Papal Primacy and Episcopal Collegiality in the Vota for Vatican II
Marek Gilski
The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4588-2038
Abstract
In this paper, we examine the relationship between papal primacy and episcopal collegiality by analyzing the vota submitted for the Second Vatican Council. We highlight the growing criticism of the excessive centralization of power in the person of the pope and the Roman Curia, as well as the calls for a restoration of the balance between the primacy and effective responsibility of bishops. The analysis comprises three main areas: (1) the value of papal primacy, (2) proposals for reforming its mode of exercise, and (3) suggestions for strengthening collegial structures—patriarchs, cardinals, and episcopal conferences—in the governance of the Church. Theological, linguistic, and hermeneutical methods have been used, allowing for a thorough reading and interpretation of the multifaceted source material found in the Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando, Antepraeparatoria 1. We have concluded that the calls for collegiality were not a late invention of Vatican II, but had already matured within the episcopate, both in the East and West. Moreover, the reform of papal primacy and the strengthening of collegiality clearly had an ecumenical dimension and were perceived as conditions for closer relationships among the Churches.
Keywords:
Second Vatican Council, papal primacy, episcopal collegiality, decentralization, votaSupporting Agencies:
This paper is co-financed from the state budget under the Minister of Science and Higher Education programme called “Science for Society II,” project no. NdS-II/SN/0050/2023/01, grant amount 512 600.00 PLN, total project value 512 600.00 PLN (Poland).References
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1960. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 2: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum. Pars I: Europa. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= CVE Pars I).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1960. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 2: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum. Pars II: Europa. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= CVE Pars II).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1960. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 2: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum. Pars III: Italia. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= CVE Pars III).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1960. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 2: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum. Pars IV: Asia. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= CVE Pars IV).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1960. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 2: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum. Pars VI: America Septemtrionalis et Centralis. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= CVE Pars VI).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1961. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 2: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum. Pars VII: America Meridionalis – Oceania. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= CVE Pars VII).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1961. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 2: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum. Pars VIII: Superiores Generales religiosorum. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= CVE Pars VIII).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1961. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 4: Studia et vota Universitatum et Facultatum ecclesiasticarum et catholicarum. Pars I: Universitates et Facultates in Urbe 1. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= SVU Pars I.1).
Acta et documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II apparando. 1961. Antepraeparatoria 1. Vol. 4: Studia et vota Universitatum et Facultatum ecclesiasticarum et catholicarum. Pars II: Universitates et Facultates extra Urbem. Vatican: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis. (= SVU Pars II).
Afanasiev, Nicolas. 1965. “Réflexions d’un orthodoxe sur la collégialité des évêques.” Le Messager Orthodoxe, nos. 29–30, 7–15.
Buckley, Michael J. 1998. Papal Primacy and the Episcopate: Towards a Relational Understanding. Ut Unum Sint. New York: Crossroad.
DeClue, Richard G. 2008. “Primacy and Collegiality in the Works of Joseph Ratzinger.” Communio 35 (4): 642–70.
Faggioli, Massimo. 2005. Il vescovo e il concilio: Modello episcopale e aggiornamento al Vaticano II. Testi e ricerche di scienze religiose 36. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Gilski, Marek, Damian Wąsek, and Marek Blaza. 2025. Orientalium Ecclesiarum: Sobór Watykański II o Kościołach katolickich wschodnich. Sobór na Nowo Odczytany 4. Kraków: Wydawnictwo “scriptum”; Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawła II w Krakowie. Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Kasper, Walter. 1962. “Primat und Episkopat nach dem Vatikanum I.” Theologische Quartalschrift 142 (1): 47–85.
Krzywda, Józef. 2008. Prymat papieski i Kolegium Biskupów w świetle nauki Vaticanum I i II. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Papieskiej Akademii Teologicznej.
Laksito, Petrus Canisius Edi. 2025. “Gérard Philips and the Triumph of Via Media: A Historical Note on the Redaction of Lumen Gentium.” Verbum Vitae 43 (2): 395–411. https://doi.org/10.31743/vv.17858.
Marmion, Declan. 2017. “Karl Rahner, Vatican II, and the Shape of the Church.” Theological Studies 78 (1): 25–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040563916681992.
Okafor, Peter Jude. 2013. “The Theological Portrait of the Diocesan Bishop as a Servant Leader in the Light of the Second Vatican Council.” PhD diss., Boston College.
Pallath, Paul. 2024. “Primacy of the Pope and Collegiality of Bishops According to the Second Vatican Council.” Ephrem’s Theological Journal 28:36–75.
Rahner, Karl, and Joseph Ratzinger. 1962. The Episcopate and the Primacy. Quaestiones disputatae 4. New York: Herder and Herder.
Ratzinger, Joseph. 1965. “The Pastoral Implications of Episcopal Collegiality.” In The Church and Mankind, edited by Edward Schillebeeckx, 39–67. Concilium 1. Glen Rock, NJ: Paulist Press.
Ryan, Seamus. 1966. “Vatican II: The Re-Discovery of the Episcopate.” Irish Theological Quarterly 33 (3): 208–41.
Sullivan, Francis A. 1983. Magisterium: Teaching Authority in the Catholic Church. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Sullivan, Francis A. 2002. “The Teaching Authority of Episcopal Conferences.” Theological Studies 63 (3): 472–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/004056390206300302.
Swaine, Mario. 1998. “Collegiality and Papal Primacy.” Master’s thesis, University of Malta.
Wąsek, Damian. 2014. Nowa wizja zarządzania Kościołem. Kraków: WAM.
Wąsek, Damian, and Marek Gilski. 2023. “Joseph Ratzinger’s Proposal to Decentralise the Ecclesial Structures in the Context of Conciliar Debates on Lumen Gentium.” Collectanea Theologica 93 (4): 109–127. https://doi.org/10.21697/ct.2023.93.4.08.
Wąsek, Damian, Marek Gilski, and Tadeusz Kałużny. 2024. Unitatis redintegratio: Sobór Watykański II o ekumenizmie. Sobór na Nowo Odczytany 3. Kraków: Wydawnictwo “scriptum”; Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawła II w Krakowie. Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow
Rev. Marek Gilski, theologian and classical philologist, Associate Professor of Theological Sciences, the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków (UPJPII), the Institute of Dogmatic, Patristic Theology and Church History; Vice-Head of the Research Center for the Second Vatican Council, UPJPII. His publications include Język soborów pierwszego tysiąclecia [The Language of the First Millennium Councils] (co-authored with M. Cholewa), Kraków 2018; The Tragedy of Divided Christianity: Diagnosis of Main Problems on the Basis of the Vota Sent to the Second Vatican Council (with D. Wąsek), Verbum Vitae 43/2 (2025): 431–443; Nostra aetate. Sobór Watykański II o religiach niechrześcijańskich [Nostra aetate. The Second Vatican Council about Non-Christian Religions] (with D. Wąsek and Huspeková), Kraków 2025. His scholarly work focuses primarily on topics related to the Second Vatican Council, Mariology, and the history of the early councils. He is a member of the Polish Mariological Society.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4588-2038License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author(s) grant (s) to the Licensee a non-exclusive and royalty-free license in accordance with the provisions of the Appendix: LICENSE TO USE THE WORK
