Introduction to the "Credo of the People of God"

Pope Paul VI presided over the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.
He also introduced the revised liturgy which is standard in nearly all
Roman Catholic parishes.  Many have thought that the doctrine and
theology of post-Vatican II Catholicism is much different than before
that great Council.  A study of Pope Paul VI's "The Credo of the People
of God" illustrates that, doctrinally, the Catholic Church still
proclaims the same faith after Vatican II.  (The text of the _Credo_ is
taken from _Modern Catholic Dictionary_, by John A. Hardon, pp. 577-84.
Hardon states "its purpose was to offer the Christian world, after the
Second Vatican Council, a profession of the principal articles of the
Catholic faith.  It is no mere summary, however, but a carefully
assembled synthesis of those revealed truths which today are either most
challenged or that especially need to be understood by the faithful.  It
incorporates all the familiar doctrines of the Nicene Creed but goes
beyond them in occasionally updating their verbal expression and showing
how these mysteries are to be lived by the Christian believer."

[The first seven sections are an introduction to the "Profession of
Faith" of the _Credo_.  Section 4 is of particular note in addressing
the tendency of some Catholics who are "seized by a kind of passion for
change and novelty."]


                     THE CREDO OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD

    as published in _The Acts of the Apostolic See_, August 10, 1968

                     THE SOLEMN PROFESSION OF FAITH

          pronounced by Pope Paul VI at St. Peter's Basilica,
          June 30, 1968, at the end of the "Year of Faith," the
          nineteenth centenary anniversary of the martrydom of
          Sts. Peter and Paul.

VENERABLE BROTHERS AND BELOVED SONS

1.  With this solemn liturgy we end the celebration of the nineteenth
centenary of the martyrdom of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and thus
close the Year of Faith.  We dedicated it to the commemoration of the
holy Apostles in order that we might give witness to our steadfast will
to guard the deposit of faith from corruption, that deposit which they
transmitted to us, and to demonstrate again our intention of relating
this same faith to life at this time when the Church must continue her
pilgrimage in this world.

2.  We feel it our duty to give public thanks to all who responded to
our invitation by bestowing on the Year of Faith a splendid completeness
through the deepening of their personal adhesion to the Word of God,
through the renewal in various gatherings of the Profession of Faith,
and through the testimony of a Christian life.  To our brothers in the
episcopate especially, and to all the faithful of the Holy Catholic
Church, we express our appreciation and we grant our blessing.

3.  Likewise we deem that we must fulfill the mandate entrusted by
Christ to Peter, whose successor we are, the last in merit; namely, to
confirm our brothers in the faith.  With the awareness, certainly, of
our human weakness, yet with all the strength impressed on our spirit by
such a command, we shall accordingly make a Profession of Faith,
pronounce a formula which begins with the word _Credo_, I believe.
Without being strictly speaking a dogmatic definition, it repeats in
substance, with some developments called for by the spiritual condition
of our time, the Creed of Nicaea, the Creed of the immortal tradition of
the Holy Church of God.

4.  In making this profession, we are aware of the disquiet which
agitates certain groups of men at the present time with regard to the
faith.  They do not escape the influence of a world being profoundly
changed, in which so many truths are being denied outright or made
objects of controversy.  We see even Catholics allowing themselves to be
seized by a kind of passion for change and novelty.  The Church, most
assuredly, has always the duty to carry on the effort to study more
deeply and to present in a manner ever better adapted to successive
generations the unfathomable mysteries of God, rich for all in fruits of
salvation.  But at the same time the greatest care must be taken, while
fulfilling the indispensable duty of research, to do no injury to the
truths of Christian doctrine.  For that would be to give rise, as is
unfortunately seen in these days, to disturbance and doubt in many
faithful souls.

5.  It is supremely important in this respect to recall, that, beyond
what observable, analyzed by the work of the sciences, the intellect
which God has given us reaches that which is, and not merely the
subjective expression of the structures and development of
consciousness.  And, on the other hand, it is important to remember that
the task of interpretation--of hermeneutics--is to try to understand and
extricate, while respecting the word expressed, the sense conveyed by
the text, and not to recreate, in some fashion, this sense in accordance
with arbitrary hypotheses.

6.  But above all, we place our unshakable confidence in the Holy
Spirit, the soul of the Church, and in theological faith upon which
rests the life of the Mystical Body.  We know that souls await the word
of the Vicar of Christ, and we respond to that expectation with the
instructions which we regularly give.  But today we are given an
opportunity to make a more solemn utterance.

