As 2014 came to an end, three significant Vatican documents
captured Church and world attention:
1) The Relatio Synodi for the upcoming Synod of
Bishops which is dedicated to “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the
Context of Evangelization”;
2) The Final
Report on the Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious in the
United States;
3) Pope
Francis’ Christmas Address to the Curia.
A Report
An October, 2014, meeting of a select number of
bishops and laity discussed issues surrounding family problems in today’s world
in the light of the Church’s mission to reflect Gospel values.
This extraordinary synod produced a document known as a relatio synodi, a summary of the
issues and theology proposed and
debated by the participants. In his closing remarks Pope Francis described the
meeting as a journey with moments of enthusiasm and ardor, moments of fatigue,
moments of consolation and grace, moments of desolation, tension and
temptation.
The summary or outline (aka lineamenta) will be discussed by Bishops worldwide in preparation
for an October, 2015, synod, which is expected to draw conclusions and
encourage a plan of action.
Prior to the meeting the bishops are asked to
consult with Catholics at all levels to
surface observations, insights and recommendations about how to respond to family
life problems around the globe.
The Vatican (read: Pope Francis) encourages
responses that are compassionate and pastoral. The document recognizes that
there are no easy answers to the multiplicity of problems threatening family
life: violence against women, sexual exploitation of children, divorce and
broken families, hard economic times, rising numbers of “street-children,” pornography, etc. The
Church’s response must be merciful, truthful, and consistent with the will of Christ.
Bishops will be provided with more than 40 questions to pass on to their people
in this worldwide consultation in preparation for the three-week synod in
October of 2015.
Basing our expectations on the relatio, we can conclude that the results of the synod will not
overturn the constant teaching of the Church that marriage is between a man and a woman,
nor will there be a change regarding the indissolubility of marriage.
But it is quite possible that a great deal more
attention will be given on the diocesan and parochial levels to people in
hurting marriage, to the divorced, to the divorced-and-remarried, to
accompanying newly married couples in the first years of their conjugal life,
to simplification of the Church’s process for declaration of marriage nullity, to welcoming people with homosexual orientation, etc.
The Review of the Sisters
In December of 2008 Cardinal Franc Rodé, head of the
Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of
Apostolic Life, announced an “apostolic visitation” (a Vatican investigation)
of religious sisters in the United States. Religious congregations of women
were caught by surprise, even though “visitations” of one or more religious
orders are not uncommon. That this visitation was directed to all the religious
sisters in the US raised red flags and resentment.
Pressed for an explanation, Rodé admitted that he
had decided to act because of complaints his office had received, charging some
of the religious orders with having a secularist mentality, “perhaps even a ‘feminist’
spirit.” Rodé intimated that someone on a high level in the US Church had been
critical of sisters and their attitudes.
An American sister, Mother Mary Claire Millea, was
appointed to conduct the visitation, part of which would be done by mail and
part by personal, on-site meetings with certain religious orders. Over a period
of two years, at an estimated cost of one million dollars, the data was
collected and preparations for a report were begun.
The final review is dated December 12, 2014. Cardinal
Rodé is no longer head of the congregation on religious, His Holiness Benedict
XVI is no longer pope. While couched in Church language and Vaticanese, the
conclusion does not address with any specificity the charges which prompted the
visitation and is more hortatory in tone than directive.
The report is probably more telling in what it does
not say than in what it does. The sisters may well suspect that something of
the “Francis effect” is present in the final analysis of the institutions of
women religious in the United States. Some Catholics think the investigation
and its report to be “much ado about nothing.”
Although there may have been a collective sigh of
relief from the sisters when the report was first generated, the conflict
between the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Vatican’s
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is not resolved.
An Address
On December
22, 2014, Pope Francis held an annual pre-Christmas meeting with the Roman
Curia and its staff. (The Curia is the collection of departments that are
formed to help the pope lead the Church; it is the Church’s main bureaucracy.)
The Holy Father offered his Christmas and New Year
greetings, thanked them for their service, and read to them an examination of
conscience to encourage their improvement!
His address listed 15 weaknesses, temptations, or “diseases”
which Curia members must strive to overcome and avoid.
He encouraged them to be self-critical and to avoid the
temptation to think of themselves as beyond updating; he also said that the disease
of thinking oneself to be indispensable
stems from a pathology of power and narcissism.
He urged them to avoid “Marthaism” (excessive busy-ness)
and to spend quality time with family and to enjoy the holidays.
He cautioned them not to become hard-hearted but to
recall the feelings and mindset of Christ.
He suggested that they be cooperative and to work as
a team. He warned them about “spiritual Alzheimer’s” which forgets the history
of salvation. He listed other “diseases” which need attention: the disease of rivalry
and vainglory (as in excessive concern about appearance and robes and honors); the disease of schizophrenia (as in
hypocrisy and losing touch with reality); the disease of gossip and grumbling;
the disease of courting superiors in the interest of advancing careers.
He warned about indifference, about wearing what he
called “a funeral face,” about accumulating more things than needed, about
forming cliques, and about turning service or ministry into worldly power.
Pope Francis ended the examination of conscience by
encouraging healing, noting that “these diseases and such temptations are of
course a danger to every Christian and every curia, community, congregation,
parish, and church movement.”
Most observers of Papa Francesco’s papacy agree that
he has taken seriously the call from brother bishops to effect a reform of the
Curia. Dissatisfaction with the Curia was obvious at the Second Vatican Council,
but the power of the Curia waylaid most proposals for reform.
Fifty years later the conclave of cardinals who elected Cardinal Jorge
Bergoglio discussed again the need for curial reform. In fact one may conclude that reform of the Curia was a kind of mandate given to the man the electors selected to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. By establishing
his Group of Nine to study and advise such reform, Pope Francis has shown his willingness
to pursue that reform. The reform of the Vatican Bank is well underway.
It was said by some at Vatican II that the Curia was
impervious to efforts of reform. Even though the bureaucracy exists to assist
the pope in the worldwide governance of the Church, the Curia has established
policies, procedures, and protections to ensure its “supremacy.”
It was said: “Popes die, Councils come to an end,
but the Curia goes on!”
At the very least Pope Francis has demonstrated his
willingness to climb the walls of the citadel and confront the temptations which
undermine the health of this important Church body.
Three documents (a report, a review and an address)
shine light on the unfolding of a new year in the Church and its mission and
ministry. Let one with eyes, see. Let one with ears, hear. Pray for the safety of Pope Francis.
