From Clavis Ecclesiae to Lumen Gentium 11

Professor Fernando Millán has published his article "De Clavis Ecclesiae a Lumen Gentium 11" in the Revista Gregorianum (105/1, 2024), published by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

The following is a summary of the article:

On the occasion of the centenary of the publication of Fr Bartholomew Xiberta's thesis Clavis Ecclesiae in 1922 (directed by Maurice de la Taille and defended at the Università Gregoriana a year earlier), the author shows how this thesis, which at first had a rather negative reception, gradually gained adherents in pre-conciliar theological circles. The development of a new ecclesiological sensibility (together with the liturgical, biblical and patristic movements) made it possible to understand the Xibertian thesis in a different perspective. This meant that, when the Council Fathers referred to the sacraments in the second chapter of Lumen Gentium, they ended up using a phrase that reproduced the importance that the Carmelite theologian had given to the reconciliatio cum Ecclesia forty years earlier.

Keywords: Penitence, Xiberta, Vatican II, Rahner, reconciliation

The full article is available to subscribers by clicking here.

Professor Fernando Millán Romeral holds a PhD in Theology from the Department of Dogmatic and Fundamental Theology and is an expert, among other disciplines, in sacramental theology and Carmelite spirituality. He is currently Director of the University Institute of Spirituality at Comillas.

All the latest news from the Faculty of Theology can be found on the website, in the monthly newsletter and on the social network X (formerly Twitter).