He will return with his immense heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul
and his smile. He will return! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!

CATECHETICAL LOAF OF BREAD

THE CATECHISM OF BENEDICT XVI (8) 

 177. WHO ARE THE FAITHFUL?

 • THE CHRISTIAN FAITHFUL ARE THOSE WHO, INASMUCH AS THEY HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED IN CHRIST THROUGH BAPTISM, HAVE BEEN CONSTITUTED AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD; FOR THIS REASON, SINCE THEY HAVE BECOME SHARERS IN CHRIST’S PRIESTLY, PROPHETIC AND ROYAL OFFICE IN THEIR OWN MANNER, THEY ARE CALLED TO EXERCISE THE MISSION THAT GOD HAS ENTRUSTED TO THE CHURCH. THERE EXISTS A TRUE EQUALITY AMONG THEM IN THEIR DIGNITY AS SONS OF GOD.

By right saved by the Cross of Christ, their salvation begun in baptism, which makes them sharers in the divine nature by making them sons of God, the faithful have a long road to travel in order to implement this divinisation, to live in a holy manner in the presence of God, and be saved definitively. It is the mission that God has entrusted to the Church, to make them pass from the world where they still live, where they have their position and their relationships, to God, through the assistance of the sacraments, which make them capable of offering spiritual sacrifices: the priestly office, which with the help of teaching makes them participants in the prophetic office of Christ; in the royal office also, through the assistance of the directives received and followed with an obedience that makes them kings, because to serve Jesus Christ is to reign.

Among the members of the Church there exists a true equality because the priest, the bishop and even the Pope remain in the inner part of their supernatural being, “members of the faithful” in the welcoming of grace come from above and from others than themselves.

This « true equality » is manifest when the faithful exercise quasi-priestly functions, like African catechists, when seculars live as religious, such as “the holy man of Tours”, when women accomplish men’s missions “in the name of God,” like Joan of Arc. Thus, the priestly and monastic work is extended and fulfilled in the religious and ecclesial work of the entire faithful people.

Nevertheless, the priest gives and the faithful receive. The following questions recalls this:

 178. HOW ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD FORMED?

 • IN THE CHURCH, BY DIVINE INSTITUTION, THERE EXIST SACRED MINISTERS WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS AND WHO FORM THE HIERARCHY OF THE CHURCH. THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH ARE CALLED THE LAITY. IN BOTH THE HIERARCHY AND THE LAITY THERE ARE CERTAIN OF THE FAITHFUL WHO ARE CONSECRATED IN A SPECIAL MANNER TO GOD BY THE PROFESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS: CHASTITY IN CELIBACY, POVERTY, AND OBEDIENCE.

« The priesthood is the active principle! It gives the seed, and the faithful people are the material or passive principle, for they receive the seed like soil, like a maternal womb. This has always been thus taught and lived in the Church: Christ is the Bridegroom whose place the bishop holds, and the Church is His Spouse, receiving from him life and fruitfulness. It was normal to speak of the faithful in supernatural work as of woman in the mystery of marriage: a being all welcome, docility, fidelity, who receives life before making it bear fruit. “I am the vine, you are the branches”, Jesus said. » (G. de Nantes, CRC n^o 55, April 1972, p. 3)

« “Laymen” therefore take advantage of the ministry of the hierarchy by profiting from the teaching, the sanctification and the spiritual direction that are thus offered to them. Even though this participation is “passive”, it is rewarding and meritorious. For many, for the multitude absorbed by secular worries and tasks, it already absorbs all or almost all of their capacities and possibilities for religious life… » (ibid., p. 8)

This is why the constant doctrine of the Church was to propose religious life as the most favourable for the exclusive service and worship of God alone, and for the proclaiming of the Gospel to the poor. The Holy Father reminded superiors of religious orders of this as a necessity more urgent than ever, « in a world that is ever more disoriented and confused ». He warned them against the snares that threaten consecrated life in the Church: « Mediocrity, middle-class ways and a consumer mentality. » It is a sinister picture of the present state of consecrated souls in the Church left by his « beloved predecessor ».

Benedict XVI deplores the fact that the secular spirit has « penetrated the minds and hearts of not a few consecrated persons » on the pretence « of entering modernity » and « of approaching the contemporary world »

It can be said that the Abbé de Nantes, our Father, founded our community of “missionary-monks” in a spirit of reaction against this way of thinking, in order that the very existence of our community might be, precisely for the poor people of the « contemporary world », « an open spring of spiritual life at which they are invited to quench their thirst. » (CRC n^o 55, p. 9)

Our vow of chastity commits us « to renounce the need to be the centre of attention », the Pope specifies, in a way that corresponds exactly with what our Father has so often repeated to us, as an application of what he wrote in our Rule: « Pride is the root of all the evils of this time. » Not to make oneself conspicuous, or to seek to attract attention is to reserve one’s heart for Jesus and Mary alone, according to the maxim of our Father: « Chastity consists not only in avoiding sin, in shunning temptations – “negative purity” –, but it consists in offering one’s heart and one’s body as a sacrificial victim of love to Jesus for the salvation of the world. » This is what our Father is now experiencing to the letter. If we do it, all the temptations that assail our adolescents will break down against the appealing and communicative chastity of the brothers and sisters.

Poverty: the Pope demands that men and women religious live it in « a simple habit that is a sign of poverty lived in union with the One who, rich as He was, became poor to make us rich with His poverty ». It may be said that our habit corresponds perfectly to this recommendation of the Pope. Thanks to the habit that our Father gave to us, it is easy for us to follow this order by trying to tear our habits less often in order to spare our sisters work; without forgetting a thousand other cares and attentions practiced in the spirit of our vow of poverty. To switch off the lights when leaving, not to let water run needlessly, etc.

