Towards a Papacy in Communion Perspectives from Vatican Councils I & II

by Pottmeyer, Hermann J.

• ISBN13: 9780824517762
• ISBN10: 0824517768
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-12-01
• Publisher: Herder & Herder

Summary

Since they seem to require a very centralized conception of the Church and its administration, the decrees of Vatican I are often taken to pose problems both for ecumenical dialogue and for discussion within the Catholic Church. Hermann Pottmeyer, however, shows that the centralist interpretation of Vatican I is neither the binding nor the correct interpretation. He undertakes a careful examination both of the historical conditions that gave rise to the conception of the pope as an absolute monarch and of the Council documents themselves. Moreover, in the documents of Vatican II he finds the foundation for a vision of papal ministry understood within the context of a Church conceived in terms of "communion." This ecclesiology of communion formulated at Vatican II, taken together with a correct interpretation of the teachings of Vatican I, points the way beyond a centralist understanding of the papacy and offers the framework for a new dialogue on papal primacy.

Table of Contents

Preface	7	(4)
Abbreviations	11	(2)
1. The Challenge to a New Dialogue on the Papacy	13	(10)
2. From Witness to Monarch: Development of, or Change in, Papal Primacy?	23	(13)
3. The Three Traumas of Rome on the Eve of the First Vatican Council	36	(15)
4. Vatican I and Papal Primacy of Jurisdiction	51	(25)
5. Vatican I and the Infallibility of the Papal Teaching Office	76	(34)
6. Papacy in Communion: Perspectives from Vatican II	110	(27)
Index	137