We are often asked what we mean by “Catholic” in American Catholic Council—and what it means to be a “Catholic” who is included in membership in ACC. This definition was adopted by the Planning Committee on May 1, 2009:

1. Acceptance of the Petrine ministry as a key element in expressing the unity of the Church.

The Petrine ministry refers to how the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter, serves the Church universal. That ministry is open to a variety of interpretations, some of which are clearly unacceptably Catholic (for example: a rejection of that ministry having any special role to play, as in radically reformed Protestantism, or, on the other hand, giving that ministry so central a role that all power in the Church comes from only one ministry, as in the thinking that bishops and Church synods have no authority in their own right).

There is room in the category we propose, for Catholics who, conservatively, see the papacy in terms of infallibility and universal jurisdiction and room for those who define the Petrine ministry in very circumscribed collegial terms.

2. Acceptance of an expansive sacramental system as developed in the New Testament and Church Tradition.

This is much broader than the traditional Protestant restriction of sacraments to two and more closely allied with Orthodox theology but quite distinctively Catholic in the clarity and frequency of defining the sacraments. Thus, Catholics accept seven sacraments, celebrate many of them more frequently than any other Church tradition and give them a central, prominent role in Catholic life.

3. Acceptance of the core of the Church’s Conciliar Tradition.

This includes all 21 councils. It is quite removed from the weight Protestant Christians give councils in general and it includes far more than the councils of the first millennium which Orthodox theology accepts. It is the core, not the completeness of each council that we affirm. In includes the Council of Constance that deposed three Popes and Vatican II that defined the Church as the People of God.

It does not, however, oblige us to accept the papal infallibility of Vatican I in the terms that people have come to assume the Council intended. Vatican I was never finished and was completed in Vatican II and thus the core of the conciliar tradition is not the total acceptance of a particular council. For further example, the papal infallibility of Vatican I must be contrasted with the definition of the Council of Constance which says that the popes are obliged to obey an ecumenical council and indeed can be deposed by a council.

4. Acceptance of the Gospel mediated through the Life History of Roman Catholicism.

Thus, Benedict and Francis of Assisi, Ignatius Loyola, Theresa of Avila and Therese Lisieux; the social justice encyclicals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Vatican II, would all have a part, of course. Protestant and Orthodox readings of the Gospel are important and enlightening. But Roman Catholicism has its own legitimacy and contribution.

5. Acceptance of the Spirit of Vatican II

Vatican II was a Council not only different essentially from all previous ecumenical councils but it changed the very definition of what an ecumenical council is. It brought with it a “spirit” that went beyond the literal meaning of the documents. No one speaks of a spirit of the Council of Trent or of Vatican I. Such a term makes sense for Vatican II.

This spirit is one of universal participation and inclusivity. Thus, new Church structures to assure this were created: presbyteral councils, pastoral councils, international synods of bishops, national episcopal conferences. Furthermore, for the first time, in Church history, those formerly called “heretics” or “schismatics” were officially invited to the Council, without any need to reject their beliefs. They were given honored places at the Council and made their ideas and presence part of the Council’s work.

This inclusivity, in the almost fifty years since Vatican II, led to universal days of prayer at Assisi with all religions invited; to an official apology, on the eve of the second millennium, for the harm Catholics have done to the world; to popes praying in Lutheran churches, synagogues and mosques; to the offering of communion to non-Catholics at the Vatican and so on.