Collegiality vs. centralization dominates
synod
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Reform in the Catholic church, viewed after the fact, often seems
revolutionary. The switch from Latin to the vernacular languages in the Mass,
for example, is today regarded as a thunderclap from the Second Vatican Council
(1962-65).
The reality, however, is that liturgical experts barnstormed the
United States and Europe for decades before the council, preaching the need to
use the languages of the people in the liturgy. In many parts of the world
experiments were well underway. The shift, in other words, did not come out of
the blue.
Is it possible futurologists might spot similar energy building
behind a prospective reform today?
To judge from the first weeks action at the Synod of
Bishops, one theme suggests itself: collegiality, or the balance of power among
the pope, the Roman curia, the episcopal conferences and individual bishops. As
Bishop Patrick Dunn of New Zealand put it Oct. 3, collegiality is the
great challenge for the church in our time.
The current synod, the 20th since the institution was created by
Vatican II, has as its theme the role of the bishop. It runs from Sept. 30 to
Oct. 27.
Collegiality was also a dominant theme at last Mays
consistory, a gathering of the worlds cardinals, and taken in tandem with
the synod, the focus suggests a stirring for reform.
Of the first 80 interventions (the formal name for a speech), 21
addressed collegiality. Two came from the United States.
On Oct. 3, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston and Houston,
president of the U.S. bishops conference, argued in favor of greater
subsidiarity, or local decision-making.
Fiorenza said the full body of U.S. bishops had discussed the
synods working document in small groups at a June meeting, and
there was general agreement
that this synod should discuss
appropriate means for recognizing that particular churches or regional churches
can make specific decisions that relate to local issues.
He said bishops can have authority to resolve questions
which do not impinge on doctrinal issues, which would be an
expression of communion exercised in a new form of participation and
collegiality.
Though Fiorenza did not make reference to specific cases, some
American bishops have long complained about centralizing trends that seem to
take local or regional matters out of their hands. Examples include Roman moves
to take control of how liturgical texts are translated into English and to
reject Archbishop Rembert Weaklands plans for remodeling the Milwaukee
cathedral.
Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore likewise argued for more
local control, calling bishops conferences indispensable as
servants of communion between the bishops of the particular churches and the
universal church.
These conferences have seen their wings clipped under John Paul
II. Some Vatican officials fear that large and well-financed episcopal
conferences can be a counterweight to Roman authority. Others believe that
conferences abridge the authority of individual bishops, subjecting them to the
diktat of consensus, with the results sometimes shaped more by lay
experts than bishops.
Not a super-church
Keeler, however, pointed to several projects of the U.S.
conference that would have been difficult or impossible for individual bishops,
including development of catechetical materials, interreligious and ecumenical
dialogue, and documents on social justice and peace.
Other appeals for collegiality were even stronger.
The church of Rome is not a super-church, and the local
churches are not vicariates of Rome, said Nerses Bedros Xix Tarmouni,
Armenian patriarch of Lebanon. An excessive centralization by Rome could
suffocate the riches of the particular churches.
Bishop Norbert Brunner of Switzerland was equally pointed Oct.
3.
Insisting that measures taken at Vatican II to promote
collegiality still have not found their objective, Brunner said,
Once again we ask, with serious preoccupation, what value do the pastoral
needs of the local churches have for the Roman curia?
At the universal level of the church, only what is necessary
for the unity of the church should be resolved centrally, Brunner
said.
The offices of the Holy See should be an expression of
collegial unity, and not a universal decision-maker, said Bishop Joachim
Phayao Manisap of Thailand.
The synod must heed the popes call to rethink the
Petrine ministry, so that the co-responsibility of bishops in governing the
universal church increasingly becomes a deep sign of communion, said
Colombian Bishop Rubén Salazar Gómez.
Salazar Gómez extended this idea to relations between
bishops and laity.
The bishop must
promote structures for communion and
participation, in order to listen to the Spirit who lives in his people,
he said.
Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, head of the Catholic church in northern
Russia, wanted to beef up the role of the Synod of Bishops, suggesting that it
learn from the experience of the synods of the Eastern churches, which
take concrete decisions.
Kondrusiewicz favored greater collaboration and trust
between the local churches and the Roman curia, along with greater power
for bishops conferences.
Others who spoke in favor of greater collegiality in some form
include Bishop Amédée Grab of Switzerland, president of the
Council of European Episcopal Conferences; Archbishop José Mario Ruiz
Navas of Ecuador; Bishop Vincent Logan of Scotland; Bishop Jorge Enrique
Jiménez Carvajal of Colombia, president of the Latin American Episcopal
Conferences (CELAM); Archbishop Luis Morales Reyes, president of the Mexican
bishops conference; Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski of Poland; Bishop Louis
Pelâtre, apostolic vicar in Istanbul, Turkey; Bishop Gerhard Goebel of
Norway; Bishop Leopold Peiris of Sri Lanka; Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Great
Britain; Bishop John Lee Hiong Fun-Yit Yaw of Malaysia; Bishop Rodolfo
Valenzuela Núñez of Guatemala; and Fr. David Fleming, superior
general of the Marianists.
Defiantly conservative
Not everyone, however, agreed that collegiality is a four-alarm
concern.
Collegiality is by now a very pacific theme, agreed upon by
all, also in practice, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of
the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, told NCR outside the synod
hall. It can be emphasized, it can be reformulated, but in its essence
collegiality is already in vigor in the church.
Despite the reformist thrust of the collegiality discussion, the
lone round of applause so far has been captured by Cardinal Joachim Meisner of
Cologne, who struck a defiantly conservative note.
Meisner said bishops have helped trigger an
auto-secularization of the church. Too many do not recognize the
gravity of the situation, he said, and treat differences in the church merely
as healthy tensions.
A bishop must face problems, correct error and defend the
truth, Meisner said. Bishops are not only called to feed and care
for the faith, but also to judge it, to discipline it and to impose it
accordingly.
The tough line was echoed by American Cardinal William Baum, who
heads a Vatican tribunal.
Bishops should examine their own consciences. How often,
because of sloth or timidity, have we failed to proclaim the truth about Christ
and the truth about the human condition? he asked.
In this context, Baum expressed gratitude for the recent Vatican
document Dominus Iesus, which insisted on the superiority of Catholicism
over other churches and faith traditions.
Another issue that has stirred discussion is the need for bishops
to live simply, in solidarity with the poor. John Paul raised the question in a
Sept. 30 homily opening the synod, calling for personal and communal
conversion to an effective evangelical poverty.
Bishop Nestor Ngoy Katahwa of the Congo put the point in unusually
dramatic terms Oct. 2.
With our title of princes of the church, we are
led to cultivating the search for human honors and privileges, while the king,
in reference to whom we are princes, finds his glorification on the
cross, Katahwa said.
We are more at ease with the powerful and the rich than with
the poor and the oppressed. And the fact that we maintain sole legislative,
executive and judicial powers is a temptation for us to act like dictators,
more so inasmuch as our mandate has no limitations, Katahwa said.
Not all the discussion has been so high-minded. Two speakers have
addressed a more prosaic plea to the pope to allow bishops to retire earlier
than the age of 75.
Present legislation, it is worth noting, seems to overlook
the fact that the ordinary lifespan in some developing nations is well below
the churchs retirement age, said Bishop Stephen Reichert of Papua
New Guinea.
For the record, life expectancy in Papua New Guinea is 61.
Nor was the discussion so scintillating that it prevented the
occasional prelate from nodding off. One bishop complained about the audible
clues of boredom emanating from Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Germany.
That he sleeps, I can understand, the bishop said.
But he really must stop snoring.
The e-mail address for John L. Allen Jr. is
jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, October 12,
2001
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