Vatican City, Jan 29, 2018 / 06:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday Pope Francis released a new apostolic constitution calling for a “radical” reform to the nature and curriculum of ecclesiastical universities and institutions.
“The primary need today is for the whole People of God to be ready to embark upon a new stage of Spirit-filled evangelization,” the Pope said in the document, “Vertatis Gaudium.”
This new stage of evangelization, he said, “calls for a resolute process of discernment, purification and reform. In this process, a fitting renewal of the system of ecclesiastical studies plays a strategic role.”
Signed Dec. 8, 2017, and published Jan. 29, 2018, the 87-page document is Francis’ is titled “Veritatis Gaudium,” meaning “the joy of truth.”
The document deals specifically with ecclesiastical universities and faculties, which, differing from regular Catholic universities, offer Vatican-approved degrees required to teach in seminaries or at pontifical universities.
It consists of two parts dedicated to general norms and specific norms, and also contains an appendix and norms of application. The document is meant to “update” previous norms, and abrogates any prior rules which contradict the new ones laid out by Pope Francis in Veritatis Gaudium.
The document abrogates any contrary norms established by John Paul II’s 1979 Apostolic Constitution “Sapientia Christiana,” issued after a careful study of the Second Vatican Council’s decree “Optatam Totius” on ecclesiastical studies. However, John Paul II’s 1990 Apostolic Constitution “Ex corde Ecclesiae” is not impacted , as it deals specifically with Catholic colleges and universities, rather than ecclesiastical academic entities.
Criteria
In the foreword for his new constitution, Pope Francis, who has often spoken of the importance of education, said that while offering a great contribution to the Church’s life and mission, Sapientia Christiana “urgently needs to be brought up to date.”
“While remaining fully valid in its prophetic vision and its clarity of expression, the constitution ought to include the norms and dispositions issued since its promulgation, and to take into account developments in the area of academic studies in these past decades,” he said.
“There is also a need to acknowledge the changed social-cultural context worldwide and to implement initiatives on the international level to which the Holy See has adhered.”
Francis noted that the world is currently living not only a time of change, but it is also experiencing “a true epochal shift, marked by a wide-ranging anthropological and environmental crisis,” such as natural, social and financial disasters which are swiftly reaching “a breaking point.”
This reality, he said, requires “changing the models of global development and redefining our notion of progress.” However, a great problem in doing this is the fact that “we still lack the culture necessary to confront this crisis. We lack leadership capable of striking out on new paths.”
Because of this, he said that on the cultural level as well as that of academic training and scientific study, “a radical paradigm shift” and “a bold cultural revolution” are needed which involve a worldwide network of ecclesiastical universities and faculties which are capable of promoting the Gospel and Church Tradition, but which are also “ever open to new situations and ideas.”
“Philosophy and theology permit one to acquire the convictions that structure and strengthen the intelligence and illuminate the will,” he said, but cautioned that this “is fruitful only if it is done with an open mind and on one’s knees.”
“The theologian who is satisfied with his complete and conclusive thought is mediocre,” Francis said. However, “the good theologian and philosopher has an open, that is, an incomplete, thought, always open to the maius of God and of the truth, always in development.”
Pope Francis then listed four criteria for ecclesiastical studies which he said are rooted in the Second Vatican Council’s teaching and and inspired by the changes that have taken place in the decades since.
The first of the criteria, he said, is the “contemplation and the presentation of a spiritual, intellectual and existential introduction to the heart of the kerygma, namely the ever fresh and attractive good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Secondly, he said there is need for a “wide-ranging dialogue” which is not merely a “tactical approach,” but which is “an intrinsic requirement for experiencing in community the joy of the truth and appreciating more fully its meaning and practical implications.”
He then pointed to the need for an “inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary” approach which is carried out “with wisdom and creativity in the light of revelation.”
“What distinguishes the academic, formative and research approach of the system of ecclesiastical studies, on the level of both content and method,” he said, “is the vital intellectual principle of the unity in difference of knowledge and respect for its multiple, correlated and convergent expressions.”
The fourth and final criteria the Pope gave was “the urgent need for networking” between worldwide institutions that “cultivate and promote ecclesiastical studies, in order to set up suitable channels of cooperation also with academic institutions in the different countries and with those inspired by different cultural and religious traditions.”
