Subsistit in

Subsistit in is an expression of the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium . It is one of those which will have caused the most difficulty of comprehension during the years of reception of the Concile Vatican II. For some, in favor of the “hermeneutics of discontinuity and rupture”, it marks the oecumenical opening of the council the Vatican II and modifies the traditional interpretation of the doctrines Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus . For others, of which the pope Benoit XVI, defender of the “hermeneutics of continuity”, and supported by, amongst other things, the young theologist Joseph Ratzinger then to advise of the cardinal Joseph Frings, archbishop of Cologne.

This teaching was reaffirmed in the declaration Dominus Iesus . It should be noted that in philosophy thomist, the verb to remain has a direction stronger than the verb being. It is strictly speaking a Développement of the dogma to look further into the direction of the doctrines of the unicity of the Church of Christ. This doctrinal precision refers to the undivided Église implicitly: the Church of before 1054 remains in the Catholic church. The doctrines are formulated with an aim of recognizing that in the churches and communities not-catholics, exist means of hello. Thus, for example, for the Churches of the seven councils, the validity of the sacraments and the apostolic Succession is recognized by the Catholic church. However, that is not taught reciprocally in the orthodoxe Church.

In addition, FSSPX criticized this doctrinal formulation because it estimates that it can lead to difficulties of interpretation.

An interpretation hétérodoxe

Indeed, for some, generally resulting from the rows Catholic reformers, that means that the Catholic church does not have the “monopoly of the hello”, that in other communities or churches that the Church one can find the means of the hello, which it is thus not useful to be catholic to be saved. “In light that means that it does not miss anything with the Catholic church but how it is not necessarily the single one with being faithful to Christ! In short, the Catholic church belongs fully to the Church of Christ, but I did not say that the Church of Christ was the Catholic church. ”

Roman precise details and the real direction

Since 1985, the Catholic church warned against this type of interpretation: “Contrary with the authentic significance of the conciliar text is thus the interpretation which draws from the formula subsistit in the thesis that single Église of Christ could also remain in noncatholic Churches and Church communities. " The Council had, contrary, chooses the word subsistit precisely to clarify which there exists only one “subsistence” of the true Church, whereas outside its visible unit, exist only elementa Ecclesiae which - being elements of the same Church - tend and lead towards the Church catholique" ”

For the Concile Vatican II, such as the Catholic church by the voice of the Congrégation for the doctrines of the faith includes/understands it, “by the expression subsistit in , the Concile Vatican II wanted to proclaim two doctrinal assertions: on the one hand, that in spite of divisions between Christians, the Church of Christ continues to exist in plenitude in the only Catholic church; in addition, " that many elements of sanctification and truth remain out of its structures" , i.e. in the Churches and Church communities which are not yet in full communion with the Catholic church. But these last should be affirmed that them " force drift of the plenitude of grace and truth which was entrusted to the Church catholique" ”

In July 10th, 2007, the Vatican published a new document intended to specify the lesson given in Dominus Iesus'. These “answers to questions relating to certain aspects of the doctrines of the Church”, dated June 27th, 2007, specify five questions:

; First question about the continuity of the doctrines “The Council did not want to change and does not have in fact not changed the doctrines into question, but well rather intended to develop it, formulate it in a more adequate way and to look further into the intelligence of it. ” ; Second and third questions about the direction of the expression subsistit in and its use in the place of are . “According to the catholic doctrines, if it is correct to affirm that the Church of Christ is present and acting in the Churches and the Church communities which are not yet in full communion with the Catholic church, thanks to the elements of sanctification and of truth that 9 there are found, the verb `to remain' can be exclusively allotted only to the only Catholic church, since it refers to the note of unit professed in the symbols of the faith (`I believe in the Church, one'); and this Church a `remains' in the Catholic church. ” ; Fourth question about the ecclesiology of the particular Churches of the East. “However, since the communion with the Catholic church, whose visible Chief is the Bishop of Rome and Successeur of Pierre, is not a complement external with the particular Church, but one of its internal constitutive principles, the condition of particular Church which these worthy Christian communities enjoy suffers from a deficiency” ; Fifth question about the ecclesiology of the Protestant communities “These Church communities, which did not preserve authenticates it and integral eucharistic reality of the Mystery, especially thereafter of the absence of ministerial priesthood, cannot be called " Churches " with the clean direction according to the catholic doctrines. ”

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