貧窮教會協定半世紀，由教宗方濟各賦予新生

貧窮教會協定半世紀，由教宗方濟各賦予新生

【轉載自天亞社】

一九六五年十一月十六日傍晚，約四十名主教通過口耳相傳，保持警覺並靜悄地前往羅馬郊區多米蒂拉地下墓穴一處古老、地下大殿舉行彌撒。

禮儀的地點和時間有著深遠的意義：教會傳統上把該地視為兩名羅馬士兵因為皈依基督信仰而殉難的地方。主教腳下的地方，以及延綿穿越超過十公里的隧道，是教會最初幾個世紀逾十萬名基督徒的墳墓。

此外，彌撒是梵蒂岡第二屆大公會議結束前不久舉行的，梵二是歷史性的聚會，聚集了全球主教，以三年的時間來舖設教會改革的道路，以及前所未有地參與現代世界──當中包括開始與其他基督宗派信徒及其他宗教的對話，贊同宗教自由，以及把拉丁語彌撒轉變為本土語言。

然而，這個大公會議的二千二百名神長有另一個關注，就如教宗若望廿三世在召開會議前不久所說的一樣，使天主教真正成為「窮人的教會」。那些主教當時聚集在地下墓穴舉行彌撒，就是致力看到這一承諾兌現。

因此，禮儀在昏暗的燈光、四世紀拱形房間之內結束時，每位主教走到祭台前，在一分簡短但充滿激情的宣言上簽名，承諾「嘗試按照我們所有的人民，在涵蓋住房、食品、交通工具和有關事項上的方式，度平凡的生活方式」。

聯署人誓言要放棄私產、花巧祭衣，以及「展示地位和權力的名銜」。他們說會倡導貧窮與放權作為他們牧職的重點。

他們說，在一切「我們將在牧職中尋求合作者，使我們成為可以跟隨聖神的賦予生命者，而非隨從世界的支配者；我們會嘗試讓自己以人性的臨在，以及竭盡所能地友善；而且我們會向所有人展示自己是開放的，不管他們信仰甚麼」。

這分文件被稱為《地下墓穴協定》，聯署者希望它將標誌著教會歷史的轉捩點。

不過，因著各項原因和目的，該《協定》不見了。

它幾乎在梵二廣泛的歷史裡沒有被提及，而當文本的覆印都在傳遞時，沒有人知道原文件到底有什麼事。此外，原來聯署人的姓名和確實數目也有爭議，雖然現在相信唯一依然在世的聯署人是接近九十二歲、意大利伊夫雷亞榮休主教類思．貝塔齊（Luigi Bettazzi）。

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Secret ‘Catacombs Pact’ emerges after 50 years, and Francis gives it new life

Basilica of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, an underground altar where the Catacombs Pact was signed at a Mass on Nov. 16, 1965. (Religion News Service photo by Grant Gallicho)

Taken From: NCR

David Gibson - Religion News Service  |  Nov. 13, 2015

Rome

On the evening of Nov. 16, 1965, quietly alerted to the event by word-of-mouth, some 40 Roman Catholic bishops made their way to celebrate Mass in an ancient, underground basilica in the Catacombs of Domitilla on the outskirts of the Eternal City.

Both the place, and the timing, of the liturgy had a profound resonance: The church marked the spot where tradition said two Roman soldiers were executed for converting to Christianity. And beneath the feet of the bishops, and extending through more than 10 miles of tunnels, were the tombs of more than 100,000 Christians from the earliest centuries of the church.

In addition, the Mass was celebrated shortly before the end of the Second Vatican Council, the historic gathering of all the world’s bishops that over three years set the church on the path of reform and an unprecedented engagement with the modern world — launching dialogue with other Christians and other religions, endorsing religious freedom and moving the Mass from Latin to the vernacular, among other things.

But another concern among many of the 2,200 churchmen at Vatican II was to truly make Catholicism a “church of the poor,” as Pope John XXIII put it shortly before convening the council. The bishops who gathered for Mass at the catacombs that November evening were devoted to seeing that commitment become a reality.

So as the liturgy concluded in the dim light of the vaulted fourth-century chamber, each of the prelates came up to the altar and affixed his name to a brief but passionate manifesto that pledged them all to “try to live according to the ordinary manner of our people in all that concerns housing, food, means of transport, and related matters.”

The signatories vowed to renounce personal possessions, fancy vestments and “names and titles that express prominence and power,” and they said they would make advocating for the poor and powerless the focus of their ministry.

In all this, they said, “we will seek collaborators in ministry so that we can be animators according to the Spirit rather than dominators according to the world; we will try to make ourselves as humanly present and welcoming as possible; and we will show ourselves to be open to all, no matter what their beliefs.”

The document would become known as the Pact of the Catacombs, and the signers hoped it would mark a turning point in church history.

Instead, the Pact of the Catacombs disappeared, for all intents and purposes.

It is barely mentioned the extensive histories of Vatican II, and while copies of the text are in circulation, no one knows what happened to the original document. In addition, the exact number and names of the original signers is in dispute, though it is believed that only one still survives: Luigi Bettazzi, nearly 92 years old now, bishop emeritus of the Italian diocese of Ivrea.