In this regard, he said there is a need to establish more specialized centers of research dedicated to studying “the epochal issues affecting humanity today and to offer appropriate and realistic paths for their resolution.”
He urged the competent authorities to give a “new impulse” to scientific research conducted in ecclesiastical universities and faculties, saying the need for new and qualified research centers is “indispensable.”
These centers, the Pope said, ought to include scholars from different religious universities and from different scientific fields who can interact with “responsible freedom and mutual transparency.”
He said plans are already under way for the establishment of “outstanding interdisciplinary centers and initiatives aimed at accompanying the development of advanced technologies, the best use of human resources and programs of integration.”
Norms
In the new norms, Francis outlined the role, nature and purpose of ecclesiastical universities and faculties, saying they are to evangelize and, through scientific research, better enunciate the truths of the faith and present them in “a manner adapted to various cultures.”
Bishops’ conferences will be charged with overseeing the life and progress of the universities, and are to be headed by a chancellor who will serve as the entity’s go-between with the Holy See. All ecclesial universities and institutions will be overseen by the Congregation for Catholic Education, headed by Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi.
Regarding the role of teachers, the Pope said there must be several teachers of various ranks in each faculty, including permanent ones.
Criteria necessary to be considered for appointment to such faculties include the need to be “distinguished by wealth of knowledge, witness of Christian and ecclesial life, and a sense of responsibility.”
Teachers, Francis said, must also have a doctorate or similar equivalent title or scientific accomplishment; they must show “documentary proof” of their suitability for doing scientific research, preferably a published dissertation, and they must demonstrate adequate teaching ability.
He also stressed that all teachers, no matter their rank, “must be marked by an upright life, integrity of doctrine, and devotion to duty, so that they can effectively contribute to the proper goals of an ecclesiastical academic institution.”
This goes for both Catholics and non-Catholics, as the document allows for non-Catholic professors to teach specialized courses at ecclesiastical universities and institutions in their areas of expertise.
Francis said that should any of the required criteria cease, “the teachers must be removed from their post, observing the established procedures.”
Teachers who instruct on faith and morals, he said, “are to be conscious of their duty to carry out their work in full communion with the authentic Magisterium of the Church, above all, with that of the Roman Pontiff.”
On the role of students who attend the ecclesiastical universities and institutions, the Pope said these entities must be open “to all who can legally give testimony to leading a moral life and to having completed the previous studies appropriate to enrolling in the faculty.”
As far as the study plan for ecclesiastical entities, the Pope said they must place a focus on ecclesial texts, with special emphasis on those from the Second Vatican Council, while also taking into account scientific advances that contribute to answering questions on modern concerns.
“Up-to-date didactic and teaching methods should be applied in an appropriate way, in order to bring about the personal involvement of the students and their active participation in their studies,” he said.
The Pope also said there must be freedom and flexibility in terms of research, but stressed that it must be “based upon firm adherence to God’s Word and deference to the Church’s Magisterium, whose duty it is to interpret authentically the Word of God.”
“Therefore, in such a weighty matter one must proceed with trust, and without suspicion, but the same time with prudence and without rashness, especially in teaching; moreover, one must carefully harmonize the necessities of science with the pastoral needs of the People of God.”
He said faculties of theology have the specific task of “profoundly studying and systematically explaining, according to the scientific method proper to it, Catholic doctrine, derived with the greatest care from divine revelation” and of carefully seeking solutions to human problems in light of this revelation.
Revealed truth, the Pope said, must be considered alongside valid scientific accomplishments, in order to see “how faith and reason give harmonious witness to the unity of all truth.”
“Also, its exposition is to be such that, without any change of the truth, there is adaptation to the nature and character of every culture, taking special account of the philosophy and the wisdom of various peoples,” Pope Francis said, but stressed that “all syncretism and every kind of false particularism are to be excluded.”
While the positive aspects of the various cultures and philosophies studied are to be sought and taken up after careful examination, he said “systems and methods incompatible with Christian faith must not be accepted.”
Ecumenical questions must be “carefully treated,” as well as questions regarding relationships with non-Christian religions. In addition, Francis said problems that arise from atheism and other currents of contemporary culture must also be “scrupulously studied.”
