"(7) It goes on to describe "the sole Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as 'the pillar and mainstay of the truth.'
"(8) Pope Francis has taken a central theme of his pontificate from Lumen Gentium § 8 on the Church following Christ in his poverty and humility in order to bring the Good News to the poor.
They likewise exercise that priesthood in receiving the sacraments, in prayer and thanksgiving, in the witness of a holy life, and by self-denial and active charity.
In the first place amongst these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.
Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.
Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life.
Of the members of the council, 322, a substantial minority, voted against any mention whatever in the document of a "college" of bishops),[6] and were now proposing 47 amendments to chapter III.
"Higher authority" refers to the Pope, Paul VI, and "the Schema de Ecclesia" to the draft text for the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium.
[8] The Preliminary Note of Explanation did not in fact alter the value of the statement on collegiality in the text of Lumen gentium: it "strengthened the adherence to the doctrine of the First Vatican Council on the primacy, but it did not subsequently strike out anything from the direct divine origin of the episcopal office and its function, and the responsibility of the College of Bishops for the Universal Church.
[10]Bishop Christopher Butler, a major contributor to the council and strong proponent of its teachings,[11] finds that the document gives a "reaffirmation" to "a genuine sacramental episcopal collegiality" which was thrown into the background by the premature ending of Vatican I.
This principle of subsidiarity is carried through to the point at which the lay Catholic is seen as a genuine creative force in the life of the People of God; and to the further point where it is realised that the whole human family, insofar as good will prevails, is a theatre of the operations of the grace-gifts of the Holy Spirit, and is cooperating in the building up of Christ's kingdom.He concludes that the Church which makes contemporary the saving truth of the gospel "is the sign and the instrument of the unity of the whole human race.
"[12] This part of the document also endorsed the revival of the office of deacon as found in the early church, as a permanent vocation rather than a stage through which candidates for the priesthood pass, as had been the case since about the 5th century, and that it should open to married men.
It pertains to the competent territorial bodies of bishops, of one kind or another, with the approval of the Supreme Pontiff, to decide whether and where it is opportune for such deacons to be established for the care of souls.
With the consent of the Roman Pontiff, this diaconate can, in the future, be conferred upon men of more mature age, even upon those living in the married state.
It may also be conferred upon suitable young men, for whom the law of celibacy must remain intact.The laity are gathered together in the People of God and make up the Body of Christ under one Head.
Whoever they are they are called upon, as living members, to expend all their energy for the growth of the Church and its continuous sanctification [...] Through their baptism and confirmation all are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord Himself.
In this way, the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history.
Finally it clearly shows all men both the unsurpassed breadth of the strength of Christ the King and the infinite power of the Holy Spirit marvelously working in the Church.
Pope Paul VI, in a speech to the council fathers, called the document "a vast synthesis of the Catholic doctrine regarding the place which the Blessed Mary occupies in the mystery of Christ and of the Church.
(1904–1983) professor of theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum from 1938 to 1976[18] and peritus during Vatican II, was influential in the redaction of the Lumen gentium.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II issued Dominus Iesus with the theme of "the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church".
He also stated earlier in the encyclical, Redemptoris Missio, "The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church."