« As for the authority that superiors must exercise », The Pope says, this delicate task would be much easier if « consecrated persons knew how to recognise the value of professed obedience », that is to say promised by vow, and « to guard against voluntarism and spontaneity in order to embrace the logic of the Cross ».

It may be said that our Father founded our community on this spirit at the moment when it was going to disappear from the contemplative and missionary orders, in the name of the dignity of the human person and its “blossoming”.

This spirit of submission gives its “value”, its price, to all that we do; to “submit” oneself is to place oneself beneath the others and not above them. It is to seek the last place, following the example of Father de Foucauld. This is not an “abdication” or even a “subjection”, which would be negative and would imply constraint, obligation. No, “submission” is positive like purity; it is even the basis of improvement; it alone is fruitful in happy initiatives and “creative spontaneity”. Fifty years of experience at the school of our Father have taught it to us each day. All that some have wanted to invent outside of this has proved to be vain and harmful. And they left us, because they never really belonged.

It begins by an exterior, habitual, calm, serene submission, which little by little moulds the interior.

« May the young never dare indulge in imagining changes or formulating criticisms! » – article one hundred and fourteen of our Rule, written in 1957, at the moment when our Father already discerned this critical spirit in the Church of France, paving the way for the spirit of the “Reform” that was going to lead the Second Vatican Council to destroy everything.

« Let them first allow the letter and the spirt of the Order to mould their minds or let them renounce their vocation, but let them not have the impudence to judge everything by their own mentality! »

This article is a veritable manifesto of Counter-Reformation before it existed. Our spirit of submission, applied to our daily task, is already a victory of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the twenty-first century. This is what Counter-Reformation is. It is to copy what the Church has done for fifteen centuries; this is why our houses of Sainte-Thérèse and Saint-Georges successfully created a foundation in Canada, by copying the houses of Saint-Joseph and Sainte-Marie, even in small customs; and tomorrow the houses of Saint-Bruno and Blessed Father de Foucauld, will likewise create a foundation in Dauphiné and Normandy, if it so pleases God, by copying the elders: « It is first necessary to be faithful, submit oneself, forget oneself, deny oneself, obey, learn, be a docile, devoted disciple », our Father said to the first postulants at the Maison Sainte-Thérèse.

« This habit of asking what one must do, even for little things, has a thousand good effects, Father de Foucauld said.

« It gives peace, for there is never uncertainty.

« It teaches one to overcome oneself in everything, because one renounces one’s will in all things.

« It makes all the things of the earth appear as nothing, because one is ready to do one thing or the other indifferently.

« It makes one make many acts of love, for to obey the superior is to obey God; and to obey is to love; it is the most pure act of love, the most perfect, the most lofty, the most disinterested, the most replete with adoration, if I may say so.

« Obedience is the consummation of love. »

179. WHY DID CHRIST INSTITUTE AN ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY?

 • CHRIST INSTITUTED AN ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY WITH THE MISSION OF FEEDING THE PEOPLE OF GOD IN HIS NAME AND FOR THIS PURPOSE GAVE IT AUTHORITY. THE HIERARCHY IS FORMED OF SACRED MINISTERS: BISHOPS, PRIESTS, AND DEACONS. THANKS TO THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS, BISHOPS AND PRIESTS ACT IN THE EXERCISE OF THEIR MINISTRY IN THE NAME AND PERSON OF CHRIST THE HEAD.

DEACONS MINISTER TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD IN THE DIAKONIA (SERVICE) OF WORD, LITURGY, AND CHARITY.

The answer to the question puts an end to the legend complacently introduced into the Church by the romantic liberal school of the 19^th century according to which Roman Catholicism is supposed to be a hybrid product of Jewish anarchy having made an historical encounter with Roman order, oriental mysticism and Latin legalism.

« This theory is so widespread and so commonly accepted that Charles Maurras himself also fell into the trap. In celebrating the “Church of order”, Maurras thought it necessary to compliment the Church on having corrected the “turbulent Jewish Scriptures”, and rejected “the venom of the Magnificat”. That kind of praise is injurious and it has led to a series of repressions of which we are still not free – far from it!

« In contrast, the appeals of Marc Sangnier, following Lammenais, for the Church of Rome to rid herself of her innate pagan legalism, which has affected the revolutionary purity of the Gospel message – appeals reprobated by St. Pius X – harmed the Church in the opposite way, and all the more as public opinion shifted in this direction, towards the praise and love of lawlessness to the detriment of Order […].

« The true Christian tradition, which is the Roman Catholic tradition, spontaneously places us in harmony with every century, with our source Jesus Christ and beyond even to communion with Moses and Abraham. There is only one People of God, become the Church, throughout the thousands of years; this one people of God comes through our Fathers in the Faith sent by God. They are the Patriarchs, legislators and Apostles and the orders they established to organise and perpetuate the gifts they had received to be transmitted to the generations to come. Thus the preaching of the Faith, the distribution of the sacraments, the celebration of the rites and the government of the Holy Community have at all times been assured by men chosen and consecrated […].

