Richard R. Gaillardetz

The Ordinary Universal Magisterium: Unresolved Questions

[The conviction that the common teaching of the bishops was a sure guide for Christian faith goes back to the earliest centuries. In the decades since Vatican II, appeals to this category of common episcopal teaching, now referred to under the rubric “ordinary universal magisterium,” have grown dramatically. The author here documents the expanded appeals to the ordinary universal magisterium under the pontificate of John Paul II and explores the difficult theological questions that this practice raises.]

Shifting meanings in the lay-clergy distinction

On the basis of his interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, the author discusses some difficulties raised by the theological presuppositions of the recent Vatican Instruction on the collaboration of non-ordained faithful in the priestly ministry.

Engaging Magisterial Activism Today

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Sexual Vulnerability and a Spirituality of Suffering: Explorations in the Writing of Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew who lived in Amsterdam during World War II and suffered under the persecutions of the Nazis, ultimately dying at Auschwitz. Her journals and letters offer a provocative portrait of an independent and intellectually curious young woman who was unabashedly frank about her active sexual life. Her views on God, prayer and suffering were developed largely outside the boundaries of any defined religious tradition. These views did not simply develop in tandem with her sense of her own sexuality; spirituality and sexuality intersected in her thought in important and novel ways. This essay sketches out a compelling spirituality of compassion drawn from the complex interconnections between Hillesums understanding of God, the reality of suffering and her growing sense of the vulnerability that authentic sexuality demanded.

Infallibility and the Ordination of Women

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on October 28, 1995, issued a Responsum ad dubium, a formal response to an inquiry posed to the Holy See. The inquiry or dubium concerned the authoritative status of the teaching of Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio sacerdotalis regarding the ordination of women. In this article I wish to consider what is new in the CDF Responsum, namely the declaration that the exclusion of women from the priesthood has been taught infallibly and belongs to the deposit of faith. In particular, I will consider whether, in this declaration, the magisterium has fulfilled the obligation to “clearly establish” a claim to infallibility as set forth in the important canonical principle: “no doctrine is understood to be infallibly defined unless it is clearly established as such (canon 749.3).” Consequently, my primary concern will be the teaching’s authoritative status; any consideration of the substantive arguments which the church has adduced in support of this teaching will be limited to their bearing on the teaching’s degree of authority. According to the cover letter (November 8, 1995) of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect for the CDF, which was sent to presidents of episcopal conferences, the responsum was required because of

Does a Doctrinal Teaching Office Have an Ecumenical Future

The Roman Catholic Church will soon conclude its celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II, an ecclesial event that marked the Church’s official entrance into the twentieth-century ecumenical movement.1 More has been accomplished ecumenically in the half century since the opening of the council than had been accomplished in the four and half centuries between the Reformation and Vatican II. Simply from the perspective of Roman Catholicism, we have witnessed remarkable ecumenical achievements: the rescinding of the mutual excommunications between the Catholic and Orthodox churches that had existed for almost 1,000 years; the declaration of a common Christological faith between the Catholic Church and the ancient Oriental Orthodox churches, overcoming 1,500 years of division on basic Christological doctrine; and the crown jewel of ecumenical achievement, the 1999 Joint Declaration on Justification by Faith between the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. Beyond these landmark achievements there has been a plethora of multilateral and bilateral ecumenical dialogues resulting in official statements that have helped articulate an expanding consensus in shared Christian faith on a wide range of topics such as scripture, tradition, baptism, Eucharist, ministry, and ecclesiology.

Book Review: Vatican II: The Battle for MeaningVatican II: The Battle for Meaning. By FaggioliMassimo. New York: Paulist, 2012. Pp. viii + 199.

cial for understanding many areas of theology: among others, the influence of anthropological views on theology, the experience of conversion, the features of “reactive” theology against heretical theologies, and the need to navigate between the old “world order” of the Roman Empire and the new order imposed by “Barbarians.” This volume also provides articles that treat the divisiveness of Augustine between East and West at a time when the globalization of theology is reshaping the very concept of East and West for the Christian theological tradition and thereby placing Augustine’s legacy in question.