Asian bishops remain politely
persistent
By THOMAS C. FOX
Vatican City
The story was told here last week of Mahatma Gandhi who returned
from negotiations with Indias British colonial occupiers unsuccessful in
his efforts to win his nations freedom. You have failed, he
was told by a despondent nationalist. We have won, Gandhi replied.
We have engaged them in a discussion of our freedom.
Another story was told of an Asian bishop, all smiles after he
finished addressing the synod, having spoken on the need to inculturate the
faith in his local church. Minutes later at the coffee bar, he beamed to a
fellow bishop: Weve got the ideas; weve got the theologies;
the rest will follow.
The stories are apt illustrations of the intangibles of this
synod. According to experienced synod-watchers here this gathering is different
from others for the frank discussion of issues that is occurring before Pope
John Paul II and his Vatican bureaucracy. Notable, too, is the sense of
patience exhibited by participants who, while saying a great deal, seem
resigned to expecting little immediate change.
How the Synod for Asia, which runs through May 14, is viewed here
depends on ones perspective. If the expectation is that Rome will yield
to widespread Asian episcopal calls for greater autonomy and steps toward
inculturation, disappointment is likely.
If, on the other hand, one takes a more measured view, shared by
many Asian bishops here, that little is likely to change during the current
pontificate, but that time is on Asias side, the assessment turns more
positive. And many agree that the synod has provided both the momentum for
eventual change and an opportunity to place the Asian church on view before the
universal church.
Realists
These Asian bishops are realists, said one Western missionary
priest who has worked closely with them for more than 15 years. Unlike their
African counterparts, the Asian bishops never asked for a synod. Many were
shocked and even angered when Cardinal Jan P. Schotte, secretary general of the
Synod of Bishops, announced it in 1995.
An Indian priest said he was angry at first, then became resigned
to the notion of a synod. He summed up an Asian episcopal outlook toward the
gathering by quoting a bishop who said: Maybe weve got to go to
Rome to show them Christianity is alive in the church.
The synod at least has drawn together for the first time in one
assembly the bishops of the Far and Near East, two vastly different churches,
sharing only the adjective Asian, as one Jesuit
participant said. Several synod participants speculated last week that the
Vatican may have thought that bringing the two groups together might dilute the
more outspoken of the Far East and Southeast Asia. If that has been the Vatican
plan, it seems to have backfired.
The two groups have mingled well and have agreed throughout their
speeches, called interventions, that greater local autonomy is essential for
effective inculturation and the evangelization of the faith. During the first
phase of the synod, each delegate had eight minutes to speak. During this
period 155 bishops addressed the body.
Pope John Paul II was present for all sessions. The pace of the
synod was quick. Bishops who went on beyond their allotted time had microphones
cut off. Some complained that the process, ruled by 53 pages of synod
regulations, was more important than content. It was not the Asian way.
Asian conferences place much emphasis on building relationships,
with documents as a secondary result. Here the emphasis was reversed -- work
was aimed at completing a statement of some kind.
A mid-synod report, intended allegedly to summarize the speeches,
was written several days before they had been completed. This upset some and
caused many to wonder if the gathering had been pre-scripted. There was also
criticism that the report had watered down important ideas.
Generally, however, most Asian bishops took it in stride, at least
publicly, even after the report once again went contrary to the wishes most
often expressed by those attending on how evangelization should take place.
The report represented the view of Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Prefect
of the Congregations for the Evangelization of Peoples, that evangelization
must start with the person of Jesus and his unique role in the salvation of all
peoples. This has been Tomkos basic position for years. The Asian bishops
have said repeatedly that proclamation does not work in Asia, where
Catholics are a tiny minority. They have called for dialogue and witness to
spread the faith.
At an April 29 news conference, several Asian bishops put a
positive face on the report saying further discussion on emphasis
will continue. Bishop Joseph Vianney Fernando of Kandy, India, said that
a number of Asian fathers had already noted that key phrases and ideas,
important to them, had been left out of the report. He said these would
be part of the ongoing discussions.
