The ministry of unity
of the Bishop of Rome
88.
Among all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities, the Catholic Church is
conscious that she has preserved the ministry of the Successor of the Apostle
Peter, the Bishop of Rome, whom God established as her "perpetual and
visible principle and foundation of unity" 146 and whom the Spirit
sustains in order that he may enable all the others to share in this essential
good. In the beautiful expression of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, my ministry
is that of servus servorum
Dei. This designation is the best possible safeguard against the risk of
separating power (and in particular the primacy) from ministry. Such a
separation would contradict the very meaning of power according to the Gospel:
"I am among you as one who serves" (Lk 22:27),
says our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. On the other hand, as I
acknowledged on the important occasion of a visit to the World Council of
Churches in Geneva on 12 June 1984, the Catholic Church's conviction that in
the ministry of the Bishop of Rome she has preserved, in fidelity to the
Apostolic Tradition and the faith of the Fathers, the visible sign and
guarantor of unity, constitutes a difficulty for most other Christians, whose
memory is marked by certain painful recollections. To the extent that we are
responsible for these, I join my Predecessor Paul VI in asking
forgiveness.147
89.
It is nonetheless significant and encouraging that the question of the primacy
of the Bishop of Rome has now become a subject of study which is already under
way or will be in the near future. It is likewise significant and encouraging
that this question appears as an essential theme not only in the theological
dialogues in which the Catholic Church is engaging with other Churches and
Ecclesial Communities, but also more generally in the ecumenical movement as a
whole. Recently the delegates to the Fifth World Assembly of the Commission on Faith
and Order of the World Council of Churches, held in Santiago de Compostela, recommended that the Commission "begin a
new study of the question of a universal ministry of Christian
unity".148 After centuries of bitter controversies, the other Churches
and Ecclesial Communities are more and more taking a fresh look at this
ministry of unity.149
90.
The Bishop of Rome is the Bishop of the Church which preserves the mark of the
martyrdom of Peter and of Paul: "By a mysterious design of Providence it is at Rome that [Peter]
concludes his journey in following Jesus, and it is at Rome that he gives his greatest proof of love
and fidelity. Likewise Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, gives his supreme
witness at Rome.
In this way the Church of Rome became the Church of Peter
and of Paul".150
In the New Testament, the
person of Peter has an eminent place. In the first part of the Acts of the
Apostles, he appears as the leader and spokesman of the Apostolic College
described as "Peter ... and the Eleven" (2:14; cf. 2:37,
5:29).
The place assigned to Peter is based on the words of Christ himself, as they
are recorded in the Gospel traditions.
91.
The Gospel of Matthew gives a clear outline of the pastoral mission of Peter in
the Church: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona!
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in
heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church
and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (16:17-19).
Luke makes clear that Christ urged Peter to strengthen his brethren, while at
the same time reminding him of his own human weakness and need of conversion
(cf. 22:31-32). It is just as though,
against the backdrop of Peter's human weakness, it were made fully evident that
his particular ministry in the Church derives altogether from grace. It is as
though the Master especially concerned himself with Peter's conversion as a way
of preparing him for the task he was about to give him in his Church, and for
this reason was very strict with him. This same role of Peter, similarly linked
with a realistic affirmation of his weakness, appears again in the Fourth
Gospel: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? ... Feed my
sheep" (cf. Jn 21:15-19).
It is also significant that according to the First Letter of Paul to the
Corinthians the Risen Christ appears to Cephas and
then to the Twelve (cf. 15:5).
It is important to note how
the weakness of Peter and of Paul clearly shows that the Church is founded upon
the infinite power of grace (cf. Mt 16:17; 2
Cor 12:7-10). Peter, immediately after
receiving his mission, is rebuked with unusual severity by Christ, who tells
him: "You are a hindrance to me" (Mt
16:23). How can
we fail to see that the mercy which Peter needs is related to the ministry of
that mercy which he is the first to experience? And yet, Peter will deny Jesus
three times. The Gospel of John emphasizes that Peter receives the charge of
shepherding the flock on the occasion of a threefold profession of love (cf.
21:15-17),
which corresponds to his threefold denial (cf. 13:38). Luke, for his
part, in the words of Christ already quoted, words which the early tradition
will concentrate upon in order to clarify the mission of Peter, insists on the
fact that he will have to "strengthen his brethren when he has turned
again" (cf. 22:32).
92.
As for Paul, he is able to end the description of his ministry with the amazing
words which he had heard from the Lord himself: "My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"; consequently, he can
exclaim: "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2
Cor 12:9-10). This is a basic
characteristic of the Christian experience.
As the heir to the mission
of Peter in the Church, which has been made fruitful by the blood of the Princes
of the Apostles, the Bishop of Rome exercises a ministry originating in the
manifold mercy of God. This mercy converts hearts and pours forth the power of
grace where the disciple experiences the bitter taste of his personal weakness
and helplessness. The authority proper to this ministry is completely at the
service of God's merciful plan and it must always be seen in this perspective.
