The Vatican Council: The Pope Runs the Church

Paul VI last week coldly and dramatically reaffirmed that it is the Pope, and not the bishops of the Vatican Council, who really runs the Roman Catholic Church. Just as the third session of the council was ending, Pope Paul—siding with conservative cardinals of the Roman Curia—took a major decision out of the hands of the progressive majority of prelates. Thereby, he raised doubts whether he essentially favors the aggiornamento begun by John XXIII and whether he intends to give anything more than lip service to collegiality—the doctrine, approved by the bishops, that they, as descendants of the Apostles, share ruling authority over the church with the Pope.

The bishops' sudden awakening to realities came two days before the session's end, when they were scheduled to vote on a revised declaration on religious liberty that strongly defended the right of all men to worship God as conscience dictates. Just before the balloting, Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, chairman of the twelve council presidents, announced that "many fathers have objected that there has not been sufficient time to consider the declaration. It seems proper therefore to the presidency that this question should not be decided now. We will not proceed to a vote."

From Anger to Action. There was a brief burst of scattered applause, but most of the 1,950 prelates present were clearly stunned. Angrily they poured down from their tiered seats to the floor of St. Peter's. Albert Cardinal Meyer of Chicago, normally calm and introverted, was livid with rage. He and most other bishops knew that the "many fathers" consisted of only 120 or so conservatives, mostly Italian, and that they had had plenty of time to consider the declaration; the conservative-oriented theological commission had approved the final draft. "Let's not stand here talking," snapped Bishop Francis Reh, head of the North American College in Rome. "Who has some paper?" A group of prelates quickly drafted a petition to the Pope that "urgently, very urgently and most urgently" requested him to overrule the presidents, "lest the confidence of the world, both Christian and nonChristian, be lost." Within 90 minutes, American and Canadian bishops had rounded up more than 800 signatures for the petition.

As they worked, Belgian Bishop Emile Josef De Smedt rose to give the speech that was to have introduced the declaration. When he sat down, after pleading that "religious liberty is demanded by human dignity itself," there were tears in his eyes. He was rewarded with applause that rolled on and on, the moderator powerless to stop it.