MAY 1972

ÉDITION MENSUELLE EN LANGUE ANGLAISE DE LA CONTRE-RÉFORME CATHOLIQUE AU XX^e SIÈCLE
Editor : R. P. Georges de Nantes

ROME SPEAKS OUT

On the 9th February 1972, the Roman Congregation for the Clergy, whose Prefect is Cardinal Wright, sent to Cardinal V. Enrique Tarancon, Archbishop of Madrid by the grace of Paul VI and Chairman of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, a Document relating to the Acts of "the Assembly of Spanish Priests and Bishops" of September 1971. This represents in fact the strongest doctrinal condemnation of post-Conciliar Modernism and Progressivism. It is a document which will re-main as part of the continuing Tradition of the Catholic Magisterium, and take its place along the last indisputable Act of that Magisterium – the Encyclical Humani Generis of Pius XII, dated 15th August 1950.

What does it matter that Cardinal Tarancon, the leader of Spanish Progressivism, was saved from the effects of this mortal blow by the intervention of Cardinal Villot, Secretary of State, and warmly consoled by the Pope himself. They both assured him that they had had no knowledge of this document and that no special authority attached to it, but neither dared say to Cardinal Tarancon that he was right, and Cardinal Wright was wrong. So the fact remains that it was Cardinal Wright who had written in accordance with the Faith. If the Pope and his Secretary of State choose to fraternise with Error, that is their business. A glimmer of Truth has nevertheless appeared to lighten the skies of Rome after a long period of darkness, and this is enough to hold out hope for Christendom. Rome has spoken.

THE DOCUMENT OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY
RELATING TO THE ACTS OF THE SPANISH ASSEMBLY

1. A study of all the statements and proposals shows that a very great deal of work has been put into this attempt to tackle the principal questions relating to the nature of the ministry and of the Hierarchical Priesthood, with special reference to the present day pastoral requirements of this country.
…
3. It would appear that – perhaps through lack of time and because the subject is such a vast one – the documents lack maturity...

4. The documents contain certain proposals and considerations of a highly positive nature, which are soundly based and inspired by generous pastoral concern. We might single out, amongst these elements deserving of praise, those dealing with the union of the priest and the rest of the faithful with Christ through the Eucharist, with the need for prayer, self-denial, and total dedication for the sound exercise of the ministry, etc.

5. There remain, nevertheless, certain parts in each of the statements which show that the basic orientations of these must be viewed with serious reserve both from the doctrinal and the disciplinary aspect. Only if these guidelines are studied in the light of the Church’s unchanging teaching can the sum total of the Assembly’s documents be regarded as containing material of genuine value.

6. These incorrect or, in certain cases, frankly erroneous assumptions which pervade all the documents to a considerable extent, can be summarised under the following headings:

A - THE "SIGNS OF THE TIMES"

It becomes repeatedly evident that the "signs of the times" are ascribed an importance comparable to the contents of supernatural Revelation, transmitted through Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the Church, and infallibly taught by the Magisterium, when it comes to finding out the meaning of the truths of the Faith and the Will of God concerning the Salvation of men.

This is not simply an adaptation of pastoral methods to changing social and cultural conditions, but rather the acceptance of certain premises based on a materialistic or an idealistic view of history as the case may be, an approach which is necessarily associated with the relativism against which the encyclical Humani Generis had given a clear warning.

The "signs of the times" are thereby made to appear to partake of the nature of Revelation and it is suggested that this is still continuing today, rather than having come to an end with the death of the last Apostle.

… "The Faith of Holy Mother Church" and "the ideology of the modern world" are placed upon an equal footing, and we read of the need to achieve a synthesis between the two, by utilising what is found to be acceptable, and omitting what is considered to be useless, in the one as in the other. Similarly, we find the need for "fidelity to Christ" treated as comparable to "fidelity to the world" (the term "world" being used in a frankly secularist sense).

… In accordance with these preconceptions, Holy Scripture, as also the Tradition and the dogmatic teaching of the Church are treated as of lesser importance than certain precarious hypotheses belonging to the realm of sociology or psychology… Moreover, "the particular needs of our time" are interpreted in the sense of a certain philosophy which originated in the previous century and, insinuating itself into Catholic theology, gave rise to the phenomena of Modernism and Neomodernism. It is surprising to find that this particular philosophical approach is looked upon as irreversible and as the only positive one.

B - A DEMOCRACTIC CONCEPT OF THE CHURCH

The documents are pervaded by a certain democratic concept of the Church (which finds a parallel in that which was formulated at the Synod of Pistoia, and subsequently condemned) according to which all the faithful (that is bishops, priests and laity) are ascribed comparable functions, so that we hear ambiguous references to the "single mission of the Church", as well as to "collegiality", "co-responsibility", etc. The function of parish and pastoral Councils is viewed not merely as advisory, but as legislative. Demands are made for the establishment of pastoral Councils – which are looked upon as "essential" and as "representative of the entire People of God" – at all levels (district, parish, diocesan, regional, and national), and with the power of making decisions. The laity are visualised as sharing in responsibility in the Church at every level, and we find certain ambiguous references to an equivalence of the functions assumed by men and women in the central activities of the Church. There is also a tendency to ascribe to the Bishops’ Conference the responsibility which belongs to each individual bishop in his own diocese.

