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Vol. V, No.
7
March 20 - 26, 2005 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Copyright 2004 Bulatlat bulatlat@gmail.com |
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Now the Church May Rise Above the
Pope
By
Elisa
Marincola
Inter Press Service
Pope John Paul II was a towering figure; but under his long
shadow concern arose whether he could have stood too tall over the
Church itself.
ROME,
Apr 5 (IPS) -
The
dissenting voices on the sidelines seemed to have grown stronger
towards the end of his 26-year reign. The Pope faced growing
criticism over the concentration of the authority of the Catholic
Church in his hands.
Disputes over the authority of the Pope are as old as the Church
itself; and they are likely to rise again with the appointment of a
new Pope. At the heart of this new debate are two models: the first
Vatican Council, and Vatican Council II.
In the late 19th century, Pope Pius IX had promulgated the doctrine
of the primacy of the Pope in what came to be known as Vatican
Council I. That followed the loss of Church authority in temporal
affairs in Italy.
Under this doctrine the Pontiff exercises full and direct authority
over the entire Church. Every papal decision is considered
infallible and immutable, and does not require the prior consent of
the Church.
Almost a century later, Pope John XXIII sought to undo some of this
through a reformist Vatican Council II set up in the early sixties.
Vatican Council II did not aim to present any doctrine as
infallible; it aimed only to offer guidance.
The Council also gave voice to members of the Church at all levels,
from the College of Cardinals to the 'last' of the priests. It asked
for national synods (church assemblies) and for the local faithful
to be involved in taking up issues for the church and in appointing
church officials.
Vatican Council II had come after a widespread reformist movement
within the Church. Open-minded priests had begun to gather
communities of the faithful in what took shape as a Catholic civil
society.
Pope John Paul II quashed this movement when he became Pope in 1978.
Since the beginning of his papacy he concentrated decisions in his
hands. The reforms sought through Vatican Council II were given up
for the return of the old ways of Vatican Council I.
”The figure of Pope (John Paul II) became a media phenomenon, it
almost wiped out the autonomy of every other faithful reality, and
it created the image of a Catholic Church totally identified with
the Pontiff,” Don Enzo Mazzi, leading spirit of the L'Isolotto
community, an influential Catholic group in Florence told IPS.
Hundreds of such groups remained marginalised and silenced for long.
But as the end of the papacy of Pope John Paul II neared, members of
these groups became more insistent in their demands for democracy
within the Church.
They are demanding a voice also for the 'borderline priests' who
have dedicated their lives to working with the 'last ones' - drug
addicts, prostitutes, the homeless, and unwanted immigrants. It is
these priests who say they test the dogmas of the Roman Curia (the
Vatican administration) in the life of struggling people. They want
to build a church that returns to the Gospel and works more to help
the poor.
”The only way is collegiality,” the widely respected priest Don
Andrea Gallo, founder of the Community of St. Benedetto al Porto in
Genova told IPS. ”The Church must consider people as experts for
achieving the real spirit of the Gospels.”
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, former archbishop of Milan who has now
returned to Biblical studies in
Jerusalem
has long sought a role for the local clergy in linking the faithful
to the Roman Curia. The progressive group wants him to succeed John
Paul II, but this is more a symbolic demand than actual likelihood.
Cardinal Martini revealed his ”dream” in 1999 of a Vatican Council
III for a synodal reform of Church governance. The struggle for
'another possible Church' is likely now at meetings to appoint a new
Pope.
Followers of Giuseppe Dossetti, the inspiration behind Vatican
Council II who died in 1996, have renewed reform proposals that had
proved unsuccessful at the 1978 conclaves when Pope John Paul II was
elected.
A recent book 'The Bologna Workshop' set out an agenda for reform of
the Catholic church. Its publishers say the message of the book
should be considered at the conclave to elect a new Pope. The agenda
provides for a new Pope to move from a monarchical to a more
collegiate form of management during the first 100 days of the
papacy.
It asks the Pope to acknowledge the ”legislative capacity of the
synod of bishops” and for the Roman Curia to take on the subordinate
role of ”preparing and implementing the decisions of the synod.” It
also wants the Pope to ”free himself from the fear” of socialism and
the sexual revolution.
But the legacy of Pope John Paul II will not be easy to erase. His
predecessor Paul VI had appointed 26 cardinals in 15 years; Pope
john Paul II appointed 230, and most of them will have a say in
choosing his successor. About 70 percent of all bishops today were
appointed by John Paul II, 17 of them as he lay on his deathbed last
week.
Reposted by
Bulatlat
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© 2004 Bulatlat
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