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Introduction
In the Roman Canon, the Church prays for the bishops “and all right-worshipping cultivators of
catholic and apostolic faith.”1 How do we, as members of the Church, strive to “cultivate”—as
the Roman Canon says—the “catholic” faith? What is Catholicity? I wish to raise the question
At least three Fathers of the Church—St Cyril of Jerusalem, St Augustine of Hippo, and
The most famous criteria of Catholicity, however, comes from St Vincent, whose standard
outlines „Catholicity‟ as “that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”2
around A.D. 434 under the pseudonym “Peregrinus,” meaning “Pilgrim.” In it, St Vincent
argues that the Catholic Faith is handed on “by authority of divine law,” by which he means
Scripture, and “by the Tradition of the Catholic Church.” The full text of the Canon runs thus:
Now in the Catholic Church we take the greatest care to hold that which has been
believed everywhere, always, and by all. That is truly and properly „catholic‟ as shown
by the very force and meaning of the word, which comprehends everything almost
universally. We shall hold to this rule if we follow ecumenicity, antiquity, and consent.
We shall follow universality if we acknowledge that one Faith to be true which the whole
Catholic Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity if we in no wise depart from
those interpretations which is clear that our ancestors and fathers proclaimed; consent, if
in antiquity itself if we keep following the definitions and opinions of all, or certainly
nearly all, bishops and doctors alike.
1
«[E]t omnibus orthodoxis atque catholicae et apostolicae fidei cultoribus.» Translation given in A. KAVANAGH,
On Liturgical Theology (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1992), 81.
2
Cf. JOHANNES QUASTEN, Patrology, vol. 4: The Golden Age of Latin Patristic Literature (Allen, TX: Christian
Classics, 1995), 546-551.
1
The Canon therefore begins by alluding to the definition of the word „catholic‟ and proceeds to
Defining <Catholic>
We know that <catholic> comes from the Greek adjective kaqoliko,j; it brings together two
words, the preoposition kata,, from kaq‟, meaning „according to‟, and o[[loj, meaning „whole‟ or
„complete.‟ Taken together, kaq‟ o[[lou (as two words) or kaqo,lou (as one word) has the more
precise meaning of „according to the whole‟. It must be pointed out most forcefully that o[[loj as
The term was used by Zeno to refer to Universals; it also appears in Aristotle as lo,goi
In many editions of the New Testament, the series of apostolic letters beginning with the
First Epistle of Peter have been classified as “General Epistles”—some manuscripts speak of the
“Catholic Epistles” because of the scope of the contents in these letters, that is, generic.
St Ignatius of Antioch is the first known Christian writer to apply the word kaqoliko,j to
the Church: “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” Contrary to what popular
apologetics speakers would have us believe, the meaning of St Ignatius‟ statement has less to do
with the “true Church” and more to do with an ecclesiology of communion: The full statement
reads: “Where the bishop is, let the multitude of believers be, even as where Jesus Christ is,
there is the Catholic Church.” What we have forgotten, I would suggest, is the adjectival nature
in fact in the Creeds of the Church only «Ecclesiam» is capitalized because it is a proper name.
While of course Ignatius is referring to the Church we are now part of, his intention was to point
2
out the „whole in the part‟ principle of ecclesiology—that in the local Church, the whole Church
“Concerning the whole”—but the whole of what? Vincent introduced his canon by
pointing out divergent interpretations of Scriptures and the errors they gave rise to and their
subsequent condemnations by the Ecumenical Councils and local synods. The problem, frankly,
is that both heretics and those within the Church read the same Scriptures but conclude different
of such various error, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles should
ecumenicity, antiquity, and consent. In other words, what is „catholic‟ is, quite literally,
„according to the whole‟ of ecumenicity, „according to the whole‟ of antiquity and „according to
the whole‟ of consensus. The problem, for Vincent, is identifying what belongs to the Tradition
of the Church.
The first criteria of Catholicity, œcumenicity or, more popularly, universality, I think, has
become ubiquitous to the point of being posited as the only meaning to the word „catholic.‟ For
this reason I wish to devote my attention first to the criteria of antiquity and consent. I will,
however, return to the criteria of universality but in a different sense than what Vincent had in
Antiquity
“Following the Holy Fathers.” Georges Florovsky notes that “it was usual in the ancient Church
to introduce doctrinal phrases with statements like this.” I have found it troubling that we who
belong to the Roman Church sui iuris do not breathe the Fathers of the Church in our homilies or
3
preaching or even casual discourse, except perhaps in apologetics. What is interesting, once we
bear in mind that the Vincentian Canon deals principally with the interpretation of Scripture by
deference to the Fathers, is that this is precisely the method of studies envisioned by the Second
Vatican Council in its decree Optatam totius. “Dogmatic theology should be so arranged that
these biblical themes are proposed first of all. Next there should be opened up to the students
what the Fathers of the Eastern and Western Church have contributed to the transmission and
begin with the method of exegesis, the “great themes of Divine Revelation,” and a daily
assimilation of the sacred text in the life of the theologian, especially in the liturgy. Only after
this has been done, and even before an “history of dogma” is the exposure to the teaching of the
Fathers.
