“A hermeneutics of continuity and reform”
According to Benedict XVI, the Second Vatican Council can only realize its potential for renewal of the Church “if we interpret it and put it into practice guided by a correct hermeneutic” (portafidei, Number 5). In an address to the Italian episcopal conference in May 2012, Benedict identified this “correct hermeneutic” as “a hermeneutic of continuity and reform.” This double hermeneutic points to the essentially double nature of Vatican II and is the “key” to unlocking the internal dynamics of the Council.
The fundamental objective of the Council was to preserve and transmit Catholic doctrine “in continuity with the 2,000-year Tradition of the Church” (Benedict XVI). Pope John XXIII made this clear in his opening address to the Council on October 11, 1962, when he stated: “The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine be more effectively guarded and taught.” “. In accordance with this directive, the Council Fathers carefully examined, further developed, and handed down to successive generations, while preserving fully intact, the unchanging doctrine of the Faith in a series of authoritative documents called dogmatic constitutions. The first key to understanding Vatican II correctly, then, is to realize that it was first and foremost a dogmatic (teaching) council of the Magisterium in faithful continuity with the 2,000-year tradition of the Church.
The second key term in “correct hermeneutics” to correctly understand and implement the Council is “reform.” At crucial moments throughout the history of the Church, the Holy Spirit has inspired certain reforms in liturgical rubrics, canon law, Church governance, and pastoral discipline in order to renew the Church and help her better fulfill her mission in the context of the times in which she finds herself. The Second Vatican Council was inspired by the Holy Spirit to address the needs of the Church in the modern world. While carefully preserving and transmitting the deposit of faith, the Sacred Liturgy, the sacraments and prayer in unbroken continuity with the ancient tradition of the Church, the Second Vatican Council introduced many liturgical, pastoral and disciplinary reforms in the life of the Church to enable the Church to more effectively fulfill its mission to teach, govern and sanctify believers and to evangelize non-believers in the context of the modern world. Thus, the second key to a correct understanding of Vatican II is to maintain the liturgical, pastoral, and disciplinary reforms of the Council within the framework of doctrinal and liturgical continuity.
Unfortunately, the full potential of the Council to renew the Church has not yet been realized due to a general failure to interpret and implement it guided by correct hermeneutics. The application of a false “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture” has led to widespread confusion and error regarding Vatican II, with disastrous consequences for the faith of millions of Catholics. Pope Benedict reminded the Italian bishops that only by applying the proper “hermeneutics of continuity and reform,” listening and following the instructions of the Council, can the Church find ways to meaningfully respond to the challenges of the modern world.
Proclaiming the faith again
Through the declaration and observance of the Year of Faith, Benedict XVI has reminded the Church today to look to the Second Vatican Council as the “sure compass” to chart its course through the stormy and turbulent waters of our time. In his Wednesday audience at the Vatican on October 10, 2012, the eve of the opening of the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict stated: “The documents of the Second Vatican Council, to which we must return, freeing them from a mass of publications that instead of making them known they have hidden them many times, they are a compass also in our time that allows the Church’s Boat to row out to sea in the midst of storms or on calm and peaceful waves, to navigate safely and reach its goal. destiny. “
Calling us “to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only Savior of the world” during this Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI called us to return to the basic elements of our Christian faith that the Second Vatican Council proclaimed anew to Him. modern world. Benedict said that “we must learn the simplest and most fundamental lesson of the Council: namely, that Christianity in its essence consists in faith in God who is Trinitarian Love, and in a personal and communal encounter with Christ who guides and gives meaning to life”. Everything else flows from this.” The Pope further stated: “What is as important today as it was for the Council Fathers is that we see – once again and clearly – that God is present, concerns us and responds to us. And when, instead, man lacks faith in God, what is essential collapses because man loses his profound dignity.
As an “eclipse of God” slowly darkens our modern age and “a profound crisis of faith” takes hold, as man becomes less and less aware of the existence of God and of his fundamental need for God , the fundamental truths of our Christian faith proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council – and proclaimed anew to the Church and to the world in our time by Popes John Paul, Benedict and Francis – shine more and more: God exists. He is real. He loves us and hears our prayers. Man is an essentially religious being made in the image and likeness of God, and only in relationship with God, his Creator, does man discover his true identity and dignity and grasp the true meaning and purpose of life. Only God can satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart, as Saint Augustine wrote: “You have made us for You, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Faith in God is essential for the well-being of man and society. Man cannot save himself by his own efforts. Christ is “God-with-us”, “the only Savior of the world”, the only hope for humanity. Salvation comes only from Christ through his Church. All Christians are called to holiness of life (hence the “universal call to holiness”) and to find new ways to preach the Gospel in our modern world (hence the “new evangelization”).