Editorials
commonweal REVIVING THE COUNCIL'S ATMOSPHERE ARE YOU AMONG the many, Catholics and non-Catholics, inclined in darker moments to fear that this November's extraordinary synod in Rome will usher...
...Well, perhaps "clarion call" is not right...
...It abounds in deeply felt understatement.'' The understatement is not 20 September 1985: 483 so great that one can miss how the English and Welsh bishops differ in their assessment, point by point, from Cardinal Ratzinger...
...The final recommendation of these bishops' statement is the most telling...
...The Tablet editorialized of this signal document: "The bishops of England and Wales were late starters where Vatican II was concerned...
...Not that there is no reason for concern...
...Furthermore, now that an extended version of the interview, supplemented with quotations from other Ratzinger statements, has appeared in Italian, German, and French (the English translation is coming shortly), readers will find that earlier impressions were by no means the result of "sensational" news reports...
...But the bishops are fully cognizant of "profound changes in secular society," and they insist that the church's teachings face obstacles "for reasons quite beyond the changes attributable to the council.'' The answer, they feel, is a greater, not a lesser, "understanding of the church as the pilgrim people of God open to the hope and fears of contemporary society...
...The real work is that "we may all be one...
...for the benefit of the whole church...
...The English and Welsh bishops also note plenty of problems — concerning liturgy, confusion of doctrine, lack of tolerance, a new fundamentalism, decline in vocations to the religious life, apathy toward the church among the young...
...The document is not short on self-criticism...
...As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger would have no small influence on the synod's preparation and agenda...
...It says: "This extraordinary synod must be seen as one step in a process of consultation and dialogue within the church, with special relevance to the next synod on the 'Vocation and Mission of the Laity.' "In other words, the real work is not this synod, and not even the standing of the bishops themselves...
...Cardinal Ratzinger's love for the church — his church — is perfectly evident, and no reader can go away doubting that such an important Vatican official would do everything in his power to preserve this particular vision...
...On ecumenism, on the understanding of the church as the people of God, on collegiality and the application of the principle of subsidiarity to the church's exercise of authority, on the role of bishops both in their dioceses and in episcopal conferences, on pluralism in the church and the validity of diverse theological approaches, on the need for the Holy See's support in safeguarding both diversity and unity in the church, on the concerted effort which must be made "to be open to the changing role of women, which has many implications for the life of the church," on the social and political responsibililties of the church and its members — on all these points the bishops affirm the value, necessity, and essential healthiness of directions in the church's life which Cardinal Ratzinger was wont to view almost entirely in terms of excess and danger...
...A partnership...
...So what is the good news ? For one thing, on the eve of his trip to Africa, John Paul II clearly distanced himself somewhat from Cardinal Ratzinger's views...
...And indeed the summer saw another sign that the "extraordinary atmosphere" so invigorating to the church is still around in full measure...
...Nor does English understatement disguise what the Tablet calls "a note of fraternal anxiety in their pleas for dialogue in the exercise of the teaching office...
...In this respect, the statement's high-water mark may be the remarkable respect it pays the laity...
...commonweal REVIVING THE COUNCIL'S ATMOSPHERE ARE YOU AMONG the many, Catholics and non-Catholics, inclined in darker moments to fear that this November's extraordinary synod in Rome will usher in an ecclesial state of siege, culminating in the decapitation of Vatican II...
...The process should be geared towards allowing the mind of the synod to be fully expressed...
...It is true that the book-length text (read, revised, and approved by Ratzinger) tones down some remarks, particularly about the United States, and softens the use of the term "restoration.'' It is also true that a good many of the cardinal's concerns are ones that most intelligent and sympathetic observers of the post-conciliar years have felt — to some degree...
...The laity have "in the church and in the world," write the bishops of England and Wales, " a partnership with the ordained ministry...
...It is just another reason we hope there will always be an England, and a Wales, too...
...He is free to express his opinion," said the pope of the cardinal — it is difficult to imagine such a phrase coming from the lips of a Roman pontiff prior to the Second Vatican Council — but Vatican II, continued the pope, was not "a negative influence, a negative meaning for the church — no, the contrary...
...As the Tablet in London, which published the text in its August 3 issue, wrote of the document, "It has a very English tone...
...The interview that Cardinal Ratzinger gave a year ago to an Italian journalist in which the cardinal gloomily assessed the state of the post-conciliar church and called for a "restoration" seemed to provide all too clear a key to the synod which the pope later announced...
...The bishops welcome the extraordinary synod but express "concern about the preparation, course, and aftermath...
...In the church as well as in the world...
...We are thinking of the document submitted by the bishops of England and Wales in preparation for the extraordinary synod...
...In the words of Thomas More, "Pluck up...
...It is a clarion call for all their fellow bishops to speak full-throated and confidently in Rome...
...The pope's remark recalled what he had said in announcing the November synod, that he hoped it would revive "the extraordinary atmosphere of ecclesial communion which characterized" the council...
...In the cardinal's account, however, these worries loom out of all proportion and are balanced by nothing but the most pro forma appreciation of post-conciliar gains...
...They are behind the rest of the field no longer, and have put down a mark for others...
Vol. 112 • September 1985 • No. 16