“In studying and teaching the Catholic doctrine, fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church is always to be emphasized. In the carrying out of teaching duties, especially in the basic cycle, those things are, above all, to be imparted which belong to the received patrimony of the Church,” he said. “Hypothetical or personal opinions which come from new research are to be modestly presented as such.”
Faculties of canon law, whether in the Latin rite or in Eastern rites, must cultivate and promote the judicial disciplines in light of the Gospel, he said.
These faculties, Francis said, should include a first, two-year cycle for those who have no prior education in philosophy and theology, as well as those who have a degree in civil law. During this first cycle, students ought to study the basic concepts of canon law, philosophy and theology in order to advance.
In the second cycle, which he said should last three years, students must become familiar with canon law “in all its expressions,” including the normative, jurisprudential, doctrinal, praxis, and the codes for both the Latin and Eastern Churches should be studied “in depth” with magisterial and disciplinary sources.
As with theology, the third cycle ought to consist of a suitable time-frame in which students finish their training with scholarly research aimed at preparing a doctoral dissertation.
Faculties of philosophy, he said, have the aim of “investigating philosophical problems according to scientific methodology, basing itself on a heritage of perennially valid philosophy.”
Philosophical study, Francis said, must look for solutions in the light of “natural reason” and must also demonstrate “consistency with the Christian view of the world, of man, and of God, placing in a proper light the relationship between philosophy and theology.”
The first cycle of study, he said, should last for three years and consist of an “organic exposition” of the various aspects of philosophy – including the world, man and God – as well as a look at the history of philosophy and an introduction to the method of scientific research.
In the second cycle, which should last for two years, Francis said specializations ought to begin through special disciplines and seminars. The third cycle, which he said should last for three years, must promote “philosophical maturity” through writing a dissertation.
The document also included new norms on other types of faculties, degrees, financial management, strategic planning and cooperation, and leadership ad government for ecclesiastical universities and institutions.
These new norms will go into effect on the first day of the 2018-2019 academic year or of the 2019 academic year, depending on the calendar year of the various academic entities. Each faculty or university must present their revised statutes and plan of studies before Dec. 8, 2019.
After being presented, the new statutes and plans of study will be approved “ad experimentum” for a three-year period. However, faculties with a juridical connection with civil authorities can be given a longer period of time with permission from the Congregation for Catholic Education.
[…]
About appealing to “fraternity beyond the Christian world” and “an authentic understanding of God as Father,” this relationship and concept and word (!) does not show up in the “uncreated” Qur’an which dismisses the Triune One and the Incarnation as polytheism. How to dialogue with those who live in an alternative universe?
Peter, perhaps the Pope could follow in the footsteps of St.Francis of when he engaged in dialogue with Muslim leaders in Egypt in 1219. Francis approached them as fellow humans and respected their fidelity to their beliefs. His humility and willingness to engage in friendly dialogue so impressed them that they entertains him and granted him safe passage back to the Crusaders who were engaged in combat against them. Francis respected their piety, however misplaced, and used it as an example for his brothers. There is an old saying that says: there is not a human alive that we can’t learn from; and I think this is very true. The Pope has a unique opportunity to live Christ before and with leaders of other religions, and I think it is right for him to do so. You can dialogue with out compromising your own beliefs, and you can respect the integrity of those you disagree with.
Of course, I agree one on one, nevertheless Islam—as a religion—is the negation of Christianity. Arianism on steroids.
James Connor: Sentimentality is comforting, but When has “dialogue” ever occurred across billions of people?
Good points, Mr. Connor. Thank you.
You pose the existential question that has yet to be answered. State-sponsored radical Islam is the greatest threat to world peace.
“You pose the existential question that has yet to be answered. State-sponsored radical Islam is the greatest threat to world peace.”
Perhaps, but the greatest threat to our Salvation, is The Sin Against The Holy Ghost , due to a hardened heart at the moment of our death, that in denying The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Who Is The Spirit Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, denies The Divinity Of The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, while denying The Source Of God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy , Salvational Love.
“Do not let your Hearts be hardened!”
