Global Council Network

The Catacomb Pact: against pomp and ceremony in the Church

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 We, bishops gathered in the Second Vatican Council, made aware of the deficiencies of our lives of poverty according to the Gospel; encouraged by each other; in an initiative in which each one wishes to avoid singularity and presumption; united with all our brothers in the Episcopate; counting above all on the grace and strength of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the prayers of the faithful and the priests of our respective dioceses; placing ourselves in thought and prayer before the Trinity, before the Church of Christ and before the priests and faithful of our dioceses; humbly conscious of our weakness, but also with all the determination and strength which God wishes to give us as grace, commit ourselves to the following:

On November 16, 1965, a few days before the Council ended, forty Council Fathers celebrated Eucharist in the Roman Catacombs of Domitilla. There they signed the Alliance of the Catacombs. Dom Hélder Câmara, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year, was one of the prime movers in this prophetic group. In 13 points, the Alliance insists on the Evangelical poverty of the Church: without honorific titles, without privileges, and without worldly ostentation. It insists on collegiality and on co-responsibility in the Church as People of God. It calls for openness to the world and brotherly and sisterly welcome.

Source: Pedro Casaldáliga - Circular 2009

  1. We will seek to live according to the ordinary manner of our people, regarding habitation, food, means of transport and all which springs from this. Cf. Mt 5,3; 6,33s; 8,20.
  2. We definitively renounce the appearance and reality of riches, especially regarding to our manner of dress (rich material, loud colours) and symbols made of precious materials (they should in reality be evangelical signs). Cf. Mc 6,9; Mt 10,9s; At 3,6. Neither gold nor silver.
  3. We will not possess real estate, goods, bank accounts etc. in our own names; if it should be necessary to have them, we will place everything in the name of the diocese, or of charitable and social works. Cf. Mt 6,19-21; Lc 12,33s.
  4. Whenever possible, we will entrust the financial and material administration in our dioceses to a commission of competent laity, conscious of their apostolic rôle, so that we may become less administrators and more pastors and apostles. Cf. Mt 10,8; At. 6,1-7.
  5. We refuse to be addressed, orally or in writing, by names or titles which signify prestige and power (Eminence, Excellency, Monsignor...). We prefer to be called by the evangelical title of Father. Cf. Mt 20,25-28; 23,6-11; Jn 13,12-15.
  6. In our behaviour and social relations, we will avoid anything which may seem to confer priviledges, priority or any preference for the rich and powerful (such as: banquets, offered or accepted, class distinction during religious services. Cf. Lc 13,12-14; 1Cor 9,14-19.)
  7. In the same way we will avoid the fostering or pampering of the vanity of anyone, in order to seeking reward or solicit donations, or for any reason whatsoever. We will invite our faithful to consider their donations as a normal participation in the cult, the apostolate and social action. Cf. Mt 6,2-4; Lc 15,9-13; 2Cor 12,4.
  8. We will dedicate whatever is necessary of our time, reflection, heart, means etc to the apostolic and pastoral service of people and groups of workers and of the economically weak and underdeveloped, without prejudice to the other people and groups in the diocese. We will support those laity, religious, deacons and priests who the Lord calls to evangelize the poor and the workers, sharing the work and life of labourers. Cf. Lc 4,18s; Mc 6,4; Mt 11,4s; At 18,3s; 20,33-35; 1Cor 4,12 e 9,1-27.
  9. Conscious of the demands of justice and charity, and their mutual relationship, we will seek to transform assistential activites into social works based on justice and charity, which take into account all that this requires, as a humble service of the competent public organs. Cf. Mt 25,31-46; Lc 13,12-14 e 33s.
  10. We will do our utmost so that those responsible for our government and for our public services make, and put into practice, laws, structures and social institutions required by justice and charity, equality and the harmonic and holistic development of all men and women, and by this means bring about the advent of another social order, worthy of the sons and daughters of mankind and of God. Cf. At. 2,44s; 4,32-35; 5,4; 2Cor 8 e 9 ; 1Tim 5, 16.
  11. Believing the collegiality of the bishops to be of the utmost evangelical importance in facing the burden of human masses in a state of physical, cultural and moral misery – two thirds of humanity – we commit ourselves:
    • to participate, according to our means, in the urgent investments of the episcopates of poor nations;
    • to demand that the plans of international organizations, but witnessing to the Gospel, as Pope Paul VI did in the UNO, adopt economic and cultural structures which no longer manufacture proletarian nations in an ever richer world, but which will permit the poor masses to overcome their misery.
  12. We commit ourselves to share, in pastoral charity, our lives with our brothers and sisters in Christ, priests, religious and laity, so that our ministry constitute a true service; so,
    • we will really try to “revise our lives” with them;
    • we will find collaborators who will be more animators according to the Spirit, rather then according to the chiefs of this world;
    • we will seek to be more humanly present, more welcoming...;
    • we will show ourselves to be open to all, whatever their religion. Cf. Mc 8,34s; At 6,1-7; 1Tim 3,8-10.
  13. On returning to our respective dioceses, we will make this resolution known to our people, asking them to help us by their understanding, collaboration and prayers.

