Class Notes Part Two

Chapter 5

THE MISSIONARY MOVEMENT

The revival of missionary activity in the nineteenth century

The deplorable state of the missions
At the end of the eighteenth centuries in all the mission territories there were about 300 missionaries left.
The major cause for this were the suppression of the Society of Jesus, a move prepared by the Enlightenment and by the political influence of Jansenists and Gallicans. Pressure was put on Clement XIV by Catholic monarchs to such an extent that he suppressed the Society in 1773. This blow deprived the church of 3,000 of its most experienced and respected missionaries.
The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire unleashed an unprecedented anti-clericalism. The early missionary societies in France were dissolved. By 1820 the missions in Africa had the same number of missionaries as in the fifteenth century.
Renewal of the missionary spirit among laity
In 1802 F.R. Chateaubriand, published The Genius of Christianity, part of which was completely dedicated to missions to distant lands. Its influence was tremendous. The missionary was depicted as a romantic figure, an adventurer for the faith. People started again to take an interest in reports on mission.
In 1817 J. de Maistre published On the Pope, one chapter of which was treating the subject of missions.
Participation of the laity in missions was stimulated by the foundation of the Associations to support the missionary activities. The most important of these was the Association of the Propagation of the Faith which was established by Pauline Jaricot in Lyons in 1822. It supported the missions with prayer and money. The Association spread rapidly through Europe and America through its missionary magazine, the Annals of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith. Thus the Association of the Propagation of the Faith and the Annals contributed a lot to bring about a missionary awareness among the Catholic faithful.

The foundation of missionary societies
During the Restoration in Europe many missionary societies were founded in the context of the Catholic missionary revival. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (Picpus Fathers) was founded in 1805 to serve Oceania. In 1817 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny began ministry in Africa and Asia. Anne-Marie Javouhey, the foundress of this congregation, visited the mission in Senegal in 1822 and was instrumental in having the first three Senegalese priests ordained in 1840. In 1836 large areas in the South Seas were entrusted to the pastoral care of the Marists. The Jesuits were restored in 1814 to resume their role as missionaries. The missionary reorientation of some other old orders followed such as Benedictines, Franciscans, Dominicans and Vincentians.
After 1850, a great number of exclusively missionary societies were established. Since the 17th century (1664) there was the Paris Foreign Mission Society. In 1703 the Holy Ghost Fathers were founded. In 1848 F. Libermann renewed this congregation by joining it with his own community founded in 1841 by him for the conversion of Africans. Also founded were the Society of African Missions of Lyons (1856), the Scheut Fathers (1862), the Mill Hill Fathers (1866), the Comboni Fathers (1867), the Missionaries of Africa (1868), the Society of Divine Word (1875) and the Consolata Fathers (1901).
Various Teaching Brothers’ Institutes were also active in the missions, for example the Brothers of Christian Instruction.
The most important of the Sister’s congregations were established by the founders of the Fathers’ Societies. But there were also others such as the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny whom we mentioned already earlier, the Daughters of St. Paul of Charters, the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary.

The Popes and the missions
After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire it was clear to everyone that the role of royal patronage in evangelization was finished.
In 1817 the Propaganda Fide was reorganized. But it was only in 1826 when Cardinal Capellari was appointed Prefect of the Propaganda Fide that Rome began to play a crucial role not only in the shaping of the missionary policy but also in the restructuring of the mission territories. In 1831 Capellari became Pope under the name of Gregory XVI and reigned until 1846.
Gregory brought the evil of the slave trade to the attention of the Catholic world. In supremo apostolatus he declared that the Popes had condemned the slave trade and slavery. The emancipation of the slaves became for many missionary congregations their priority when they started evangelizing in Africa.
In 1845 the Propaganda Fide issued the instruction Neminem profecto, which stated that mission territories had to be transformed in normal dioceses as soon as possible. Indigenous clergy had to be trained and seminaries had to be founded. Native priests should be treated equally. Missionaries should abstain from politics. Indigenous cultures, customs and arts had to be respected and integrated in the Christian message. Finally it advised the holding of synods.
Gregory created more than seventy new missionary ecclesiastical circumscriptions. He introduced for these territories the system of jus commissionis whereby a specific mission territory to be evangelized was entrusted to a particular missionary society.
With Cardinal Barnabo as Prefect of the Propaganda Fide for twenty years (1854-1874) and with Pius IX in 1862 canonizing 23 Japanese martyrs and beatified 205 others, the missions got a tremendous boost.
Pius IX convoked Vatican I (1869-1870). For the first time in church history the missions were represented at a general council by missionary bishops. A schema was prepared by a commission of the Propaganda Fide. The need for indigenous clergy, priests and bishops, was again stressed.
Leo XIII (1878-1903) issued the mission encyclical Sancta Dei Civitas (1880) in which he outlined and stressed the duty of all the faithful to have the missions very close to their heart. Cardinal Simeoni (1878-1892) and later Cardinal Leochowski (1892-1902) were the prefects of Propaganda Fide. Neminem profecto encouraged the training of indigenous clergy and the creation of new churches with dioceses and bishops was of utmost importance.
The Berlin Conference was held in 1884-1885. In less than two decades Africa was divided among the European powers. European colonial expansion was considered providential for the proclamation of the gospel and the promotion of civilization.
Leo showed great interest in the anti-slavery movement. He wrote a letter to Cardinal Lavigerie asking him to stir up world opinion on African slavery. Lavigerie started a resounding campaign throughout Europe. In 1890 an antislavery Congress of the European powers was held in Brussels.

Protestant missionary societies
The Protestant mission effort was characterized by the founding of a great number of volunteer societies, based as they were on popular support. Christian mission became an enterprise of the rank and file of church members. In time many missionary societies became in various ways more and more closely linked with the official bodies of churches. In 1792, William Carey set up what would become the Baptist Missionary Society. The London Missionary Society (Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists) was founded in 1795, the Church Missionary Society (Evangelical Anglicans) in 1799 and the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804.

Asia
Christian missionary work in Asia faced enormous challenges: huge geographical distances, massive populations and deeply entrenched religio-cultural traditions, for example, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Confucian, Shinto, and Taoist. Christianity had begun in Asia, but from the outset it had experienced greater success in the Mediterranean world. There were, however, Christian foundations in West and Central Asia.
During the 13th century, Dominican and Franciscan friars preached the gospel in East Asia. In the 16th century the work of missionaries, especially Franciscans and Jesuits, implanted the church in India, Japan and China. The 19th century revival of missionary activity in both Protestant and Catholic Churches brought renewed interest in Asia.

India
The evangelical revival in England had given birth to the Baptist Missionary Society. One of its leaders, William Carey (1761-1834) sailed for India where he began a remarkable career as an expatriate missionary. With Joshua Marshman and William Ward, he established a chain of mission stations near Bengal. He translated the New Testament into Bengali, published grammars and dictionaries, built schools, promoted agricultural advances, and let a campaign to outlaw "widow-burning."

The Anglican Church and the Baptists established schools and institutions of higher learning. These churches also addressed social needs, as well as disseminating the word of God through various translations of the bible. Still, Christianity remained but a small minority of the population, and Christianity was most successful among the poor, lower castes, for example, the untouchables. Hindu influence was at its weakest among the disenfranchised
The Roman Catholic Church in India had deep roots. Some Catholics traced their ancestral faith back to Saint Thomas, the Apostle, others to Saint Francis Xavier in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, Roman Catholic missionaries ministered to Indian Catholics and to the Irish.
Gregory XVI nominated four vicars apostolic to supervise the new missionary effort. By Leo XIII's pontificate there were 20 bishops in India. The Jesuits founded numerous colleges and began the preparation of an intellectual elite.
By 1962 Catholics numbered some six million, with the large majority of them concentrated south of an imaginary line drawn between Goa and Madras. Mother Theresa (1910-1997), founder of the Missionaries of Charity, won worldwide renown for her work in the slums of Calcutta. There are about 15,891,000 Catholics in India or 1.5 per cent of the total population of 1,059,429,000, and the church is sending out missionaries to various parts of the world.

