Russell Shaw, CATHOLIC EXCHANGE, July 30, 2007

"I guess Catholics just think they're better than anybody else." The Catholic woman was quoting a non-Catholic friend's reaction to the new Vatican document affirming the uniqueness of the Catholic Church. Clearly, she sympathized with her friend's sarcastic comment.

Many Catholics — to say nothing of non-Catholics — were rattled by "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church" (or, more likely, by secular media coverage of it). Yet nobody should really be surprised by this document, which was issued in early July by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

To begin with, "Responses" covers the same ground, in much the same way, as Dominus Iesus (The Lord Jesus), a widely discussed document published in 2000 by the same Vatican agency, which then was headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI. You were expecting him to change his mind?

Dominus Iesus was said to have been prompted by speculations of some Asian theologians that seemed to place Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism on a par with Christianity. But the issues treated there and in the new CDF document undoubtedly exist in Europe and North America as well.

Practically speaking, the root of the problem is that too many Catholics naively take for granted the truth of the misinformation about the Catholic Church and ecumenism that they've been fed for many years. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) embraced ecumenism, didn't it? So how can we claim Catholics have a lock on truth?

The confusion here is profound. In trying to untangle it, let's begin with a statement by Vatican II in its dogmatic constitution on the Church, no. 8: "This Church [i.e., the Church of Christ], constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church."

People have been arguing for four decades about those words "subsists in." Years ago, chatting with a prominent theologian, I hazarded the opinion that subsists in means to be fully present in. The theologian hemmed and hawed, then gave me to understand I was missing the point. Now it seems I was right.

Here's what the doctrinal congregation says: "'Subsistence' means...perduring, historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the Catholic Church, in which the Church of Christ is concretely found on this earth."

This doesn't say Catholics are better than other Christians. That is a claim we simply can't make if "better" means more pleasing to God. And about that, who knows? God reads hearts, we don't.

Nor is it a putdown of other religious bodies. The CDF document, repeating Vatican II, readily acknowledges that "numerous elements of sanctification and of truth" exist in these.

No, the point of it is this: Jesus bestowed many gifts — theological and moral truths, sacraments, graces, charisms, offices — on the community he established. He willed that these gifts remain intact until he comes again. If Jesus' intention has come to naught — if what he gave his followers has been dissipated and lost — his great enterprise has turned out a failure. But faith rejects that possibility. Rather, the Catholic Church, by no merit of its members, remains the repository of Jesus' gifts in their fullness because it is the community in which, as we now say, Christ's Church subsists.

The starting-point of useful ecumenical dialogue is for dialogue partners to say honestly and accurately what they believe. The Vatican's new document performs an important service to ecumenism by reaffirming what the Catholic Church believes about itself.

Russell Shaw is a freelance writer from Washington, D.C.