Pope
Francis’s attempts to bring the Church
in
tune with the 21st century are revolutionary
(Note: This
article on the on-going Rome Synod on
Challenges facing Family today appeared
in Time of India, Oct.16/14 by Drek O’Brien, a Catholic. James
kottoor)
I don’t discuss
religion or wear it on my sleeve. It’s not part of my usual social interaction
or professional and friendship choices. I’ve been married twice, both times to
Hindus. Having said that, i’m a fairly devout Catholic.
I
practise my religion in my own quiet way — going to Church every Sunday,
praying for a minute in the morning and a minute at night, saying grace before
and after meals, and fasting, as the devout do, on two days in the year: Ash
Wednesday and Good Friday.
My
religion has been unobtrusive and has never interfered in my daily life. Yet, i
must confess three things about the Catholic Church have troubled me. First, it
makes no allowance for the breakdown of a marriage, and for irreconcilable
differences to come up in a couple. This is unrealistic. A divorced person
cannot take communion in Church. Neither can the child of a divorced person or
a live-in couple be baptised. The full blessing of the Church is denied to
them.
Second,
the Church’s view on abortion is too extreme. Finally, the Church’s position on
gay and lesbian people has similarly been unfair, at least to my mind.
If
these issues have troubled me, it is not because i see myself as any sort of a
rebel. Rather they seem to contravene the freedom and liberty that Christ
preached and that his work was all about. The Bible, at least the Bible as i
was taught it by my grandmother years ago, tells us only the Lord can judge
people. People cannot judge people.
For
years i kept my opinions to myself, sharing them with only a few friends and
family members but unwilling to rock the boat within the broader Catholic
community. Now i find courage to do so from none else but the leader of the
Catholic Church, the Pope himself.
In
September, Pope Francis presided over an extraordinary wedding event in the
Vatican. The 20 couples who got married by him included divorcees, live-in
couples and out-of-wedlock parents. For me it was a very emotional and moving
message from the Pope.
The
Pope has summoned an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,
which is currently meeting in Rome. This is just the third such convening of
the Synod in 50 years and it is discussing the Church’s attitude towards the
modern family. The Vatican has released a preliminary document calling for the
Church to welcome and accept those who have divorced and their children, as
well as gay people and unmarried couples.
What
Pope Francis is attempting is revolutionary. It is also essential, i feel, for
the Church’s renewal and continued relevance to the millions who cherish it,
and cherish an association with it, but cannot get themselves to agree with all
its doctrinal principles. Indeed, other Christian orders have been quicker to
coordinate their faith with modern lives and mores and the Catholic Church is
making up for lost time.
There
is a feeling that the Church is in a moment of dramatic transition, not unknown
in its history but still worth taking note of. Pope Francis himself is from
Argentina, the first Pope from the southern hemisphere and the first
non-European Pope since the middle of the 8th century. In the years to come
efforts of Pope Francis and the current Synod, as and when these reach
fruition, could be considered even more far-reaching than deliberations of the
Second Vatican Council, which began in 1962 and explored the relationship of
the Church with the contemporary world.
It
is useful to remember that the First Vatican Council had been summoned as far
back as 1868 and for a century, the Church had neither approached nor addressed
issues of renewal. Of the many changes Vatican II (as the Second Vatican
Council came to be known) led to, the most important was the legitimisation of
local and regional languages. It came to be belatedly recognised that all
Catholics were no longer Latin speaking and not even European or aspiring to
speak a classical European language.
Rather
they were as diverse as human society — happy to follow their faith, worship as
part of the Catholic Church, and still remain true to the mainstay culture and
traditions of their society and country. In the larger scheme, Vatican II
acknowledged that the days of European missionaries turning up in a distant
land, disembarking from a boat, and preaching an alien, European way of life,
had long ended.
If
the Catholic faith had to survive, it had to make sense to adherents in their
local contexts. In any case, Catho-lic communities such as those in Kerala are
far older than European Catholicism.
I
live in hope that the ongoing Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops will bring the Church into conformity with 21st century society and the
human instinct for individual freedom and choice as much as — or even to a
greater extent than — Vatican II did. Vatican II recognised geographical and
linguistic diversity. Today, the time has come to recognise and validate social
and familial diversity.
That
is why, this Sunday morning, when i go to Church, i will say a special prayer
for the Pope and the Synod. The Lord bless them.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment