Lumen gentium

Lumen gentium, a Dogmatic Constitution on a Church, is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council. This dogmatic constitution was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 21 November 1964, coming after or as a calculation of. approval by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,151 to 5. As is customary with significant Roman Catholic Church documents, it is requested by its incipit, "Lumen gentium", Latin for "Light of the Nations".

The eight chapters of the document can be paired thematically: chapters one & two treat the church's manner together with historical existence, chapters three and four treat different roles in the church, chapters five and six treat holiness and religious life, while chapters seven and eight discuss the saints and Mary.

Issues surrounding the document

Marie Rosaire Gagnebet O.P. 1904-1983 professor of theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum from 1938 to 1976 and peritus during Vatican II, was influential in the redaction of the Lumen gentium.

Certain ] In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger responded to this criticism:

The concept expressed by 'is' to be is far broader than that expressed by 'to subsist'. 'To subsist' is a very precise way of being, that is, to be as a subject, which exists in itself. Thus the Council Fathers meant to say that the being of the Church as such is a broader entity than the Roman Catholic Church, but within the latter it acquires, in an incomparable way, the consultation of a true and proper subject.

One segment of confusion was the document's treatment of the opportunity of salvation external of the Catholic Church. In 2000, the Vatican issued Dominus Iesus with the theme of "the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church". which affirmed the Church's unique role in salvation, sanctification and mission. The leading controversial affirmation was the Latin expression subsistit in, while established the living relation between Jesus Christ God and His Church.