The seventh and final installment of Cardinal Montini’s Lenten pastoral letter, written from Rome, where he is serving on boards and commissions that are making preparations for the upcoming council. See also Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI.

55- Therefore, the Church celebrating the coming council is planning to get in touch with the world. Think about it carefully: this is a great act of love. The Church will not only think about herself, the Church will think about the whole of mankind. She will think about it, bearing in that She is the continuation of Christ, the incarnate Word, who entered the world to save it, whatever situation he would have found (Cfr Congar..: “the Church “does not exist just to be beautiful and to look at herself in the mirror saying: how beautiful I am, I am the bride of the Lord, I am the queen. The church exists propter nos et propter nostram salutem” trans. Ed. “for us and for our salvation”). For this reason she will try to become sister and mother to mankind: she will try to be poor, simple, humble and lovable, in her speech and attitude. For this reason she will try to be intelligible, and provide people of our times the ability to listen to her and to talk to her using an easy and ordinary language. Continue reading →

The sixth installment of Cardinal Montini’s Lenten pastoral letter, written in Rome where he is serving on preparatory commissions for the upcoming council. See also Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V.

46. From these considerations, our wait is curious to other perspectives, first of all on those matters of faith. Will the council, as earlier expected, reveal some new teaching on revealed truth, some new dogma? We do not know, and this already indicates that the definition of some new dogma, as part of revelation, it seems improbable. There seems a rather widespread awareness in the Church that desires some sage admonition, some loving advice today on how we can preserve and deepen our profession of the faith, that faith which is the beginning of our salvation and spiritual heritage which is most threatened by a mentality created by the errors of modern thought and morality. Continue reading →

The fourth installment of Cardinal Montini’s Lenten pastoral letter of 1962 written in Rome, where he is helping to prepare for the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. In this installment, His Eminence begins to address what we might expect from the council. See Part I, Part II, and Part III

28. All this is remembered and made almost evident in the celebration of the ecumenical council. The assistance of Christ to his Church is manifest in the fact that such an event is realized in full consistency with the original word of Christ. It is the thought around which the Bull by which Pope John XXIII announced the council is woven. “The divine Redeemer Jesus Christ, who before ascending into heaven conferred on the apostles He had chosen the mandate to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples, and at the same time promised them extensive support in order to guarantee their mission: “Behold, I am with you all days even unto the consummation of the world” (Mt 28:20). This comforting assistance , which has been alive and active in all times in the Church, was noticeable above all in the gravest periods of humanity (Humanae salutis, 25 December 1961). As we said, (no. 13) the marks of the Church here stand out: here in the council, as never before, it shows itself one, holy, catholic and apostolic. As ever the divine-human consciousness of the Church holds: “It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us not of us” (Acts 15:28), as spoken by the apostles in the first Council of Jerusalem, so say the fathers of the Second Vatican Council. Continue reading →

The third installment of Cardinal Montini’s pastoral letter, written in Rome, explains the Church as mystery, as a pneumatic synthesis of all who are joined to her. See Part I and Part II

19. Therefore the council is not like a parliament elected by people, but a body composed of clergymen invested of their own authority; it is not an assembly of experts, professors, theologians and canonists, but pastors and doctors of the Church of Christ; they are appointed to such office not because of a particular personal qualification, nobility or dynastic succession, historical or local privilege, but because they are legitimately appointed to succeed the apostles, if they are bishops, and they are given power and dignity, assuming a call from above which could fall on any individual’s shoulders [who is] considered suitable to such highest and important service, regardless of class, nation or race. Church authority comes from above, that is, derives from Christ only, not from the community, but it is not afraid to lower down through the freest choice of its elected. This is how the Church is. Also this feature about the Council composition will deserve our meditation in order to admire God’s work in a spectacular human event. Continue reading →