Popes Leo XIII and Leo XIV
Part II: The Divine Presence in the Catholic Church
Part I1 https://pcpbooks.org/blogs/newsletter/popes-leo-xiii-and-leo-xiv of this study was devoted to comparing the papal doctrine of Popes Leo XIII through Pius XII – that the Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Mystical Body, the Catholic Church – with the teaching of Pope John Paul II, who proposed a new perspective regarding the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity and the Church. In his encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, John Paul II emphasized Vatican II’s statement that the Church is “a sacrament or sign and instrument of the intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race.”2 He further explained that the Church “sees herself above all as a sacrament,” 3 and that this is “the essential mystery of the Church.” 4
Pius XII, on the other hand, had taught that the most profound term expressing the nature of the Church was that of the Mystical Body of Christ:
“If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ – which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church – we shall find no expression more noble, more sublime or more divine than the phrase which calls it ‘the Mystical Body of Christ.’ This title is derived from and is, as it were, the fair flower of the repeated teaching of Sacred Scripture and the Holy Fathers.”5
The reason for this uniqueness of the Catholic Church is that she differs not simply in degree but in kind from every other religious society, for she is the Body of Christ, whose Soul is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. This truth was expressed in the following words in 1885, a decade and a half after the First Vatican Council, by Henry Edward Cardinal Manning:
“The living consciousness which the Catholic Church has, that it is the dwelling-place of the Spirit of Truth and the organ of His Voice, seems to be still growing more and more vividly upon its pastors and people, as the nations are falling away…the unity, outward and inward, the unanimity and supernatural expansion of the Catholic Church by its own imperishable life and intrinsic force, bear witness of a Presence, a Mind, a Will and a Power which is not of man, but of God. “6
The focus after Vatican II, on the other hand, turned attention away from this internal life within the Catholic Church to the action of the Holy Spirit not only in other Christian denominations, or even religions in general, but in all of humanity and in all of creation. Pope John Paul II advocated for this new emphasis by stating that as Our Lord Jesus Christ becomes head of the Church, He also becomes “head of humanity: of the people of every nation, every race, every country and culture, every language and continent….”7
To explain this further John Paul II cited St. Peter, but prefaced St. Peter’s own words by stating that “there begins in the heart of all human beings that particular created gift whereby they ‘become partakers of the divine nature.’” 8 St. Peter in the passage quoted by John Paul II was addressing those “that have obtained equal faith with us” (II Peter 1:1), and therefore the first Christians, rather than referring to “all human beings” as John Paul II had done. The latter would be a spiritual or figurative sense of Sacred Scripture – rather than the literal sense, which according to Pius XII represented the “the foremost and greatest endeavor” in the work of Biblical interpretation.9
This new emphasis on the action of the Holy Ghost outside the Catholic Church was accompanied by a new concept of the Church’s internal structure. It was Léon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens who became a foremost proponent of this new orientation, expressed in his book A New Pentecost? Cardinal Suenens played an influential role in the Preparatory Commission of the Second Vatican Council, where he introduced a division among the conciliar documents based on the Church’s speaking to those inside, ad intra, and to those outside, ad extra, a distinction which the biographer of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre warned was a “revolutionary innovation.”10 Accompanying this was a restructuring in the internal government of the Church, which most recently has developed into the concept of a “synodal Church,” whereby the pastors of the Church listen to the faithful while assuming that in so doing they are listening to the Holy Spirit.
Cardinal Suenens explained his position in this way: “The fact…that we recognize this universal presence of the Spirit should not prevent us from discerning, analyzing, and reflecting upon a special and privileged presence where he manifests himself in a particular way….I wish to call attention to the importance of a particular force of renewal in the Church today: the Charismatic Renewal or Renewal in the Spirit.” 11 He described this movement as having originated in some manner at a Catholic university in the United States, Duquesne University of the Holy Ghost in Pittsburgh. Duquesne is operated under the auspices of the Holy Ghost Fathers, the general superior of which at the time was Archbishop Lefebvre. The Holy Ghost Fathers at that same time were voting to reorganize the government of their congregation, depriving the superior general of the authority that he previously held. This left Archbishop Lefebvre with no practical option but to resign his position.
Not only was the religious life undergoing such changes, but also the understanding of the priesthood and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Pope Paul VI introduced a new rite for the Roman liturgy, while Archbishop Lefebvre founded a new priestly society and a seminary that came to be centered around the traditional Roman rite. In the meantime a Brazilian layman, Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira, wrote a critical study of the new rite under the direction of Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer of the diocese of Campos, Brazil.
Where was the manifestation of the action of the Holy Ghost in these liturgical developments? Was it in the new form of the Roman rite, or was the Holy Spirit working to preserve the ancient form of the Roman liturgy – by inspiring new priestly and religious vocations from among Catholic families that derived spiritual benefit from the traditional rite, and lay apostolates devoted to the traditional doctrine of the Social Kingship of Christ?
Pope Paul VI saw the study by Arnaldo Xavier da Silveira as a danger to the proposed liturgical reform, and he took action to delay the publication of the book. Bishop de Castro Mayer respectfully complied out of deference to the wishes of the pope, but he pleaded with the Holy Father in a letter, asking him to consider the grave concerns manifested in the book. It is now five decades since Bishop de Castro Mayer’s request was made, and the growth of priestly vocations inspired by this ancient rite prompts us to make the English translation of this book available to Catholics throughout the world, at a time when Pope Leo XIV has indicated that he does not yet know in which direction this liturgical development will go. It is our firm belief that the book will help Catholics understand how the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church in the current liturgical debate, at the beginning of the new pontificate of Leo XIV.
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1 https://pcpbooks.org/blogs/newsletter/popes-leo-xiii-and-leo-xiv
2 The Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life (New York: A Crossroad Herder Book, 1997), p. 126.
3 Ibid., p. 127.
4 Ibid., p. 126.
5 Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi, §13.
6 Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The Internal Mission of the Holy Ghost (New York: D. & J. Sadlier, 1885), p. vii.
7 Op. cit., p. 98.
8 Ibid., p. 100.
9 Pius XII, Divino Afflante Spiritu, §23.
10 Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Marcel Lefebvre: The Biography (Kansas City, MO: Angelus Press, 2004), p. 280.
11 Léon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens, A New Pentecost? (New York: The Seabury Press, n.d.), pp. 71-72.
Two Timely Issues:
The New Mass and the Possibility of a Heretical Pope
https://pcpbooks.org/products/two-timely-issues-the-new-mass-and-the-possibility-of-a-heretical-pope
by Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira
Was Pope Paul VI exercising his infallible authority when he promulgated a new form of the Roman rite? Are Catholics who have adhered to the traditional Latin rite acting out of disobedience? Already centuries ago theologians and doctors of the Church have debated whether a pope could fall into error or even heresy. The author of this book did not pretend to definitively resolve such questions, but he provided overwhelming evidence that confirms what Cardinal Ottaviani wrote to Pope Paul VI on September 25, 1969 – that “the Novus Ordo represents...a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent.”