China
Matteo Ricci s.j. (1552-1610) and others made considerable headway in the 17th century, but most of the gains were lost during the 18th century. But a revival of missionary activity in the 19th century, and by 1890 some 500,000 baptized Catholics could be counted, including 369 Chinese priests.

A period of great turmoil began with the invasion of China by the colonial powers and her humiliating defeat by the Japanese in the 1890s and the Boxer Rebellion (1900). The fabric of the old Chinese tradition was torn apart, and the Confucian monarchy, which had ruled China for centuries, was replaced by a Western-style republican form of government.
Now a unique opportunity seemed at hand for Christianity. And rapid advances were made by both Catholics and Protestants. The Catholics numbered nearly 2 million by 1922.
But after 1922 a strong anti-Christian movement began to take hold. Christianity was denounced as a tool of imperialism and religion itself depicted as obsolete by the militant communists, who under Mao Tse-Tung were becoming a powerful force.
Nevertheless, the Church continued to grow and reached nearly 3 million members. There was a growing awareness of the need to develop a native clergy, thanks in particular to the efforts of Père Lebbe (d. 1940), who was shocked by the attitudes of the missionaries. European and Chinese priests ate at separate tables; few of his colleagues knew Chinese well, and some could not even read it. The faithful had to kneel when greeting a missionary and were not permitted to sit in his presence. Lebbe had remarkable success in the country missions and strove for widespread conversions by public lectures for intellectuals, by forming lay associations of Catholic laymen for the propagation of the faith, and by establishing a Catholic press. Benedict XV's mission encyclical Maximum Illud (1919) laid down three fundamental principles: promotion of native clergy, renunciation of all nationalistic attitudes and respect for the civilization of the mission country. In 1926, six Chinese priests, suggested by Lebbe, were consecrated bishops.
At the end of World War II, there were now 20 archdioceses and 79 dioceses. The archbishop of Peking, Thomas Tien, was made a cardinal. Though Christians still did not constitute even 1 percent of the population, Christianity was beginning to exert a significant influence.
The Communist conquest of China was completed by 1950 and brought a tremendous trial for all Christians. They were accused of being tools of Western imperialism. All foreign missionaries were either expelled or imprisoned.
The Communist strategy was to completely detach the Chinese Catholics from any foreign ties. A Catholic Patriotic Church, completely independent of Rome, was set up, and its hierarchy was initiated with the consecration of 2 Chinese bishops in 1958 by four legitimate Roman Catholic bishops. By 1962 some forty-two bishops were illicitly consecrated. The Vatican does not recognize the authority of these bishops and there is continued friction between the Catholic Patriotic Church and the Church loyal to Rome. A great resurgence of Christianity has taken place since the Cultural Revolution in 1966. A solution of the question of the Patriotic Church seems nearer, now the Vatican approves beforehand the episcopal candidates whom Beijing proposes. Pope Benedict XVI declares himself fully available and open to a serene and constructive dialogue with the civic authorities to reach the desired normalization of relations between the Holy See and the Government of the People’s Republic of China.
By recent estimates reckon that there are now up to 80 million Christians in China, of which 10 are Catholic divided between the Patriotic Church and the Church which is loyal to Rome.

Japan
The gospel was first preached in Japan by Francis Xavier in 1549. For nearly a century the church made great progress through the work of the Franciscans and Jesuits, in spite of sporadic persecutions, the most notable being the one of Shogun (military ruler) Hideyoshi, who in 1597 had St Paul Miki and his companions (06/02) executed for their faith on a hill outside Nagasaki. In 1638, because the Christians were implicated in the Shimabara rebellion against tax, Christianity became a proscribed religion. Japan was sealed off from all foreign contacts for two centuries.
The United States commodore Perry signed a treaty of commerce and friendship with the Shogun in 1854. A year later, Catholic missionaries from Paris entered Japan and began evangelizing anew. At Nagasaki, Fr Petitjean was dumbfounded to meet a group of Japanese who were believing Christians. They had secretly managed to hold unto the essentials of the Christian faith for two centuries. Their organisation was almost everywhere the same: usually there were two male leaders who conducted the prayers every Sunday, baptized, and ministered consolation to the dying.
But the Japanese authorities they reacted in fury and meted out cruel punishment to these heroic believers.
World opinion brought an end to the persecution, and in 1889 complete freedom of worship was granted. By 1891, when Leo XIII set up a Japanese hierarchy with the metropolis at Tokyo, there were some 45,000 Catholics.
The first Japanese bishop was consecrated by Pius XI in 1927 and placed over the diocese of Nagasaki. A Japanese was appointed archbishop of Tokyo in 1937. The Jesuit College, Sophia, became a full-fledged university. In 1940 the entire episcopate was handed over to native Japanese. World War II brought many difficulties. All foreign missionaries were interned. Many churches were destroyed by the air raids, and in Nagasaki alone about 8,500 Catholics perished in the nuclear holocaust.
An estimate in 1973 counted some 359,000 Catholics. There has been a big increase in the number of schools, hospitals and charitable institutions run by Catholic sisters and lay brothers, the majority of whom were Japanese, thus giving the church a much wider influence than its numbers might indicate. There are about 1,236,000 Catholics in Japan or 0.9 per cent of the total population.

Some other countries in Asia
In Korea, Christianity has experienced a phenomenal growth in the decade immediately following the Korean war (1950-1953). One of the most prominent Catholic spokesmen for social justice has been the bishop of Won Ju, Tji Hak Soun, who was arrested in connection with a demonstration of dissent. There are about 2,547,900 Catholics in South Korea or 4.9 per cent of the total population of 51,998,000.
Remarkable success has also attended missionary efforts in Indonesia, where a recent figure has 13,300,000 Protestants and 7,363,000 Catholics - nearly 10 per cent of the country's total population. The Catholic Church has considerable strength among the intellectual and economic elite, and the largest daily newspaper is run by Catholics.
There are also communities of at least 100,000 to 200,000 Catholics in Pakistan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ceylon, Malaysia, Burma, and Thailand. In Vietnam Catholics constitute 2,810,000 out of a total population of 75,8002,000.
The only country in Asia with a Catholic majority of the population is the Philippines. There are around 70 million Catholics out of a total population of 80 million. In sum, the Catholic Church in Asia is hardly more than a presence and constitutes only 2.5 per cent of the total Asian population.

Africa
Portugal provided missionaries for their traders, some of whom also ministered to indigenous peoples. The Roman Catholic Church got thus its second start in Africa. The strong presence of the Church during the first six centuries of the Christian era in Africa had ended with Mohammed and the spread of Islam.

Mission and colonization
A number of European countries sought African colonies. The broad limits of expansion for these powers – Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain – were defined at the Berlin colonial conference of 1884-1885. The African colonial period continued after World War II and lasted for most colonies until the 1950s and 1960s when they became independent.
Christian missionaries preceded or accompanied colonization. Because human development of the new African converts was an integral part of the preaching of the gospel, missionary compounds included schools, dispensaries, and hospitals as well as churches.
White missionaries of the nineteenth century brought their European culture to Africa. For some, preaching the gospel meant preaching the superiority of white European values. Many missionaries, however, were acutely aware of the importance of respecting indigenous cultures. The concern for justice was preached in churches and taught in schools. A number of African nationalist leaders and subsequently leaders of the independence movement came out of this Christian formation. One of the first African Church leaders was Samuel Crowther, the first black Anglican bishop in Africa (1864), who sought to bring the message of the gospel to the area around the Niger River in West Africa.
Most missionaries were evangelical and fiercely opposed to the slave trade. Thus was born the doctrine: "Christianity, commerce, and civilization," which became a missionary strategy that meant simply that commerce would replace the slave trade.
The greatest of them, Dr. David Livingstone (1813-1873) walked across Africa from west to east, exploring the Zambezi River. He also walked across what is now South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Eastern Congo (Kinshasa) and recorded these journeys. At one time he disappeared for some time and was eventually found by Henry Morton Stanley, who uttered the famous understatement: "Dr Livingstone, I presume," when they met. The great explorer's heart was buried in Africa, while his body lies in Westminster Abbey.

