Is it time for another Vatican Council? Do we actually need a 3rd Vatican Council NOW in order to further integrate the immense scientific and technological changes that have taken place in our world in the past fifty years?
St. Vincents School For The Deaf
Sponsored by the Sisters of Justice of the Johannesburg Archdiocese, interested Catholics of the Johannesburg Archdiocese and beyond gathered in May and again in October 2010 at St. Vincent’s School for the Deaf in Melrose, Johannesburg. About seventy-five people came to consider together the causes for the church’s current malaise, what can be done to re-vitalize the church in the spirit of Vatican II and in that spirit to become a more vibrant People of God relevant in and responsible to our contemporary world.
At the May 8th meeting four scholars presented papers. The panelists, Dr. Judy Coyle, IMH, Dr. Anthony Egan, SJ, Emeritus Prof Douglas Irvine and Ms. Marlene Jardine, painted an inspiring picture of the twenty councils that the church has already called. They spoke of the wider context in which the next ecumenical council in the Catholic Church would find itself, and addressed some of the theological and scientific developments that require our attention as followers of Jesus in the twenty-first century. All of this was presented within the current context of our church: a church discredited on many fronts, especially in regard to the sexual abuse scandals; a church, some of whose members can be characterized as biblical fundamentalists, as superstitious sentimentalists, or as political reactionaries; a church with a remnant trying to engage in the spirit of Vatican II with the world around them and amongst themselves.
Many issues emerged in the presentations as underpinning some of the stagnation and regression prevalent in the Catholic Church now: reform of the Curia, collegiality, subsidiarity, the urgency of ensuring regular celebration of the Eucharist for the assembled community in the face of shortages of vocations and ageing clergy, the rule of enforced celibacy. New theology is needed: of the Catholic Church, of the Christian community as ecumenical, of the person made in the image of God, of Creation and the new Cosmology and on-going development in all sciences, and the need of a new Christology that would articulate the uniqueness of Christ in a pluralistic world.
The second meeting held on October 9th, 2010 aimed at keeping alive the momentum and the hope of the first gathering, with its goal of contributing to the emergence of a new vision for the People of God in Johannesburg, South Africa. Groups grappled with blocks to renewed life in the church: lack of structural reform, lack of an authentic respect for sexuality, seminary training and resultant clericalism, limiting access to Eucharist and sacraments, ignoring the scientific revolution, gender injustice, sexist language and liturgical exclusion. Participants identified fear and their own passivity and collusion in relation to the clergy (“What does Father want?”) as perpetuating inequality in the church. Finally, the meeting agreed on the need of further education on ecology and the church, on science, on mystical traditions, on new understandings of God and of Jesus.
As a result of the feedback, interest groups were formed and activities were planned to give shape to the group’s aspirations: sharing views with the Archbishop of Johannesburg, reaching out to youth, working on organizational and structural change, going out two by two like the disciples, creating a website to facilitate communication and on-going education, deepening our relationship with Jesus, reaching out to lapsed Catholics, setting up an inter-diocesan synod and, among other things, drawing up a Charter for the People of God.
Aluta contnua! The struggle continues.
Jean Evans rsm
South African Province
