The Vatican Councils

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ByzCath said:
Vatican I and Vatican II were ecumenical councils so they apply to the whole Catholic Church.
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It seems necessary to point out to an Eastern Orthodox Christian who might be perusing Sacrosanctum Concilium, for instance, that there are some documents that are intended primarily for the Latin Rite only. Eastern Christians in communion with Rome are under no obligation to use Latin in their liturgies.

It might also be worth mentioning that there is a school of thought within the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church which receives Vatican II as an ecumenical council, but not defining infallibly any dogmas, as evidenced by primarily by the promulgating bishop of Rome, Pope Paul VI:
  1. “Differing from other councils, this one was not directly dogmatic, but disciplinary and pastoral.”
Pope Paul VI, General Audience of August 6, 1975, To the rectors of the Universities of the Society of Jesus
  1. “Today we are concluding the Second Vatican Council…But one thing must be noted here, namely, that the teaching authority of the Church, even though not wishing to issue extraordinary dogmatic pronouncements…”
Pope Paul VI, Address of the last general meeting of the Council, Dec. 7, 1965
  1. “There are those who ask what authority, what theological qualification, the Council intended to give its teachings, knowing that it avoided issuing solemn dogmatic definitions backed by the church’s infallible teaching authority. The answer is known by those who remember the conciliar declaration of March 6, 1964. In view of the pastoral nature of the Council, it avoided proclaiming in any extraordinary manner any dogmas carrying the mark of infallibility.”
Pope Paul VI, General Audience of Dec. 1, 1966
  1. “Taking into account conciliar practice and the pastoral purpose of the present council, the sacred synod defined as binding on the Church only those matters of faith and morals which it has expressly put forward as such.”
Addendum of Nov. 16, 1964 (alluded to by Paul VI above) in the Explanatory Note to Lumen Gentium. A little commentary might be helpful here. Many of the council fathers were wary of some theological ambiguity that characterized the volumes of words with which they had to deal. One can read about this in The Rhine Flows Through the Tiber, by Fr. Ralph Wiltgen.
 
Clearly, if you’re in the Orthodox Church these councils would not apply to you.
 
Wesley7 said:
Clearly, if you’re in Orthodox Church these councils would not apply to you because they have their own councils and canons.
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I’m sorry to have appeared to state the obvious Wesley. I was not clear. There are prescripts for Western Catholics in Vatican II that would not apply to Eastern Christians in communion with Rome.

Edited to say…I don’t know what happened to the post I quote above which prompted what I said above. But as you can see…so long as this post appears in its entirety…that was the context of this post.
 
I deleted that post. It said: Clearly if you’re in the Orthodox Church these councils do not apply because they have their own councils and canons.
 
Would the Roman Church be considered as part of the Catholic Church like whats this I hear about the Holy Mother Church - what does that mean??
 
Wesley7 said:
Would the Roman Church be considered as part of the Catholic Church like whats this I hear about the Holy Mother Church - what does that mean??
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The Roman Church is the pre-eminent apostolic see according to the beliefs of most Catholics. Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople have long ceased to have a strong Christian presence. St. Paul in the Scriptures speaks of certaibn pre-eminence to the Church in Rome as do early fathers such as Sts. Ignatius of Antioch and Irenaeus of Lyons. So yes, the Roman Church is part of the Catholic Church. But strictly speaking, the Detroit, Sydney, Singapore, and Yakima Churches are also part of the Catholic Church so I am not sure if this answer will be helpful.

Mother Church is an expression of recognition that we are children, offspring, fruit of the kingdom we believe to have been established by Christ Himself. We do not have life in Christ apart from His Church, and if we have God as our Father, we have the Church as our Mother. One of the notes of God’s Church is holiness, in Her teachings, and in Her Traditions, in Her liturgy, and in devotional practices that while imperfectly lived at times by us Her children, inevitably lead to good fruit when faithfully followed.
 
Wesley7 said:
Would the Roman Church be considered as part of the Catholic Church like whats this I hear about the Holy Mother Church - what does that mean??
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In Catholic church terminology, there is the particular (a part that can be considered separately from the whole) church, which is a sub-category (for lack of a better definition) which is normally headed by a bishop. The See at Rome is the regional church for the city of Rome (See means ‘seat’ or ‘chair’ or even ‘throne’), so it can be called a particular church.

This is where the references to Roman church and Holy Roman church (as in some documents) comes from. That refers to the diocese of Rome in particular.

There are also Particular Ritual Sui Iuris churches, basically bigger hunks of the church distinguished by their own ritual tradition and particular governing laws. The biggest of these (about 98-1/2%) is the Latin church. The Latin church is often called the Roman church but that term is considered incorrect (and apparently offensive to some people for their own reasons) If one refers to the Roman church, it would apply to the diocese at the city of Rome only, which happens to be the one which has a Pope.

People have been saying ‘Holy Mother Church’ for a long time like an affectionate traditional nickname, it refers to the church as a whole, not any particular section of it (more likely used among Latin Catholics), and I think the best way to describe it is that people think of the church as their alternate mom, as she nourishes, teaches and sustains one in the faith. It does not have any official standing as a title although it might be repeated in some church documents.

Likewise one may be likely to hear the term ‘the Body of Christ’ used as a nickname for the church.
 
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