Charles Lavigerie
The most important missionary on the Catholic side was Charles Lavigerie (1825-1892). He founded the Society of Missionaries of Africa in 1868 and in 1879 sent his missionaries into Uganda. Along with the White Fathers, Lavigerie founded the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (1869).
Leo XIII made him a cardinal in 1882 and two years later gave him the title of archbishop of Carthage and primate of Africa. From Leo he received a mission to stir up world opinion on the subject of African slavery. In compliance with the Pope's wish Lavigerie began a resounding campaign and an international conference of the great powers at Brussels in 1890 adopted proposals which were in large part in conformity with suggestions Lavigerie had made.

Uganda
Uganda was the fertile ground for the spread of the faith. Mutesa whose only concern was to keep the foreigners at bay, played Protestants, Catholics, and Moslems against each other in a subtle game of intrigue. His successor, Mwanga, proved to be a bloodthirsty tyrant and burned alive twenty-two Catholics and eleven Protestants, among whom were Lwanga and Kizito. The Uganda martyrs were canonized by Pope Paul VI. By the time of the First World War the White Fathers and their Mill Hill colleagues could count nearly 150,000 converts. At present time there are 12,804,000 Catholics or 53 per cent of the total population of 24,160,000.

Democratic Republic of Congo
In 1865 the Holy Ghost Fathers assumed responsibility for the Lower Congo region and established a mission at Boma in 1875. The White Fathers penetrated the Eastern sections from the side of the Great Lakes region. After Leopold II was given control of the Congo Free State most of the country was confided to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Scheut Fathers), of Belgian origin. Their efforts were hampered by the slave traders and some atheistic colonisers, who treated Christians very poorly, and one of whom murdered Isidore Bakanja in 1909 (Beatified in 1994). Still the Church grew.
The number of Catholics in 1964 was given as 6 million (40 per cent of the population). At the present time there are 24,551,000 Catholics or 49.6 per cent of the population of 49,450,000.

Senegal
The Spiritans sent some missionaries to Senegal in 1763 to St. Louis and Gorée. Anne Marie Javouhey, foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, sent her sisters there and came herself also. She was instrumental in having the first three Senegalese priests ordained (1840). In 1848 Fr. Bessieux was named vicar apostolic of the Two Guineas and Senegambia which was erected in 1842. He resided, however, in Libreville (Gabon). For the north he received a coadjutor who resided in Dakar, Senegal. In 1848 the fusion of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost with that of the Holy Heart of Mary, founded by Libermann, infused new life in the old congregation and invigorated it. In 1872 the mission contained 6 Senegalese priests and a congregation of native religious women.
After carrying the gospel to Casamance, the Holy Ghost Fathers approached the population of the interior. In Upper Senegal they were relieved (1895) by the White Fathers who advanced towards Segou, Bamako, and Timbouctou (Mali). The progress in the missions of Senegal and the Western Sudan was hampered by the anti-clericalism of the French administrators who were always pro-Moslem. Yet viable Catholic communities were founded among the Mossi people in Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) and elsewhere.

Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia
The evangelization of Sierra Leone was confided (1858) to Melchior De Marion-Bresillac, and the Society of the African Missions. Six weeks after his arrival he and his companions contacted the yellow fever. The vicariate of Sierra Leone was then entrusted to the Holy Ghost Fathers, who settled in Freetown (1864). In 1897 the prefecture of French Guinea was detached and in 1903 that of Liberia. In these countries Catholicism was implanted rather quickly in the coastal or forest regions, but in the interior it was hindered by tenacious traditional religions or submerged almost entirely by Islam. In Guinea, after winning its independence (1958), political difficulties for a time hindered the apostolate. In 1967 president Sékou Touré expelled all the missionaries. In 1971 Archbishop R. Tchidimbo was sentenced to life imprisonment and released in 1978 due to the intervention of Leopold Senghor, the Catholic president of Senegal.

Nigeria
Both Catholic and Protestant missionaries appeared along the coast of Nigeria around 1840. Nigeria became then part of the vast vicariate apostolic of the Two Guineas which was created in 1842. Priests from the Society of African Missions (SMA) arrived in 1861. In 1870 a Vicariate was erected for the coast of Benin. Prefectures apostolic were later formed for Upper Niger (1884) and Lower Niger (1889). The Holy Ghost Fathers shared the labour with the SMA.
They arrived in Onitsha in December 1885, led by Fr. Lutz. They saw that progress could be made through the education of the youth. Fr. Joseph Shanahan arrived in Onitsha as a young priest in 1902 and took over the prefecture from the dying Fr. Lejeune in 1905. He was made a vicar apostolic in 1920, resigned for health reasons in 1931, died in Nairobi in 1943 and was reburied in Onitsha in 1956. In 1997 the canonical process for his beatification was started in Onitsha. As new prefect he decided to move from the Niger to the interior and to make the schools almost the exclusive means of evangelization, arguing that through the schools the whole country would be won for Christ; the school children would be "tiny apostles" gradually converting their parents.
Two priests and two brothers were placed in the schools of Onitsha. From 1907- 1917 he was on safari from village to village during the greater part of the year, first on foot, later by bicycle, finally on a motorbike. Everywhere he made a great impression through his humanity and his deep spirituality. He never attacked fetishes but proceeded from Igbo religious ideas which were "not so much incorrect as incomplete”: they needed transformation rather than destruction. Professor Ayandale calls him "the greatest evangelist the Igbo have ever seen." Today the Igbo heartlands of former Onitsha and Owerri Provinces are a Christian country: about one third Catholic and one fifth to one sixth Anglican.
In 1919 he had to carry out an official visitation of Western Cameroon. The 1,000 mile trek broke his health. He desperately tried to get personnel for his understaffed mission appealing to the bishops of Ireland for volunteer priests. Altogether he got about a dozen and this enterprise resulted in the foundation of St. Patrick Society in Ireland in 1932. They were entrusted with the eastern part of the vicariate in 1934, as prefecture apostolic of Calabar. Shanahan began the expansion to the North in 1930, resulting in the prefecture apostolic of Benue (Makurdi).
To get education for girls, he founded the sisters of the Holy Rosary, at Kileshandra in Ireland in 1924. He also encouraged the lay missionaries in this work, and one of them Mary Martin was later to found the Medical Missionaries of Mary.
His record of seeking and training indigenous vocations is less striking. Only in 1924 a seminary was opened and in 1930 John Cross Anyogu was ordained the first priest east of the Niger, followed by three more in 1937. But Shanahan's education policy provided the fertile ground of innumerable Christian families out of which came so many priestly and religious vocations from the 1960's onwards.