The years preceding the Second Vatican Council saw not only a liturgical renewal, but
also a theological renewal whose method was known as ressourcement—a return to the sources,
not just of Scripture but the Fathers also. The landmark work which launched the ressourcement
movement was Henri de Lubac‟s Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man. He has
been described as “one of the thinkers who created the intellectual climate that made possible the
Second Vatican Council, largely by opening up the vast resources of the Catholic tradition which
Our contemporary Thomistic revival owes to this ressourcement as well partially because
demonstrate was that the Angelic Doctor, in citing the Fathers of the Church, especially Leo the
3
SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Decree on Priestly Training Optatam totius (28 October 1965), no. 16.
4 F. L. CROSS and E. A. LIVINGSTONE, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd rev. ed. (New York,
NY: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1006. See also T. ROWLAND, “Contemporary Theological Circles,” in Ratzinger’s
Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI (New York, NY: Oxford University Pres, 2008), 17-29.
4
Great, Gregory, Augustine, and John of Damascus, was to send his readers to the Fathers
themselves and to read the entire text and context of these references. This is precisely what the
it with an illicit appeal to authority—that of Aquinas‟. Aquinas had tried to convey his own
Acquiring a “Patristic mind” isn‟t simply knowing what the Fathers taught but also how
the Fathers learned. St Gregory of Nazianzus tells us that the Fathers theologized “in the manner
of the Apostles, not of Aristotle.”5 None of the Fathers were university theologians: they were
either pastors or monastics, all of whom grappled with the Mystery of God in prayer or in
shepherding the Church. As St Evagrius Ponticus once said: “If you are a theologian you truly
pray; if you truly pray you are a theologian.”6 The dichotomy between the head and the heart
was unknown among the Fathers, a dichotomy that still remains relatively unknown in Eastern
Christianity, a dichotomy which, unfortunately, became prevalent after the Council of Trent. It
is a dichotomy that must be expunged from the typically Roman way of doing theology.
Consent
In modern doctrinal criticism, we speak of the “ordinary and universal magisterium” as the
consensus of the college of bishops handing on an article of faith according to the exercise of the
munera docendi proper to the episcopal office. But with Cardinal Newman, this evolved to
mean not only the consensus of the bishops in communion with the Successor of Peter, but also
the consent of the whole body of the faithful. Newman introduced his thinking on the sensus
fidelium in his “Letter to the Duke of Norfolk” and was later enshrined in Lumen gentium: “The
5
Orations, 23:12.
6 ST EVAGRIUS PONTICUS, The 153 Chapters on Prayer, 60.
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whole body of the faithful who have an anointing that comes from the Holy One cannot err in
matters of belief.”7 What is meant here is not a „parallel‟ consensus of the faith by the laity
along with the episcopate, but rather the reception of teaching handed on by the magisterium.
Speaking of the content of faith taught by the magisterium, Lumen gentium says that “To these
definitions the assent of the Church can never be wanting, on account of the activity of that same
Holy Spirit, by which the whole flock of Christ is preserved and progresses in unity of faith.”8
In applying Vincent‟s criterion of „consent‟, we must offer our criticism to the many
purportedly Catholic colleges and organizations who advertise themselves as “faithful to the
magisterium” or some similar slogan. I have argued elsewhere that one cannot be doctrinally
sound by brute force: Simply parroting the Church‟s doctrine can never pass for consent.
Rather, the Church‟s doctrine must be assimilated in the life of the believer. This can be done in
First, consent comes about by abandoning hearsays and becoming familiar with the
Church‟s teachings “from the horse‟s mouth,” so to speak. For example, many Catholics think
that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception speaks of the Mother of God being born “without
original sin” when in fact the dogmatic definition in Ineffabilis Deus speaks specifically of being
“born without stain of original sin.”9 „Attunement‟ to the pronouncements of the ecclesia
discens means we pay close and careful attention to the nuances and shades of meaning of what
youth minister who had insisted that Christ is “physically present” in the Eucharist. The
7
SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium (21 November
1964), no. 12.
8
Lumen gentium, 25.
9
POPE +PIUS IX, Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus (8 December 1984).
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difference between the „physical‟ presence of Christ and the „substantial‟ presence of Christ was
initially lost upon him simply because of inattention to the canons of Lateran IV and Trent.
Second, merely reiterating of magisterial teaching cannot pass for authentic consent.
Again, we cannot be doctrinally sound „by brute force.‟ It would be barely meritorious for me,
in professing Dyotheletism, to clench my fist and say “…two natural volitions or wills and two
natural actions, without division, without change, without separation, without confusion” 10 until
I am blue in the face, but do not make progress in understanding what the dogma means and be
convinced of the truth of this dogma and allow it change not just how I think, but how my heart
beats. Profession of the dogma of the two wills of Christ promulgated by the Third Council of
Constantinople should mean, subsequently, that Christ is concerned for the temporal and eternal
welfare of souls. The Catholic believer, then, assimilating the dogma of Christ‟s divine and
human wills, finds herself able to harmoniously exercise the works of social justice and
Third, consent means being able to gauge the various levels of the Church‟s teachings—
theological opinion.11 Both Dei Verbum12 and canon law13 are quite clear on the different kinds
submission of the intellect and will.” It is a demonstration of terrible irresponsibility to dump all
of the teachings of the Church into one category, either as dogmas or as suggestions.
