A Service of Love

1. Primacy, Collegiality, and Eucharist

15 1 Primacy, Collegiality, and Eucharist From early Christian times, the bishop presided at the Eucharist in each local church. St Ignatius of Antioch (martyred c.107) understood the bishop as imaging Christ in that role: “wherever the bishop is, there let all his people be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.”1 The Apostolic Tradition, a work originating probably in the early third century, likewise gave a Christological understanding of the bishop, who presided over his church and over its Eucharistic celebration , but it showed a development in understanding the bishop also as priestly and apostolic: “now pour forth that power which is from you, of the spirit of leadership that you gave to your beloved Son Jesus Christ, which he gave to the holy apostles, who established the church in every place.” “[Bestow,] Father, on this your servant, whom you have chosen for the episcopate, to feed your holy flock and to exercise the high priesthood for you without blame.”2 With reference to both of these patristic 1. Ignatius, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 8. 2. The Apostolic Tradition, edited by Paul F. Bradshaw, Maxwell E. Johnson, L. Edward Phillips (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002), 3:3–4 (p. 30). 16 Primacy, Collegiality, and Eucharist sources, Vatican II defined that “the fullness of the sacrament of orders,” namely the “high priesthood,” is conferred by episcopal consecration (LG 21) and that “the principal manifestation of the Church” consists in the gathering of the members of the local church around the bishop for the celebration of the Eucharist, together with his presbyterium and ministers (SC 41, cf. LG 26). It was immediately after the priestly and Eucharistic definition of the bishop in LG 21 that the council gave its teaching on episcopal collegiality in LG 22: “The order of bishops is the successor of the college of the apostles in their role as teachers and pastors, and in it the apostolic college is perpetuated. Together with their head, the Supreme Pontiff, and never apart from him, they have supreme and full authority over the universal Church” (LG 22). The proximity of these decisive doctrines of Vatican II shows that collegiality is intimately related to the Eucharistic presidency of the bishops. The council’s teaching on collegiality in LG 22–23 was given with many references to St Cyprian, whose teaching on “One Church throughout the world divided into many members” was explicitly quoted (LG 23, note 32). The full passage in Cyprian states: “there is but one Church founded by Christ but it is divided into many members throughout the world; likewise, there is but one episcopate but it is spread amongst the harmonious host of all the numerous bishops.”3 This passage closely resembles Cyprian’s teaching in his treatise, De unitate 3. Cyprian, Ep. 55.24.2; cf. The Letters of Cyprian of Carthage, translated by G. W. Clarke, vol.3 (New York/Mahwah, N.J.: Newman Press, 1986), 48. Primacy, Collegiality, and Eucharist 17 ecclesiae catholicae: “episcopatus unus est, cuius a singulis in solidum pars tenetur [the episcopate is one, a part of which is held by each (bishop) jointly (with the others)].”4 Henri de Lubac cited the latter phrase (together with a quote from Ignatius of Antioch) when, in 1953, he anticipated the teaching of Vatican II on collegiality and gave a Eucharistic explanation of the doctrine: Each bishop constitutes the unity of his flock, “the people adhering to its priest, cohering with the heavenly sacraments.” But each bishop is himself “at peace and in communion” with his brother bishops who offer the same and unique sacrifice in other places, and make mention of him in their prayer as he makes mention of all of them in his. He and they together form one episcopate only, and all are alike “at peace and in communion ” with the Bishop of Rome, who is Peter’s successor and the visible bond of unity; and through them, all the faithful are united.5 Here, not only the role of the bishops, but also that of the pope, the bishop of Rome, is described Eucharistically . De Lubac followed up this approach when he later argued that the foundational role given by Jesus to Peter 4. Cyprian, De unitate ecclesiae catholicae, 5. 5. De Lubac, The Splendor of the Church, translated by Michael Mason (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 150–51 (orig., 1953; emphasis added...