Kenya
Early attempts of evangelization.
The Christian faith first came to Kenya in 1498 - Vasco da Gama - Malindi. By the end of the 16th century there were Augustinians at Lamu, Zanzibar and Mombasa. In 1601 they had registered 1200 baptisms in Mombasa. In 1631 Yusuf bin Hasan, the sultan of Mombasa, who had been converted from Islam and baptized as Jeronimo Chingulia, changed his religious allegiance again, attacked Fort Jesus and killed the Portuguese and the Christians, all of them could have saved their lives by embracing Islam. In total some 300 persons, half of them Portuguese (among them 3 Augustinians), half Africans died for their faith in Christ.
In the 19th century, Anglican missionary activity began in Mombasa with the arrival of CMS missionary J. L. Krapf in 1844. In 1862 British Methodist appeared on the scene and established a mission station in Golbanti at the Tana River among the Galla. The Holy Ghost Fathers came from Tanzania and started missionary work in Mombasa in 1889. The Africa Inland Mission arrived in the country in 1895.
Evangelization in the twentieth century. In the 20th century Christianity centred on the two focal points of Nairobi and Kisumu, the central and western regions respectively. The western Luo and Luhya were the first to accept Christianity in great numbers and they were followed by the Gusii after their war against the British. The central group Gikuyu, Embu, Meru and the eastward extending Kamba were more attached to their ancestral religion and they had suffered more from the colonial occupation. In 1921 the Salvation Army came to Kenya and in 1952 the Kiltegan Fathers. The first spread among the Luhya and the second took the Rift Valley (diocese of Eldoret) and north-eastern Ukambani (diocese of Kitui). The great impetus leading to mass conversions came once more from the school boom. It began with the Alliance High School in Kikuyu (1926), fruit of the joint efforts of the government and the Alliance of Protestant Missions. The Catholics started their secondary education in Kabaa (Ukambani) with Fr. Michael Witte C.S.Sp. as headmaster, which became later Mangu High School and St. Mary's School in Yala under the Mill Hill Fathers, which was developed by the Brothers of the Christian Instruction.
Nomadic peoples. The semi-arid land of Kenya is inhabited by Nilo-Cushitic and Cushitic nomads.
Since 1970 more and more members of the Maasai tribe that numbers 200,000 in total, have become sedentary. In 1959 a special Maasai missionary territory was erected, the prefecture apostolic of Ngong under the Mill Hill Fathers. The sixteen mission stations were in as many places as where the Maasai began to settle down.
In the northern region and in Turkana land the progress of evangelization was slow. Heroic work has been done by the Consolata Fathers, the Kiltegan Fathers and the Medical Missionaries of Mary but the difficulty continues of finding a solution to how the encounter between the traditional church life, bound up with settled communities, can be joined to the traditional free moving communities of these areas.
The land question and Mau Mau. The land of the Gikuyu attracted the settlers and missionaries in great number. The missionaries received permission to build on land that was part of the tribal reserves and they were given very large tracks of land. The Presbyterians at Kikuyu and the Consolata at Nyeri each received 3,000 acres. Later some of this land was given back and much of it was used to establish communal services such as schools and hospitals. This was of little consolation to the small farmers who felt they had paid too high a price for the new religion.
After World War I, when ex-service men were invited to settle in the highlands, much more land was given away and the recruitment of forced labour started. The newly formed Alliance of Protestant Missions stood against this policy and got the government prohibited any recruitment of labour by officials and chiefs.
The labour grievances brought about the beginning of political movements in Kenya. In 1921 Harry Thuku founded the Young Kikuyu Association. In the same year he changed the name of this organization in the East African Association (EAA). The EAA organized a general strike in Nairobi in 1922 in retaliation for the arrest of Thuku. Thuku was deported to Kismayu Island in the Indian Ocean. He remained in detention until 1930. The EAA was suppressed. In 1924, the Kikuyu Central Association was founded which was to lead Kenya to independence. Jomo Kenyatta took the first steps in his political career in the KCA, of which he became secretary in 1928.
The dissatisfaction over the alienation of land and alien rule continued to be nurtured in the independent schools and churches. This led to the Mau Mau, the anti-colonial revolt (1952-1956). It was basically of political character, a call for "Uhuru.” The mainline churches saw the movement as pagan and anti-Christian. The freedom fighters did pray to the high god Ngai, facing Mount Kenya, and consulted diviners before their attacks, but they also consoled themselves as they read the newly translated Kikuyu Old Testament and felt identical with Israel, lamenting to the same Ngai: "Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens" (Lam. 5:1-5).
The Mau Mau administered two oaths: the oath of unity and the warrior’s oath.
For Christians to take the oath was just apostasy. The Christians of the Kikuyu Independent Churches felt justified to take both oaths. A significant number of the Revivalists bravely died the martyr’s death for their Christian conviction.
The two vicars apostolic (Mgr. C. Cavallera, IMC, and Mgr. J. McCarthy, CSSp) condemned the Mau Mau
The Mau Mau had a devastating effect on the church. The more influential and convinced Catholics attracted the hatred and revenge of the Mau Mau. In the Nyeri diocese 30 Catholics, among them 3 indigenous religious, died for the faith and the process for their beatification has been introduced. In their memory and in memory of the unknown who shared their fate a church was erected in Mugoiri.
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” came true after the Mau Mau because an unexpected influx to the Catholic Church took place; Catholic membership doubled within five years. Meanwhile the Christian Council of Kenya (1966: NCCK) received from Britain funds for such enterprises as urban industrial ministry, community centres and village polytechnics.

Independence came to Kenya in 1963. The British government bought the land from its repatriating settlers and twice gave one million acres to the Kenyan government for free distribution.
The settler problem solved, the Kenyan religious atmosphere improved greatly. The Christian share of the population rose from roughly 50 % to 75 %. The dominant role was still played by the Protestant Churches represented in the NCCK but the Catholic Church exercised a growing influence through its episcopal conference and the Kenya Catholic Secretariat (KCS).
The 1980s could perhaps be described as a time of political conscientization for the churches. The Anglican and Presbyterian clergy became more outspoken politically in the 1980s. The courageous statements of NCCK leaders resulted in their fortnightly Target being suppressed by the government and the outspoken Anglican Bishop Muge suffered a suspicious death.
The Catholic Church gradually shed its minority complex, and was helped by the papal visit of John Paul II in 1980, the celebration of the Eucharistic World Congress in 1985, and the Centenary Celebration of the Catholic Church in Kenya 1989-1990. In was in these last years that the diocesan Peace and Justice Commissions began to work. Catholic opinion is expressed in and supported by Mwananchi (Citizen) (now The National Mirror); The Seed and the New People. The 1991-1992 multi-party campaign was a great occasion for the Churches to exercise their prophetic role of guiding and advising. In the 2002 elections the Moi regime was removed from power and a coalition of opposition parties NARC (National Rainbow Coalition) took over under the leadership of Mwai Kibaki as president. In the 2007 elections, Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner, but his election was contested by Raila Odinga. Two months of civil disturbances followed in which around 1300 people were killed and 350,000 displaced. Finally a solution was found when a deal was struck between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga with the assistance of the mediation of the Kofi Anan to introduce a new position of Prime Minister. The role of the Protestant Churches as well as the Catholic Church came under fierce attack because they were seen as being partisan in the elections and in the violent aftermath. On August 27th, 2010 a new constitution was promulgated in Kenya and the Second Republic began.

Chapter 6

THE MODERNIST CRISIS

The Modernists were ready to call into question the very meaning of dogma and traditional understanding of the Church's authority.

Intellectual life of the Church
Pius IX succeeded in putting down the liberal Catholic movement. At his death in 1878 the church had the look of a well-organized fortress, prepared for a fight to the finish with the main cultural and political movements of the day.
In Leo XIII’s time (1878-1903), it became evident how formidable were the intellectual challenges confronting Christian doctrine by reason of scientific developments, in particular, those dealing with the historical study of the bible, the origins of Christianity and the evolutionary view of man's origins. Moreover, there existed then an influential philosophy of materialism, a significant minority repudiating Christianity and a large number drifting away from Christianity.
Pope Leo was anxious to reconcile the Church with modern life and culture as far as possible. But Leo was conservative in his outlook toward purely intellectual and theological issues. With his help the Neo-Scholastic movement triumphed completely, and he exalted St. Thomas and proposed his teachings as the very essence of Catholic orthodoxy.

Origin, leaders and programme

The Neo-Thomist synthesis was simply not broad enough to deal with the manifold problems raised for the Catholic faith with the development of modern culture. Because of the general ignorance that the neo-Thomists had of the historical method, Catholic scholars searched for ways of expressing their Catholic faith that would make sense to the modern mind. They were all later to be lumped under the epithet "Modernist," but they were actually a loose group linked only by their aspiration of narrowing the gap between Catholicism and modern culture.

