Saturday, October 20, 2012

We must work to bring the flock back (Opinion)

Vatican II Opened the Church...and the people left!
ON Thursday 11th. last, Catholic Bishops in Rome visiting from around the world celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. 
 
This was a meeting of all the Catholic bishops, then numbering about 2,000, which ran from 1962-5.

No such general meeting had occurred for 90 years when Pope John XIII announced it.

He was a plump, jovial older man from peasant stock, who had been Patriarch of Venice. He was much loved and a strong contrast with his predecessor the tall, ascetic Pope Pius XII, who came from the Roman nobility.

Vatican II brought radical changes.

Previously all the sacraments had been celebrated in Latin, co-operation with the other Christian Churches was discouraged and we had no parish councils, finance committees or school boards.

The pre-Vatican II Church did not encourage much lay leadership. The Council was called to examine how Christ's message could be presented more effectively. It followed two major themes: a) bringing Church procedures up to date and b) making Church life closer in its essentials to what Christ taught and lived.
This conciliar golden jubilee was celebrated within another smaller meeting or synod of 250 bishops, also from around the world, who had been called by Pope Benedict to discuss the "new evangelisation".

This meeting started last Sunday. Its theme mirrors that of Vatican II, although new developments have changed life further. We now have the internet as well as TV and radio, many more go to university and globalisation is producing something like one culture for the world's educated people and an increasingly interconnected economy.

Immediately following Vatican II many of us were overconfident and overly optimistic. Only now in Australia are we recovering from the losses of priests and religious and the moral and doctrinal confusion.

Today Christians are inclined in the opposite direction, tempted to be too quiet, uneasy about their Catholic identity and occasionally even doubtful whether Christ's message is adequate for today's challenges.

The hope is that this Synod's recommendations will boost confidence and a return to the spiritual sources. As one apocryphal Irish priest is alleged to have said: "The situation is so bad that I have started to pray again".

Australia is not Ireland, as the number of Australian Catholics increased by 300,000 between 2005-2011.

But we are under pressure. 

A good number are drifting away. 

We have plenty of work ahead.

* Cardinal George Pell is Archbishop of Sydney and Australia's most senior Catholic clergyman