Longtime synod observers remarked that this synod, while
controlled by its organizers, had a flavor unlike others that have preceded it.
During the Synod for America, said a European journalist stationed
in Rome, the Americans knew what couldnt be said and censored
themselves. They ended up hedging their thoughts. This time the bishops are
speaking their minds. Several synod participants referred to the Asian
bishops as determined -- and polite.
The atmosphere inside the synod by all accounts has been cordial.
Each person who spoke, regardless of subject or quality of remarks, received
applause from the group. This has not happened at earlier synods. The Asian
bishops seemed to try, in their opening remarks, to let the weight of their
experiences convince Vatican officials of the importance of their needs. Two
dozen members of the Roman curia, its top officials, are synod
participants.
For example, most of the Vietnamese bishops, in their addresses,
spoke about the need for inculturation of the faith. They used the example of
ancestor worship. The Catholic church once condemned the practice, common
throughout much of Asia, and it remained a serious obstacle to
evangelization.
Then in 1965, the church accommodated and began to speak of
ancestor worship within the framework of the communion of saints. Vietnamese
and Chinese bishops both said that the emphasis on ancestors shows respect that
is compatible with Christian teaching and can enhance its understanding.
But the weight of history still holds many Vietnamese
back, one Vietnamese bishop told the synod. The message was clear:
Catholic teachings can -- and must -- accommodate to Asian realities.
A new way
The synod theme is evangelization: Jesus Christ the Savior
and His Mission of Love and Service in Asia. It was chosen by Pope John
Paul II. But most Asian bishops said the church is most effective when it
reaches out to the poor and preaches through example. Many spoke of a new
way of being church, meaning living in solidarity with the poor and with
greater lay/clergy collaboration. Many topics were raised by the bishops
including family life, peace and justice work, migration, human rights, the
work of the laity and authentic Asian spirituality. The major themes to emerge,
however, involved the need to establish a more balanced relationship between
the central and local churches; the need for greater cultural sensitivity and
diversity in Catholic religious expression; the need to affirm Christian life
through service and solidarity with the poor; the need to cooperate with the
other religions of Asia in addressing the pressing social and economic crises
of the times.
Much was said about Asian poverty, but the synod papers and
interventions had little analysis of the recent Asian economic collapse. This
upset some, including Raj Komar, an Indian who works with a Catholic
international intellectual movement, Pax Romana. He expressed disappointment
that the bishops had avoided analyzing the forces behind the economic crisis,
which he blamed on the process of globalization and speculation by the rich in
the hot dollar.
He said national governments in Asia had lost control of their
economies and that privatization of Asian economies is creating havoc in that
region of the world.
An early synod document made only a brief reference to the crisis,
linking it with Asian debt. Komar called the analysis totally
inadequate, saying the debt crisis is only a symptom of greater
structural problems in the Asian economies. Recent Western-forced structural
adjustments, he said, have taken great tolls on the poor. He called such forced
measures immoral. Asian bishops acknowledged that further economic analysis is
needed but said they did not yet feel confident to take on the complex
subject.
The heart of the message the bishops delivered in Rome during the
synods first two weeks was primarily ecclesial, not social or economic.
It was summed up by the general secretary of the Vietnamese Bishops Conference,
Nguên Son Låm, bishop of Thanh Hoa, who said in an interview,
The churches of Asia must put on Asian clothes. To do this
properly, the bishops were saying, they need the authority to make decisions on
matters of church life.
The synod interventions revealed diverse Catholic experiences
across the Asian continent. Bishops from South and Southeast Asia, for example,
spoke of what they do or plan to do in contacts with willing Muslims, while
most from the Near East said they can only hope Islamic believers in their
areas will be open to dialogue someday. Eastern rite patriarchs, meanwhile,
having seen Rome extend numerous concessions to the Orthodox churches in
efforts to win unity during the current pontificate, called for similar
concessions, starting with greater autonomy within their own rites.
The Asian bishops arrived in Rome well organized and prepared,
much of this the result of more than a quarter century of active collaboration
under the auspices of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, an
organization of Far East and Southeast Asian bishops (see accompanying
story).
