The Catholic Understanding of Office in the Church

Abstract

ANY HISTORICAL and theological consideration of the past in the Church JL always implies the questions of today. The origin and past of the Church are, of course, always normative for the Church, but only in dialogue with the present. The present questions concerning the priesthood are therefore bound to play an explicit part if we look in the origin and past of the Church for the normative criteria which must be taken into account in any attempt to give a new structure to the office of the priesthood. On the other hand, however, it would be incorrect to think of the past—and especially the origin and past of the Church —simply as an aspect of our contemporary understanding of the Church and the world. If we do this, any appeal that we may make to the past will simply be an attempt to strengthen our own conservative or progressive views and our own conservative or progressive positions. A historical and theological examination of the origin and past of the Church must always be a critical event. It confronts not only us and our present, but also our ideas of origin and past with the difference, the alien aspect, of a historical situation. In this way, the past calls in question our contemporary understanding of the Church and the world. Moreover, it would be dishonest to question the past in the light of our contemporary experience of the world and the Church without critically questioning this modern understanding and without allowing it to be subjected to the scrutiny of the past. Every period in the history of the Church is subject to the criticism of the period that follows it, and this period in its turn must be open to correction from every preceding period.