Progressives vs Conservatives

by Editor · May 23, 2001

This month’s pilgrimage by Pope John Paul to Greece and Syria will stand alongside his Jubilee Year journey to the Holy Land as defining moments in ecumenical and interreligious relations.

In Greece especially, the pope’s conciliatory initiative has unbolted once firmly locked doors. It is a mark of how rapidly the Holy Father has made ecumenical inroads that the big surprise was not his mea culpa for ancient offences (such as the Crusaders sack of Constantinople), but that the Greek Orthodox episcopate seemed to presume that he would not offer such an apology.

In Damascus, John Paul became the first pope ever to enter a mosque. Just as his visit to a Rome synagogue some years ago signalled the germination of a Catholic-Jewish detente, so has his visit to the Umayyad mosque inaugurated a new phase in the Church’s relationship with Islam.

The pope’s ecumenical and interreligious accomplishments are a source of joy for all believers of good will.

However, at the same time as the Holy Father is building bridges with Jews, Muslims and Christians of various hues, some constituencies within the Catholic Church are becoming increasingly polarised. The gulf between those factions loosely classified as “progressives” and “conservatives” is deepening. (Of course, differences in position within the Church is nothing new Peter and Paul did not always see eye to eye.)

Vatican II, in its vision of an aggiornamento, sought to unite Catholics. For a variety of reasons, this has not happened.

Progressive Catholics identify a bureaucratic and autocratic Roman curia as a main culprit for this. Vatican II, the line of argument goes, sought to direct the Church towards a system of collegiality, in which the pope would govern the Church in partnership with the bishops. The curia, representing itself (instead of the bishops) as the papacy’s sole agents, cut that principle short by emasculating the Synod of Bishops and projecting itself as the only arbiter of Church authority. This, critics argue, violates not only the spirit of Vatican II, but runs counter to the Church’s historic model of episcopal jurisdiction.

This week’s special consistory of cardinals will to all appearances address the question of collegiality. The pope, presumably spotting flaws in the present system, hinted in his sermon to the cardinals in February that the business of collegiality would return to the agenda.

Some observers describe this week’s meeting as a potential watershed: it could consolidate curial power; it could lead to a new phase in collegiality; it could even sow the seeds for a Third Vatican Council, one that might give structure to the principles of Vatican II.

The pope has made giant strides in his efforts to reconcile the Catholic Church with fellow Christians and other religions. Will he play his hand in bridging the ideological gap between members of the universal Church?