The Vatican Council: The Pope Runs the Church

• Share

(2 of 2)

That day, Meyer, Joseph Cardinal Ritter of St. Louis, and Montreal's Paul Emile Cardinal Leger presented the petition to the Pope. Next morning, the prelates learned, again through Cardinal Tisserant, that the Pope had sided with the presidents; they also discovered that he had overruled the council on two other matters. On his own authority, the Pope had made 19 changes in the final draft of a schema on Christian unity that had already been accepted by the council in chapter-by-chapter votes. Some of the changes clearly modified the ecumenical intentions of the prelates. The text approved by the bishops noted that Protestants "find God," through the grace of the Holy Spirit, in Scripture; Paul made it "seek God." The Pope also announced that he would proclaim Mary as "Mother of the Church"—a new title, which the bishops had decided not to include in the Marian chapter of a schema on the church.

Fears for the Future. On the ceremonious closing day of the council, Pope Paul formally promulgated the impressive and progressive-spirited schemata on ecumenism and the church, as well as a shorter document on the Oriental church. Before the third session ended, the bishops also voted approval of the revised declaration on non-Christian religions, which firmly asserts that the Jews were and are not guilty of deicide; this declaration may be touched up between sessions and will be given final approval at the-fourth session, which may not take place until 1966.

Despite these accomplishments, many bishops returned home far more disturbed about the future of the council than they had been at the end of the stalemated second session. The Pope's final actions at the council made it clear that collegiality was largely an ideal, not an ecclesiastical fact. His support of the Curia's maneuvering left many bishops resentful, their faith shaken in his progressive intentions.