Its power is explained from this perspective.
93.
Associating himself with Peter's threefold profession of love, which
corresponds to the earlier threefold denial, his Successor knows that he must
be a sign of mercy. His is a ministry of mercy, born of an act of Christ's own
mercy. This whole lesson of the Gospel must be constantly read anew, so that
the exercise of the Petrine ministry may lose nothing
of its authenticity and transparency.
The Church of God is called
by Christ to manifest to a world ensnared by its sins and evil designs that,
despite everything, God in his mercy can convert hearts to unity and enable
them to enter into communion with him.
94.
This service of unity, rooted in the action of divine mercy, is entrusted
within the College of Bishops to one among those who have received from the
Spirit the task, not of exercising power over the people—as the rulers of the
Gentiles and their great men do (cf. Mt
20:25; Mk 10:42)—but of
leading them towards peaceful pastures. This task can require the offering of
one's own life (cf. Jn
10:11-18). Saint Augustine, after showing that Christ is "the
one Shepherd, in whose unity all are one", goes on to exhort: "May
all shepherds thus be one in the one Shepherd; may they let the one voice of
the Shepherd be heard; may the sheep hear this voice and follow their Shepherd,
not this shepherd or that, but the only one; in him may they all let one voice
be heard and not a babble of voices ... the voice free of all division, purified
of all heresy, that the sheep hear".151 The mission of the Bishop
of Rome within the College of all the Pastors consists precisely in
"keeping watch" (episkopein), like a
sentinel, so that, through the efforts of the Pastors, the true voice of Christ
the Shepherd may be heard in all the particular Churches. In this way, in each
of the particular Churches entrusted to those Pastors, the una,
sancta, catholica et apostolica
Ecclesia is made present. All the Churches are in full and visible
communion, because all the Pastors are in communion with Peter and therefore
united in Christ.
With the power and the
authority without which such an office would be illusory, the Bishop of Rome
must ensure the communion of all the Churches. For this reason, he is the first
servant of unity. This primacy is exercised on various levels, including
vigilance over the handing down of the Word, the celebration of the Liturgy and
the Sacraments, the Church's mission, discipline and the Christian life. It is
the responsibility of the Successor of Peter to recall the requirements of the
common good of the Church, should anyone be tempted to overlook it in the
pursuit of personal interests. He has the duty to admonish, to caution and to
declare at times that this or that opinion being circulated is irreconcilable
with the unity of faith. When circumstances require it, he speaks in the name
of all the Pastors in communion with him. He can also—under very specific
conditions clearly laid down by the First Vatican Council— declare ex
cathedra that a certain doctrine belongs to the deposit of
faith.152 By thus bearing witness to the truth, he serves unity.
95.
All this however must always be done in communion. When the Catholic Church
affirms that the office of the Bishop of Rome corresponds to the will of
Christ, she does not separate this office from the mission entrusted to the
whole body of Bishops, who are also "vicars and ambassadors of
Christ".153 The Bishop of Rome is a member of the "College",
and the Bishops are his brothers in the ministry.
Whatever relates to the
unity of all Christian communities clearly forms part of the concerns of the
primacy. As Bishop of Rome I am fully aware, as I have reaffirmed in the
present Encyclical Letter, that Christ ardently desires the full and visible
communion of all those Communities in which, by virtue of God's faithfulness,
his Spirit dwells. I am convinced that I have a particular responsibility in
this regard, above all in acknowledging the ecumenical aspirations of the
majority of the Christian Communities and in heeding the request made of me to
find a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is
essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation. For a whole
millennium Christians were united in "a brotherly fraternal communion of
faith and sacramental life ... If disagreements in belief and discipline arose
among them, the Roman See acted by common consent as
moderator".154
In this way the primacy exercised
its office of unity. When addressing the Ecumenical Patriarch His Holiness Dimitrios I, I acknowledged my awareness that "for a
great variety of reasons, and against the will of all concerned, what should
have been a service sometimes manifested itself in a very different light. But
... it is out of a desire to obey the will of Christ truly that I recognize
that as Bishop of Rome I am called to exercise that ministry ... I insistently
pray the Holy Spirit to shine his light upon us, enlightening all the Pastors
and theologians of our Churches, that we may seek—together, of course—the forms
in which this ministry may accomplish a service of love recognized by all
concerned".155
96.
This is an immense task, which we cannot refuse and which I cannot carry out by
myself. Could not the real but imperfect communion existing between us persuade
Church leaders and their theologians to engage with me in a patient and
fraternal dialogue on this subject, a dialogue in which, leaving useless
controversies behind, we could listen to one another, keeping before us only
the will of Christ for his Church and allowing ourselves to be deeply moved by
his plea "that they may all be one ... so that the world may believe that
you have sent me" (Jn
17:21)?
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