two types of people: shepherds and
sheep.'[9]
This hierarchical structure is not
the result of socio-political influences but stems from the will of
Christ. This has been stated solemnly by both the Council of Trent
and Vatican I,[10] but it is Vatican II which has given a detailed
summary: 'The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length to the Father,
called to himself those whom he willed and appointed twelve to be
with him, whom he might send to preach the kingdom of God (cf. Mark
3:13-19; Matthew 10:1-42). These apostles (cf. Luke 6:13) he
constituted in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the
head of which he placed Peter, chosen from amongst them (cf. John
21:15-17). He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and
then to all peoples (cf. Romans 1:16), so that, sharing in his
power, they might make all peoples his disciples and sanctify and
govern them (cf. Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:45-48; John
20:21-23) and thus spread the Church and, administering it under the
guidance of the Lord, shepherd it all days until the end of the
world (cf. Matthew 28:20).[11]
Here we have the
hierarchical principle of the Church established in the persons
of the apostles. The Council goes on to say that this structure,
which is of divine origin, is a constitutive part of the Church for
all time, not just for the beginnings of the Church but for today as
well. This is so, she says, by virtue of the
principle of apostolic succession. 'That divine mission, which
was committed by Christ to the apostles, is destined to last until
the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20), since the gospel, which
they are charged to hand on, is, for the Church, the principle of
all its life for all time. For that very reason the apostles were
careful to appoint successors in this hierarchically constituted
society.'[12] The Council then explains in great detail and
attentive to historical reality, to
factual history in the words of Pope Leo XIII, how this
transmission of authority and ministry was made 'to the bishops and
their helpers, the priests and deacons.' This whole procedure, we
are told, must be related to
the will of Christ: 'He willed that the successors (of the
apostles), the bishops namely, should be the shepherds in his Church
until the end of the world.'[13] And finally, the Council solemnly
declares: 'The sacred synod consequently teaches that the bishops
have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as
pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever despises them
despises Christ and him who sent Christ (Luke 10:16).[14]
'This divinely instituted hierarchy,
which is composed of bishops, priests and ministers'[15] received
the mission which Christ had entrusted to his apostles. 'With
priests and deacons as helpers, the bishops received the charge of
the community, presiding in God's stead over the flock of which they
are the shepherds, in that they are teachers of doctrine, ministers
of sacred worship and holders of office in government.'[16]
The sacrament of order is the way
established by Christ for perpetuating in his Church this essential
hierarchy[17] to which he has given the power of mission with its
threefold office of teaching, sanctifying and ruling the faithful.
'The holders of office, who are invested with the sacred power, are,
in fact, dedicated to promoting the interests of their brethren so
that all who belong to the People of God, and are consequently
endowed with true Christian dignity, may, through their free and
well-ordered efforts towards a common goal, attain salvation.'[18]
REFERENCES
[6] Paul VI, "Address to Vatican
Council II," Sept. 14, 1964, A.A.S. 56 (1964), p.807.
[7] A. del Portillo, Faithful and
Laity in the Church, Shannon, 1976, p.19.
[8] Ibid., p.22.
[9] St. Pius X, Encyclical
Vehementer, Feb. 11, 1906, A.A.S. 39 (1906), p.8.
[10] DS 1776, 3051 (DB 966,1821).
[11] Decree on the Church,
no.19
[12] Ibid., no.20
[13] Ibid., no.18
[14] Ibid., no.20
[15] Council of Trent, Session 23, c. 6, DB 1776 (DS 966)
[16] Decree on the Church,
no.20
[17] Ibid., no.21 and 28
[18] Ibid., no.18
-by Pedro Rodriguez, from "The Primacy Of The Pope
In The Church," Reprinted from Catholic Position Papers, September,
1981 -- Japan Edition.
Seido Foundation for the Advancement of Education,12-6
Funado-Cho, Ashiya Japan