They were encouraged by the general impression of openness that Pope Leo gave to modern culture and by a number of his actions.
They included scholars active in many fields: Duchesne, Loisy, Laberthonnière, Gennochi, Minocchi, Semeria, Tyrrell, Blondel, Fagazzaro, Von Hugel, Archbishop Mignot of Albi and Bishop Lacroix of Tarentaise.
These men shared a deep commitment to historical and critical methods, an aversion to Scholasticism and Neo-Thomism and an extreme sensitivity to authoritarianism. They were excessively influenced by the prevailing positivism and they did not reckon either with the deeply entrenched conservatism of their fellow Catholics as regards traditional religious forms.
Their opponents were Scholastics who put no faith in the conclusions of modern science. The idea of a personal conquest of the truth was to them mere pride and folly. One's only salvation, they held, lay in absolute obedience to the Church. Even some of their best representatives, such as Louis Billot, Orazio Mazella, and Salvatore Talamo, were hindered by grave limitations in their methods, by arid formalism, abuse of the argument from authority, an inadequate knowledge of modern philosophy, and almost complete lack of historical sense.

Conflict between dogma and modern biblical studies
The real focus of the controversy was in the field of biblical studies. Tremendous strides were made by the critico-historical study of the bible. Julius Wellhausen definitely proved that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, as tradition claimed. Studies like his challenged the traditional Christian concept of biblical infallibility.
Alfred Loisy claimed: “All the historical books of the bible, including those of the New Testament were composed in a looser manner than modern historical writings, and certain freedom of interpretation follows. We have to concede a real development in the religious doctrine contained in scripture."
In 1903 he published L'Evangile et l'Eglise which asserted the following: The Chalcedonian Christ who was God and man must be discarded and replaced by a Jesus who was only a prophet with a unique consciousness of being God's Messiah. The founder of the church would have to be replaced by a historical figure, who died with no thought of a church succeeding him. Her hierarchical structure, centred on the Roman Primacy, did not come from Jesus, but was invented under pressure of historical circumstances. In summary, its dogmas must be regarded not as fixed, unchangeable truths, but as attempts to summarize its experience.

Reaction of the hierarchy
We need to keep in mind the importance and the number of the problems being raised; the haste, lack of wisdom, and imprudence of many of the modernists; the mere urge to destroy on the part of some; and the fear the bishops felt of the impact of all this. A decree of the Biblical Commission of 1906 affirmed that Catholics must hold that Moses was the author of the entire Pentateuch.
The decree Lamentabili of the Holy Office appeared on July 3, 1907, condemning a list of sixty-five errors and it was followed shortly afterward, on September 8, 1907, by the encyclical Pascendi.
Among the errors condemned in Lamentabili were: that the Jesus of history was much inferior to the Christ of faith; that his knowledge was limited; that he could have been in error; that he did not institute the Church and the sacraments; that his resurrection was not a fact of the historical order; that the Roman primacy was not of divine origin and that modern Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true science unless it is transformed into some kind of non-dogmatic Christianity.
Pascendi represents an attempt to systematize the inherently unsystematic thought of the Modernists under certain false philosophical premises that they supposedly held in common: immanentism, agnosticism, symbolism and evolutionism.
The wording of the encyclical seem regrettable. It presumes bad faith and imputes evil motives to zealous Catholic scholars and it presents a sad spectacle of the highest authority in the church resorting to sarcasm and invective; it abounds in such harsh phrases as "poisonous doctrines; most pernicious of all the adversaries of the church; the root of their folly and error; boundless effrontery".

Measures to crush Modernism
To wipe out Modernism, the pope called for measures that smacked of the worst features of the medieval Inquisition. All priests and teachers were required to take an oath against Modernism.
Tyrrell denounced Pascendi and was excommunicated; he died the following year. Loisy suffered a like fate, but died peacefully thirty years later outside the church. Other leaders left the church.
The trust of the encyclical was so vague and broad that almost anyone could be accused of Modernism except authors of Scholastic textbooks. Most notorious of these integralists was Monsignor Umberto Benigni; he set up a society (the Sodalitum Pianum), which eventually included a network of spies who kept their activities covert. They regularly engaged in personal attacks on suspect Modernists. Any Catholic who showed lukewarmness toward Scholasticism or favoured such initiatives as Christian democracy or ecumenism might suddenly find himself the target of their venom. The excesses of Benigni and his ilk were only brought to an end when Benedict XV became Pope in 1914.
Modernism was indeed successfully stamped out, but at a tremendous price; the Catholic intelligence was inoculated against error, but the dosage was almost fatal. Many of the church's most brilliant thinkers were silenced or driven out of theology.
One might justify the severity of the hierarchy by admitting that their primary responsibility was to the millions of the baptised members of the Church.
Still, the Modernist crisis was a catastrophe for the church. It led to an intellectual sterility that still weighs heavily on its life and caused a cultural gap setting the church off from the intellectual flow of life in many countries.

Chapter 7

POPES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Pius X (1903-1914)

Life
Giuseppe Sarto or Pius X was the son of poor peasants. In 1884 he was made bishop of Mantua, where he showed great zeal for reform. Finally, in 1893, he was transferred to Venice as patriarch and cardinal. Even as pope he retained the heart of a simple parish priest and manifested a warmth, humor, affability, and gentleness that won the hearts of pilgrims from all corners of the world.

Reform of liturgy and codification of canon law
His desire to have the Mass performed in the most dignified manner was embodied in his decree on the reform of sacred music (1903). Of similar inspiration was his decree urging all the faithful to frequent communion and admitting children to this sacrament at the earliest possible age (six years).
His great project was the codification of Canon Law, which was only promulgated in 1917, under Benedict XV. It reflected Pius X's own highly authoritarian and conservative concept of church structure.

Negative attitude towards modern world and rejection of financial ties with France
His general attitude toward the cultural and political trends of the day was negative and in line with a general pessimism about temporal progress. He had little love of the new trend toward democracy that was sweeping the world; he thought it violated the natural hierarchical order of society.
When France tried to reduce the church to financial dependence on the state by getting it to accept a system of state subsidies, the pope ordered the French bishops to reject any financial ties with the state. The wisdom of this seems to have been vindicated by the subsequent history of the French church, which has been foremost in the current movement of renewal.

Benedict XV (1914-1922)

Benedict XV came from a Genoan patrician family, the Della Chiesa.

Peacemaker
They were looking for a peacemaker, and Benedict did not disappoint their hopes.
Peace - first in the church; he called a halt to the witch hunt after "Modernists".
His opposition to the war was absolute; intellectually and morally, he stood with those who found the war unjustifiable. For him it was the "darkest tragedy of human hatred and human madness."
He made general appeals to both sides to end the war. And finally he issued his celebrated but futile "Note to the Heads of State at War" in August 1917. His proposals were realistic, calling for the suspension of hostilities, systematic and regulated disarmament, and the establishment of arbitration, including international sanctions.
Benedict’s refusal to take sides were widely misinterpreted by both sides. He was vilified in the press and even excluded from the Versailles Peace Conference. As time passes, however, there is a growing recognition of the prophetic role he played.

Resumption of diplomatic ties with France
The resumption of diplomatic relations with the French occurred in 1920.
He also made the first official approaches to the Italian government for the settlement of the Roman Question.

Missionary encyclical Maximum Illud
This encyclical was called the charter of the Catholic missionary movement of the century.
Benedict XV was a man of great charity: he literally emptied the Vatican coffers to help others.

Pius XI (1922-1939)
Life
Achilles Ratti, Pius XI (1922-1939), spent the first thirty years of his priestly life as a librarian. In 1918 he was sent as apostolic visitor and then nuncio to Poland. On his return in 1921 he was appointed archbishop of Milan and made a cardinal.

Lateran Treaty
He immediately worked on reconciliation with Italy and succeeded when Mussolini signed the Lateran Concordat and Treaty with the Vatican in 1929. The treaty granted the Pope a large sum of money and complete sovereignty over Vatican City. In addition the Concordat accorded to the Catholic religion a privileged status in Italy and imposed Catholic teaching as the norm for religious instructions in the state schools.