These bishops know each other, having worked together since 1970
when the federation was formed in Manila at the urging of Pope Paul VI. Their
interventions were often supported by theological expressions produced by the
federation during the past 25 years.
Diversity not uniformity
Bishop Orlando B. Quevedo of the Philippines on several occasions
spoke about the federations three basic insights during its history: The
church must be a voice of the poor, dialogue is the path to effective
evangelization and the diverse cultures of Asia must be respected. This idea
was repeatedly referred to as the federations triple
dialogue.
[Catholic] systems of belief are Western and foreign,
he explained. Catholic uniformity must be replaced with Catholic
diversity.
Quevedo also stressed the need to build local basic
ecclesial communities. Calling them a new way of being
church, he described them as similar to the basic communities of Latin
America, except that basic ecclesial communities are initiated by the local
church. He said there are already some 47,000 such communities in the
Philippines.
From the outside, most of the interventions appeared haphazard,
developing numerous and diverse church and social themes. From the inside, it
has been a different story. Operating through their national conferences, many
bishops arranged to speak in an order that allowed the thoughts of one bishop
to build on the thoughts of another, attempting to weave together a tapestry of
Asian experience, spirituality and vision so authentic it has to be taken
seriously .
The Asians all appeared confident. Joseph Kurian, a layman and
judge from southern India, used his synod time to speak about the Asian
traditions of togetherness and communion. He then noted that future
synods could be improved if they were more inclusive, allowing both laity and
clergy into the decision-making process. He concluded, expressing a not
uncommon perception among Asian Catholics, that Asians may have to take
up the responsibility of re-evangelizing the church in the West of
tomorrow.
According to some synod participants, the interventions
demonstrated that the churches of Asia have mature theologies and rich
spiritualities. The bishops said they now seek to gain trust through the
synod.
One synod participant put it this way: What we need from the
Vatican is trust. Structurally speaking, trust is the easiest thing to
implement -- the giver need not do much -- but it is really hard to do on the
human level.
Even before the synod opened, the subject of trust was raised here
with regard to local Asian churches that have had to submit for Vatican
approval liturgical texts and other official documents translated by the local
churches into Asian languages. The problem has been that Vatican personnel do
not understand the Asian languages, certainly not the nuanced language of
prayer and spirituality. Stories abound of embarrassing rejections of
translations put forward by officials of the Asian conferences, who worked
scrupulously with their theologians and biblical scholars to achieve the best
results.
Upon completion of their tasks, they were asked by Rome to submit
translations for approval. Not knowing the Asian languages, Vatican officials
often sent the translated documents to Asian seminarians studying in Rome to
examine and approve -- or disapprove, as it has sometimes turned out. In some
cases, students in Rome turned down translations that were the work of their
former teachers and their own bishops.
Can you image how humiliating that can be? a priest
from Indonesia asked. The priest told the story of Indonesian bishops who
translated a liturgical text from Italian into Indonesian. Rome then asked that
the document be submitted for approval. The Indonesians complied.
Months later, the Indonesian bishops conference was asked by
Vatican officials if they would retranslate the document into Italian so it
could be understood in Rome.
Addressing the synod, Philippine Bishop Francisco Claver,
apostolic vicar of Bontoc-Lagawe, told the bishops it would be a sterile
exercise to try to place blame on anyone for the lack of inculturation of
the faith in Asia. The church must move on and trust the people to find ways of
correctly expressing their faith in their own language and culture, he
said.
He said it made no sense to send translations of liturgical texts
to a bishop, let alone a Vatican official, who does not speak that language or
live in that culture. The best judges of the correctness, even
theological, of translations and texts are the faithful and clergy of the place
where the language is spoken, he said.
Language barriers, however, apparently work on behalf of the local
bishops. They sometimes allow Asian churches more freedom of expression. For
example, according to an Asian liturgist, there are 13 Malaysian Eucharistic
prayers and 10 Indonesian Eucharistic prayers, compared with four in
English.