« Yet, beneath the universality of hierarchical institution, beneath the continuity of priesthood from Aaron and the tribe of Levi to Jesus Christ and His Apostles, continuing down the Christian centuries, we notice a profound difference. There seems to be a profound break in the Christian priesthood away from the powers and functions of the Jewish sacerdotal caste. In a certain way the Christian priesthood is Christ, sole mediator between God and men, Christ the Unique and Sovereign Priest of the New and Eternal Covenant. In union with Him, the Christian priesthood is also His Mystical Body, the entire body of the faithful, hierarchically constituted, convened and gathered for praise and intercession. How it is at the same time an order apart, of an entirely new essence, constituted according to its own rites and diversified in a hierarchy of many degrees is the object of our study now. This study will lead us to the very depths of the Mystery of Christ and of the Church, the Sacrament and source of our salvation. » (Georges de Nantes, CCR n° 97, April 1978, pp. 4-5) The Christian priesthood is a mysterious co-operation of man with God. « The Bishop in the first place and the priests under his orders have no power over things, to transform them and act through them on souls. What they have is an amicable, filial power over the Will of God, who has linked Himself with them and their work and is bound up with them. Thus God wills what they will and speaks through their very words; He does what they say. In accordance with the rites that they carry out, it is God who justifies the infidel, it is Christ who takes hold of the bread and wine to make them His Body and Blood, it is He who pardons sins and blesses marriages, and who sends His Holy Spirit according to the gifts asked for and given in the consecratory prayer. God’s servant is effaced and disappears at the moment of his sublime elevation to the role of God’s co-operator. What is he then? He is a mediator; he infallibly unleashes a divine work of which he is the instrument. The work has to be done by means of his powerful word and action, but it is Christ Who operates and not Peter or Paul or Apollo. Thus conceived, the priesthood is, without contradiction, at the same time both ministry and power, service and authority, the gift of the Spirit and the character of a consecrated man, whereby the priest is established above other men and yet is the lowest among them. » (CCR n° 97, Avril 1978, p. 18)

If we believe the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the episcopal consecration is the fullness of the sacrament of Order, and « the presbyterial Order, long considered as the classical example and the perfection of the priesthood, must indeed be established in subordination, as to the very ministry itself, to the episcopal Order. Here also, Vatican II did well. » (G. de Nantes, CRC n^o 54, March 1972, p. 12)

While the diaconal ministry and the other offices in the Church are not sacerdotal in themselves. The institution of the “seven” deacons is related by St. Luke in Chapter 6 of the Acts of the Apostles. The “Twelve” were unable to do everything: to assure the service of the word and that of the “tables”. This word, however, does not designate the merely material burdens of the community. The deacons distribute Holy Communion at the “holy Table”, as well as the “bread” of the Word, as we see with Stephen, with « wisdom and the Spirit who prompted what he said. » which no one « was able to withstand » (Ac 6.10). Or again with Philip « preaching the Good News » in Samaria (Ac 8.4-8).

 180. HOW IS THE COLLEGIAL DIMENSION OF CHURCH MINISTRY CARRIED OUT?

 • AFTER THE EXAMPLE OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES WHO WERE CHOSEN AND SENT OUT TOGETHER BY CHRIST, THE UNITY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH’S HIERARCHY IS AT THE SERVICE OF THE COMMUNION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL. EVERY BISHOP EXERCISES HIS MINISTRY AS A MEMBER OF THE EPISCOPAL COLLEGE IN COMMUNION WITH THE POPE AND SHARES WITH HIM IN THE CARE OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH.

PRIESTS EXERCISE THEIR MINISTRY IN THE PRESBYTERATE OF THE LOCAL CHURCH IN COMMUNION WITH THEIR OWN BISHOP AND UNDER HIS DIRECTION.

The parallelism between Peter and the other Apostles on the one hand, and the Sovereign Pontiff and the bishops on the other, must not mislead us. It does not involve the transmission of the extraordinary powers of the Apostles to their successors; still less does it imply equality between the head and the members of the college.

« After the example of the twelve Apostles » only means proportionality between the first relationship, of Peter with his Apostles, and the second, of the Pope with the bishops. The Second Vatican Council stressed this in an “Explanatory Note” specifying that « College is not understood in a strictly juridical sense, that is as a group of equals who entrust their power to their president, but as a stable group whose structure and authority must be learned from Revelation. » (Nota prævia, n^o 1).

With the Abbé de Nantes, we may well be astonished to see « the poison promulgated in a conciliar Act (Lumen Gentium, Chapter 3) and its antidote in the appendix! » The latter is formed of four decisive formulas, thus summarised by the Abbé de Nantes:

« 1. No, this College is not a college in the strict sense, if it is not gathered in an Ecumenical Council;

« 2. No, this College is not heir to the extraordinary power of the “Apostolic College”;

« 3. No, episcopal consecration does not suffice for acquiring the status of member of the College; the juridical determination of the power by the Pope, the Head of the College, is still required.

« 4. No, this College places no limit on the power of the Pope. On the contrary, it can only strictly act in a collegial manner under certain conditions and always with its Head. » (The Mystery of the Church, CRC n^o 52, January 1972, p. 7)

As for priests, they receive ordination and powers from the bishops, that is to say, delegation of and participation in their authority and their spiritual gift, in order to take care of a portion of their[i.e. the bishops’] flock.

 181. WHY DOES ECCLESIAL MINISTRY ALSO HAVE A PERSONAL CHARACTER?

 • ECCLESIAL MINISTRY ALSO HAS A PERSONAL CHARACTER IN AS MUCH AS EACH MINISTER, IN VIRTUE OF THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS, IS RESPONSIBLE BEFORE CHRIST WHO CALLED HIM PERSONALLY AND CONFERRED ON HIM HIS MISSION.