Hitler and the Third Reich
In Hitler declared that he regarded the churches as "the most important factors in the preservation of our national heritage." Promising full respect for church rights, he demanded from the churches an immediate choice between co-operation and open conflict. The Catholic Centre Party decided it could reject the offer and gave Hitler the crucial votes he needed for emergency powers. Within days the German bishops withdrew their previous condemnation. Later the Vatican gave its assent to a Concordat, but only signed when it became evident that there was no way church rights in Germany could be defended save through a Concordat.
Leading Vatican officials had few illusions but probably hoped to have some way to defend the liberty of German Catholics and on paper the provisions of the Concordat were very favourable to the church. Only five days later, the Pope condemned the Nazi law on sterilization as contrary to Christian morals and within months Vatican officials were protesting against the repeated and frequent violations of the Concordat. Catholic Deputies were arrested and civil servants dismissed, priests and religious were imprisoned or exiled, ecclesiastical correspondence was opened and confiscated, Catholic organisations and periodicals suppressed, Catholic property was confiscated, episcopal palaces were sacked and meetings banned, religious education was restricted and Catholic schools closed.
The German bishops, especially Cardinal Michael Faulhaber, repeatedly protested against those Nazi policies incompatible with Christian teaching as well as against violations of the Concordat. Cardinal Karl Josef Schulte of Cologne personally protested to Hitler against Alfred Rosenberg's Myth of the Twentieth Century. In 1936 Pius XI describes Nazism and Communism as "enemies of all truth and all justice."

The encyclical Mit brennender Sorge
This encyclical was secretly distributed throughout the country and read from every catholic pulpit on Palm Sunday before it had been seen by any member of the Nazi Party. This encyclical was one of the strongest condemnations of a national regime ever published by the Holy See. The German government retaliated by censorship at home and intensifying propaganda abroad. But Hitler did not want to go too far. Apart from military considerations, the "Anschluss" of Austria was to greatly increase the number of Catholics in the Third Reich.

Pius XII (1939-1958)

Second World War and the holocaust
Only two weeks after Eugene Pacelli’s coronation as Pope Pius XII, Hitler sent his tanks rumbling into Czechoslovakia - bringing the world closer to global war. When war did break out, Pius made the most strenuous efforts to ward off the catastrophe by acting as an intermediary between the Allies and the underground German resistance movement in 1940.
Italy's declaration of war, on the side of Hitler, placed the Vatican in a most delicate position.
The Pope made every effort to maintain the appearance of impartiality between the opposing blocks. But his hatred of Nazism was second to his hatred of communism. Towards the end of the war, he was frightened by the prospect of a Communist victory and worked for a negotiated peace.
Did Pius carry neutrality too far in refusing to publicly denounce the Nazi atrocities against the Jews, the Poles, the Serbs, and others? Reasons for silence: fear of even more savage measures if he protested; an unwillingness to jeopardize his official neutrality; the threat of terrible reprisals against the church; and a realization that nothing would deter Hitler from his "final solution" joined to the hope of being able to do more for the victims behind the backs of the Nazis.
Behind the scenes the pope did his best to help the Jews: in Rome alone 5,000 Jews were given asylum. Pinchas Lapide, former Israeli consul in Italy, credited the Holy See and the church with saving some four hundred thousand Jews from certain death.
Yet for many, his duty as Vicar of Christ was to voice the abhorrence of the human conscience at such incalculably monstrous evil.
His decision to remain silent caused him deep anguish. If indeed he erred, it was probably due to excessive preoccupation with diplomatic considerations.
While Vatican relief efforts were very expensive and time consuming, the results were rather insignificant and disappointing. Nevertheless, food, clothing, and medical supplies were dispatched on a large scale. The Holy See also exerted great efforts to save Rome from destruction.
The end of the war saw the prestige of the papacy at an all-time high. Many nations had ambassadors accredited to the Vatican. The number of Catholic dioceses increased during his reign from 1,696 to 2,048. The Vatican's newly created bank, the Institute for the Works of Religion, did a brisk business.

Communism
The upsurge of anti-religious communism in the West after the war caused him to align the church more and more with the Western democracies. Instead of trying to foster détente with the Iron Curtain countries, the pope, in fact, helped to make relations worse by using every means to mobilize world opinion against the Communists.

Universal Pastor of the Church
Pius XII served as bishop of Rome for nearly twenty years (March 2, 1939, to October 9, 1958). He wrote forty encyclicals and gave over one thousand major addresses. As pastor and teacher the pope:
1) championed the rights and values of the human person and the family;
2) taught that the state always was to serve the good of the person;
3) condemned communism;
4) encouraged liturgical renewal.
In Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943) Pius XII approved the use of modern critical approaches to the study of the bible. In Mystici Corporis Christi, the pope used St. Paul's metaphor of "the body of Christ" to describe the church. The Catholic Church was the "mystical body of Christ."
In 1950 Pope Pius XII exercised his papal infallibility by declaring it to be the belief of the Catholic Church that the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed bodily into heaven after her death. In Humani Generis he reasserted certain Catholic theological positions; it was a reaction by the Pope in the face of la nouvelle theologie (Chenu, Congar, Daniélou and de Lubac).

The Liturgical Movement
France
Trent (1545-1563) had set down the standards for liturgy which remained in effect for more than four hundred years. The Benedictines of the monastery of Solesmes under Abbot Prosper Gueranger (1805-1875) had studied and promoted the use of Gregorian chant. Pope Pius X in 1903 had called for a reform of church music. In 1905 he called for frequent reception of the eucharist and the reception of first holy communion at the age of discretion (usually about seven years of age).

Belgium
Father Lambert Beauduin (1873-1960) was shocked at the ignorance of people in regard to the liturgy. In 1909, he insisted that people be given vernacular translations of the mass and vespers.

Germany
In the Abbey of Maria Laach the first "community mass" or "dialogue mass" was celebrated in which the laity recited together the responses to the prayers of the priest. Father Romano Guardini developed an authentic, meaningful and pastoral liturgy in his work and scholarship. His book Der Herr (The Lord), in 1937 also promoted the reading of scripture as well as Christian involvement in the world. Pius Parsch (1884-1954) brought the mass in the vernacular to the ordinary faithful by publishing the liturgical texts for Sundays.

Liturgical reform by Pope Pius XII
In 1947 Pope Pius XII published Mater Dei, inviting a renewal of the worship life of the church and urging all members to participate actively in liturgy. In 1951 he revised the rites of the Easter Vigil, and then in 1955 all the celebrations of Holy Week. In 1953 the rules of fasting before receiving Holy Communion were modified.

Vatican II and the liturgical reform
In 1963, Sacrosanctum Concilium was promulgated and taught that the liturgy was the ultimate goal of all church activity as well as the source of that activity. Therefore, Christian people should actively participate and be effectively nourished by the public prayer life of the community. For this to happen the liturgy needed to be renewed.

The Ecumenical Movement
Ecumenism denotes the process whereby Christian churches attempt to overcome differences and move toward unity. The movement has produced institutions to foster unity, like the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for promoting Christian Unity.

The World Council of Churches
In 1910 at the World Mission Conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland, Protestant missionaries shared their unhappiness at the scandal of division within Christianity and its harmful effects for the missionary effort. The International Missionary Council was formed to promote collaboration among missionary groups and societies. In 1925 the Life and Work Conference at Stockholm brought together different Protestant representatives, who claimed that "service unites, but doctrine divides." Others felt that Christians needed to dialogue among themselves about what they believed. Thus the Faith and Order movement began officially in 1927 at Lausanne. These three organisations came together to form the World Council of Churches.
Meeting at Amsterdam in 1948, members of the World Council of Churches stated clearly that they were not forming some super church but rather a community of autonomous churches. At the third plenary meeting in 1961 at New Delhi, the Orthodox patriarchs became members. By the time of the fifth plenary meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1975, two hundred and seventy-one churches had become members.
It has been realized that compromise on doctrine and identity would be a false unity. One effect of this has been the movement toward greater unity within denominations themselves, exemplified in the formation of world associations by Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Disciples of Christ. The ecumenical patriarch, Athenagoras I (1886-1972), promoted Pan-Orthodox conferences, for example, in 1961 at Rhodes. Some churches have indeed united: Anglicans, Congregationalists, Methodists and Presbyterians became the Church of South India in 1949, while in the United States, Congregationalists and Reformed became the United Church of Christ.

