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(kreuz.net)The Communion-Ecclesiology of the early Church -- so far as I see -- never answered the question if the Church of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church are one and the same.
Because this identity is self-evident to it.
That goes not only for the early Church Communion-Ecclesiology, but the whole tradition of the Church up to the Pastoral Council.
No Renewal, Rather a Novelty
Alexandra von Teuffenbach in her book which appeared in 2002 in Munich "The Meaning of 'subsistit in' (LG 8) -- in the Self-Consciousness of the Catholic Church" came to the following conclusion:
"When we let our glance glide through the epochs of Ecclesiological History, we recognize, that it's always the Catholic Church and only the Catholic Church that shows itself to have been the Church of Christ."
Therefore one can say: With the doctrine that the Church of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church not being one in the same, the Pastoral council constitutes a break with the complete teaching tradition of the Church.
The understanding of the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church is not reconcilable with the self-conception of the Church.
For that reason the Communion-Ecclesiology of the Pastoral Council is not a renewal of the early Church Communio-Ecclesiology, but it is nothing to this but complete novelty.
The End of Ecumenism
The overdue correction of 'subsistit-in' teaching could have far reaching consequences.
This teaching had opened the door to the Ecumenism of the Pastoral Council.
Really this door will be closed again, if Rome returns to the traditional teaching of the Church, which means, that the Catholic Church is the Church of Jesus Christ.
The entire Ecumenical Decree would then be decrepit.
Benedict XVI. has hinted at this understanding, as he held his lecture over "the ecclesiology of the Constitution of Lumen Gentium", which was held on 27.2. 2000, saying:
"In the difference between 'subsisit' and 'est' conceals the entire ecumenical problem".
Read original, here...