In his new Wednesday catechesis, Benedict XVI emphasises this personal character of the vocation: « This is how the Apostles’ adventure began, as an encounter of persons who are open to one another. For the disciples, it was the beginning of a direct acquaintance with the Teacher […]. Indeed, they were not to proclaim an idea, but to witness to a person. Before being sent out to preach, they had to “be” with Jesus (cf. Mk 3.14), establishing a personal relationship with Him. On this basis, evangelisation was to be no more than the proclamation of what they had experienced and an invitation to enter into the mystery of communion with Christ (cf. 1 Jn 1.13). » (22 March 2006)

In the Church, there are only personal powers, exercised by each minister, pope or bishop, in a free and responsible manner. No ecclesiastical power is specifically collegial. « The solemn Magisterium of ecumenical councils is itself a super eminently personal exercise of this power. Undoubtedly the mode of determination of its matter is collegial: it can be brought out by collective procedures. The form of the decision is none the less personal: by the personal adhesion of the Pope, without which there is no authentic decision, and by the inner adhesion of each and all, (under pain of excommunication), who recognise therein their own Faith. The “moral person” of the College does not substitute itself for the personal liberty of its members; it manifests their unanimity prior to the votes. » (CRC n^o 52, p.9)

The reason for this is that « the priest is the chosen one of God, ordained for the priestly service of Christ. A mediator in His Name, he remits sins and celebrates the holy Mysteries. The shepherd and head of his people, he assures their eternal salvation and often their temporal good. » (CRC n^o 54, p. 12)

 182. WHAT IS THE MISSION OF THE POPE?

 • THE POPE, BISHOP OF ROME AND THE SUCCESSOR OF SAINT PETER, IS THE PERPETUAL, VISIBLE SOURCE AND FOUNDATION OF THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. HE IS THE VICAR OF CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE COLLEGE OF BISHOPS AND PASTOR OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH OVER WHICH HE HAS BY DIVINE INSTITUTION FULL, SUPREME, IMMEDIATE, AND UNIVERSAL POWER.

Words of Christ make the Pope the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of the Church: « You are Peter and on this rock I will build My Church. And gates of the Hell shall not prevail against it. » (Mt 16.18)

« The fullness of the priesthood, source and model of all priesthood, is found in Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest and Supreme Pontiff of the New Covenant. This plenary priesthood persists in the person of the Sovereign Pontiff, successor of Peter and vicar of Jesus Christ. As it is written on the band of the dome of Saint Peter’s in Rome: Inde oritur unitas sacerdotii – from here the unity of the priesthood is born. The fullness of Order and Jurisdiction, Consecration and Apostolic Mission, are found in the Pope. It would be good to begin with him, the Pope, rather than with the episcopal “College”, and still less with the “People of gods”… » (G. de Nantes, The Priestly Hierarchy, CRC n^o 54, p. 11)

This is precisely what the catechism of Benedict XVI does here by this question 182. The Pope summarised the answer during a general audience, by commenting on the account of the evangelical vocation of “Simon” on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret (Lk 5.1-10) in this terse formula: « the boat of Peter becomes the Chair of Jesus » (Wednesday, 17 May 2006) The Holy Father expounds in a very lively manner the evangelical character of the primacy of Peter: « Indeed, many signs indicate Christ’s desire to give Peter special prominence within the Apostolic College: in Capernaum the Master enters Peter’s house (cf. Mk 1. 29); when the crowd presses around Him on the shore of Lake Gennesaret Jesus, seeing two boats moored there, chooses Simon’s (cf. Lk 5.3); when, on certain occasions, Jesus takes only three disciples with Him, Peter is always recorded as the first of the group: as in the raising of Jairus’ daughter (cf. Mk 5.37; Lk 8.51), in the Transfiguration (cf. Mk 9: 2; Mt 17.1; Lk 9.28) and during the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Mk 14.33; Mt 26.37).

« And again: the Temple tax collectors address Peter and the Master pays only for Himself and Peter (cf. Mt 17.24-27); it is Peter’s feet that He washes first at the Last Supper (cf. Jn 13.6), and for Peter alone He prays that his faith will not fail so that he will be able to strengthen the other disciples in faith (cf. Lk 22.30-31). »

No, it cannot be said that the primacy of the Pope is an invention or a subsequent theological elaboration.

« Moreover, Peter himself was aware of his special position: he often also spoke on behalf of the others, asking for the explanation of a difficult parable (cf. Mt 15.15), the exact meaning of a precept (cf. Mt 18.21) or the formal promise of a reward (cf. Mt 19.27). It is Peter in particular who resolves certain embarrassing situations by intervening on behalf of all. Thus, when Jesus, saddened by the misunderstanding of the crowd after the Bread of Life discourse, asks: “Will you also go away?” Peter’s answer is peremptory in tone: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6.67-69). Equally decisive is the profession of faith that, again on behalf of the Twelve, he makes near Caesarea Philippi. To Jesus’ question: “But who do you say that I am?”, Peter answers: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Mt 16.15-16). Jesus responded by pronouncing the solemn declaration that defines Peter’s role in the Church once and for all: “And I tell you: you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church...” »

Here the Pope omits the end of the sentence: « and the gates of the Hell shall not prevail against it. » Why? Why keep secret the reality of Hell, the clear vision of which the three little shepherds of Fatima had on 13 July 1917? « I am going to Heaven, said Jacinta to Lucy, But you are going to stay here, so if Our Lady lets you, tell all these people what Hell is like, so that they don’t commit any more sins and so they won’t go there. » Our Lady permitted, and now it is no longer a “secret”. So, why not warn the poor sinners, why?