Catholic participation
Catholic participation in the ecumenical movement took place on popular, scholarly and official levels.
Scholarship contributed to new understandings about the origins of church divisions and the factors that continue to divide the churches. Joseph Lortz (1887-1975) gave credit to the religious motives of the Reformation. Max Joseph Metzger in 1938 founded Una Sancta, dedicated to serious intellectual study and prayer for church unity.
Yves Congar, O.P. (1904-1995) laid the theological foundation for Catholic ecumenism. Lambert Beauduin, O.S.B. began the publication of Irénikon, a Catholic journal dedicated to ecumenism. Fr Paul Couturier (1881-1953) promoted and spread the World Octave of Prayer for the unity of Christians, January 18-25.
The official response was one of prudent support. Pius XI often reached out to the Orthodox and established the Pontifical Oriental Institute.
In 1949 the Holy Office issued an instruction which officially encouraged Catholic participation in the ecumenical movement. Pope John XXIII established the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (June 5, 1960) under the leadership Augustine Bea and later Johannes Willebrands.

Vatican II
In 1964, the Council promulgated Unitatis Redintegratio. It stated:
"The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only (no. 1)."
The document went on to teach:
1) True unity consists in unity of faith (doctrine), worship (liturgy) and order (structure).
2) Division was not the will of Christ.
3) Christian churches already share much in common.
4) Other Christian churches are, therefore, in communion with the Catholic Church to varying degrees.
5) It is in the Catholic Church alone that the fullness of the means of salvation are obtained (no.3).
6) Nevertheless, the Catholic Church's membership needs daily purification and renewal to truly witness to Christ (no.4).
7) Special bonds of unity exist between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches which both possess true sacraments, above all the eucharist and the priesthood by apostolic succession, and thereby, they are still joined in a very close relationship (no. 15).
8) Christians, to overcome separation, must have a spirit of mutual forgiveness, honesty and patience.
In a variety of ways - prayer, personal contacts, national and international meetings, joint studies, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity - the Catholic Church today is in contact with other Christian churches and ecumenical dialogue goes forward.

Catholic Action
Specialized movements of the Catholic Action
From the 1930s onward pastoral ministers called the laity to participate in the life of the Church by reason of the priesthood of the faithful.
Catholic Action took a variety of forms. At times it was realized through general service and programs at the parish or diocesan level. It was also actualized in specialized movements such as Jeunesse Oeuvrière Chrétienne (JOC) and Jeunesse Etudiante Chrétienne (JEC). Founded by Fr Joseph Cardijn in Belgium in 1924-1925, with the aim of ministering to young people by enabling them to come to terms with their Christian commitment in the situations in which they found themselves. Small groups of young people would meet on a regular basis to 1) see, 2) judge and 3) act.
In Italy Catholic Action was highly organized and promoted the rights of Catholics. Later many of the leaders of Catholic Action became members of the Christian Democratic Party.

Cursillo de Cristianidad
The peer ministry movement Cursillo de Cristianidad began in Spain in 1949. This "little course in Christianity" begins with a three day retreat conducted by teams of lay men and women, as well as priests, brothers and sisters. Generally it becomes a profound experience of conversion that is to continue on the "fourth day," that is, for the rest of life. The Cursillo movement has spawned a number of similar kinds of events for youth in high school, as well as university students. By 1977 there were over two and one-half million Cursillistas.

Family movements
Patrick and Patricia Crowley played key roles in the development of the Christian Family Movement (CFM), which began in Chicago in 1947. Five or six couples, usually from the same parish, would meet in homes for discussion and action in family, political, and economic land social life. At their meetings these couples reflected on scripture, analyzed their situations and planned action, following the model of JOC (i.e., see, judge, act).
The Cana Conference is a retreat movement for married couples begun in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1944 by Fr Edward Dowling (1898-1960). Couples meet in an informal atmosphere with the retreat director to reflect on the reality, problems and spirituality of marriage.
In Spain Fr Gabriel Calvo founded Marriage Encounter in 1953 to help married couples "rediscover" or "meet again." In a weekend retreat couples explore their lives and their relationships as husband and wife and examine God's presence in their marriage. A key for a happy and holy marriage is open communication.

Legion of Mary
The Legion of Mary was an earlier lay apostolic movement developed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1921. This highly organized movement emphasized personal spiritual development that would then lead to action on behalf of the gospel.

Secular Institutes
In 1947 Pope Pius XII gave official church approval to secular institutes. These were communities whose members as individuals or in small groups tried to lead a life of deep holiness in the midst of the world through their secular calling. Opus Dei was founded in Madrid in 1928 by Monsignor José María Escrivá de Balaguer (1902-1975). Opus Dei became the personal prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei in 1982. Well-educated professional lay women and men work to transform the world by witnessing to the gospel in a variety of ways. By 1990 there were more than seventy thousand members throughout the world. Some suggest that its operation is too secretive and others that its theology is too conservative.
The Schonstatt Werk is a movement for lay women and men which began in Germany in 1914.

New Lay Movements
In 1943, Chiara Lubich began a spiritual movement in Trent, where young people came together to form communities and to reflect on the scriptures. The Focolari include single women and men, as well as families, dedicated to following Christ in a variety of lifestyles and occupations.
The Neo-Catechumenate begun in Madrid in 1962 introduces a candidate to the experience of community life, scripture and eucharist. At the end of a two year period the catechumens renew their baptismal promises and assume their Christian responsibility in the world as committed mature Catholics.
The Comunione e Liberatione movement in Italy promotes the experience of Christian community and the lay apostolate among youth and young adults.
Some other important lay movements are L’Arche and Sant’Egidio.
Catholic Action or the lay apostolate in the twentieth century has evolved practically and theologically. Women and men, married and single, young and old, individuals and families, have come to assume their proper place in the ministry and mission of the church. All the baptized and confirmed share in the priesthood of Christ through their call to worship, proclaim the gospel and serve others in union with their pastors. The diverse experiences of many movements, groups and communities have made significant contributions toward the new understanding of church which was officially promoted at the Second Vatican Council.

Chapter 8

VATICAN II AND BEYOND

Pope John XXIII (1958-1963)
Angelo Roncalli, the 76 year old patriarch of Venice, became Pope John XXIII and he was to be a man of surprises. He was a totally new kind of pope: a simple, spontaneous person who reached out to all, who loved life and loved people and was not afraid to show it.
His pontificate really amounted to a revolution that brought to an end the Tridentine Era of the Church.

Convocation of Vatican II and first session
Pope John called the Second Vatican Council in spite of his advisors. Then he was prepared for this conservative, reactionary agenda. He encouraged the bishops to take seriously the task of updating the church so as to bring it into the mainstream of what was happening all over the world.
Of the 70 proposed drafts, 69 were rejected by the bishops. The only one worthy of immediate attention was the document on the liturgy. This was prophetic because it was liturgical renewal that underscored the real meaning of the Council for so many ordinary Catholics. The idea of using the vernacular language in the liturgy may have signalled the beginning of a new world perspective on the church, one that would replace the European-centred view of the church.
For the previous 200 years the popes had tried to shield the faithful from the prevailing winds of change. Now Pope John had unleashed a new spirit of openness. But by June 1963, Pope John was dead. In Pacem in Terris John appealed to all persons of good will to build a better world by working together. It was also John, who, in Mater et Magistra, declared that the church was in favour of democracy. John moved the church from local Italian politics to a consideration of the rest of the world.

