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  • Papal Contributions to the Development of the Church's Missionary SpiritFrom Ad Gentes to Evangelii Gaudium, Part I
  • Rev. Walter F. Kedjierski (bio)

Theologian Massimo Faggioli has written:

It can be said that Pope Francis is the first pope of post- Vatican II in a proper sense, as a cleric (ordained a priest in 1969) who served the Church when Vatican II had already ended and was already being received. Pope Francis is the first pope coming from the global Church, that is, the Church that for the first time at Vatican II was given a voice in the conciliar tradition.

The conclave of 2013 and the election of Francis have returned the Catholic Church to its global dimension—in a sense, trying to restore the promise made at Vatican II. The conclave has restored to the Catholic Church an image of itself that is much closer to that of Vatican II than it has been in recent years. The Church realigned itself to a more "world Church" dimension just as it was in that council: from urbs to the orbis terrarium, the oikumene. According to the most important theologian of Vatican II, Yves Congar, at the council "the orbis had almost taken possession of the urbs."1 [End Page 101]

While Faggioli may be correct in saying that Pope Francis is the first "postconciliar" pontiff, it is my contention that it would be a mistake to consider the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and their application to the life of the Church, especially in regard to the Church's missionary spirit, to have taken a "pause" during the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. To the contrary, as a result of the continuities between Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis there is now the framework of a pastoral plan for missionary activity that has grown out of the initial insights of Ad Gentes and the ecclesiological documents of the council. This article will briefly explore how the pastoral plan of the Church for missionary zeal and gospel proclamation developed from the initial insights of the council and has been promoted by every bishop of Rome since 1965. In terms of the Church's missionary spirit, there has not been a rupture in the reforms of Vatican II, but rather a consistent development to which Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium has made a new and already major contribution.

The Notion of "Development" and the Church's Missionary Zeal

First of all, it is important to understand exactly what constitutes a legitimate development in the life of the Church. A century before the convocation of Vatican II, the Anglican priest John Henry Newman entered into full communion with the Catholic Church motivated by an exploration of how doctrine develops through the centuries. St. Vincent of Lerins, a fifth-century monk, originally formulated the idea of the development of doctrine in the Christian tradition.2 Newman would reflect upon and expand Lerins's ideas in such a way that he was able to refute the notion of some Protestants that certain Catholic teachings were "deviations" from the authentic gospel message of Jesus Christ. In place of this suspicious assessment, Newman began to understand such teachings as expressions of the legitimate development of doctrine from the organic roots of Sacred Scripture and the unfolding of the early disciples' experience of the paschal mystery. [End Page 102]

Necessity for Adaptability and Reflection

In his An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Newman states, "If Christianity be a universal religion, suited not simply to one locality or period, but to all times and places, it cannot but vary in its relations and dealings towards the world around it, that is, it will develop."3 Undoubtedly, those who seek to promote the Christian message as life-giving and meaningful for people today will be impacted by contemporary and cultural developments in the use of language, technology, and social structures when they attempt to express their understanding of the faith. The Church could not be missionary without such flexibility in expression. The Church has necessarily developed different pastoral approaches appropriate to each culture and era...

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