Lumen Gentium and its Effects

"Lumen gentium Christus," png, https://es.wikipedia.org.

Lumen Gentium affects the Church today. It was written after the Second Vatican Council and contains the teaching of the Catholic Church clarified during the council. The newly defined Church teachings lead to many changes which were received in both positive and negative ways. These changes have a role in how the world and Church are today.

 

Lumen Gentium is a Dogmatic Constitution, written in 1964 and promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI. Lumen Gentium is about the Church’s role in the world in accordance with the discussions during Vatican II. It is divided into eight chapters. The chapters are on the mystery of the Church, the people of God, the hierarchical structure of the Church, the laity, the universal call to holiness, the religious, eschatological nature of the Church, and Mary.[1] Each chapter reveals what the Church is, its members’ roles, both the laity and religious, the three parts of the Church, and Mary’s role in the Church.

After Lumen Gentium was announced, many changes occurred. One of the many positive changes was the dialogue between the priest and the congregation during Mass. This change brought about the congregation’s active participation at Mass. A man stated, “People realized that they were supposed to be paying attention to what the priest was doing.”[2] Before Vatican II, the people would be doing their own prayers and not pay attention to the priest.[3] With this new dialogue between the priest and the people, one would more likely participate during Mass and be able to become closer to Christ, one “purpose of the liturgical reform.”[4]

Like all changes, people reacted both positively and negatively to the liturgical reform. One man stated that “the mass” became “more meaningful to the man in the pew.”[5] People, especially those who did not know Latin, were able to understand what was happening during the Mass. Another man, however, stated that his father “was so depressed about having to sing Protestant hymns and respond in church.”[6]

Another change that happened after the writing of Lumen Gentium is the attitude Catholics must have toward people of other faiths. By saying that the Muslims are included in “the plan of salvation,”[7] the Catholic Church states that its members should not treat others as people with no hope of salvation. Catholics should, rather, strive to carry out the mission the Lord asked them to fulfill before He ascended into heaven, to preach the Gospel to all nations. “…[I]t is possible for non-Christians to be saved.”[8] It is true, even more so, for non-Catholic Christians for they are closer to the Catholic Church because they “are joined… in baptism and share other ecclesial elements with the Roman Catholic Church.”[9]

 

The Church is affected by Lumen Gentium. Lumen Gentium brought about many changes in the Church. One change is the participation of the congregation during Mass. The other change is on how Catholics should treat people of other faiths. Both changes brought about positive results. These results changed how the Church and world of today.

---

[1] Pope Paul VI, Dogmatic Constitution on Lumen Gentium (21 November 1964).

[2] U. S. Catholic, “The times they were a’changing,” at U.S. Catholic (17 June 2011), at uscatholic.org.

[3] U. S. Catholic, “The times they were a’changing.”

[4] George Dugan, “U. S. Catholics Begin Reforms in the Mass,” at The New York Times (30 November 1964) at wwwnytimes.com.

[5] George Dugan, “U. S. Catholics Begin Reforms in the Mass.”

[6] U. S. Catholic, “The times they were a’changing.”

[7] Lumen Gentium, §16.

[8] Edward T. Ulrich, “The Catholic Church and the Non-Christian World: Teaching Lumen Gentium §16 and Nostra Aetate,” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 26 (2019), 19.

[9] Geertjan Zuijdwegt, “Salvation and the church: Feeney, Fenton and the making of Luman gentium,” Louvain Studies 37, no. 2 (2013), 176.