C - PRIESTS AND LAITY PLACED UPON AN EQUAL FOOTING

The elimination of social distinction between priest and lay person rests upon the false assertion that "the New Testament – and the modern world – views as outmoded the distinction between the sacred and the profane." So we hear it asked that priests should be able to take up civil occupations and engage in politics, coupled with the demand that lay people should play a part in all activities of the Church, from preaching to administering the Eucharist, etc.

D - A PASTORAL TOTALITARIANISM

Pastoral government is envisaged in a monolithic and totalitarian fashion, controlled, codified and organised in every detail. In spite of the superficial appearance of democracy, the structures of the Church would take over from, and stifle, every form of individual or collective apostolic activity (whether by diocesan clergy, religious, or lay people), replacing it by a form of centralised organisation modelled on vast business enterprises or on certain conceptions of the State itself.

E - AN APPROACH THAT IS "HORIZONTAL"

There is to be found in all the statements, and particularly in the first, a constant tendency to consider the "mission of the Church" as a form of socio-political activity which must provide the guidelines for the "other" forms of pastoral activity. Taking all the statements together, we find that this idea appears some fifty times.

An explicit assertion that "the Good Tidings brought by Christ consists in the total liberation of man" (and this includes political and economic liberation) is followed by the claim that total commitment to such political an economic liberation is an essential function of the sacred minister – and indeed of the Church as a whole – and that this includes, in some cases, the need for party political activity by priests which can even take on a violent nature.

Associated with this "liberation" which is seen as of such prime importance, there is a new and collective meaning given to the concepts of morals and salvation: the "highest good" is taken to be a social "communion" whose meaning remains ambiguous; sin often becomes reduced to injustices (real or imaginary) in the social or political field.

Such an approach leads to a concept of the mission of the priest which is necessarily horizontal. The service (rendered by the priest) to men, understood in a profane and a collective sense, takes pride of place over all that pertains to worship (when indeed this is not looked upon as superfluous and incidental) and to that part of the ministry which is spiritual in the strict sense of the word (concerned with the Faith, the Sacraments, etc), which too is made to appear as a means in the service of socio-economic and political activity.

F - AMBIGUITY

An essential character of these documents is their constant ambiguity. Whenever these basic ideas which we have been discussing, crop up, an effort is made to combine them, or temper them with reaffirmations, in very general terms, of sound doctrine… Because the documents contain such apparently orthodox modifications, and also certain statements which appear to counterbalance the excesses (such as cautions to avoid all radicalism, etc)… they require very careful study in order to understand the ideas that serve as their guidelines. The phrasing is often so vague and elusive that, unless the reader pays the greatest attention to it, he will not be able to discern which are the unacceptable points, and he will at the same time be imperceptibly drawn into ways of thinking which destroy the essentials of the Faith, of morals, and the discipline of the Church.

WHAT ARE THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORMATION?

1). This is the most serious aspect of the present affair: Nobody has attempted to deny that the acts of the Spanish Bishops’ Assembly "appear to be unacceptable both from the doctrinal and from the pastoral point of view". This fact is all too evident. The intentional ambiguity that characterises the statements shows that it was the subversive maffia who had a majority in the Assembly. When Cardinal Wright rose up to protest, it was Rome herself, faithful to her divine mission, who rose up against this two-fold heresy of doctrinal Neomodernism and revolutionary Progressivism.

2). We are forced to admit that in the last resort it was through the intervention of Paul VI and his Secretary of State that this maffia was finally saved, in a manner that is a scandal to the entire world. And it was saved because the brief it held was that of fidelity to Vatican II and to the Acts of the present Pontiff: "Its various initiatives for the renewal of the Church undertaken in conformity with the directives of the Second Vatican Council and with the Pontifical Documents…" This conformity, affirmed by the Supreme Authority, of all the Errors, modernist and revolutionary, to the Council and to the Acts of the Pope – and in contradiction to the entire Tradition of the Roman Magisterium – serves to carry dissension into the very heart of the Church, of Rome, and of the Pope himself!

3). Certain of our readers will have noted the close agreement – going sometimes so far as the use of identical expressions – between the critical study of the Spanish Assembly by Cardinal Wright and the critical study of the Acts of Vatican II by the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

The document issued by the Congregation for the Clergy merits to be retained as an Act of the Ordinary Roman Magisterium in preparation for the Third Vatican Council, which is to be the Council of Catholic Restoration.

