Bishops after Vatican II
Preparations for this month’s Synod for Bishops offered few hints of just how candid many of the delegates would be in addressing the present system of governance in the Catholic Church.
For the most part, the bishops’ discontent has focused on the Vatican bureaucracy, the Roman curia.
This is nothing new. Vatican II, with its accent on what is known as a collegial style of governance, was meant to decentralise the curia’s control. Post-Vatican II, the pope was to govern in a spirit of consultation and co-responsibility with the world’s bishops. It was for this specific reason that the Synod for Bishops was established under Pope Paul VI in first place.
Yet, the model of collegiality has not come alive. One explanation for this, among others, has been the nature of Pope John Paul’s pontificate. While the Holy Father has concentrated on spreading the Gospel, chiefly through his travels and prodigious writings, he has left the actual running of the Church, including the interpretation of doctrine, largely to the curia.
It is evident that many bishops are frustrated. Among the bones of contention, synodal speakers said, are matters such as the translation of liturgical texts from the Latin into the vernacular, the appointment procedures for new bishops, and, striking at the heart of the matter, the pre-determined nature of the bishops’ synod itself–all of which are prescribed and controlled by the curia.
Many diocesan bishops feel aggrieved at frequently being overruled in their decisions by Rome, even by faceless curial monsignori who have little, if any, understanding of the local conditions.
Crucially, the credibility of diocesan bishops is undermined when they are being perceived as incidental branch managers, and not as local vicars of Christ, with all the authority and responsibilities the term implies.
This was not the first gathering of bishops to call for greater collegiality and a curb of the curia’s extensive authority in the Church. Indications are, however, that this time such calls may be finding their target, regardless of the flawed mechanisms of the synod.
The rapid rise within the curia of Cardinal Walter Kasper–who in an illuminating debate with doctrinal chief Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has firmly backed curial reform–suggests that for Pope John Paul the future and nature of Church governance is still in the air.
However, the synodal bishops’ intended ear was likely not John Paul’s. As this pope’s epoch gradually but inexorably fades away, the bishops were sending his as yet unknown successor a clear signal: the next pontificate will have to occupy itself with greater reform.
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