UNIT THREE

1. UNIT THREE The Church Is The People of God

2. 3.2 Who Is Catholic?

3. Did Lynn Leave The Church? • Lynn wasn’t married outside of the Catholic Church • The Catholic Church recognizes Lynne’s marriage as valid

4. Understanding What It Means to be Catholic • Catholics can be given a dispensation to be married in another church. • Must intend to continue practicing Catholic faith. • Must promise to do all that is reasonably in their power to share their faith with their children. • Since the earliest days of Christianity marriage has been recognized as the total and permanent commitment of a woman and a man to each other.

5. Baptism is the primary means of entering the Christian community • Over centuries there have been significant disagreements over the requirements of Baptism the effects of Baptism, and the status of those who are not baptized

6. The Gentile Question • Saint Stephen condemned to death by Jewish authorities • Peter and John same crime, preaching the gospel, different punishment, flogging not death. • Peter and John were Hebrews, Stephen was a Hellenist

7. Hebrews • Used to refer to all Jews • More specifically those who insisted on maintaining the purity of Judaism, strictly adhering to all of the customs of their ancestors

8. Hellenists • Those Jews who were more open to Greek and Roman influences and who were more willing to allow their faith and religious practice to be shaped to some extent by the culture around them

9. Should Christianity be open to Gentiles? • Only after God spoke to Peter in a vision did he become convinced that salvation in Christ was to be offered to Gentiles as well as Jews. • After Gentile converts were accepted, the questions of which elements of Judaism were essential to Christianity became pressing.

10. The Council of Jerusalem • Ruled that Gentile Christians did not have to follow the entire Jewish law • There were only three basic laws they needed to keep: • No Christian should eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols • No Christian should eat the meat of strangled animals or eat blood • All Christians, Gentile or Jew, must avoid illicit sexual activities

11. By the end of the first century… • Church had accepted that the good news was to be shared with all people, including Gentiles. • Anyone who was moved by faith to become a Christian could do so without first converting to Judaism. • Continued to insist that law still had a place in Christian life

12. Church Membership: Permanent Or Conditional? • Roman Emperor Decius declared that all who refused to worship the ancient gods were guilty of treason. • He decreed that every person must offer sacrifice to the Roman gods • All who did not have a certificate to prove that they had offered the required sacrifice were to be treated as criminals

13. Confessors • Those Christians who refused to respond to Decius’s decree to offer sacrifices to Roman gods.

14. Christians who gave in to Decius’s policies…. • Some offered sacrifice so the pagan gods • Others falsified certificates without actually offering sacrifices • When persecutions ended in 252, the Church had to answer the questions, of what to do with these “lapsed” Christians.

15. Dispute over those who turned their back on the promises of Baptism: • Cyprian, bishop of Carthage fled during persecutions and ruled his diocese through written correspondence. • Some Christians felt that the confessors who had stayed and faced the persecution had more right to govern the local church than a bishop who had fled the persecutions

16. Cyprian called a synod to rule on lapsed Christians • All the regional bishops gathered to establish a uniform ruling. • Cyprian believed the Church must be a community of saints with no room for those who could reject the most fundamental elements of their faith. • Confessors wished to readmit the lapsed who had offered sacrifices but now admitted and expressed sorrow.

17. Synod • A representative body of bishops assembled periodically by the pope to advise him on important Church concerns. • It is not a legislative body

18. Compromise position • Those who had offered sacrifices to the pagan gods and repented would only be allowed back into the Church on their deathbed. • Those who had not repented would never be allowed back into the Church. • Those who had obtained false certificates without actually offering a sacrifice could be readmitted immediately.

19. The Debate Continues • Central issue: Was one’s status as a member of the Church permanent or conditional? • Could sin separate a person from God if he or she had already been united to God in Baptism? • Yes and no

20. Penance • Name for the sacrament that allows a sinner to return to communion with Christ and the Church

21. Effects of Baptism • Radical reorientation of person’s life • Inclined one toward God and away from sin • Erased sin inherited from Adam and Eve, but did not erase the freedom to sin. • Baptized person is able to reject God even after original sin has been washed away • When reject God, grace of Christ still remains to heal them if they request it.

22. Problem of responding to lapsed Christians comes to a head. • Following the conversion of Constantine, many thought the Church should not be too quick to welcome back those who had abandoned the faith during more difficult times • Many confessors argued the lapsed Christians who needed to accept a long penitential process before being welcomed back to the Church included those who had cooperated with the authorities by handing over the Bible to be destroyed

23. Donatists • Claimed bishop Caecilian of Carthage was not validly ordained a bishop because the bishop who consecrated him was a traitor to the faith, and any sacrament conferred by him was invalid

24. Caecilian’s response to Donatists • The validity of a sacrament did not and could not depend on the purity of the one administering it. • If it did, people would be in constant doubt concerning the validity of their own Baptisms and of any Eucharist they participated in.

