RELEASING THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT: VATICAN II AS PROCESS Speaker: Anne Codd Summary of text - Strictly embargoed until its delivery at 12.15pm on Monday 8th September 2003. Forty years on, what may Vatican II contribute to the ongoing life and task of the Church? Responses to this question vary. Some say ‘nothing – it was another time, another place. So much has changed both in world and church in the decades since the Council, that we need to start again’. There are others who live in the hope that if we would take the Council documents seriously, even now, they would provide a blueprint for the way forward. I firmly believe that neither position does justice to what Vatican II represents in the history of Roman Catholicism in particular, in the Christianity Churches in general and in our global context itself. To talk exclusively of ‘implementing’ Vatican II is, I would argue, to miss a key point. Looking closely at the Council as it happened reveals it as a milestone in history. I will make three observations here. One of the great Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, Karl Rahner, claims that it was through the unfolding processes of the Council that the ‘world church’ was born. It was there that the so-called missionary churches were acknowledged as no longer ‘export products’ from a eurocentric base, but as ‘young churches’ who had important perspectives to offer from cultural bases which deserved respect and were to be listened to as equals. We live in that world church – here and now, in a new multiracial, multicultural Ireland. Have we learned to embrace and celebrate the enrichment of this diversity? Secondly, in the course of the Council major transformations took place in the (Roman) Church’s understanding of the Church itself and its purpose in the world, of how the Church ought to express itself in its worship, of how the divine revelation actually comes about, of the interrelatedness of the Christian churches, and of the call to respect other faith traditions. These radical developments came about through the cut and thrust of discussion, argument, disagreement, strategic interventions, politics, and the action of the Holy Spirit! It has been said that the Council marked a call to move from domination to dialogue. It is in this sense that Vatican II may be said to be primarily a method to be replicated, rather than a package to be implemented. There is a multiplicity of voices in our society and in our church today – voices from within and from the margins, from the young, the excluded, the alienated. They need to be heard so that the power of the Spirit can be truly released. Finally, the principles embodied in the radical shifts that took place at the Council are for the Church in our time a wonderful resource, taken alongside Scripture and tradition, when testing the outcomes of our own dialogues. Ends Further information: NCPI Office (01) 836 7970 Fr John Littleton (086) 272 4964 |