 
PREPARING FOR VATICAN III

THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS
(Preliminary Schema)

"This missionary activity finds its reason in the will of God, ‘who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all’ (1 Tim 2.4-5), ‘neither is there salvation in any other’ (Acts 4.12). Therefore, all must be converted to Him as He is made known by the Church’s preaching. All must be incorporated into Him by baptism, and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself ‘in explicit terms… affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mk 16.16; Jn 3.5) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by God through Jesus Christ, would refuse to enter her or to remain in her could not be saved.’ (cf. Lumen Gentium, 14) Therefore, though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the gospel to that faith without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb 11.16), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (cf. 1 Cor 9.16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the gospel. Hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity." Let us give due credit to the missionaries who, not without difficulty, forced the Council to insert this splendid and sorely needed recapitulation of the theological basis of the Missions, in opposition to the new ideas. (Ad Gentes, No 7)

The term "Foreign Missions" dates from the 17th century, but the concept itself goes back to The Mission that was entrusted to the Apostles: "All Power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." (Mat 28.18-20) And so they went, from Jerusalem even as far as Rome, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; from Rome, to the very limits of the then known world; from the frontiers of Christendom, into the lands of the Moslem and Heathen. From Europe, they went into the newly discovered lands which had become "colonies". We see the very best and bravest among priests – members of the religious orders for the most part – asking to be sent to evangelise the heathen, and thus save them from the all but certain damnation believed to be in store for them. The nations of the world were to be conquered as a whole and be brought into the Kingdom of God through the establishment within each of them of the Church with its own hierarchy and clergy. With each stage, the "Mission" thus reaches farther and farther, spreading Christendom over an ever greater part of the world.

The Counter-Reformation in the 16th century gave rise to a resurgence of missionary activity analogous to that in the early days of the expansion of Christianity or in the time of the Crusades. The vitality of the Christian Faith necessarily shows itself by a missionary zeal, for its motive force is the love of Christ and this is associated with distress at the thought of all the souls who perish because they have not known Him. A certain curiosity about far-off lands played a supplementary role. Feelings of disgust for their savage customs, combined, paradoxically, with a naive admiration for what is good in their habits and disposition, all combined to excite a profound pity for the "poor heathen". Instead of attempting to settle definitively the question of the "eternal salvation of infidels", every effort was made to go out to them and save them. Was this not much better?

The religious indifference that came with the spread of Humanism in Europe, the efforts by the Protestants to proselytise, the banishment of religious orders from their countries as a result of the revolutions and the spread of Freemasonry, served only to increase the missionary fervour, throughout the three centuries that followed. The political and technical supremacy of the European nations and the prestige that attached to their civilisation all combined to carry the missionary epic to its zenith in the 19th century. Coincidentally, the partial or even wholesale apostasy of the people of certain long-established Catholic countries gave rise to the demand for the establishment of "internal missions" and there was even talk that one day the newly converted peoples would be sending missionaries to convert us… In reality, a profound crisis was shaking the peoples of Europe, and it was inevitable that one day the missions themselves should also be affected by it. The missionary institutes would be the first to suffer, becoming contaminated and then decimated…

Vatican II promised, in this field too, that a new impetus and a success hitherto unseen would follow its new, collegial and dynamic approach to the theology of the missions. The converse was to be the case… While the Conciliar texts contain much excellent material, the general orientations underlying these partake of the new evil spirit. The central idea is that "the entire Church is missionary". As the "universal sacrament of salvation", the "leaven of the masses", she is to exert upon the whole changing world an influence for good. The "missionary option" comes to mean nothing beyond helping men to realise themselves, to build a happy, peaceful community that embraces the whole world, to give generous material aid without any attempt at "proselytising". Instead of seeking, above all else, to convert them, the Church is to hold "dialogue" with them, try to understand and to respect them. Being a missionary comes to mean living as a "witness to Christ" among men, adopting their customs and their mentality, looking upon the differences that mark those outside the Church, not as deficiencies but as values of a different kind, complementary to those of Christianity… In other words, the Church, in the foreign mission territories as in Europe itself, is going down on her knees before the world and its false religions.

Where is it all leading to? The religious indifferentism and political progressivism that rule in the Church today are in the process of killing off the missions. Missionary vocations have all but come to a halt, for what is the point of going into far off lands if their peoples are going to be saved in any case, each through their own religion? Or else, the "vocations" have acquired a perverted aim – that of giving the under-developed peoples the means to achieve economic progress and political liberation, with any idea of Catholic evangelisation being replaced by that of material aid, which is pathetic, or of revolutionary propaganda, which is criminal. In this field, as in so many others, we find that Vatican II has opened the doors to materialism, whether capitalist or marxist, to enter and contaminate the Church.

Our desire and aim is that the Catholic Church should find once again her certainty in the Faith, her Christian pride, and the vitality which marked her missionary activity in centuries gone by, making it so incomparably fruitful. But you cannot turn the clock back, and Vatican III will have to express in up to date terms the need for the missions and the blessings which these bring, at the same time as it will need to think anew about the organisation of the missions, both within and outside the bounds of the ancient Catholic lands, in order to make good the upheaval wrought by the great crisis that affected the world in the 20th century.