7.  On this day which is chosen to close the Year of Faith, on this
Feast of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, we have wished to offer to
the Living God the homage of a Profession of Faith.  And as once at
Caesarea Philippi the Apostle Peter spoke on behalf of the Twelve to
make a true confession, beyond human opinions, of Christ as the Son of
the Living God, so today his humble successor, pastor of the universal
Church, raises his voice to give, on behalf of all the People of God, a
firm witness to the divine truth entrusted to the Church to be announced
to all nations.

We have wished our Profession of Faith to be to a high degree complete
and explicit, in order that it may respond in a fitting way to the need
of light felt by so many faithful souls, and by all those in the world
to whatever spiritual family they belong, who are in search of the
truth.

Therefore, to the glory of God Most Holy and of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
trusting in the aid of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Holy Apostles
Peter and Paul, for the profit and edification of the Church, in the
name of all the pastors and all the faithful, we now pronounce this
Profession of Faith, in full communion with you all, beloved brothers
and sons.

PROFESSION OF FAITH

8.  We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Creator of
things visible such as this world in which our brief life passes, of
things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels,
and Creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul.

9.  We believe that this only God is absolutely one in His infinite holy
essence as also in all His perfections, in His omnipotence, His infinite
knowledge, His providence, His will and His love.  He is _Who He Is_, as
He revealed to Moses; and He is _Love_, as the Apostle John teaches us;
so that these two names, Being and Love, express ineffably the same
divine reality of Him who has wished to make himself known to us, and
who "dwelling in light inaccessible," is in himself above every name,
above every thing and above every created intellect.  God alone can give
us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing himself as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace
called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in
eternal life.  The mutual bonds which eternally constitute the Three
Persons, who are each one and the same Divine Being, are the blessed
inmost life of God thrice holy, infinitely beyond all that we can
conceive in human measure.  We give thanks, however, to the Divine
Goodness that very many believers can testify with us before men to the
unity of God, even though they know not the mystery of the Most Holy
Trinity.

10.  We believe then in God who eternally begets the Son, in the Son,
the Word of God, who is eternally begotten, in the Holy Spirit, the
uncreated Person, who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their
eternal Love.  Thus the Three Divine Persons, _coaeternae sibi
coaequales_, the life and beatitude of God perfectly One superabound and
are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated
Being, and always "there should be venerated unity in Trinity and
Trinity in unity."

11.  We believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.  He is
the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and
consubstantial with the Father, _homoousios to Patri_, and through Him
all things were made.  He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power
of the Holy Spirit, and was made man; equal therefore to the Father
according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His
humanity, and himself one, not by some impossible confusion of natures,
but by the unity of His person.

12.  He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.  He proclaimed and
established the Kingdom of God and made us know in himself the Father.
He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us.  He
taught us the way of the Beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit,
meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy,
purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, the Lamb of God bearing on himself the
sins of the world, and He died for us on the Cross, saving us by His
redeeming Blood.  He was buried, and, of His own power, rose the third
day, raising us by His Resurrection to that sharing in the divine life
which is the life of grace.  He ascended to heaven, and He will come
again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead: each
according to his merits--those who have responded to the love and piety
of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end
going to the fire that is not extinguished.
And His Kingdom will have no end.

13.  We believe in the Holy Spirit, Who is Lord, and Giver of life, Who
is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son.  He spoke
to us by the Prophets, He was sent by Christ after His Resurrection and
His Ascension to the Father; He illuminates, vivifies, protects and
governs the Church; He purifies the Church's members if they do not shun
His grace.  His action, which penetrates to the inmost of the soul,
enables man to respond to the call of Jesus:  Be perfect as your
Heavenly Father is perfect.

14.  We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of
the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and that by reason
of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of
her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner, preserved from all stain of
original sin and filled with the gift of grace more than all other
creatures.

15.  Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the
Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at
the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory and
likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the
just; and We believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother
of the Church, continues, in heaven her maternal role with regard to
Christ's members, co-operating with the birth and growth of divine life
in the souls of the redeemed.

16.  We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the
original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all
men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that
offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our
first parents, established as they were in holiness and justice, and in
which man knew neither evil or death.  It is human nature so fallen,
stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers
and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men,
and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin.  We therefore
hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with
human nature, "not by imitation, but by propagation" and that it is thus
"in each of us as his own."

17.  We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Sacrifice of the
Cross, redeemed us from original sin and all the personal sins committed
by each one of us, so that, in accordance with the word of the Apostle,
"where sin abounded, grace did more abound."