Then Benedict XVI continues:

« “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven” (Mt 16.18-19). In themselves, the three metaphors that Jesus uses are crystal clear: Peter will be the rocky foundation on which He will build the edifice of the Church; he will have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to open or close it to people as he sees fit; lastly, he will be able to bind or to loose, in the sense of establishing or prohibiting whatever he deems necessary for the life of the Church. It is always Christ’s Church, not Peter’s. Thus, vivid images portray what subsequent reflection will describe by the term: “primacy of jurisdiction”. » (Wednesday, 7 June 2006)

 183. WHAT IS THE TASK OF THE COLLEGE OF BISHOPS?

 • THE COLLEGE OF BISHOPS IN UNION WITH THE POPE, AND NEVER WITHOUT HIM, ALSO EXERCISES SUPREME AND FULL AUTHORITY OVER THE CHURCH.

IN COMMUNION WITH THE POPE: « FOR THE COLLEGE, ALWAYS AND OF NECESSITY, INCLUDES ITS HEAD, BECAUSE IN THE COLLEGE HE PRESERVES FULLY HIS FUNCTION AS CHRIST’S VICAR AND AS PASTOR OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH. IN OTHER WORDS, THE DISTINCTION IS NOT BETWEEN THE ROMAN PONTIFF AND THE BISHOPS TAKEN COLLECTIVELY, BUT BETWEEN THE ROMAN PONTIFF TAKEN SEPARATELY AND THE ROMAN PONTIFF TOGETHER WITH THE BISHOPS. » (Nota prævia, n^o 3).

The bishops exercise a real and personal authority over a limited territory. When they are gathered in a Council, however, at the request of the Pope and under his authority, they have full power « to decide wisely and prudently what could contribute to a definition of the dogmas of the Faith, to unmask new errors, to defend, elucidate and develop Catholic doctrine, to conserve and elevate ecclesiastical discipline and to reaffirm morality that had become relaxed among peoples », Pius IX wrote in his Letter for the Convocation of the First Vatican Council (quoted in Letter to My Friends n^o 212, September 1965, published in CCR n^o 70, January 1976, p. 5).

Nevertheless, the Second Vatican Council was convened by Pope John XXIII for completely different reasons that did not come under the prerogatives of the college of bishops, as the Abbé de Nantes demonstrated shortly before the opening of this Council (Letter to My Friends n° 118, September, 1962, opposite).

 184. HOW DO THE BISHOPS CARRY OUT THEIR MISSION OF TEACHING?

 • SINCE THEY ARE AUTHENTIC WITNESSES OF THE APOSTOLIC FAITH AND ARE INVESTED WITH THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST, THE BISHOPS IN UNION WITH THE POPE HAVE THE DUTY OF PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL FAITHFULLY AND AUTHORITATIVELY TO ALL.

BY MEANS OF A SUPERNATURAL SENSE OF FAITH, THE PEOPLE OF GOD UNFAILINGLY ADHERE TO THE FAITH UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE LIVING MAGISTERIUM OF THE CHURCH.

« In communion with the Pope »: « It involves functions that must be exercised by many subjects cooperating in a hierarchical manner in accordance with Christ’s will. It is evident that this “communion” was applied in the Church’s life according to the circumstances of the time, before it was codified as law. » (Nota prævia, n^o 2).

For this reason, in his catechesis on 7 June, quoted above, Benedict XVI continues:

« This pre-eminent position that Jesus wanted to bestow upon Peter is also encountered after the Resurrection: Jesus charges the women to announce it especially to Peter, as distinct from the other Apostles (cf. Mk 16.7); it is to Peter and John that Mary Magdalene runs to tell them that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb (cf. Jn 20.2), and John stands back to let Peter enter first when they arrive at the empty tomb (cf. Jn 20.4-6). Then, Peter was to be the first witness of an appearance of the Risen One (cf. Lk 24.34; 1 Co 15.5). His role, decisively emphasised (cf. Jn 20.3-10), marks the continuity between the pre-eminence he had in the group of the Apostles and the pre-eminence he would continue to have in the community born with the paschal events, as the Book of Acts of the Apostles testifies (cf. 1.15-26; 2.14-40; 3.12-26; 4.8-12; 5.1-11, 29; 8.14-17; 10; etc.). His behaviour was considered so decisive that it prompted remarks as well as criticism (cf. Ac 11.1-18; Ga 2.11-14). At the so-called Council of Jerusalem Peter played a directive role (cf. Ac 15; Ga 2.1-10), and precisely because he was a witness of authentic faith, Paul himself recognised that he had a certain quality of “leadership” (cf. 1 Co 15.5; Ga 1.18; 2.7 ff.; etc.). Moreover, the fact that several of the key texts that refer to Peter can be traced back to the context of the Last Supper, during which Christ conferred upon Peter the ministry of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22.31 ff.), shows how the Church, born of the paschal memorial celebrated in the Eucharist, finds in the ministry bestowed on Peter one of its constitutive elements. »

The bishops have the function of preaching; they are « the teaching Church », Ecclesia docens. The faithful have the role of believing; they are « the believing Church », Ecclesia credens. The faith of both is “one”, and in full communion of certitude and complete perfection, by the force of the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church.

The result is that the Church is infallible in her unanimous belief. For example, Cardinal Bertone observes, « in the past and right up to these last decades, the theologians and canonists who treated the problem were unanimous in considering the exclusion of women from admission to the ministerial priesthood as something absolute and founded on the divine Apostolic Tradition ».

