In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS AT THE COUNCIL OF TRENT Nelson H. Minnich* In its Constitution on the Church and Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Vatican II attributed to the laity a sharing in the one priesthood of Christ whereby they join in the offering of the Eucharist and in the mission of consecrating the world to God by their apostolic labors.1 Although deservedly hailed for making a major step toward the development of a theology of the universal priesthood of all believers, Vatican II was not the first ecumenical council to speak on this subject. Almost exactly four-hundred years earlier on July 13, 1563, the fathers of Trent touched upon this topic in their decree on the sacrament of orders. Although its teaching was in the form of a condemnation of Luther’s assertion that all Christians are equally priests, Trent did not deny the existence of a universal priesthood of all believers. As will be seen from a study of the council’s documents, the theologians and bishops of Trent The Jurist 67 (2007) 341–363 341 * School of Theology and Religious Studies, Catholic University of America. 1 Lumen gentium, 9, 10, 30–31, 34, and Apostolicam actuositatem, 2, in Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. Norman P. Tanner, 2 vols. (London and Washington, D.C.: Sheed & Ward and Georgetown University Press, 1990) 2:855–857, 874–875, 877, 982— hereafter cited as Alberigo-Tanner. For an analysis of Vatican II’s teaching on the priesthood of the faithful, see John F. Hotchkin, “The Christian Priesthood: Episcopate, Presbyterate and People in the Light of Vatican II,” in Eucharist and Ministry [Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue, IV] (NewYork: U.S.A. National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation, and Washington, D.C.: the Bishops’Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, 1970) 189–208, here 202–206. For the judgment of the scripture scholar John H. Elliott that Vatican II’s espousal of the universal priesthood of all believers is not properly based on exegesis and that its echoing of Luther’s teachings is “nothing short of ironic;” see his “Detailed Comment: 1 Peter 2:5, 9 and the Doctrine of the Priesthood of All Believers,” in 1 Peter: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [TheAnchor Bible, 37B] (NewYork: TheAnchor Bible, Doubleday, 2000) 449–455, here 454. Elliott seems to assume that the Tridentine Church rejected outright Luther’s ideas; but, as this paper will show, the fathers at the Council of Trent accepted a qualified priesthood of the faithful. Despite Elliott’s assertions that biblical texts do not mention baptismal ordination or a sharing in the unique priesthood of Christ (452), prayerful reflections on a variety of biblical texts allowed the fathers of Vatican II to develop further these ideas regarding the priestly nature of the Christian community, e.g., Jean-Marie-Roger Tillard, Church of Churches: The Ecclesiology of Communion, trans. R. C. De Peaux (Collegeville , Minnesota: The Liturgical Press/A Michael Glazier Book, 1992) 169–175. 342 the jurist held that the faithful are in a certain sense truly priests.2 The formulations they used in describing it, though, reveal that their understanding of this universal priesthood of all Christians had progressed but little beyond the level of citing related scriptural texts and lacked the important Eucharistic and missionary dimensions developed at Vatican II. Pre-tridentine Teaching on the Priesthood of the Faithful Over the centuries the Church has consistently taught that there is a priesthood of all believers.3 A new understanding of this priesthood, however, emerged during the Reformation in the writings of Martin Luther. He claimed that all Christians are equally priests, that there is no distinction other than one of function between clergy and laity, and that the power to preach and administer the sacraments lies with the whole Christian community which chooses certain persons for the service of the Word. To exercise this clerical function, one needs the consent of the congregation or the appointment by a Christian magistrate. 4 Luther was challenged on various points by a number of Catholic controversialist theologians. Almost all of them acknowledged a priesthood of the faithful , but they feared it might...

pdf

Share