| Vatican topics soft on reform
By JOHN L. ALLEN
NCR Staff
Rome
The Vatican has prepared a set of questions for a May 21-24
gathering of the world’s cardinals -- questions that appear to downplay
discussion of power sharing in the church.
Pope John Paul II convoked the “extraordinary
consistory,” the sixth of his reign, shortly after creating a new batch of
cardinals in late February. At the time, the pontiff said the purpose would be
to plot a course for the Catholic church in the third millennium, taking cues
from his document closing the Jubilee year, Novo Millennio Ineunte.
It’s a text that raised eyebrows with its frank invitation to a discussion
of ecclesiastical power.
“Much has been done since the Second Vatican Council for the
reform of the Roman curia, the organization of synods and the functioning of
episcopal conferences,” the pope wrote in paragraph 44. “But there is
certainly much more to be done, in order to realize all the potential of these
instruments of communion, which are especially appropriate today in view of the
need to respond promptly and effectively to the issues which the church must
face in these rapidly changing times.”
John Paul also challenged officials to take a hard look at
“careerism, distrust and jealousy” in the life of the church.
The set of questions prepared by the Vatican’s secretariat of
state, however, appears to envision a more wide-ranging discussion, in which
“collegiality,” a church term for sharing of power, is simply one
theme among many.
The questions were circulated in late April within the Roman curia
and have since been sent to the world’s 183 cardinals.
As reported April 30 by the Rome daily Il Messagero, among
the themes included are the rise of New Age movements, Protestant sects, and
forms of religious practice based on “nature, spirits and magic”;
religious pluralism, and forms of interreligious dialogue that threaten the
church’s teaching on the uniqueness of the salvation won by Christ; the
“disassociation” between the practice of the faithful and the
teaching of the church on sexual morality; globalization; the environment; and
the challenges posed to the church by the mass media.
The document cites John Paul’s invitation to reflect on the
roles of the curia, the synod, and the bishops’ conferences, but under a
more diffuse heading of “relationships between universality and
particularity in ecclesial communion.”
The document also stipulates, however, that cardinals will be free
to raise whatever issues they regard as “most urgent.”
Some cardinals, worried that the scope of questions posed by the
secretariat of state is too broad for approximately 20 hours of discussions
over three days, have suggested abandoning the document and focusing primarily
on the question of collegiality.
The extraordinary consistory will be closed to the press. It
remains unclear whether the cardinals will issue a document at the end of their
discussions. After the consistory, the cardinals will concelebrate the
pope’s Mass for the feast of the Ascension on May 24, then lunch with the
pope.
Given the pope’s age and frailty, many Vatican-watchers see
the consistory as a trial run for a future conclave, in which the cardinals
will elect a successor to John Paul.
The e-mail address for John L. Allen Jr. is
jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, May 11,
2001
|
