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| Introduction |
Here’s the church
by Ralph McInerny
“Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and here’s all the people.” Everyone used to have an uncle who would interlock his fingers, then join index fingers, twist his wrists in a double-jointed way and waggle his now visible finger tips, all this accompanied by the words just quoted. The Church isn’t a building, but it is an edifice, an institution, a unity of order. The elements of the order are the people, of course, but the ordering is of divine institution. Lumen Gentium is a remarkable dogmatic statement on the nature of the Church.
We continue in this issue our year-long effort to draw attention to documents of Vatican II. Of course we would need sixteen issues a year rather than six to do it right, and selections have to be made. No one could fail to see that the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church was timely when it appeared and even more timely now.
—RM
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