Continuity, Reform, Rupture, and Communion

Its been many months, I have very consciously been underground but decided to turn bbc radio 4 on the other to listen to the news…. sometimes its good to reappear from time to time. And the Today show was interviewing a man (I didn’t catch his name) about the Synod in Rome. What I heard for the most part was concerning, on one side about the obvious misconceptions that were coming out and the confusion this could cause, and on the other side, because the misconceptions can very easily lead to disappointments and greater divisions in the universal church. We must pray that the Synod is especially about listening to each other and learning to dialogue and not about rupture. 

A few days ago I taught a class on JPII and Ben. XVI and in preparing the class I was reminded of the two strands present at the second Vatican Council that then played out in the application of the council documents and was defined academically in the establishment of two opposing journals: Concilio and Communio. Then as now it is important to remember something Pope Benedict, then Joseph Ratzinger, said, as Catholics, as Christians, when with others we must always look to the LOGOS to know how to dialogue with those around us. I thought of this as I reviewed the checkered history of the application of the council because of how the opposing currents that were present then continue to be with us today but after several decades they have become more polarized with the addition of new issues, the product of the social brokennes of the secular world that we live in. That is the dangerous undercurrent that can undermine and is feared by many watching Rome today. 

At the council, the two groups of theologians present were divided on what reform really meant: those that went on to form the journal Concilio felt that a total rupture with the past, that is with the tradition that goes with revelation are at the core of the faith, to establish something completely knew was the only way to change the church into something that could appeal and communicate with the modern world. The other group, those that established Communio saw reform as an evolution, one that was in continuity with the tradition but recognised new developments in how that tradition was understood in light of new needs. Ratzinger/Benedict pointed out that Leo XIII had spoken of workers right to association while John Paul II had focused more on how workers, the subject dimension of work, was the most important aspect. John Paul was trying to return to a more complete and integrated understanding of the person that had been lost since the time of Leo XIII. This was in continuity with the teachings of the church but adapted to current needs. What we continue to need today is this development of doctrine of which John Henry Newman spoke about: one that in the light of revelation and with the tradition addresses each new generation’s concerns, problems, joys, and life plans in such a way to lead them into God’s salvation plan for humanity.  That is what is at stake, the salvation of souls, our participation in God’s redeeming plan. 

We dialogue to understand each other better and in so doing see what needs healing. In our present times, as both John Paul II and Benedict XVI understood there is a great need for healing in today’s society because we have lost sight of what it means to be a person and what our final end is. The brokenness that the last three pope’s have seen in society is a product of this, the person is so much more and longs for so much more than the present world can offer or claims to offer because the person is much more than this material world. God’s mercy is given because He recognises this brokenness and how it can prevent us from reaching out ultimate end: union with HIM creator of all. It is not compassion or mercy to let people think that in their brokenness they are safe to continue living. It is with compassion that helping them as best possible to leave behind their brokenness that we show true mercy, the mercy that God has shown us. This is the path to entering into God’s salvation plan