Proposed Constitution of Vatican III
on
THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS

The Word was made Flesh and was born into the world in order that all men might come to know Him. As St Paul wrote in a well-known passage of the Epistle to the Romans: "fides ex auditu, auditus autem per verbum Christi" ("Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ" Rom l0.17) It is through hearing the Word of Christ preached to them that men come to believe: that is why there must be missions. The Word of God, eternal, immanent, came among men to speak to them about their redemption by God. Having completed His time of preparation, and being anointed by the Holy Spirit, He began, Himself, to preach. Later, offering upon the Cross the Sacrifice of Atonement, He sanctified those who had believed in the Word, and also, in advance, all those who would believe. Finally, after His Resurrection from the dead, He instituted the Church over which, initially, He ruled in person, and then through His Apostles and their successors.

Thus, the preaching of the Gospel by those whom the Church appoints to this task is a basic function of the Christian Apostolate. The essence of this message is that we can attain salvation only through the one and only Saviour, the Son of God made Man. The absolute, fundamental difference between the religion of Christ and any other possible religion is made clear from the first word of this message. Just as Christ is like no other man, so His Church is not like any other human community. For "neither is there salvation in any other"; "outside the Church there is no salvation". The preaching of the Gospel must proceed from this foundation .

The inhabitants of the earth can, therefore, be divided into those who have, and those who have not, heard the Word of God, whether or not they have believed. As our beliefs and values become to a certain extent community possessions, it follows that the world can be divided geographically into those territories where Christ is already known and the lands of the heathen, which have not yet been evangelised. We say "not yet" because it is clear that the Son of God, becoming incarnate once at a certain point of time, intended that from all the nations of the world the elect should finally be gathered together in the One True Church.

This territorial distinction will determine what form the Apostolate of the Divine Word shall take. In those lands where the Church is already in existence, she can speak with authority, teaching her doctrine to those who believe, and admonishing those who have heard and refuse to believe. Where the Word of God is as yet unknown, the Apostolate consists essentially in making Christ known to the people, so that they may be converted and the Church established in their midst. It is in this latter case that we can properly speak of "missions". As these countries do not have their own hierarchies, the direction of the missions is vested in the Supreme Pontiff, through the Pontifical Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, established in 1622, which sends out to them "missionary" priests and bishops, normally belonging to a religious order, as well as nuns and lay people who help them.

The Church’s vitality has always been measured by the strength of her missionary activity. It is those who themselves possess a thing in abundance, who would pass it on to others; unless they are convinced of the truth of their belief and are happy in it, they will have no special desire to share it. Because the religion of Christ represents the fullness of grace and truth, it will lead not only to the spiritual happiness but also to the temporal wellbeing of the peoples who have adopted it. The conversion of individuals will lead on to the formation of a Christian society which differs in its political as well as its religious structure from the rest of the world which is still part of the kingdom of Satan. The lands which have become Christian thus have a select role to fulfil among the rest, towards whom they will act in a missionary capacity, bringing to them also the blessings of that higher culture and civilisation which accompany Christianity.

A "Crisis of the Missions"

The existence of this crisis is too obvious to need special proof. Let us cite merely two recent reports noted at random (the two following news items are from La Croix for March 25th and April 1st respectively):

This brings to its conclusion the long contest which had placed such difficulties in the way of the evangelisation of China. In his Decree Ex quo singulari, Pope Benedict XIV had, in 1742, forbidden all ancestor worship as superstitious. This Decree had been abrogated in 1939, but it needed Vatican II and its introduction of episcopal collegiality before the bishops could allot a place within the Catholic liturgy itself to these rites which represent merely an attitude of filial piety and respect, and prayer for the dead…"

So the Church had been wrong, during all that time, but conversions were booming, while now, when she is right at last, they are coming to a halt!

Man’s Pride knows no Bounds…

For some time now there have been attempts to separate the benefits of Western civilisation from Christianity to which it owes its origins. Men’s pride led them to believe that the cultural and technical achievements which had come to the world through Christianity were the unaided fruits of purely human efforts. The new nations could copy these while rejecting the Christian Faith which alone gives rise to true civilisation and, hence, the missions, which came thus to be looked upon as irrelevant to progress. More recently the Church herself has begun to think along similar lines, doubting the value of her own divine Revelation and admiring instead the various other religions and indigenous cultures. The revolutionary philosophy would look upon every product of the human mind and upon all the various institutions invented by man as of equal value. Far from admitting the dogmatic uniqueness of the Catholic Faith, such an attitude leads to doubt even about its historical superiority. So we have the "crisis of the missions". It is all quite simple… If the Christian Faith is no longer considered the best, the only true one possible, why should its adherents go out to preach it to others? Missionary vocations have all but come to a stop, and those who still go, imbued with the new spirit, have become emissaries of human pride, giving men to understand that the benefits of Western civilisation can be theirs without its religion, or even that the ideology upon which this civilisation is based is one of egalitarian liberalism. Deprived of his proper function, the missionary, like the Church herself today, begins to think of himself as a bringer of technological advance to the under-developed countries and the apostle of western political democracy, flattering their every ambition in the hope of thus, at last, making the Gospel "credible".

