SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 4 - N. 5 - 1998 - January - V
From: CIOFS Bulletin, 1997, N. 4
Marianne Powell
part 4
Apostolic Succession
Catholic and Lutherans share the same Creed, and thus both confess their belief in the one -"holy catholic and apostolic Church"-. The RC position, however, has been, and largely remains, that with the Reformation the apostolic succession was broken, as far as the Lutheran ministry was concerned. Hence the Catholic Church does not fully recognize the Lutheran ministerial office. The Vatican Council talks of a -"defectus"- in the sacrament of Ordination in the post Reformation churches. This is the crux of the matter regarding the problem of intercommunion, since according to the RC understanding of the faith, Eucharist and ministry cannot be separated.
It is significant, however, that both churches emphasize the importance of the apostolic succession. This is the basis of the one Church which they both believe in, but they mean something different by apostolic succession. While in the RC understanding apostolic succession refers to the ministerial office, the Lutherans emphasize the succession in apostolic teaching. According to the Lutheran confessional position, the Church exists wherever the gospel is preached in its purity, and the sacraments are rightly administered.
We should therefore not be surprised that the Lutherans are interested in establishing Church unity with the RC. Lutheran confessional writings leave no doubt that the one Church has never ceased to exist.
The Petrine ministry
The other side of the question of what it means to be Church has to do with the understanding of authority and the Petrine ministry. The main line Protestant churches nowadays can accept the Petrine ministry, but as a useful human arrangement. The official Catholic position, however, is that the papal office is divinely instituted and hence necessary. This offends Lutheran Protestant thought: making one particular way of being church, one church structure a condition for salvation is tantamount to setting aside Christ as the only mediator between God and man; it is like adding an extra condition to the mediation by Christ.
In spite of the fact that one principal concern of the Second Vatican Council was the unity of Christians, the Council ultimately offended the non-Catholic churches by defining the one sole Church of Christ as -"subsisting"- in the Catholic Church alone, while acknowledging that -"many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines."- (LG 8). The word -"subsists"- has now become a technical term, expressing that a church claims to be the Church of Jesus Christ, and to balance the RC point of view, other churches now claim the same. Quite clearly this will not advance Christian unity. Whatever is meant by -"Christian unity"-, a gathering of all Christian churches under the Roman Catholic ægis is not meant, and striving for this goes against all that modern ecumenism stands for. The concept of -"sister churches"-, which has always been the way the Orthodox Church understood its own relationship to the RC Church, is also being seriously considered as a possible future mode of relationship for the Lutheran Church.
What does all this mean to us as Secular Franciscans in the year 1997? Why do we need to be interested in this?
As said above, ecumenism being one of the important concerns of the Council it is per definition an important concern for all post-conciliar Catholics. Franciscans moreover have a particular responsibility for taking up the ecumenical issue, since building brotherhood implies acceptance of diversity and understanding the faith of others.
Ecumenism does not mean ignoring differences, but it is a challenge to try and understand what divides God's people on earth, and to get to know our own faith, including the role of history in it. Among all the fanciful celebrations we can devise for the Jubilee Year, an attempt to deepen our ecumenical understanding could bring us closer to honoring the wish of Christ -"that they all may be one"-, and thereby make the Third Millennium a more edifying one than the Second Millennium has proved to be.
Sounding the theme "The Time is Now, the Kingdom of God is at Hand: Franciscans and the Coming of the Third Millennium", the Secular Franciscan Order in the United States concluded its 15th Quinquennial Congress July 20 by urging its members to rid its fraternities of "paralysis and stagnation"" and to "empower, inspire and activate" its members. Earlier, Bishop Michael Saltarelli, during a Mass opening the Congress, had urged members of the Order to "take up the challenge to accept God's will to go on and transform the world as St. Francis did in his time".
500 members of the Order, representing 20.000 members from 31 regions from across the United States, gathered at Clayton Hall on the University of Delaware campus to attend the 5-day Congress.
The Congress focused on how the Order might respond to the needs of contemporary society and how its members should live out their lives as called by the Gospel and as expressed in the Franciscan Rule.
This year, the participants gathered in small groups to identify areas where the Order can be effective in changing society and the Church. Each group was concerned with a specific social issue or issue affecting the mission of the Order. The groups included prison ministry, multiculturalism, lay spiritual assistance training, family issues, ecological issues and evangelization.
On Saturday, representatives of the small groups presented their
insights to the national fraternity. Among the insights:
-- Secular Franciscans are "called to live the Rule, not just read
it". Daily conversion to the Franciscan way of following Christ is
essential;
-- although fragmentation among the fraternities exists, members
should follow the adage of "prayer-share-care" in the manner of
Francis to bring unity to the Order;
-- members must "enter into their founding story in order to tap
into the energy of their founder, St. Francis of Assisi. They must
then take that energy and look at the world in which they live,
asking where their energy is needed today;
-- the SFO "is a caring community of people with substantial
strengths upon which to build".
Commenting on the direction of the Order for the future, National Minister Richard Morton, reminded the participants that "unity and diversity strengthen members" and that fraternities should not spend useless energy in daily administration, energy that might be spent in caring for those in need.
"We must leave our comfort zones", he said. "We have received much information and now we need transformation".
The message of St. Francis, however, remains the same. "One characteristic of the Franciscan", Carisio said, "is the primacy of the Gospel in our lives. As Francis taught in our Rule, we should go from life to Gospel and from Gospel to life we must discover how we can be of maximum value to God's people and the Church".