MAY GOD HELP US TO BE FAITHFUL!


  1. KLOPPENBURG, Boaventura (org.). Concílio Vaticano II. Vol. V, Quarta Sessão. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1966, 526-528.

 

Signatories (with thanks to http://rk-kerkplein.org )

Mgrs. Charles M. Himmer, bishop of Tournai, Belgium

Dom Helder Camara, archbishop of Recife, Brasil

Dom Antonio Fragoso, Bishop of Crateus, Brasil
Dom Francisco Austregésilo de Mesquita Filho, Bishop of Afogados de Ing., Brasil
Dom Joao Batista de Mota e Alburquerque, Archbishop of Vitoria, Brasil
Dom Luiz Fernández, Auxiliary Bishop of Vitoria, Brasil
Dom Jorge Marcos de Oliveira, Bishop of De Santo André, Brasil
Dom Henrique Golland Trindate O.F.M., Archbishop of Botucatu, Brasil
Dom José M. Pires, Archbishop of Paraiba, Brasil
Dom Cándido Padín, Bishop of Lorena, Brasil
Mgrs. Georges Mercier, Bishop of Laghouat, Sahara, Africa
Mgrs. Hakim, Melkite Bishop of Nazareth, Israel
Mgrs. Hadad, auxiliary Melkite Bishop of Beirut, Líbanon
Mgrs. Gérard Mario Coderre, Bishop of S. Jean, Quebec, Canada
Mgrs. Rafael González, Auxiliary Bishop of Valencia, Spain
Mgrs. Julius Angerhausen, Auxiliary Bishop of Essen, Germany
Mgrs. Guy Marie Riobé, Bishop of Orléans, France
Mgrs. Gerard M. Huyghe, Bishop of Arras, France
Mgrs. Adrien Gand, Auxiliary Bishop of Lille, France
Mgrs. Luigi Betazzi, Auxiliary Bishop of Bologna, Italy
Mgrs. Bernard Yago, Archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Africa
Mgrs. Joseph Blomjous, Bishop of Mwanza, Tanzania, Africa (of Dutch origin)
Mgrs. Charles Joseph de Melckebeke (expulsed from China, since then living in Singapore, Apostolic Visitor
                of the Chinese Catholics outside China, form Belgian origin)

 

Also Bishops from Vietnam and Indonesia signed the Pact

 

In the Episcopal groups of Opus Angeli, Church of the Poor, the following Bishops were active but it is not sure that that they signed during the Eucharist:

Mgrs. Manuel Larraín, Bishop of Talva, Chile, President of CELAM

Mgrs. Marcos G, McGrath, Bishop of Santiago de Veraguas, Panama, Secretary of CELAM

Mgrs. Leonidas Proaño, Bishop of Ríobamba, Ecuador
Mgrs. Alberto Devoto,Bishop of Goya, Argentina
Mgrs. Vicente F. Zazpe, Archbishop of Sta. Fe, Argentina
Mgrs. J. José Iriarte, Bishop of Reconguista, Argentina
Mgrs. Alfredo Viola, Bishop of Salta, Uruguay
Mgrs. Tulio Botero Salazar, Archbishop of Medellín, Colombia
Mgrs. Raúl Zambrano, Bishop of Facatativá, Colombia
And later Dom Sergio Méndez Arceo and Dom Samuel Ruíz from México

 

“A pact of the disciples of Jesus”

“We are ready to help Pope Francis to implement the Second Vatican Council now. Another Church for Another World is possible!”

Press release, Rome, December 7, 2015

PDF: [English] [Catalan] [French] [German] [Italian] [Spanish]

Update in the spirit of the “Pact of the Catacombs” signed by 42 bishops at the end the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago

 “We are ready to help Pope Francis to implement the Second Vatican Council now. Another Church for Another World is possible!”

 A Declaration has been adopted by more than 100 delegates of catholic reform movements worldwide from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas who gathered at the Council 50 Conference in Rome, November 22-24, 2015. At this conference prior to the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council (December 8, 2015), they assessed the current state of the Roman Catholic Church, future directions, and its engagement with contemporary global issues.

 In this process the delegates associated themselves with the “Pact of the Catacombs” which was originally signed by 42 bishops just before the end of Vatican II, in which they made their personal commitments as bishops to the Council’s ideals. Although the “Pact of the Catacombs” was subsequently signed by some 500 bishops it was almost totally forgotten during the last two pontificates.  Council 50 delegates  affirmed the teachings and the spirit of the Second Vatican Council that defined a new position for the church engaged with today’s world, especially in the constitution “Gaudium et Spes” (Joy and Hope).

Delegates strongly endorsed Pope Francis’s call to become a poor Church for the poor, and committed themselves to promote and further develop the implications of this message.