As long as the Church maintained her absolute stand, the missions suffered frequent persecution at the hands of anti-clerical, often Masonic, colonial administrators, but she kept her Faith intact, and so the conversion of the peoples proceeded apace, with a plentiful supply of missionary vocations. Today, when the Church herself has become infiltrated with a secularist philosophy and is passing this on to the peoples she is supposed to be evangelising, her influence is shrinking and her missions are losing their identity.

We have reached a stage when the legitimacy itself of the missions is being questioned. In the era of colonialism the true religion came to the peoples together with the basic elements of civilisation. During the phase of decolonisation , the Church liked to think that she alone would survive the wholesale rejection of all that came from the West, because she was "catholic" and preached universal brotherhood. But the pendulum has swung to its extreme. The Afro-Asian nations have chased out the White colonialists and do not wish to have anything to do with their religion, because it is "foreign". Ironically, their ideas of revolution, which inspire this attitude, also came to them from Europe, and now provide their ammunition to use against it.

So we find what remains of the Missions trying hard to put aside their European attachments and to don indigenous dress. Christ is to be born again amidst each people as a personification of their own pride… The very word "mission" is being deprived of its true meaning and is used to refer to the preaching of a new religion of revolution, which rejects all that pertains to the traditional Church as well as to the civilisation that came with it. This thinking too, claims to follow the Council.

Let us therefore see what the Council actually said on the subject…

The Missionary Renewal Proposed by Vatican II

As in so many other fields, so here too, the Council would make all things new, promising the greatest miracles, "a renewal of the Church’s missionary activity such as had never been seen before". This sort of talk must be familiar to our readers by now – is there a sphere in which the Council and the reigning Pontiff did not hold out hopes that things would be "such as had never been seen before"? The missions would no longer be the poor relations in the Church; no, instead of being mere marginal appendages, they would be acknowledged as belonging to the very heart of the Church… The Council’s blueprint for this renewal is the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church - Ad Gentes (which we shall refer to here as MA)

While we find that the progressives greeted the new "orientations" with a lyrical enthusiasm, this refers not so much to the text as it had actually been promulgated – which they accuse of being ambiguous (!) and already out of date – as to the new way of thinking to which it had opened the door.

"Ambiguous": the text is accused of being, at the same time, "a blueprint for the future", but also "a document dealing with the past". A fierce debate opposed – not so much the traditionalists and the progressives – as the missionaries themselves, who knew what they were talking about, and the theorists who had their heads in the clouds. These accused the missionaries of being narrow and petty in their outlook, while the former insisted that the new philosophy endangered the very existence of the missions, and would destroy any zeal to serve in them – which is what finally happened. The battle was a long and hard one and, thanks to the support of the Pope as well as of the majority of the bishops who were ignorant upon the subject, it was the innovators who carried the day.

"Out of Date": It was not difficult to apply this description to precisely those parts of the Decree which, on the insistence of the missionaries themselves, reiterated the traditional point of view. For, to repeat a metaphor we have used before, the Decree provides us with an excellent drink, sweetened with sugar of the best quality. Only, in the interests of Peace and Brotherhood, it had been found necessary to add just that tiny trace of arsenic which our reformers consider so important. And this proved quite sufficient to kill off our beloved missions!

The debates centred upon the continuing need for missions and on the supposedly urgent necessity to "update" them. Let us see just what was saved and what was discarded. Our own assessment will be borne out by the anger or lamentations of the "experts" in the first case, and their cries of joy in the second.

The Theological Basis of the Foreign Missions

A change in terminology often signals a change in the way of thinking. The big question was to choose between "Mission" and "The Missions". We read in a commentary on the Decree (Le Guillou) a lament that "the majority of priests and faithful know our Decree only under the title of ‘Decree on the Missions’ and not under its correct designation of ‘Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church’." This, to him, is "disastrous". We are indebted to him for an explanation, in the words of the ‘opposition’. He writes: "Certain missionary bishops feared that by extending the concept of ‘mission’ and making it vague, we might discourage the missionary effort (in the narrow meaning of the term) and thereby increase the crisis of vocations." These bishops were doubtful about the use of terms such as "the Church in a state of mission", "missionary parishes", etc., all of which would detract from the specific "technical" meaning of the term, and thus prejudice recruitment.

What had the progressive lobby to say in reply? That, conscious of being part of the episcopal College, they wished to share in the general missionary responsibility, and show more clearly the link between "the missions" and the "mission" of the Church. The missionaries were not taken in by this fine-sounding talk, but realised only too well that if the missions were to be made everybody’s business, they would in the end be the concern of nobody, and that if they were "given a place at the very centre of the Church", they would in actual fact be torn away from the foreign lands, and thus be deprived of the very reason for their existence.

