Document on nature of church aimed at Catholics, U.S. cardinal says

Published: 2007-07-20

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- The recent Vatican document emphasizing that only the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of the means for salvation was created primarily as an instructional tool for Catholics and should not be read as a diminishing of other faith communities, according to the churchman who signed it. On the contrary, said Cardinal William J. Levada, who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which issued the document July 10, the narrative itself points out that "outside the Catholic Church elements of holiness and truth do exist and that the Holy Spirit is working in those other communities and churches as well." During a July 17 interview while visiting San Francisco, Cardinal Levada commented on his congregation's work, Pope Benedict XVI's recent instruction on the Tridentine Mass, emerging themes of the papacy and challenges facing the universal church today. The former archbishop of San Francisco described as "purely coincidental" the fact that his congregation's document on the nature of the church was made public only three days after the pope's announcement of his decision to allow broader use of the Tridentine rite. The Tridentine Mass is the Latin-language liturgy that predates the Second Vatican Council; it was last revised in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal.

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