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EDITOR'S
ROUND-UP
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Heartening developments for the Church... Dear friends, Two heartening developments in the past week were (i) the news that the Vatican is at least considering altering its stance on the use of condoms in fighting HIV/AIDS and (ii) Pope Benedict's comment that he did not expect everyone to automatically agree with his very personal understanding of Jesus in his forthcoming book. These encouraging developments were perhaps offset by the news that others in the Vatican seemed to be getting their knickers in a knot over a liturgical translation issue again. The educated world today is hungry for more life-sustaining spiritual answers. People are sick to death of an institution that is constantly endeavouring to prove that it never makes mistakes and has all the answers. It hungers for spiritual guides who are prepared to accompany us through that difficult journey of discerning the spiritual meaning in our lives, and in confronting the very real moral dilemmas we face along our journey. As the discussions in Catholica constantly testify, there is nothing monolithic in our understandings of who Jesus is and what he means when it comes to practical application of his "Way" into our lives. At different stages of our lives we view Jesus in different ways. Our own life experiences help shape our view of Jesus and the spiritual quest. What is encouraging at the moment is that the outcry that erupted with Cardinal Lopez Trujillo's comments regarding condoms on the BBC Panorama Program, Sex and Holy City, broadcast in October 2003 (November 2003 in Australia) have finally convinced the leadership in the Vatican that they do have a responsibility to dialogue with their lay membership, with the secular world and with science. Only a tiny proportion of the faithful today believe our bishops, cardinals and popes sit up in some ivory tower with a royal telephone to the Almighty — that they alone are the privileged recipients of the whisperings of the Holy Spirit to humanity. God speaks to Creation through all of Creation. The role of our spiritual leaders is to be carefully attentive and listening to what God is saying to the whole of Creation and to articulate what the Holy Spirit is saying through that communication to all men and women and which can be discerned through the slowly unravelling understanding of "the mind of the Creator" that we collectively discern through scientific understanding. They do also have a "conservative" role in reminding us of the traditions and "the learned wisdom" of the ages, and of Revelation — but that conservation role has to be constantly tempered by the fresh knowledge we are constantly gaining through modern scholarship and enquiry which "fills out" the "fullness of Revelation" that was given to us in Jesus Christ. While Jesus might be "the fullness of Revelation" only dimwits and neanderthals would pretend that humankind yet understands the "fullness" of what Jesus actually revealed — even two millennia after his death and resurrection. Our own biblical historian, Ian Elmer, might provide further proof of that in his excellent commentary today which looks at the very different interpretations of leadership — and through that, the meaning of Jesus — that were held by the first leaders of the Christian church... |
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OUR
COMMENTARIES FROM THE PAST WEEK...
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Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world, Brian Coyne Catholica Australia |
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