making a difference
By Tony Magliano
Catholic News Service
Still called to action, 40 years later
Dec. 8 marks the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s closing. During that gathering — the 21st ecumenical council in Church history — more than 2,500 of the world’s bishops approved 16 documents designed to enliven Catholic spirituality and make the Church far more relevant to the modern world.
The most challenging and prophetic of these documents was the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. It is arguably the most important document in the rich tradition of Catholic social teaching.
To label a document of an ecumenical council “pastoral” was in itself unique. The pastoral nature of this document meant that it was calling the Catholic world to serve the larger world — above all to serve humanity’s suffering masses.
Its very first words powerfully illustrate this call: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”
While speaking on behalf of the world’s poor, hungry, war torn and unborn, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World confronts the well off and powerful. It challenges individuals, governments and corporations to turn from selfishness and seek the common good, saying:
“In many instances there exists a pressing need to reform economic and social structures . . . There must be an abolition of excessive desire for profit, nationalistic pretensions, the lust for political domination, militaristic thinking . . .
“Some nations with a majority of Christians have an abundance of this world’s goods, while others are deprived of the necessities of life and are tormented with hunger, disease and every kind of misery. This situation must not be allowed to continue, to the scandal of humanity.”
The world’s Catholic bishops courageously confronted an increasing war mentality. They taught that the accumulation of weapons does not build genuine peace, it threatens it, and it does nothing to address the causes of war, such as economic inequalities.
Their document says: “The arms race is an utterly treacherous trap for humanity, and one which injures the poor to an intolerable degree.”
Pressing forward, the bishops urged us to think outside the box. They said, “Let us find means for resolving our disputes in a manner worthy of man. Divine Providence urgently demands of us that we free ourselves from the age-old slavery of war.”
While many nations were preparing to launch full-scale war on the unborn and newly born, the council fathers declared, “From the moment of its conception, life must be guarded with the greatest care, while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes.”
Four decades have passed since the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World was approved, and the world largely has ignored its critical messages. Countless Catholics have also ignored these authoritative teachings.
How many more lives must be sacrificed to the gods of war, greed and indifference before we — especially the disciples of Jesus — stand up and cry out: “No more!”
At Vatican II’s final public session, Pope Paul VI summed it all up with these inspiring words: “On the face of every human being, especially when marked by tears and sufferings, we can and must see the face of Christ, the son of man.”
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law