The second session
Giovanni Battista Montini, as Pope Paul VI, continued the Council.
The second session of discussion centred on the church as the people of God, collegiality and the renewal of the deaconate. The bishops aimed at balancing Vatican I's extreme emphasis on papal authority by pointing out that the pope ordinarily should act as a leader and a member of the college of bishops.
In Unitatis Redintegratio the bishops called for a new orientation towards those who were now recognized as "separated Brethren." Recognizing the Protestant people as "separated Churches and communities"(UR no.3), the Council recommended common prayer, and called for dialogue to take place between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches, the Anglican Communion and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. While warning against a compromise of belief, the decree recalled that there exists a 'hierarchy' of truths (UR 11). Now the church offered a way to distinguish between these teachings that are basic to Christian faith and those that are subject to different interpretation.
The recognition that the Church of Christ is broader than the Roman Catholic Church (LG 8) coupled with the concept of the Catholic Church as a communion of local churches, opened up a new way of envisioning the future unity between the Catholic Church and the other churches. As a communion of churches herself, the Catholic Church could join with the Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox Churches to form a communion of Christian communions.
The third session
This session saw an important discussion on the Constitution on the Divine Revelation, which led to a strong assertion of the primacy of Scripture as a source of Christian faith. During these sessions the bishops began to search for compromised formulas which would express the results of their discussions in a mildly progressive form, but one temperate enough to win the allegiance of the overwhelming majority of the bishops.
When the document on the church was presented in a reworked form, which supposedly reflected earlier discussions, a number of bishops were irritated that the pope himself, under pressure from the conservatives, had made changes. Changes had also been made in the proposed document on ecumenism which had the effects of weakening it, and this also annoyed the many bishops of France. Paul VI removed the question of artificial birth control from the agenda and announced that he would appoint a commission to examine the question. The Catholic Church was still a papal church, and the bishops at the Council had too deep a sense of their common responsibility for the unity of the Church to take any action which might comprise that unity.

The fourth session
The bishops gave their approval to a strong statement on religious liberty. In the final document on the church less emphasis was given to the church as the people of God, and more to the church as sacrament - that is the effective sign of the presence of God in the world. A new era of international cooperation among Catholic theologians had dawned. For the first time, theologians began to feel that they constituted a body with a recognized task in the church.
The first two sessions had given the bishops a deep sense of their own collegiality, and of their common responsibility, with the bishop of Rome, for the universal church. But it became evident in the later sessions of the Council that without the proper format and forum, and when papal encouragement was withdrawn, the bishops were unable to act as a body.

The pontificate of Paul VI (1963-1978) after the Council
Cardinal Montini, the Archbishop of Milan succeeded John XIII. Paul continued the Council begun by his predecessor. For twelve years after the Council he shepherded a church in which tremendous changes were taking place as a direct result of the Council. Paul VI often agonized over a divided church, polarized by conservatives, who tried to do whatever they could to resist the conciliar developments, and by liberals who wanted to take the new conciliar directions to their logical destination as fast as possible.
In 1965 he created the Bishops' Synod, but Paul was ill at ease with the concept of a Synod and he saw it as a consultative body. It seems that the Bishops' Synod has not fulfilled the hopes of those at the Council who urged it formation.

Humanae Vitae
The issue of the artificial birth control was another question in which Paul vacillated. The encyclical Humanae Vitae, promulgated in July 1968, dealt with this difficult problem. Eleven members of the committee recommended that the church's teaching against artificial birth control be modified, while four theologians urged the pope to hold the line of the traditional teaching. Paul upheld the traditional teaching for the sake of these Catholics who saw the church changing at such a rate as to leave them feeling bewildered and abandoned. In the final section, Paul VI bequeathed to the church a sensitivity to the personal conscience of the faithful and a trust in the action of the Holy Spirit in their lives. For a sizable majority of Catholics have rejected the conclusions of Humanae Vitae.

Various acts of Paul VI
In May 1967, Paul received the Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople in St. Peters, the first meeting of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople for 900 years. In 1966 he wrote the encyclical Populorum Progressio declaring that "development is the new name for peace" and anticipating some themes that would soon be taken up by the advocates of "Liberation Theology".
The 1968 meeting of the Latin American Bishops in Medelin, Columbia, the church of Latin America to an "effective preference to the poorest and most needy sectors of society." The Latin America hierarchy advocated the process of "concientization" of the poor.
In 1971, in Octogesimo Adveniens Paul took up many of the themes of Medelin, pointing out that economic problems call for political solutions.
Also in 1971, Gustavo Gutierrez in A Theology of Liberation contended that one's place in the world and one's attempts to change it should be the starting point of theology. All these converged in the theme that the poor should take action in helping themselves, instead of waiting for help from outside. The Latin American "base Christian communities" are a direct outcome of the stress on concientization and the idea of the poor taking the initiative in their own situation.
Pope Paul VI responded to the 1975 Synod on Evangelization in his encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi, which included his continuing reflection on the theological meaning of liberation.
At Puebla in 1979, the bishops affirmed their previous commitment, declaring "we affirm the need for conversion on the part of the whole church to a preferential option for the poor, an option aimed at their integral liberation."
In March 1979, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, protector of the poor and advocate of justice, was assassinated while celebrating the Eucharist.
As the ongoing interpretation and implementation of the conciliar documents continued, a certain polarization of the church resulted. In the 1960s and 1970s the fresh biblical image of the church as the People of God was favoured The traditionalist, like Archbishop Lefèbvre, would have nothing to do with the populist, democratic perspective of the church. The progressives promoted the new role of the laity in the decision-making processes of the church, and pushed for greater pluralism, more ecumenical openness, and greater autonomy for episcopal conferences.

Pope John Paul II (1978-2005)
Alberto Luciani was elected Pope in 1978 and as Pope John Paul I he had endeared himself to many in a pontificate that lasted only 34 days.
The next conclave chose Karol Josef Wojtyla, the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Adrian VI, 450 years earlier.
The balance between the two poles of the Catholic Church, the local and the universal, had begun to be restored with Vatican II. The international Synod of Bishops and national Episcopal Councils were recognized as practical expressions of the doctrine of collegiality as stated in Lumen Gentium.
Pope John Paul II seems to have had a different mind and spoke for the whole church, and he wants the universal church to take its lead from Rome. Under John Paul II dissent was not tolerated and theological diversity was hardly acceptable.
John Paul has been fully committed to proclaim the dignity of the human person. His encyclicals, from Redemptor Hominis (1979) to Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) and Centesimus Annus (1991), champion the rights of human beings and speak out on the necessity of social justice and offer a sharp critique of the social justice shortcomings, of both the capitalist and communist system. Still Pope John Paul II and his Curia have been suspicious of certain aspects of the Liberation Theology.

Risorgimento or Aggiornamento
Pope John Paul II announced the convocation of an Extraordinary Synod in 1985 to examine the direction of the Catholic Church 20 years after Vatican II. There was a shift in perspective, viewing the Council not so much in terms of originality or innovations, but in the context of the entire history of the Church. The renewal the Council brought to the church was affirmed and principles of interpretation worked out.
There has been a Vatican strategy to downgrade the national episcopal conferences since the Extraordinary Synod. John Paul II had great difficulty in walking the line that separates Roman authoritarianism from legitimate diversity in the local church in the world.
Pope John Paul II has also gone back on the council's actions in calling for a revised Eucharistic Liturgy, allowing for the re-emergence of the Latin Mass. The Pope did not want to admit shadows of grey in his efforts to give a black and white statement of Catholic faith and morals. The universal Roman Catechism published in 1992 has tended to reinforce this agenda of order, organization and orthodoxy.
The Vatican Nuncio now seems to be the key person involved in the nomination of bishops spearheading the Roman Curia's strategy of unilaterally appointing 'safe' men to the vacant episcopal sees. The beginning of certain democratic procedures that started during the Council has been replaced by more secretive procedures. Some that Rome perceives that clear lines of authority and clear expression of belief are essential to the preservation of unity in a global church.
The hope for the church's future lies in a balance; between both the pope and individual conscience; both the universal church and the local church; both mystery and institution; both law and freedom; both Rome's oversight and local initiatives.

Benedict XVI (2005- )