It is the meaning of the word that is being changed, from "the Missions of Yesterday" – which consisted in the specific undertaking by the Christian nations to send missionaries to convert the heathen, that is, from the countries of Europe into the territories designated by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith – to that of "the Mission of Tomorrow", which consists in "Ministers of the Word" being sent into the world by the Word. This refers to some vague, never-ending evangelisation with little bearing on the definitive conversion of individuals or the establishment in new territories of the institutional Church. How right the missionaries were when they refused to be reassured that they had nothing to lose as a result of the new thinking. But many of the younger, post-Conciliar generation of missionaries were flattered by all this and found the new egalitarian spirit to be more ‘"evangelical"… The missions fell victim to the high-sounding phrases.

What had hitherto been taken for granted as the basic reason for the missions – the salvation of souls and the spreading of the Church’s empire over what had been the domain of Satan – is no longer even mentioned. Human solidarity, the service of all men, comes before the service of God. We find the same ideas in the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church as we have seen in Lumen Gentium. "In the present historical situation" the entire people of God have become missionary. "In this way all things can be restored in Christ, and in Him mankind can compose one family and one people." We find the word "mission" being used synonymously with this human unity and solidarity, in several sections of MA (Nos 2, 3, 4) and it reappears in No 11: "The Church must be present in these groups of men through those of her children who dwell among them or are sent to them. Thus other men, observing their good works, can glorify the Father (cf. Mt 5.16) and can better perceive the real meaning of human life and the bond which ties the whole community of mankind together." Did not the preaching of the Word of Christ bring hatred and persecution to His missionaries? The innovators are changing the very meaning of the word "mission" and using it to christen their new Utopia.

Why there should be such a "duty" upon the Church at all is not really explained, if it is no longer for the salvation of souls. "The Church has been divinely sent to all nations that she might be ‘the universal sacrament of salvation’… Upon their (the Apostles’) successors devolves the duty of perpetuating this work through the years." (MA, 1) "The mission of the Church, therefore, is fulfilled by that activity which makes her fully present to all men and nations. She undertakes this activity in obedience to Christ’s command and in response to the grace and love of the Holy Spirit." (MA, 5) It is expressed more plainly elsewhere: "The ultimate reason for missionary activity is to be sought not so much – or at least not exclusively – in the eternal salvation of men, however inspiring and stimulating we may find this thought to be (!) nor is it to be found in our love for God and the spiritual needs of men desiring redemption; it is to be found rather in the Father’s everlasting decree of love, to which Christ was made totally obedient, bringing about our redemption by this obedience." (Schütte, Unam Sanctam). A "duty" of missionary activity – which "exists not only in virtue of the express command which was inherited from the apostles by the order of bishops…" but "exists also in virtue of that life which flows from Christ into His members… The mission of the Church, therefore is fulfilled by that activity which makes her fully present to all men and nations". (MA, 5)

Realising that this new thinking would lead to doubts about the continuing need for missions, and thus jeopardise their existence, the missionaries fought to extort from the Council a reaffirmation of the "absolute necessity of the missions’’. Thus there came to be included the admirable No 7 of the Decree, which we have quoted at length in our introduction. Here we find it stated at last that the missions exist essentially for the salvation of souls. But after that, the Decree continues in its original secularist tone that we have already noted. "According to this plan, the whole human race is to form one people of God, coalesce into the one body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit…" (No 7) "Missionary activity is closely bound up too with human nature itself and its aspirations. By manifesting Christ, the Church reveals to men the real truth about their condition and their total vocation. For Christ is the source and model of that renewed humanity, penetrated with brotherly love, sincerity, and a peaceful spirit, to which all aspire… All stand in need of Christ, their Model, their Mentor, their Liberator, their Saviour, their Source of life. The gospel has truly been a leaven of brotherhood, of unity, and of peace." (No 8)

This combination of syrup and arsenic cannot but result in ambiguity and lead to doubt concerning the continuing need for the missions. So it is not really surprising to hear of a conference being organised, seven years after the closure of the Council, entitled: "There is still a Need for the Missions." There is no question mark, but the adverb betrays the doubt – still a need! On the three hundred and fiftieth birthday of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, its death seems to be not far off.

The "Updating" of the Missions

The missions had remained untouched by the new spirit of egalitarianism associated with Catholic Action in the Catholic lands. The "Apostolate from within" remained unknown: the excellent work done by the (African) lay catechists is an entirely different matter, which must not be confused with this. The spirit pervading the missions was still that of the 19th century, with the wonderful faith, virtues and sanctity which marked the Catholicism of that period, as well as with its deficiencies. It was based on the authority of the hierarchy of the Church, and supported by that of the colonial powers. The eclipse of the latter, the rejection of the White man and the spread of revolutionary ideologies all contributed to precipitate a crisis.

