Reading LG, AA, and GS Through the Lens of Ecclesial Ethics

William Cavanaugh’s critique of Catholic Action and pre-conciliar ecclesiology is used in this chapter to consider how Vatican II understands the church’s presence and mission in the world, especially through its lay members. The aim is to argue that it is in these aspects of the Council’s teachings that we will find further evidence of the problems identified in sections four and five of the previous chapter, and the ecclesiological origins of those problems. Moreover, looking at how the Council’s ecclesiology affects its more explicit teachings about politics and church-state relations in Apostolicam Actuositatem and especially Gaudium et Spes will enable us to arrive at last at a position to summarise and make a judgement upon the totality of the problems besetting the Council's teaching on church-state relations.