« In this specific case the Church has been unanimous and stable, and has never thought that women might validly receive priestly ordination, and this unanimity and stability do not indicate the Church’s own decision, but her obedience and dependence with regard to the will of Christ and the Apostles. Consequently, in the universal Tradition in this matter, with its characteristics of stability and unanimity, one encounters a magisterial teaching that is objective, definitive, and unconditionally binding. ¹ »

 185. WHEN IS THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE MAGISTERIUM EXERCISED?

 • INFALLIBILITY IS EXERCISED WHEN THE ROMAN PONTIFF, IN VIRTUE OF HIS OFFICE AS THE SUPREME PASTOR OF THE CHURCH, OR THE COLLEGE OF BISHOPS IN UNION WITH THE POPE, ESPECIALLY WHEN JOINED TOGETHER IN AN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, PROCLAIMS BY A DEFINITIVE ACT A DOCTRINE PERTAINING TO FAITH OR MORALS. INFALLIBILITY IS ALSO EXERCISED WHEN THE POPE AND BISHOPS IN THEIR ORDINARY MAGISTERIUM ARE IN AGREEMENT IN PROPOSING A DOCTRINE AS DEFINITIVE. EVERY ONE OF THE FAITHFUL MUST ADHERE TO SUCH TEACHING WITH THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH.

An act of the extraordinary or solemn Magisterium gives us by its very form every guarantee of expressing the infallible faith of the Church, by virtue of the assistance of the Holy Spirit to the Pope and the Council. Such a teaching sovereignly and irrevocably declares the revealed Truth. No uncertainty remains concerning the authority promulgating it, so no contestation is possible.

The other teachings given by the Pope and the bishops lack this formal and absolute guarantee, which exists prior to any examination of their contents and which immediately permits them to be considered as infallible. They are so only inasmuch as they express what has always been considered everywhere and by everyone as belonging to the deposit of the Faith. « If somewhere, a majority came to be formed against the Faith of the Church of another time, this would absolutely not be a majority. » (J. Ratzinger, La Chiesa, Milan 1991, p. 71)

Here is a truth that proves the late Cardinal Frings wrong; when he was the “employer” of the Abbé Ratzinger, who was his theologian, Cardinal Frings was opposed to Cardinal Ottaviani in a dramatic confrontation during the second session of the Council: « There cannot be authority, still less infallibility… except in accordance with the Tradition, Ottaviani proclaimed. You are hindering the Reform that we want, Frings retorted, be silent and obey because we are the majority. The assembly applauded. One would never have believed that such an hour would have struck on the clock of St. Peter’s. Two thousand years of Catholic Faith had led us to believe with confidence that authority in the Church is a magisterium. How unfortunate we will be if tomorrow someone claims to submit us to an authority which frees itself from the control of the Faith, refuses to provide its proofs of orthodoxy and claims to adhere to a majority vote in order to impose itself! » (Letter to My Friends n° 158, 23 November 1963)

Nevertheless, this is what happened. Yet since Joseph Ratzinger has renounced the error of Cardinal Frings, and now he is the Pope, we recover the hope of being heard when we say, with the Abbé de Nantes, that the religious freedom proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council, in opposition to the Faith of the Church of all times, by a majority, cannot be held for an infallible teaching.

Likewise, « the concord of the universal episcopate in communion with the Successor of Peter regarding the doctrinal and obligatory character of an affirmation or an ecclesial practice of times past, is not annulled or relativised by certain discords that might appear at a later period. » (T. Bertone, op. cit.)

For example, the whole Church has always believed in the perpetual Virginity of Mary. Thus it is an infallible truth of Revelation. Theologians contest it today, giving as a pretext the fact that the Church has never precisely defined it by the Magisterium and imposed it as a dogma for the belief of all. « It is a bad reason! the Abbé de Nantes replies. There is no need to define what has always been taught and believed by everyone, because this common and ordinary faith cannot be other than the infallible truth of Revelation. » (A Trial against the Pope? Can it ever be lawful or holy to oppose the Pope? CCR n^o 40, June 1973, p. 4)

« This ordinary Magisterium is thus the normal form of the infallibility of the Church. » (J. Ratzinger, Il nuovo popolo di Dio, Brescia 1971, p. 184)

 186. HOW DO BISHOPS EXERCISE THEIR MINISTRY OF SANCTIFICATION?

 • BISHOPS SANCTIFY THE CHURCH BY DISPENSING THE GRACE OF CHRIST THROUGH THEIR MINISTRY OF THE WORD AND THE SACRAMENTS, ESPECIALLY THE HOLY EUCHARIST, AND ALSO BY THEIR PRAYERS, THEIR EXAMPLE AND THEIR WORK.

« The bishop is another Christ; first, in the fullness of his priesthood he is the Mediator between God and His special people; he is Mediator through the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which it belongs to him to celebrate for the renewal of the Covenant and the sanctification of His Church. In this act the fullness of his priesthood shines most vividly because he there renews, in the Person and Name of Christ, the Covenant with God thrice holy of the local church, his spouse, whose unique head and pastor he is as well as unique and legitimate spouse.

« Thus identified with Christ through episcopal consecration and tied to his people by the designation and particular gift of it made by the Pope to him, the Bishop exercises all the powers necessary for the care of his flock by virtue of this sacrament of the Covenant.

« In the first place preaching, in which he will be helped by devout lay people who are confirmed and chosen as door-keepers, readers, chanters and animators in order to convene the Assembly in the Bishop’s name and to celebrate God’s Word. He will ordain deacons and catechists in order to teach and preach doctrine with him and under his control.