The Council decided to swim with the tide, to admit and ask pardon for all the sins that had ever been reproached against the missions, even though the missionaries had not been themselves guilty of that Western presumption, racial pride, imperialism, colonialism, etc., of which it is now fashionable for the nations of European origin to accuse themselves. From now on, the missionaries were to fall over backwards in their respect for indigenous customs and even religions. "That they may be able to give this witness to Christ fruitfully, let them be joined to those men by esteem and love, and acknowledge themselves to be members of the group of men among whom they live. Let them share in cultural and social life by the various exchanges and enterprises of human living. Let them be familiar with their national and religious traditions, gladly and reverently laying bare the seeds of the Word which lie hidden in them." (MA, No 11) "Closely united with men in their life and work, Christ’s disciples hope to render to others true witness of Christ, and to work for their salvation, even where they are not able to proclaim Christ fully. For they are not seeking a mere material progress and prosperity for men, but are promoting their dignity and brotherly union, teaching those religious and moral truths which Christ illumined with His light. In this way, they are gradually opening up a wider approach to God. Thus too they help men to attain to salvation by love for God and neighbour. And the mystery of Christ begins to shine forth. In this mystery the new man has appeared, created according to God…" (MA, 12)

What does all this mean, if not that henceforth it is the missionaries who are to study and take over the customs of those among whom they work, while taking the greatest care not to import any of our spirit, our rites or customs. Any true evangelisation will have to give way to "service" and "dialogue" which is careful not to distinguish between different cultures or even religions, except, perhaps to the detriment of European civilisation and of the Catholic Faith.

Let us note also the non-specific sense in which the word "salvation" is used in the above passage and also in the following: "For the gospel message has not yet been heard… by two billion human beings. Some of these men are followers of one of the great religions, others remain strangers to the very notion of God, while others expressly deny His existence, and sometimes even attack it. In order to be able to offer to all of them the mystery of salvation and the life brought by God, the Church must become part of all these groups for the same motive which led Christ to bind Himself, in virtue of His Incarnation, to the definite social and cultural conditions of those human beings among whom He dwelt." (MA, No 10) It seems that the aim of the missions is to be understood in the sense of the temporal progress and material success of the peoples, with the preaching of the Gospel playing a subsidiary part.

… And finally, why should the missions not become ecumenical? "Insofar as religious conditions allow, ecumenical activity should be furthered… This co-operation should be undertaken not only among private persons but also, according to the judgement of the local Ordinary, among Churches or ecclesial Communities and their enterprises." (MA, 15) And why not, if the business of the missions is essentially that of "charitable activity". However, the missionaries, realising what this would mean, protested, but to little avail. The scandal of separation among Christians must be eradicated from the missions at all costs, even if this takes away the reason for their existence, and by curing the disease, kills the patient.

THE RESTORATION OF THE MISSIONS BY VATICAN III

The restoration of the Missions to their rightful place of honour must be an urgent priority as well as their general reorganisation. The future Council will have to re-state the basic principles underlying the missions, which are the same today as they have always been; hence the necessity of having missions also remains unchanged. There could profitably follow a doctrinal exposition of the subject which is more explicit than those of the past, while at the same time incorporating any genuine progress in theological thought. It might be found acceptable, for instance, to make use of the definitions by Rahner, Ratzinger and Congar, who would take as their starting point the divine Mission of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit: "As the Father hath sent me, I also send you." (Jn 20.21)… A nobler way of looking at things – and one always close to the Church’s thinking – than to look upon missionaries simply as sent from Europe into distant lands, by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. The danger arises when the two approaches are regarded as mutually exclusive, by contrasting, as did Vatican II, the new idea of a "mission" with the "outdated" one of going out into far-off lands with the explicit aim of converting the heathen and freeing whole peoples from the yoke of Satan.

It may also be tempting to seek a parallel between the Incarnation of the Word among men, and the "incarnation" of the Church among the different peoples through espousing their customs and mentality. But the analogy here would be with the heretical view according to which the Word, on becoming incarnate, renounced His divinity, to become a mere man like us. And in practice, this idea leads to the encouragement of self-complacency that makes conversion seem unnecessary, and even of the current revolutionary outlook that would tolerate the Church only on condition that she renounce her Roman tradition and her links with Europe.

There is No Salvation Outside the Church

It has been the constant belief throughout the centuries that there can be no eternal salvation for individuals – no lasting wellbeing even on earth, for communities or individuals, except through believing in Jesus Christ and becoming part of His Church. This belief has its foundation in the formal teaching of the Gospel, and it was thanks to this conviction that people felt called to the missions. This deep-seated conviction was nevertheless compatible with a considerable latitude in the exact degree of strictness with which the principle was to be interpreted. That there could be certain exceptions to the formal definition had always been recognised, for instance, through "baptism of desire", or "baptism of blood". Because God desired that all men should be saved, He would judge even the heathen in accordance with the extent of their knowledge of His law.