18.  We believe in one baptism instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins.  Baptism should be administered even to little
children who have not yet been able to be guilty of any personal sin, in
order that, though born deprived of supernatural grace, they may be
reborn "of water and the Holy Spirit" to the divine life in Christ
Jesus.

19.  We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, built by
Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter.  She is the Mystical Body of
Christ; at the same time a visible society instituted with hierarchical
organs, and a spiritual community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim
People of God here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings;
the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through which the
work and the sufferings of Redemption are continued throughout human
history, and which looks for its perfect accomplishment beyond time in
glory.  In the course of time, the Lord Jesus Christ forms His Church by
means of the Sacraments emanating from His plentitude.  By these she
makes her members participants in the mystery of the Death and
Resurrection of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit who gives her
life and movement.  She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her
bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by
living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing
themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that
prevent the radiation of her sanctity.  This is why she suffers and does
penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to heal her
children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

20.  Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to
the Spirit, through that Israel whose Scriptures she lovingly guards,
and whose patriarchs and prophets she venerates; founded upon the
Apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word
and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in
communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit, she has the
charge of guarding, teaching, explaining and spreading the truth which
God revealed in a then veiled manner by the Prophets, and fully by the
Lord Jesus.  We believe all that is contained in the Word of God written
or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely
revealed, whether by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal
magisterium.  We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor
of Peter when he teaches ex cathedra as pastor and teacher of all the
faithful, and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it
exercises with him the supreme magisterium.

21.  We believe that the Church founded by Jesus Christ and for which He
prayed is indefectibly one in faith, worship and the bond of
hierarchical communion.  In the bosom of this Church, the rich variety
of liturgical rites and the legitimate diversity of theological and
spiritual heritages and special disciplines, far from injuring her
unity, make it more manifest.

22.  Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church
of Christ, of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong
to her as her own and tend to Catholic unity, and believing in the
action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of
Christ love of this unity, we entertain the hope that Christians who are
not yet in full communion of the one only Church will one day be
reunited in one flock with one only Shepherd.

23.  We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because
Christ who is the sole Mediator and Way of salvation, renders himself
present for us in His Body which is the Church.  But the divine design
of salvation embraces all men; and those who without fault on their part
do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely,
and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized
through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only
to God, can obtain salvation.

24.  We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the
person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament
of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of
His Mystical Body, is in true reality the Sacrifice of Calvary, rendered
sacramentally present on our altars.  We believe that as the bread and
wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His
Body and His Blood which were to be offered for us on the Cross,
likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into
the Body and Blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we
believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues
to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial
presence.

25.  Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the
change into His Body of the reality itself of the bread and the change
into His Blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only
the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive.  This
mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church
_transubstantiation_.  Every theological explanation which seeks some
understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with
Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of
our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the
Consecration, so that it is the adorable Body and Blood of the Lord
Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental
species of bread and wine, as the Lord willed it, in order to give
himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical
Body.

26.  The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord in heaven is not
multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places
on earth where Mass is celebrated.  And this existence remains present,
after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the
tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches.  And it is our
very sweet duty to honor and adore in the Blessed Host which our eyes
see, the Incarnate Word Whom they cannot see, and Who, without leaving
heaven, is made present before us.

27.  We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church
of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its
proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of
science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more
profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever
stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the
Love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness
among men.  But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern
herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men.  Without
ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting
dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his
vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote
justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to
their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate.  The
deep solicitude of the Church, the spouse of Christ, for the needs of
men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore
nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to
illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all to Him,
their only Savior.  This solicitude can never mean that the Church
conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the
ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.

28.  We believe in the life eternal.  We believe that the souls of all
those who die in the grace of Christ, whether they must still be
purified in Purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their
bodies Jesus takes them to Paradise as He did for the Good Thief, are
the People of God in the eternity between death, which will be finally
conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be
reunited with their bodies.

29.  We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and
Mary in Paradise forms the Church of Heaven, where in eternal beatitude
they see God as He is, and where they also, in different degrees, are
associated with the holy angels in the divine rule exercised by Christ
in glory, interceding for us and helping our weakness by their brotherly
care.

30.  We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those
who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their
purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one
Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God
and His saints is ever listening to our prayers, as Jesus told us: Ask
and you will receive.  Thus it is with faith and in hope that we look
forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to
come.
Blessed be God Thrice Holy.  Amen.

Pronounced in front of the Basilica of St. Peter, on June 30, 1968, the
sixth year of our pontificate.

                                                      Pope Paul VI