 In the Declaration delegates made the following commitments after an intensive “See, Judge, Act” process:

On matters concerning PEACE AND WAR

  • to condemn every act of war unequivocally
  • to promote active non-violence globally and locally in our societies ; and
  • to advocate that the Catholic Church should ratify and promote internationally accepted documents on human rights (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, European Convention on Human Rights).

 On matters concerning SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE

  • to be actively engaged in addressing socio-economic issues  in the light of the Gospel  not only at the level of individual or charitable action, but by seeking to  analyse,  understand and transform  oppressive and unjust structures and systems
  • to promote ‘a new model of development’ clearly mentioned by Pope Francis in Laudato Si in the light of integral human development interconnected with peace and ecological justice
  • to work in solidarity with poor people at the margins of the economy
  • to  engage with all Christian churches and other religions to promote the aims of peace founded on   justice locally and  globally, and
  • to work for the transformation of our Church as a poor church, for the poor and of the poor.    

 On matters concerning the ENVIRONMENT and SUSTAINABILITY

  • to practice a sober, simple and responsible style of life
  • to contribute spiritually, ethically and practically to the construction of a society that respects God’s creation, and
  • to participate in projects and movements that promote social and environmental sustainability.

 On matters concerning GENDER, SEXUALITY and FAMILY

  • to help to make known the experiences of those whose voices often go unheard, and those whom  the Church  finds hardest to hear, such as women, LGBTQI people  and divorced and remarried people
  • to share the experiences of  marginalized  and rejected people with fellow members of the Church, so that they may gain in understanding and compassion
  • to work for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in all countries, and for the abolition of other forms of legal and social discrimination, and
  • to press for changes in society to be reflected by changes in canon law, regarding gender, sexuality,  matrimonial and family structures, so as to be more inclusive of the people of God.

 On matters concerning MINISTRIES IN THE CHURCH, and GENDER EQUALITY

  • to develop the vision of a church constitution based on human rights and democratic values (including wide participation in decision making, a separation of powers, and due process)
  • to work towards the renewal of Church ministries, based on the Gospel teaching that all gifts and vocations are given to us  by the Spirit, and therefore that women  are equally called to full participation in ministry, and
  • to call at this point in time in particular for the restoration of women to the diaconate.

On BASE ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES

  • to build a church that  embraces base ecclesial communities as its fundamental model for being Church
  • to focus  our communities on action for justice, peace and the integrity of creation
  • as Church to ask publicly for forgiveness from all who seek to be recognized as  members of the people of God but who have been marginalized or rejected and hurt by our doctrines or practices,

 and

  • to work actively for ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue, collaboration and friendship. 

On DIALOGUE WITHIN THE CHURCH AND WITH THE WORLD

  • to recognise and proclaim the equal dignity of each and every  human person
  • to develop educational systems that accommodate and celebrate  difference and diversity
  • to promote the development of an open and accessible theology,
  • to initiate and develop the process of institutionalizing a structure for internal dialogue between lay people and clergy at the levels of diocese, nation and continent, as well as in the Vatican, and 
  •  to promote and create spaces where people of different religions, value systems and world views can meet and work together.

On being a CHURCH FOR THE POOR

  • within the Church, to actively promote Pope Francis’s call to be a poor Church for the poor
  • to remember and keep alive initiatives and movements for change and renewal in the Church, as witnessed in the Second Vatican Council and the Pact of the Catacombs, and in liberation theology and feminist theology, and
  • to form alliances with all people of good will, and with popular social and political movements, in the struggle for the liberation of all humanity and a more just global order. 

‘Council 50’ was initiated by the European Network Church on the Move (EN-RE) and the International Movement We Are Church (IMWAC) and benefits from the contributions, participation and support of members of the following networks and associations: American Catholic Council, Amerindia, Asociación de Teólogos Juan XXIII, Australian Coalition for Church Renewal, Católicas pelo Direito de Decidir, Center for Asia Peace and Solidarity (CAPS), Comunita’ Cristiane di Base Italiane/Italian Grassroot Communities, Coordination of European Base Communities, Corpus, Ecumenical Association Third World Theologian (EATWOT), European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups, Federacion latinoamericana para la renovacion de los ministerios, Grupo de Ação Pastoral da Diversidade - Sao Paulo, Brasil (GAPD -LGBT Catholic Group),  International federation for a renewed Catholic Ministry, Institute for Theology and Politics, Kairós/Nós Também Somos Igreja – Brasil, Marienburgvereniging, Movimiento Fé y Politica, Brasil, Pax Romana, Réseau des Anciens Jecistes d’Afrique, Redes Cristianas, Servicio de Articulación de las Comunidades Eclesiales de Base de América Latina, Vision of Faithful People, Netherlands, We Are All Church, South Africa, The Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW) & World Forum Theology and Liberation.

 

Full text of the Declaration  [English] [German] [Italian] [Catalan]