The rigid interpretation of the teaching that "there is no salvation outside the Church" has always been condemned by the Magisterium – including as recently as on 2nd August 1949, by the Holy Office. Nevertheless, such a belief was so much in line with instinctive convictions that it inspired the greatest heroism and readiness for martyrdom in the service of the missions. The future Council will have to reaffirm the principle, while being more specific with regard to its application in the various possible cases.

With regard to the Christian countries: men who have known Christ are faced with a clear-cut choice between following the light or darkness, between salvation and damnation. Refusal to believe means damnation. To know the Church leads similarly to a clear choice. No one who has known the Church and rejected her can be saved. Conversely, we can say that all men of good will, whose souls are already inspired by the Holy Spirit to seek the light, are, necessarily impatient to know the Church and prepared to recognise her as the source of that salvation which they desire.

A particular error that will have to be condemned is the current one which treats of evangelisation in terms of "witnessing to Christ". The example of a perfect Christian life can indeed play a role – but only a very subsidiary one – in making men accept the Church. But it is primarily the Church herself, through her Revelation and her Commandments, through her Liturgy and her entire Tradition, that calls upon men to enter her. If the secondary reason of human example is exalted into first place, there follows the corollary that "counter-witness" by bad example serves to justify the refusal to believe and the rejection of the Church. And this is an untruth, for Christ appeals directly to the human soul and offers it salvation. To reject this offer is to choose darkness in preference to light.

With regard to the lands which still remain heathen: the same principle applies but its interpretation is not so self-evident, but needs to be seen in relation to other truths of the Faith. There can be no salvation except in and through Christ, and hence in and through the Church. But it is true that those who have never heard of Jesus Christ, who have never known the Church, are also given the opportunity of salvation and in their case too, this comes to them through the Church, through an invisible link with Christ and with the visible Church. Those who, though outside the visible Church, are already seeking salvation are thereby also awaiting the preaching of the Gospel. This is stated quite correctly in the Council’s Decree MA: "… though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the gospel to that faith without which it is impossible to please Him… yet a necessity lies upon the Church, and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the gospel. Hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity." (No 7) The future Council will have specifically to condemn that other serious error according to which other religions are also, if to a lesser extent, "sacraments of salvation".

We can define the aims of missionary evangelisation as follows: Those who are already in a state of justice will thereby come to know the Church and all the wonders she brings them. Those who, in spite of certain good intentions, would not have been able to attain justification without the external aid of the Sacraments, are thereby given the possibility of attaining salvation with their help. Those, thirdly, who oppose and persecute the Church, are thus given, like the Pharisees, their one and only chance. Even this alone would be sufficient justification for the existence of missions.

It is fashionable to look upon the Catholic Faith as no longer adequate to today’s needs – even though we may believe it to be true – to pretend that the nations can get on quite well without it. Did not the technical advance of the West coincide with the decline of Christianity, and can the Afro-Asian countries not adopt the short cut of technical development without bothering about religion? Those who despise what comes from Europe will despise the Christian Faith because of its European links, while the Church herself is affecting to despise her Latin origin. Vatican III will have to show the folly of such a separation. There has always been a link between the civilisation of Europe and Christianity, and they were spread together. The Council will once more have to remind the nations of the world how much they owe to Christianity which, throughout the ages, has been Roman and Latin, linked to Europe.

The pastoral reorganisation of the missions will have to be undertaken by Vatican III, with due regard to the state of the peoples concerned. In the case of those still in a state of primitive development, the process of evangelisation has to continue as it has always done in the past, bringing civilisation in the wake of the Faith. The missionaries were preceded or followed by the conquerors or settlers. It was a system that worked, in spite of its failings, as long as it was not upset by the anticlericalism of the governors or administrators. The missionaries were not called upon to renounce their origin, to accuse themselves of having betrayed the gospel.

In countries which, though heathen, are at a more advanced state of development the Church’s approach must be geared to their intellectual and educational level, the missionaries must be trained in polemic and be able to show by scientific reasoning how all civilisations which are not founded on Christianity are doomed to failure.

The case of those peoples who have formally apostatised presents a further problem, though we must be careful not to confuse the people themselves with their rulers who may also be their oppressors. But neither should the position be confused with that in the mission territories proper. It will be for Vatican III to decide whether these should be the concern of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, whether the Church should send to these countries missionaries vowed to certain martyrdom or whether she should bide her time, waiting for a change of rulers. Or whether to take a direct hand in the liberation of such peoples from their oppressors.

At all events, the missionary must remain a "man apart". His is a full-time job, and it is a grave mistake to think it can be performed by secular priests seconded for a given time. For a long time yet the Missionary Institutes will have to play an essential part, co-operating, in a manner that can be solved with good will on both sides, with a hierarchy now almost entirely of local origin. One day the developing nations will learn how pride only leads to disaster, and their humility will then return. Already at the Council it was evident that the Afro-Asian bishops were among the first to recover their senses. The co-operation which Vatican II sought to establish between them and the missionary institutes must be fostered, and with the help of God the Missions will be restored to greater glory than ever before.