« In the second place distributing the sacraments, to build up, fortify and sanctify the living Church through Baptism and Confirmation, which the Bishop cannot do alone without the help of priests whom he will ordain to share his ministry and to whom he will amply communicate, for this purpose, his powers to the extent of entrusting them with a portion of the flock to care for, the parishes. Through the sacraments of reconciliation Penance and Extreme Unction; through the intensive celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where the sacred ministers concelebrate with the Bishop according to their Order and not collegially, collectively but hierarchically associated with his Sacrifice... or spread throughout the diocese to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice in his name and in communion with him. Finally, to replenish the ranks of his Church through ordination, which is a power the Bishop would not want to delegate to anyone except to a brother in the Apostolic succession, and to watch over the holy and well ordered growth of the Church through the recognition and blessing of marriages. » (G. de Nantes, The Catholic Priesthood, CCR n^o 97, April 1978, p. 19)

 187. HOW DO THE BISHOPS EXERCISE THEIR FUNCTION OF GOVERNING?

 • EVERY BISHOP, INSOFAR AS HE IS A MEMBER OF THE COLLEGE OF BISHOPS, BEARS COLLEGIALLY THE CARE FOR ALL PARTICULAR CHURCHES AND FOR THE ENTIRE CHURCH ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER BISHOPS WHO ARE UNITED TO THE POPE. A BISHOP TO WHOM A PARTICULAR CHURCH HAS BEEN ENTRUSTED GOVERNS THAT CHURCH WITH THE AUTHORITY OF HIS OWN SACRED POWER THAT IS ORDINARY AND IMMEDIATE AND EXERCISED IN THE NAME OF CHRIST, THE GOOD SHEPHERD, IN COMMUNION WITH THE ENTIRE CHURCH AND UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE SUCCESSOR OF PETER.

The word collegially must be understood in the light of the “ExplanatORY NOTE” already quoted above (question n^o 180). The episcopal college, « though it is always in existence, is not as a result permanently engaged in strictly collegial activity; the Church’s Tradition makes this clear. In other words, the College is not always “fully active [in actu pleno]”; rather, it acts as a college in the strict sense only from time to time “and only with the consent of its head”. The phrase “with the consent of its head” is used to avoid the idea of dependence as on some kind of outsider; the term "consent" suggests rather communion between the head and the members, and implies the need for an act that belongs properly to the competence of the head. » (Nota prævia, n^o 4)

After preaching and the distributing of the sacraments, each bishop exercises, « in the third place, the government of the Catholic Christian community, with the aid of the parish clergy and the priests of his presbyterium, by decreeing laws fixing sanctions and inflicting penalties, but more especially by aiding, consoling and encouraging the entire holy people, each according to his supernatural needs, as pastor and father of all. » (ibid.)

« The achievement of Vatican I is definitive: Pontifical Primacy is the keystone of the entire edifice. The best of Vatican II is also definitive: purified of its monstrous notion of collegiality, the sacramentality of the Episcopate is a truth that will never again be disputed. The Bishops receive their Order and general Jurisdiction from Christ Himself in virtue of the Apostolic succession, and by transmission of the gift of the Holy Spirit; they exercise their powers over a portion of God’s people, which the Pope, the Universal Sovereign, has been pleased to entrust to their care. » (CRC n^o 97, p. 14)

188. WHAT IS THE VOCATION OF THE LAY FAITHFUL?

 • THE LAY FAITHFUL HAVE AS THEIR OWN VOCATION TO SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD BY ILLUMINATING AND ORDERING TEMPORAL AFFAIRS ACCORDING TO THE PLAN OF GOD. THEY CARRY OUT IN THIS WAY THEIR CALL TO HOLINESS AND TO THE APOSTOLATE, A CALL GIVEN TO ALL THE BAPTISED.

The catechism passes directly from the bishops to « laymen ». And priests, whom the Abbé de Nantes calls « the infantry of the Church »? They are forgotten! as they were at the Second Vatican Council, obsessed by two preoccupations in matters of ecclesiastical situations and powers: the advancement of the episcopate, considered as the supreme priestly Order, directly inherited from the Apostles and constituting as a result a sovereign college (with the Pope!). And the “promotion of the laity”, considered as anterior to everything, “a people of God” endowed with a triple prophetic, priestly and royal charisma. The result was not long in coming: no one any longer wants to become a priest, since the Council, since 1965. Statistical curves show it plainly.

As for the Blessed Virgin, She has not forgotten priests in the Third Secret. Behind the Holy Father, « a Bishop dressed in White », She showed the children « several other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious climbing a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a large Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with its bark ».

Laymen come only afterwards: « and various lay people, men and women of different ranks and positions ». They are members of the faithful who are neither priests nor religious, and who live as Christians in the world. Their specific vocation is to fulfil the simple duty of state, with humble and hidden virtues, as Sister Lucy has recalled many times.

« The call to holiness » to which they thus respond, Sister Lucy marvellously discerned in the apparition of Our Lady of Mount Carmel with which she was favoured, with Francisco and Jacinta on 13 October 1917, while the crowd contemplated the miracle of the sun. « This apparition shows us Her who, like ourselves, lived on earth and sanctified Herself there, she wrote. Now, She lives and reigns with God in Heaven, enjoying the fruit and the reward of this sanctification. »

« Our Lady sanctified Herself as a pure and Immaculate Virgin by corresponding to the graces that God granted to Her in that state. She sanctified Herself as a faithful and devoted wife by fulfilling all the duties of Her state in life. She sanctified Herself as a loving mother by taking care of the Son whom God entrusted to Her, rocking Him in Her arms, bringing Him up and educating Him, then helping Him and following Him in the accomplishment of His mission. With Him She travelled the narrow way of life, the steep road to Calvary.