25. Final decision • Grace of the sacraments could not be destroyed by the sin of those administering or receiving them. • A person’s past sins alone should not be the cause of permanent disassociation from the Church.

26. Leading to Unam Santam • 4th century, Ambrose bishop of Milan • Wise man, gifted theologian • Outspoken on duty of Christians to help the poor and unfortunate • Concern however, was for Christians only • The Church exerted controls over people • Believed that membership in People of God was what entitled people to basic human rights

27. Unam Sanctam • 1302 • Papal bull • Church’s claim to absolute authority over all people reached its climax • Written by Pope Boniface VIII • Pope has authority over all people, temporal as well as spiritual authority • Every human creature is to be subject to the Roman Pontiff

28. Faith vs. Works • By late Middle Ages, the only people who could not be members of the Church were sinners who refused to repent and those who openly rejected Christianity • Sacrament of Penance took on prominence • Personal sins committed after Baptism could result in eternal damnation unless they demonstrated the true repentance, absolved of sins in sacrament of Penance

29. Protestant Reformers questioned penitential system • Luther argued that since God saved humankind as sinners, the gift of salvation belongs to all who remain sinners. • The sacrament of Penance placed too much emphasis on human works and too little emphasis on the unmerited grace offered by God • No person could possibly keep all the commandments of God • Everyone would be condemned if salvation hinged upon human behavior

30. Luther’s view on sin • Every effort to avoid sin should be in response to the free gift given by God and not because of a fear of punishment • Believed key to salvation was found in person’s faith and not in his or her actions • Penance and indulgence served no purpose • Encouraged people to place their trust in human effort rather than in God

31. Council of Trent’s response • Agreed with Luther on the following: • People are saved because of the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not their own merit. • A person cannot be justified without faith. • Disagreed with Luther on these points: • Baptism not personal faith is the first step toward salvation. • Baptism is not only the sign but also the instrument of a faithful relationship with God.

32. Post-Baptism Behavior • Baptism makes a faithful relationship with God possible but it does not take away a person’s free will. • If a person chooses to continue sinning, his or her faith will become meaningless and the gift of salvation can be lost.

33. Views on God’s law

34. Summary of Council of Trent’s teachings • Anyone who fails to keep the commandments after receiving God’s grace through Baptism can lose that grace. • Once lost, grace can only be regained as it is given by God, in Penance. • Grace is mediated: We receive the grace of God through physically tangible songs and celebrations.

35. Decrees of Trent made clear… • Membership in Church depends on both faith and works • Implied adherence to the doctrine and practice of the Roman Catholic Church

36. Inclusion and Exclusion • 1864 Pius IX in Syllabus of Errors said the Catholic religion should be the only religion permitted by the state. • Membership in the Church was synonymous with adherence to the Pope and reliance on the seven sacraments. • A person had rights because he or she belonged to God, the rights of those not Catholic were not equal to Catholics.

37. Inclusion and Exclusion • Pope Leo XIII: No one should be forced to become a Catholic against his or her will. • Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium • The Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church • Membership in the People of God is not limited to those who have been baptized or received into the Catholic Church

38. Declaration on Religious Liberty • No one should be compelled to be a Christian or to act against his or her own religious convictions either in public or in private. • The right to freedom of religion stems from the basic human dignity which belongs to all people because they have been created in the image and likeness of God.

39. Second Vatican Council stressed: • Since God desires all people to be one, we must recognize that everyone belongs to or is related to the People of God to some degree. • Catholic faithful who participate in sacramental life of Church, obey teachings of Christ are fully incorporated • All Christians have been united to Christ though Baptism

40. Those who have not accepted the gospel: • Are joined to the People of God in different ways: • Jewish people remain dear to God, first established his covenant with them • All people who believe in creator are part of God’s plan for salvation • Moslems: Share faith of Abraham, worship one God • Do not know God but seek truth and goodness with sincere heart may also share in salvation

41. Religious Indifferentism • Attitude which holds that all religions and all ways of expressing one’s faith are equal or essentially the same • The Church does not accept this attitude. The truth which God has revealed to humanity exists most completely in the Catholic Church.

42. In Conclusion • Church’s understanding of what it means to be a member of the chosen People of God has changed and expanded • In past mistakenly assumed chosen because of certain characteristics, attitudes, beliefs or responses • Over time, come to understand our being chosen is God’s unmerited gift • God has chosen all humanity