Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

For centuries, the Church has faced the challenge of living up to the teachings of Jesus. As a result, she constantly looks to better the lives of the faithful and her own life as an institution. During the Second Vatican Council, the axiom Ecclesia semper reformanda (The Church must always be reformed) became the byword for Church renewal in the 20th century.

In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation began as an attempt to address the abuses that had crept into the Church. However, many of the reformers broke from the Church and began their own ecclesial communities. Under the leadership of Pope Paul III, the Church embraced the challenge of the Reformers. With the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Church offered answers to the doctrinal questions and solutions to the disciplinary problems raised by the Protestant reformers. For the next four centuries, the Church digested and put into practice the decrees of Trent.

In the 20th century, Pope St. John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council to help the Church respond to the challenges of the day. This Council remains as relevant today as it did when it ended in 1965. The Council reminded all the faithful of the need to live according to Jesus’ teachings.

The Council spoke of the universal call to holiness. According to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is praised as ‘uniquely holy,’ loved the Church as His bride, delivering Himself up for her. He did this that He might sanctify her. He united her to Himself as His own body and brought it to perfection by the gift of the Holy Spirit for God’s glory. Therefore in the Church, everyone whether belonging to the hierarchy, or being cared for by it, is called to holiness, according to the saying of the Apostle: ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification’” (Lumen Gentium, 39).

Furthermore, in the Decree on Ecumenism, the Second Vatican Council also spoke of the need for ecclesial reform. The Church, divinely founded, is comprised of people who sin. Thus, “Christ summons the Church, as she goes her pilgrim way, to that continual reformation of which she is always in need insofar as she is an institution of men here on earth. Therefore, if the influence of events or of the times has led to deficiencies in conduct, in Church discipline…these should be appropriately rectified at the proper moment” (Unitatis Redintegratio, 6).

There are many today calling for reform of Church discipline, structure and even her teachings. In any authentic reform, there are certain fundamental principles that are operative. First, the Church must remain faithful to the Deposit of Faith handed to her from the apostles. Even if a particular time demands her to change or diminish the essentials of the faith, she cannot. Both the creed of the Church, her divinely instituted hierarchy and sacraments are what make her Catholic. In fact, authentic reform always begins with a return to Scripture and Tradition.

Second, the Church must always be looking for ways to help individual believers live out their faith. All are called to holiness. Through a sound preaching of the gospel, through renewed efforts at evangelization and catechesis and, most particularly, through a proper celebration of the Liturgy, the Church offers all her members, laity and clergy, the means of grace to respond to Christ with a life worthy of the gospel.

Third, those who advocate reform within the Church are called to exercise the virtue of patience. The impetus toward reform requires sound, prudent reason tempered with candor but void of a judgment uninformed by mercy. We all stand beneath the judgment of God. Humility, not pride, distinguishes true reformers from those seeking notoriety by inciting others.

Fourth, true reform can only happen in a spirit of charity. Those who recognize problems in Church life have the obligation to build up the Church and not discourage her members. In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Avery Dulles addressed this. He said, “A reform that is Catholic in spirit will seek to maintain communion with the whole body of the Church, and will avoid anything savoring of schism or factionalism. St. Paul speaks of anger, dissension, and party spirit as contrary to the Spirit of God (Gal 5:20). To be Catholic is precisely to see oneself as part of a larger whole, to be inserted in the Church universal” (Avery Cardinal Dulles, “True and False Reform,” August, 2003).

Church reform is a need and a grace in every age. We are no different from those who went before us. To achieve an authentic reform, better a Charles Borromeo than a Savonarola! May the Holy Spirit continue to guide and lead us deeper into living our faith as individuals and as Church!