Letters

True Church

John Frey

Contents - Feb 2008 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Can Catholic schools recover their 'salt' - Michael Gilchrist Spe salvi: Benedict's second encyclical calls for a rediscovery of hope in Christ - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Grace under fire: ordinations, and first Holy Communion in Iraq - Babette Francis Technical school: Salesians continue to help post-tsunami Sri Lanka - Michael Lynch SDB Paganism: 'New Age' activities continue in Brisbane Archdiocese - Tim Pemble-Smith A remarkable father remembered - Maria Rankin How to reform Catholic education: get the world view right - Chris Hilder The need for solitude and reflection amid today's cacophony - Andrew Kania What the social reign of Christ means today - Bishop Peter Elliott Letters: Dissent - Frank White Letters: Natural Law - Fr Bernard McGrath Letters: New look Mass - Jessie Roger Letters: Virgin Birth - Eamonn and Pat Keane Letters: True Church - John Frey Letters: 'Schoolies' - Fr. M. Durham Letters: Poor communication - Don Gaffney Letters: Vatican II - Anthony Bono Letters: From India - Fr. A. Alex Prabhu Books: NO PLACE FOR GOD: The Denial of the Transcendent in Modern Church Architecture - Tony Evans (reviewer) Books: WHEN MIGHT BECOMES HUMAN RIGHT:Essays on Democracy and the Crisis of Rationality - Tim Cannon (reviewer) Books: A YEARBOOK OF SEASONS AND CELEBRATIONS, by Joanna Bogle - Eric Hester (reviewer) Books: Books available from AD2000 and Freedom Publishing Reflection: Devotion to Our Lady: eclipse and revival - Br Barry Coldrey

While I am reluctant to prolong the debate about the terms 'is' and 'subsists in', I feel I ought to respond briefly to Peter Howard (December-January AD2000).

As I see it there are two views on what the Church believes about herself. The first is given by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical, Mystici Corporis Christi, which states (13) that 'this true Church of Jesus Christ is the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic and Roman Church, the Mystical Body of Christ'.

The second view is supplied by the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (no 8) which states that the Church of Christ 'subsists' in the Catholic Church. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently commented on the term 'subsistence'. It is said to be an affirmation that the Church of Christ is concretely found in the Catholic Church as the latter embodies historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ.

Thus we have two propositions. The first proposition, 'A (Church of Christ) is B (Catholic Church)', states that A and B are the same. The term 'is' states that the subject is, or is something.

From the second proposition 'A is concretely found in B' it may not be inferred that A is the same as B. 'To be found in' suggests a mode of being or existence in a certain manner or state, but not identity. Considering the two propositions, the conclusion is that the term 'subsists in' is not the same as the term 'is'.

In the words of St Joan of Arc: 'About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know that they are just one thing, and we shouldn't complicate the matter' (CCC par 795).

JOHN FREY
Keiraville, NSW

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 21 No 1 (February 2008), p. 14