“Penance, Penance, Penance” At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
“For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
“Behold your Mother.” – Christ On The Cross
Dear Blessed Mother Mary, Mirror of Justice And Destroyer Of All Heresy, Who Through Your Fiat, Affirmed The Filioque, and thus the fact that There Is Only One Son Of God, One Word Of God Made Flesh, One Lamb Of God Who Can Taketh Away The Sins Of The World, Our Only Savior, Jesus The Christ, thus there can only be, One Spirit Of Perfect Divine Eternal Complementary Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, Who Must Proceed From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Divine Eternal Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity (Filioque), hear our Prayer that your Immaculate Heart Will Triumph soon for the sake of Christ, His Church, all who will come to believe, and all our beloved prodigal sons and daughters, who, hopefully, will return to The One Body Of Christ, which exists From The Father, Through, With, And In His Only Son, Jesus The Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque) Amen.
Our Lady Of Fatima, Blessed Mother Mary , Full Of Grace , Please Intercede For Us🙏✝️💕🌹
The Jews don’t believe in the Trinity either.
This is true. Muslims, Christians,and Jews worship the God of Abraham but we each have different understandings of Him.
Because of their monotheistic religion, Muslims and Jews have a lot more in common with each other than with Catholics.
Not “because they are ‘monotheistic'” but, instead, this:
“The responses of the Old Testament and a fortiori of Islam (which remains essentially in the enclosure of the religion of Israel) are incapable of giving a satisfactory answer to the question of why Yahweh, why Allah, created a world of which he did not have need in order to be God. Only the fact is affirmed in the two religions, not the why. The Christian response is contained in these two fundamental dogmas: that of the Trinity and that of the Incarnation” (Hans Urs von Balthasar).
We believe in one God , too. Three persons in One God
We’re all monotheists. Different understandings about Him though.
Of course, but except for a few radicals they and we do accept and respect each other. We have each had a type of renewal. Islam has yet to have a renewal. Studying history and monitoring how certain Islamic countries continue to govern ought to help us be realistic. Reading the Koran might help also! Our Pope is correct and possibly prophetic.
It is important to note that Division is not of The Holy Ghost, thus it is what divides other religious denominations from Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, The Spirit Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, Who Must Proceed From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love, The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, that keeps various religious denominations from being in communion with The One Body Of Christ, In The Unity Of The Ghost, Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic And Apostolic Church.
The Fact That The Holy Spirit Must Proceed From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, dues not imply The Holy Ghost “is in a subordinate position to The Father And The Son”.
Perfect Divine Eternal Love Does Not Divide, It Multiplies, as in The Miracle Of The Loaves And Fishes.
The Filioque is a Dogma Of The Catholic Faith that affirms The Divinity Of The Holy Ghost.
“Quoting the creed, he underlined the proclamation of Christ as “consubstantial with the Father,” describing it as “a profound bond already uniting all Christians.” Citing St. Augustine, he added: “Although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”
Quoting The Creed while acknowledging The Holy Ghost, The Spirit Of Perfect Complementary Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ Proceeds From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, underlines the proclamation of Christ as “consubstantial with the Father,”
Yes, the filioque has divided us for centuries. It is not such a small thing, although to outsiders it seems so. (Ask your Protestant friends and they won’t even be aware of the difference, or at least mine aren’t.) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
As events, whether by chance or the fates would have it, Byzantine emperor Patriarch Constantine XI Palaiologos was in consultation for unity with Rome when Ottoman sultan Mehmed II moved his siege artillery in range of Constantinople. Constantine considered making the momentous decision to unite when Mehmed’s artillery crumbled the great city’s walls. All was lost.
The Vatican had prepared to send a fleet though time had run out. When Genoese captain Giovanni Giustiniani Longo had arrived earlier with a brigade of Genoese and Greek mercenaries, the emperor placed him in command of the city’s defense. Outnumbered, outgunned they fought well, joined by Venetians who had several ships in harbor. The good was that Italians and Greeks fought and died together, despite the 1182 massacre of the Latins in that city, the 1204 sack by French and Venetian crusaders – to save the central city of Orthodoxy.
Ottoman Islam would spread into Europe on the verge of conquest when defeated at Lepanto under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin and similarly at the gates of Vienna. Might it again be the growing, ominous threat of Islam, the scourge of moral disorder due to indifference reasons for uniting in the name of Christ under Our Lady’s patronage?