« With Him She agonised, receiving in Her Heart the wounds of the nails, the piercing of the lance and the insults of the furious crowd; finally, She sanctified Herself as mother, mistress and guide of the Apostles, agreeing to remain on earth for as long as God wished, in order to accomplish the mission which He had entrusted to Her as co-Redemptrix with Christ of all human beings.

« Thus Mary is, for each one of us, the model of the most perfect holiness to which a creature can aspire in this poor land of exile. How many times would She not have read and meditated in Her Heart these words of Sacred Scripture: “You shall be holy; for I, Yahweh your God, am Holy.” (Lv 19.2) » (Calls from the Message of Fatima, which we have translated in He is Risen no 18, February 2004, p. 7)

The Blessed Virgin made « the Call to the Apostolate » heard on 19 August 1917 at Valinhos, according to Sister Lucy. She begins by quoting the “Message” heard that day from the lips of Our Lady: « Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to sacrifice and pray for them. »

Then Sister Lucy commented: « This passage from the Message asks us to undertake an apostolate to our brothers. Our apostolic works continue the mission of Christ on earth; we must be co-workers with Christ in His work of Redemption for the salvation of souls. The apostolate of prayer is the basis of every other apostolate, that it may be effective and fruitful. The apostolate of self-denial is undertaken by those who make sacrifices, denying themselves for the good of their brothers. Through the apostolate of charity, we reproduce the life of Christ in us by giving ourselves to God in the service of our neighbour.

« Thus, the apostolate of prayer is primary. It consists in praying in union with Christ for the salvation of our brothers. Jesus Christ continues to pray on earth in the Sacrament of the altar, where He offers Himself continuously to the Father as a sacrifice of propitiation for the salvation of men. » (He is Risen no 15, October 2003, p. 1)

189. HOW DO THE LAY FAITHFUL PARTICIPATE IN THE PRIESTLY OFFICE OF CHRIST?

 • THEY PARTICIPATE IN IT ESPECIALLY IN THE EUCHARIST BY OFFERING AS A SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE “ACCEPTABLE TO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST” (1 P 2.5) THEIR OWN LIVES WITH ALL OF THEIR WORKS, THEIR PRAYERS, THEIR APOSTOLIC UNDERTAKINGS, THEIR FAMILY LIFE, THEIR DAILY WORK AND HARDSHIPS BORNE WITH PATIENCE AND EVEN THEIR TIMES OF CORPORAL AND SPIRITUAL REST.

IN THIS WAY, EVEN THE LAITY, DEDICATED TO CHRIST AND CONSECRATED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, OFFER TO GOD THE WORLD ITSELF.

During the second apparition of the Angel of Portugal in 1916, he recommended to the children:

« Constantly offer prayers and sacrifices to the Most High.

– How are we to make sacrifices? I asked.

– Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God. »

This is what the answer to the question expresses. Laymen, and not only they, but all the members of the people of God, participate in the priesthood of Christ by their entire life united to the sacrifice of Christ, « especially in the Eucharist ». This is precisely why, after having exhorted them to make sacrifices, in his next apparition, the Angel brought the Holy Eucharist to the three little “laymen”, Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta.

Yet, it is above all by their holy death that they participate in the priesthood of Christ, for « death, o dead and risen Jesus. is the first Mass of the poor Christian and it is the last Mass of the priest » This is why the ordinary faithful cannot attend Mass without « thinking of the day when he will be asked to be himself the priest of the sacrifice of which he will be the agonising victim […]. Such is the outcome that gives things their true worth; such is the apprenticeship in which the essential grandeur of the present life consists. If each day the faithful have to offer a spiritual sacrifice of a pleasing odour, what will this be other than the rehearsal and expectation of death whereby man loses everything to acquire Eternal life with Christ? Desire that it be today, o my soul,… think often of this death in order to prepare yourself for it. Prepare yourself by carrying the cross and by keeping watch so as not to fall into temptation. My soul, keep watch and pray for this Liturgy that you will have to fulfill before the Day… » (G. de Nantes, Pages mystiques, Vol. 1, pp. 147-150)

To prepare ourselves for this, Our Lady of Fatima ordered Sister Lucy, on December 1925: « Say that to all those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep Me company for fifteen minutes whilst meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, in a spirit of reparation, I promise to assist at the hour of their death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls. »

 190. HOW DOES THE LAITY PARTICIPATE IN THE PROPHETIC OFFICE?

 • THEY PARTICIPATE IN IT BY WELCOMING EVER MORE PERFECTLY IN FAITH, THE WORD OF CHRIST AND PROCLAIMING IT TO THE WORLD BY THE WITNESS OF THEIR LIVES, THEIR WORDS, THEIR EVANGELISING ACTION, AND BY CATECHESIS.

THIS EVANGELISING ACTION ACQUIRES A PARTICULAR EFFICACY BECAUSE IT IS ACCOMPLISHED IN THE ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF SECULAR LIFE.

From the beginning of this commentary, we have endeavoured to insist upon a « hermeneutic of continuity », according to the desires of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. Here, however, it is impossible. To say that « evangelising action acquires a particular efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of secular life », is assuredly in conformity with the Second Vatican Council, but contrary to all the Tradition of the Church, according to which evangelising action acquires, on the contrary, a particular efficacy when it is accomplished in the conditions proper to religious life. In order to demonstrate this, it will suffice for us to re-read the pages from Mémoires et Récits in which the Abbé de Nantes goes back over his past as a “jeciste” (a member of Young Christian Students). Émile Poulat, a specialist of the history of the contemporary Church, considered that these pages were worth a treatise and he wrote to our Father: « Your experience of the jec is to this day, if I am not mistaken, a unique account. » (opposite)

Brother Bruno of Jesus.