Church’s in transition?

by Editor · June 29, 2005

When the cardinals prepared to choose a new pope in April, expectations among many of them were high that the man they would elect would usher in a new era in the Church that would see greater collegiality and less centralisation of the Roman curia.

Pope Benedict XVI seems to be responding positively to these hopes. He has already indicated an aspiration towards improved cooperation between Rome and the bishops of local churches.

Indeed, one may presume that the bishops of Southern Africa in their commendable ad limina address would not have presumed to speak as forthrightly as they did on this matter had they perceived Pope Benedict to be hostile to their vision.

Under the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, the principle of collegiality, a cornerstone of Vatican II, took a backseat. As John Paul reached out to the Church worldwide, in his travels and in his prodigious writings, he left the daily running of the Church to the Roman curia. In this way, the curia appropriated much of the authority of the local bishops and of bishops’ conferences.

Collegiality assumes the shared authority of the bishops and the pope, with the pope at the Church’s head. Often, this did not happen, with substantial decisions being imposed unilaterally by Rome.

Instead of becoming the consultative body envisaged by Vatican II, for example, episcopal synods became stage-managed meetings with very little influence.

The release of the document Liturgiam Authenticam by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments in 2001 emphasised the frustration many bishops felt at a chronic lack of curial consultation. The translation of sacred texts used to be the domain of local bishops? conferences, so that such texts may be interpreted in ways that made sense to the local faithful.

Whatever the merits of Liturgiam Authenticam, it usurped the authority of the local churches, leaving bishops in a position of having to defend and implement a document they were not even consulted on, never mind agreed with.

Happily, under the guidance of Cardinal Francis Arinze, who has since taken over the congregation, bishops are reporting improved consultation.

In October prelates from around the world will gather in Rome for the Synod of Bishops, the first in four years. The manner in which this assembly will be conducted may provide the Church with a useful marker for the direction the Church is taking under Pope Benedict. If the synod generates debates, and its written conclusion reflects this, then collegiality will be on the right track.

It is significant that the Southern African bishops in their address to Pope Benedict also stressed collegiality in the local Church, between bishops and the clergy and laity. Many of our bishops have already made commendable progress in this domain.

It is sensible that clergy and laity should be party to consultation on matters that affect them. Indeed, for much of the Church’s early history, the hierarchical structures of authority were not as rigid as they are now.

In an age when people demand accountability from their leaders in all spheres of life, consultation with the laity, through appropriately constituted representative bodies, is especially important. This might include even matters such as the appointment of bishops or the deployment of clergy, which are at present the sole prerogative of the pope and local bishop respectively.

Indications are that the Church under Pope Benedict may be embracing an enhanced sense of collegiality. Such a process of transition could bring to fruition a central element of the Second Vatican Council’s mission.