About being “outnumbered and outgunned” at the FALL of COBSTANTINOPLE: Between one hundred and three hundred thousand Muslims moved against a much smaller remaining force of only seven thousand defenders. The historian JOHN JULIUS NORWICH captures this moment:
“By now, too, the omens had begun. On 22 May there was a lunar eclipse; a day or two later, as the holiest icon of the Virgin was being carried through the streets in one last appeal for her intercession, it slipped from its platform. A few hundred yards further on, a violent thunderstorm caused the whole procession to be abandoned. The next morning the city was shrouded in fog, unheard-of at the end of May; the same night the dome of Santa Sophia was suffused with an unearthly red glow that crept slowly up from the base to the summit and then went out. The past phenomenon was also seen by the Turks in Galata; Mehmet himself was greatly disturbed, and was reassured only after his astrologers had interpreted it as a sign that the building would soon be illuminated by the True Faith. For the Byzantines, the meaning was clear: the Spirit of God itself had deserted their city” (“A Short History of Bizantium,”1997).
And, about the SCOURGE of CHRISTIAN DISUNITY:
The Muslim siege in 1453 was aided by a 27-foot-long brass canon built by a German (!) engineer…
And, it’s possible Constantinople could even have held if it had not been sacked and permanently weakened over two centuries earlier in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade (!).
And later, about the divisive Reformation, the Augustinian monk Luther might not have been below the radar in 1517, had not the Emperor and the Pope both been distracted by Muslim advances from the east following disaster of 1453 (and preceding the successful Battle of Vienna in 1683).
That trip is another step towards building One Global Church.
The One, Catholic Church already exists. So…the one global church has been around a while.
Should we not desire union with the Orthodox churches?
“Should we not desire union with the Orthodox churches?”
We should desire that The Orthodox Churches that are not in communion with Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, desire to return to The One Body Of Christ , which exists “Through Him, With Him, And IIn Him, Oh God Almighty Father, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost”, affirming both The Filioque and The Papacy Of His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church , That Christ Himself Has Founded For The Salvation Of Souls.
You mean one catholic and universal Church the way it used to be before the Great Schism?
Isn’t that what we should hope for?
John 17:22. “ that you may be one as we are one…” given as a witness to the world.
Although we missed a golden opportunity for unification with Greek Orthodox, Byzantine emperor Patriarch Constantine XI Palaiologos willing at the last, lost minute, last night viewed Leo XIV attend the very solemn, deeply reverential Mass offered by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1 of Constantinople eastern Orthodox Church. Deep. Beautifully solemn.
Captured was a profound insight into the granite like immobility of the Greek Orthodox, if not in the integrity of doctrine: the filioque clause, Christological deficiency, divorce; rather in their ownership as the primary recipients of Paul’s mission to convert the gentiles. It was from their tradition that we have the Septuagint, the Koine Greek Gospels, the majority of Church fathers, the theological masters of Alexandria Athanasius and Cyril. The locales of the early councils Nicaea the first. A fierce attitude, Let no other Christian Church claim dominance.
Last night Patriarch Bartholomew I revealed an entirely different posture with Leo XIV. Smiling, leading by hand, showing warm respect. Perhaps more than Athenagoras showed Paul VI. Pope Leo gave a talk, almost a Francis I replica musing on care for our environment, creation, without mentioning in any form the precious value of the creation of Man, his present day moral disfigurement, the slaughter of human life in the womb.
Nevertheless Leo addressed the required effort to settle differences amicably for sake of unity. It all seems hopeful. Although this observer is not convinced whether differences will be correctly resolved or simply disregarded. The result a fine friendship in place of real unity. Still there’s hope.
How many of the sixteen (or so) of the Orthodox Churches fully in communion with one another attended the events for the Nicea anniversary? Does anyone know? I have been looking for a list and have gathered that at least three Churches were not in attendance, the Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and (unsurprisingly) Russia. The answer could shed light n how much widespread interest in unification presently exists across the Orthodox world, outside of the Churches directly connected to the Ecumenical Patriarch. And that, in turn, could help clarify what the prospects are for achieving more unity in the near future.