Key Concepts: Secularization, Faith, and Vatican II Reforms
1. Secularization: The process by which people begin to understand life, the world, and society without God.
2. Consequences of Secularization on the State Church:
Privileges of the clergy are limited or suppressed, as are religious congregations. Loss of possessions, an indispensable means for maintenance, especially for monasteries, occurs through confiscations. In Spain, the best known example is the confiscation by Mendizabal.
3. Industrial Revolution:
Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum, the first official document of the Church on social issues.
- Right of the worker to a wage sufficient to live a decent life.
- The right to private property, not forgetting its social function.
- Obligation of the State to intervene to ensure public and private rights.
- Condemnation of the class struggle, while recognizing the workers’ right to organize to defend their interests.
4. Belief and Faith:
Faith illuminates things we already know or will know someday. Faith is an act of trust in God, identical to the one made when someone recognizes authority.
When we trust or believe this or that authority until further information emerges, we cannot properly speak of faith.
In the Christian faith, there are two aspects:
- As part of the person, an attitude of seeking God. The person cannot fully know God because she is finite, and God is infinite.
- As part of God, a manifestation, a revelation of Himself to the person. God can only be known if He is revealed, if He wills to be known.
5. The Twentieth-Century Council:
– Vatican II. Began under John XXIII, October 11, 1962. Closed under Paul VI, December 8, 1965.
6. Characteristics of the Council:
Its universality and magnitude. Composed of 2,500 council fathers. Europeans were only a third; most fathers came from other continents and younger nations.
– Ecumenism: There were many observers from other Christian faiths.
– Connection with society: The subjects discussed concerned not only Christians but all of humanity.
– Impact on society: The topics of the council reached all corners of the world.
7. Renewal from the Council:
A profound change in the internal life of the Church:
- The recognition of the Christian spirit in non-Catholic churches.
- The recognition of the role of the laity in the life of the Church.
- Liturgical reform, renewing all the celebrations.
- The definition of the Church as God’s people.
Two major documents: Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes.
8. Input from the Council:
- The declaration of religious freedom.
- The affirmation of the goodness of all creation and the sovereignty of man over the world.
- The recognition of the autonomy of science and the value of culture and progress, provided they serve the good of humanity.
- The decisive momentum to the commitment of Christians around the world, working for justice and peace.
- The commitment of Christians to the poor and disadvantaged.
- The separation of church and state.
9. Reforms of the Council:
- Instituted the Synod of Bishops and gave more autonomy to the Episcopal Conferences.
- Promulgated and developed the liturgical reform. All the sacraments were reformed, making them more accessible. Latin ceased to be the official language.
- Urged the political and social commitment of Christians through an encyclical, laying the foundations of the new Social Doctrine of the Church.
- In the life of the parishes, greater involvement of all the faithful.
- Long-promoted the participation of the laity in the life of the Church.
10. Commitment to Ecumenism:
Vatican II encouraged the Church’s commitment to ecumenical work, promoting and strengthening measures aimed at the unity of all Christians.
This implies:
- Living true to the Christian faith.
- Considering non-Catholic Christians as brothers who believe in Jesus.
- Knowing the causes of separation and common beliefs that exist.
- Working together in world evangelization and the pursuit of justice and peace.
- Asking God to help restore unity.