By Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan

A cleric, who was not keeping up his theological homework, asked another: “What is this collegiality all about?” His friend replied that it was the desire of the bishops to have some of the pope’s authority. The first, with a touch of indignation, said: “You mean, they want more than they’ve got now?” Both were misinformed. The indignant one thought that bishops wished more authority over priests like himself. The friend confused things by implying that they wanted to subtract power from the pope. Both concepts are a far cry from collegiality.

Yet if some clerics do not grasp what the Council Fathers were voting on last week, the laity can be pardoned for wondering about terms like “Apostolic Senate,” “Episcopal Conferences” and “Collegiality.” It is a very vital question in the Church today. At a press panel in Rome, Bishop John Wright of Pittsburgh gave three reasons for its historic significance: (a) Chapter three on collegiality completes the work of the First Vatican Council of 1869-70;

(b) It integrates the organizational structure of the Church into theology properly so-called;

(c) It opens the possibility of “enormous intensification of the life of the Church on all levels of activity.” It is the last point that will gradually touch the lives of all Catholics. Bishops will be able to act together more effectively. Energies can be pooled in many areas of the missions -- the vast areas of de-Christianized people as well as those who have never known Christ, military personnel, university people, sailors, immigrants, migrant workers, the multitudes that Christ looked upon with compassion -- the nameless, the dispossessed, the needy and unfortunate.

How will the voting of September 22, 1964 do this? Without disturbing a bishop’s responsibility in his own diocese. It will widen his horizons (and those of his people) to the concerns of the universal Church. Our Lord placed the tremendous task of His Kingdom on the Twelve Apostles -- he called them, trained them, commissioned them. Together they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost; together they heard the solemn words; “I shall be with you always.” To Peter, Christ gave the primacy. He is the head of the Apostolic College. Each power given collectively to the Twelve, is given specially to him. He is the rock, the holder of the keys, he is “to confirm his brothers.” But it is within the Apostolic body to which he inseparably belongs that his office is understood.

After the death of Christ, the Apostles (with Peter) administered the infant Church. They in turn commissioned others, some as assistants (like Stephen and Branabas); others to be successors (like Timothy and Titus, Clement of Rome, Ignatius and Polycarp of Antioch). At first these men moved about freely, later they became residential Episcopoi (over-seers or bishops). Always they acted as successors (in a group) to the Apostles (as a group). Their identification marks were three. They had to transmit the testimony of the Apostles who had witnessed The Risen Lord. They shared in a universal apostolate, maintaining a unity of faith and love by correspondence and prayer. And they moved, as St. Cyprian of Africa said, with “only one soul and one heart”. Mutual love bound the local church around its bishop; it united the bishops to each other.

History has a habit of altering institutions. The divine element in the Church has always been true to the dimensions given it by Christ -- the task of teaching without error what he had taught, of sanctifying men by the means He established, and of governing them in this unity of faith and love. But the human forms -- and methods, and titles, and approaches changed with the centuries. Popes have been appointed by Christ (as Peter) and elected by the cardinals (as Paul VI). In between they have been chosen by the Roman clergy, the people, and even named by secular rulers. But through the long line of men, the primacy of Peter has remained constant. That was Christ’s guarantee.

So with the successors of the Apostles, the bishops, no pope could eliminate the Episcopacy of the Church. But at historical moments, bishops have been selected by other bishops or by other means. Now, their selection and assignment is juridiscally the responsibility of the Holy Father. In the Western Church, the Episcopacy of the early Middle Ages became a tool of the state, and Rome stepped in to save it from its own weakness. In the Eastern Church, the emergence of strong patriarchates had its share in a like devaluation of the local bishops.

When the First Vatican Council met, it was intended to draft the rightful place of pope and bishop -- to restore the collegiality of the early Church. As everyone knows, the Council accomplished only the definition of the pope’s position. European war closed the sessions as the fathers hurried for their homes. The role of the bishops in modern times remained the great “unfinished business” of Vatican I.

The familiar charts of Church government (the pyramid) showing pope, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and laity) hear witness to our one-sided notion of how the Church is administered.

So did the remark of an official of a Roman congregation during the first session -- “But the Council can’t change something without the approval of this Congregation!” The Cardinal Chairman had to remind him, “You forget, your Excellency, that the Council is above all congregations.” No one has felt this need of a new description of the role of the bishop more than Pope Paul. He urged it before his election; he has now directly asked the Council Fathers to consider:

“The hierarchic structure of the Church itself, and consequently the origin, nature, function and power of the Episcopate, which is a major part of the hierarchy, in which with us, ‘The Holy Spirit has made you bishops...to keep watch...over God’s Church.’” (Acts 20, 28).

Mindful of Vatican I’s “unfinished business,” the warnings of Pius IX and Leo XIII against degrading the bishop’s role, aware of Our Lord’s plan for the College of Apostles, the Council Fathers responded to Paul’s words with a resounding vote. Back of it stood the individual proposals submitted by hundreds of them, the great debate of 1963 and the surprising test votes, and an excellent revised chapter in the schema on the Church.

The decisive votes confirm, indeed make explicit, the traditional primacy of the pope. This is summed up in the 12th amendment “that the College of Bishops has no authority except with the Roman pontiff, successor of St. Peter, as its head; and his power of primacy over all, both bishops and faithful, remains intact.” Only nine out of 2,205, disagreed.

But the Fathers spelled out, in clear-cut majorities, that --

(a) The bishops are the successors of the Apostles by divine right.

(b) Just as Christ willed that Peter and the other Apostles made up one Apostolic College, in the same way the Roman pontiff and bishops as successors of Peter and the other Apostles are joined together.

(c) Episcopal consecration, together with the duty of sanctifying, also confers the powers of teaching and ruling, which by their nature can be exercised only in union with the head of the College and other bishops.

The ratio of negative votes on these, and other amendments, never exceeded one out of seven. Only fifty voted against (a) above.

How Collegiality will be worked out: the “servant-character” of sacred authority; and other points on the Episcopacy will be discussed next week.