The new universal catechism, a priest said, has never been
translated into Indonesian by the Indonesian bishops. They have told Rome that
the document is intended for bishops and that they are capable of reading it in
English and French.
Another priest said that the churches of Asia are less polarized
than those in the West because right-wing groups, lacking language skills, have
stayed away.
Trust a main issue
Outside the synod chamber, away from the specifics of the matters
at hand, the issue of trust -- or more accurately, Vatican distrust -- seemed
to grow as the synod progressed. For many it was becoming a central focal point
of discussion. The dogmatic, fast-paced and sometimes heavy-handed ways of the
West can be perceived as highly insensitive when encountering the
relational-based, development ways of the East. One Asian bishop said the West
has its rationality; the East has its wisdom. There is enormous pride among the
Asian bishops that all the great religions began in Asia and that Jesus himself
was an Asian.
The church has grown in Asia, spreading especially among the
tribal or indigenous peoples. It is difficult, a Pakistani told me, for some
Westerners to think of their church as Western. But thats what it is, he
said. Carmelite Bishop Francis Hadisumarta of Manokwari-Sorong, Indonesia,
brought up the issue of trust forcefully in his synod address and following his
talk, according to several synod participants, he was repeatedly congratulated
during breaks for having spoken so honestly. What Hadisumarta told the synod is
that it does not make sense for bishops conferences to translate
liturgical texts into local languages, only to then submit them to the Vatican
for approval from people who do not understand our language.
What we need is trust: trust in God and trust in each
other, he said, adding that Bishops are not branch secretaries
waiting for instructions from headquarters. We are a communion of local
churches.
What made his address even more remarkable is that he spoke on
behalf of the Indonesian bishops conference. Hadisumarta called for
greater participation of all Catholics in church decision-making. He said
liturgical translations and adaptations, the appointment of bishops and
qualifications for priestly ordination are areas in which the decisions of
local bishops should be accepted by the Vatican.
He then told the synod that the Indonesian bishops
conference has been asking the Vatican for 30 years for permission to ordain
married men known for their virtue, holiness and stature within the local
community. Because of a shortage of celibate priests, he said, the majority of
Indonesian Catholics live by the Word, rather than by Word and sacrament.
We are becoming Protestant by default, he said. Cannot
such pastoral concerns be worked out and decided upon by the local episcopal
conference?
He advocated that the Roman curia should become a
clearinghouse for information, support and encouragement rather than a
universal decision-maker.
We envisage a radical decentralization of the Latin
rite, he finally said, calling for the formation of new patriarchates,
say the patriarchate of South Asia, of Southeast Asia and of East
Asia.
Like the autonomous Eastern-rite churches in union with Rome, he
said, the new patriarchates would have their own rites, reflecting their own
cultures, but would be united with the Vatican in faith and
trust.
Similarly, Philippine Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi of Caceres told
his fellow bishops that in Asia they must place a new and different emphasis on
the primacy of the pope in the church.
The universal authority of the pope is an essential part of
our Catholic faith, he said. It is not primarily concerned with
juridical power over local churches and peoples, but is above all a doctrinal
and pastoral ministry of service which enhances those very values of harmony,
peace and love which make possible dialogue and coexistence with Asian
governments and religions.
Melkite Bishop Cyrille Salim Bustros of Baalbek, Lebanon, called
for a reaffirmation and strengthening of the autonomy of the Eastern-rite
Catholic churches. He said the election of bishops by Eastern-rite synods
should not have to be approved by Rome. Bishops appointments
traditionally have been the privilege of the patriarchs; the pope is the
patriarch of the West, which gives him the power to appoint bishops
in the Latin-rite church, but not in the Eastern rites, he said.
The Eastern-rite synods should be allowed to establish dioceses
outside their traditional territories and appoint pastors for their faithful
wherever they live, without needing Vatican approval, he said. And, Bustros
said, the Eastern-rite churches that have married clergy in their traditional
homeland should be allowed to have married clergy in all their dioceses.
Tom Fox is NCR's Publisher.
CNS and UCA news contributed to this story.
National Catholic Reporter, May 8, 1998
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