http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/20011019.htm

VATICAN LETTER Oct-19-2001 (840 words) Backgrounder. xxxi

Echoes of the past: Synod debates mirror those of Vatican II

By John Thavis Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Of the nearly 250 bishops attending the Synod of
Bishops this fall, only a handful were present at the Second Vatican 
Council
more than 35 years ago.

But on several controversial issues, synod speeches strongly echoed the
council's debate.

At the top of the list was "collegiality," the concept of shared
responsibility and authority among the bishops and the pope. At the 
Sept.
30-Oct. 27 synod, everyone was for it, but -- like those at Vatican II 
--
they had a hard time agreeing on what it should mean in the day-to-day 
life
of a bishop.

On the synod floor, several bishops called for a greater 
decision-making
role for heads of dioceses and bishops' conferences and a 
decentralization
of Roman authority on nondoctrinal questions. Some called for new, 
permanent
agencies in which bishops would work with the pope on matters of church
governance.

They might have been reading a page from the council's debate on the 
issue
in 1963-64, when a number of prelates supported the idea of a periodic
gathering of selected bishops from around the world to help govern the
church with the pope.

Then, as now, the Roman Curia -- the Vatican's administrative agencies 
--
came under fire.

This year's synod heard complaints about decisions being taken out of 
the
bishop's hands, and one bishop wondered whether the Roman Curia was 
really
interested in urgent pastoral problems at the local level. In response, 
one
high Vatican official pleaded: Don't expect the impossible from us.

Back in 1963, bishops also voiced objections about Vatican procedures,
saying they should not stand between the pope and the bishops. Back 
then, an
Asian bishop received thunderous applause when he suggested limiting 
the
power of the Roman Curia and granting bishops "all the faculties for 
the
exercise of their office which belong to them by common law and divine 
law."

One bishop who probably remembers that speech got to his feet in the 
synod
hall Oct. 9 and reminded the bishops of the council's debate. Bishop
Gerard-Joseph Deschamps of Bereina, Papua New Guinea, said Vatican II
reached a real spirit of communion and collegiality between universal 
and
local churches, and he asked if that could be rekindled.

Bishop Deschamps said the synod, established after the council as a
permanent collegial forum, tends to produce re-run discussions. He 
asked at
least that synods be given some decision-making powers, above their 
present
advisory role.

Collegiality was not the only synod issue with roots in the council's
debate.

For example, the synod heard calls for personal holiness and prophetic
witness among bishops, especially in living out poverty. This was a
discussion point at the council, too, where one bishop said the "lack 
of
heroic sanctity among bishops" was due to their failure to practice 
poverty.

The question of how bishops are selected and named was raised at the 
council
and the synod. Eastern bishops at both meetings argued that restricting
episcopal appointments to the pope alone need not be a rule for the 
entire
church.

A key question at this synod was how the church should announce the 
Gospel
in the contemporary world, with particular emphasis on the bishop as
preacher and teacher. The tools of communication have changed since the
council -- many bishops at the synod noted the Internet's potential, 
for
example.

But what hasn't changed a lot over the past 35 years is an underlying
tension over how strongly the church should push its doctrine and moral
teachings in the public forum.

At the synod, for example, some Asian bishops said the church's 
teachings
should be presented to the non-Catholic majority, but not necessarily 
as the
"only correct answer." Others said the bishop should lead the way in
enunciating church teachings authoritatively and courageously, even if
risking ridicule from the larger public.

War and peace loomed large during Vatican II, which was held during the 
time
of the Cuban missile crisis and at the height of the Cold War. A 
similar
climate was felt during the October synod, as the U.S. military 
campaign
began in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks.

Several bishops spoke about the dark times and the need for the church 
to
light a lamp of hope for people living in fear, in poverty or in 
distress.
Those speeches might have been pronounced during Vatican II, when 
bishops
gave unprecedented attention to global suffering and proposed new ways 
for
the church to help alleviate it.

Pope John Paul II attended the Second Vatican Council in the early 
1960s and
afterward participated in more than a dozen synods, first as a bishop 
and
then as pope. Perhaps more than anyone, he's heard it all before when 
it
comes to crucial issues like collegiality and knows it's part of a
discussion that began nearly four decades ago.

But he also recognizes that if these issues keep bubbling up, they must 
be
important. So far, he's given no indication he's tired of the debate.

END



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