To the Editor:
Now that Pope Benedict XVI has met his Maker and moves on to probable canonization, the Catholic Church needs to renew its dedication to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council in their entirety. A small but vocal group of Catholics has been resisting the full implementation of that Council.
Communicated in our earlier teachings was that no error ever existed in the Church teaching and that Catholics were better than other Christians, often called Triumphalism. By focusing us on being the People of God on a journey, the Council helped us see that clarifications of some teaching, e.g. the separation of Church and State, were needed and that service of our neighbors should define us.
A big help to our present situation is to recognize that as Christ is the presence of God so the Church is the presence of Christ in the world. Our dignity is to be as Church the presence of Christ to our world.
Donald Moeller
Professor Emeritus Theology, Saint Ambrose University
Davenport