10
NEUNER and DUPUIS, 635; DENZINGER, 556.
11
R. GAILLARDETZ, “What the Church Teaches: Gradations of Church Doctrine” in Teaching With Authority: A
Theology of the Magisterium of the Church (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1997), 101-128.
12
Lumen gentium, 25.
13
Code of Canon Law, c. 752.
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Universality
„ecumenicity‟—which de Lubac agrees has been overused.14 Neither should we imagine that the
universality of the Church is contingent upon the uniformity of rites, laws, and custom.
Referring to this, Johann Adam Möhler complained : “[…] I must note how superficially and
poorly is the concept of the Catholic Church of those who always have in sight the external
description, the appearance, the external union, and who cannot raise themselves to inner being
and life.”15 So the universality I wish to discus here is not one that is spatial or temporal, but one
that is able to grasp the totality of the Mystery of Christ. The meaning of o[[loj, remember, is
„whole‟ or „complete.‟ It can never mean it in the sense of „an aggregate.‟ Consequently two
theological discipline by classifying the content of faith into various treatises. More recently,
there has been a tendency to categorize the content of faith according to the “four pillars” of the
Creed, the sacraments, morality, and prayer. The problem with these approaches, however, is
that it runs the risk of fragmenting the intrinsic unity of content of faith, a unity that is derived
from the Mystery of Christ who is the fount of Divine Revelation. When we perform the
theological task according to the various disciplines, are we then able to behold the whole
being “according to the whole” of what is believed “everywhere, always, and by all,” means a
Faith that sees the structure of doctrine as a unity, a „seamlessness‟ as it were, between the
various articles of faith. It sees not just truths, but Truth. From the Mystery of Christ flows the
14
H. DE LUBAC, Catholicism (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1988), 282.
15
J. A. MÖHLER, Unity in the Church (Washington, D.C., Catholic University of America Press, 1996), 279.
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doctrine of the Church, of the sacraments, of moral living, and so forth. Fragmenting doctrine
Christ.
Second, Jan Witte of the Pontifical Gregorian University has said that Christ, “…bears
Catholicity within himself.” Commenting on this, Avery Dulles points out that the Johannine
and Deutero-Pauline concept of plh,rwma is the “closest biblical equivalent for what we call
catholicity.” Plh,rwma, or „plentitude‟ is defined as “that which fills up”, “that which is brought
to fullness or completion.”16 The Incarnate Word is said to be “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14)
and “from his fullness we have all received” (Jn 1:16). It is in this Incarnate Word that “all the
fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19); “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells
bodily” (Col 2:9). The fullness or plentitude that is found in Christ overflows into the Church:
“and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the
Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all,” to. plh,rwma tou/ ta. pa,nta evn
pa/sin plhroume,nou (Eph 1:22, 23). Catholicity, then, means the plentitude of Christ, the whole
of Christ whose truth and grace is poured out into the Church, “until we all atain to the unity of
the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the
Conclusion
In applying the criteria of antiquity and consent to the Church of today, I have argued for a
continuation of the ressorcement movement and acquiring a “Patristic mind.” In applying the
16
BDAG, 672.
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criteria of consent I have argued for a responsible handling of the various grades of magisterial
teaching. I have also tried to argue, on the basis of the Roman Canon, that Catholicity is to be
cultivated, because we pray for “…all right-worshipping cultivators of catholic and apostolic
faith…”
Aidan Kavanagh has rightly complained that this sentence has never been adequately
translated into English, probably on account of the Roman tendency to drive a wedge between
liturgy and theology. Even the forthcoming translation of the Roman Missal bungles here. For
us Romans, „orthodox‟ usually has the meaning of „doctrinally correct‟ or „without error‟ when
in fact it means „right worship‟ or „right glorification.‟ The contrary of „orthodoxy‟ is not
„heresy‟ but „heterodoxy‟—wrong worship. This should suggest to us, in light of the prayer
from the Roman Canon we just heard, that catholicity and apostolicity must be cultivated within
the context of liturgical worship. Again, it has become a typically Roman aberration to divorce
out what Catholics believe, rather than to the text of the Missal, the hymns of the breviary, or to
the sacramental signs and gestures, as should be the case. Catholicity, then, can only be received
and cultivated when the sacred liturgy becomes our perennial point of departure and return.
When St Vincent of Lérins gave us the criteria of Catholicity, he did so under the
pseudonym of “Peregrinus”—pilgrim. Like St Vincent, we too are “pilgrims,” in the sense that
we are on a pilgrimage to that plh,rwma of God in Christ, the same Christ “who bears
Catholicity in himself.”
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