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__NEWS__Vatican_________________________
Not for Public Consumption
Their discussions were wide-ranging, and a few clear themes emerged, but the College
of Cardinals offered reporters no opportunities for provocative news stories.
By CWR Staff
Whenever the College of Cardinals gathers in Rome for a consistory, reporters expect the prelates to produce some interesting news. At an ordinary consistory—such as the one on February 21 of this year, when Pope John Paul II conferred red hats on 44 new members of the College—the story line is set in advance; the names of the new cardinals having been announced weeks before the ceremony, the media can simply describe the pageantry of the occasion. But an extraordinary consistory, like the one that took place May 21-24, poses a far greater challenge for journalists.
The theme for the cardinals’ meeting was a broad one: the challenges that face the Catholic Church at the start of the new millennium. The most substantive talks were held behind closed doors. The daily press briefings were cursory at best, and on the final day of the consistory the Vatican press office canceled the briefing without advance notice and without explanation. Reporters were quite certain that something important was happening, but what was it?
Secular journalists, accustomed to seeing the Church in political terms, developed two themes for their stories. First they wrote that the cardinals were sizing each other up, in preparation for the next papal election. Second, they told their readers that the assembled prelates were debating plans for major changes in the Church. The former line of analysis contained a strong element of truth, but the latter was entirely misleading.
As they exchanged views on the needs of the Church, the cardinals were naturally becoming better acquainted with each other, and forming opinions as to which members of their College had the most compelling vision for the future of Catholicism. But the prelates were not debating specific policies. In fact they were not really debating at all. An extraordinary consistory is a sounding board rather than a legislative body. The cardinals had come to Rome to help Pope John Paul plot the future course of the “new evangelization.”
Broad themes
When he asked the cardinals to gather for the extraordinary consistory—the sixth such event of his pontificate, but the first since 1994—the Holy Father said that the meeting would center on the pastoral challenges of the 21st century. He suggested that his apostolic letter on that subject,
Novo Millennio Ineunte, could furnish the background for their discussions.
In April, the Vatican Secretariat of State had sent a document to all cardinals outlining possible topics for discussion; that list included the Church’s response to economic injustice, Catholic teachings on sexual morality, and the use of the media. The role of the papacy was not listed in that document, but several prelates indicated that they would raise that issue.
As the consistory approached, several leading prelates had spoken with various media outlets about their expectations for the consistory. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray told a French radio audience that the emphasis would be on making the administrative bodies of the Church more responsive to the needs of the day. “The structures of the Church are constantly called to reform themselves—including the Roman Curia,” he said. Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, the former prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, spoke to the Italian daily La Repubblica about the “unavoidable necessity” of addressing the relationship between hierarchical structures and collegial governance of the Church.
All members of the College of Cardinals, regardless of age, were invited to participate in the consistory. Only 28 cardinals sent word that they could not attend the meetings because of advanced age and/or ill health. The other 155 cardinals assembled in Rome, and on the morning of May 21, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, the dean of the College of Cardinals, formally opened the proceedings with a short message of welcome.
In his brief remarks to the assembly, Pope John Paul emphasized the importance—for every Christian individual and every ecclesial community—of promoting personal sanctity. He also encouraged the cardinals to be bold in making plans for evangelization.
Cardinal Etchegaray, the chairman of the committee that coordinated the Jubilee celebration, reported that the Jubilee had been fruitful especially in the domain of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue. The French-born cardinal also mentioned what he considered the “most provocative question” to be considered: the need for the Church to become poor in spirit. “Only a poor Church can become a missionary Church,” he said; “and only a missionary Church can make a poor Church necessary.”
Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, who had been secretary to the Jubilee committee, is now the prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization. From that perspective, he remarked upon several positive elements of the celebration: the “great rediscovery of the Sacrament of Confession,” the active involvement of the Eastern European churches; and in general the strength of faith displayed by the thousands of faithful Catholics who made pilgrimages during the year.
The presentations by Cardinals Etchegaray and Sepe were designed to help the cardinals see the Jubilee celebration as the starting point for Church initiatives in the 21st century. Having thus set the background for their discussions, the prelates moved on to their main business. During the next two days, every cardinal had the opportunity to make a short presentation to the assembly, bringing up whatever topics he considered most important. When these presentations were complete, the assembly broke up into smaller groups, arranged by language, for more intensive discussion of the main themes. On Wednesday the entire College of Cardinals met once again to prepare their final conclusions and approve a short public statement.
Ecumenism and collegiality
During the first day’s presentations, the cardinals who spoke addressed a wide variety of themes. Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore spoke on the need to make effective use of the mass media. Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir of Beirut centered his remarks on the particular situation of his people in Lebanon, and the challenges of inter-religious dialogue there. Brazilian Cardinal Eugênio de Araújo Sales spoke of “unity and fidelity with the Pope.” The Portuguese prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, reinforced the Pope’s stress on promoting the drive toward personal sanctity among all believers. Cardinal Francisco Alvarez Martínez of Toledo, Spain, made the observation that at the beginning of the 20th century, the key questions of social justice were the dignity of labor and the rights of workers; today, the Spanish prelate continued, the key questions involve the dignity of marriage and the integrity of the family.
As he briefed reporters after the close of the first sessions, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls observed that “nearly all” the cardinals who had addressed the assembly had picked up the Pope’s theme of personal sanctity. He also saw the issue of globalization as an emerging theme of the discussions. And he summarized the tenor of the meeting by citing the words of Cardinal Jozef Tomko: “We do not need a ‘maintenance’ Church today. We need to mobilize for missionary work.”
By the second day, ecumenism had clearly emerged as a primary theme. Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, said that ecumenism is “the theme of our times.” Two leaders of the Eastern churches—the Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Moussa Daoud, who is now prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches; and Lubomyr Husar, the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church—pointed out that if unity is achieved between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, the Eastern Catholic churches will inevitably play an important role in building the bridges. And Cardinal Avery Dulles, the American Jesuit theologian, conceded that many other denominations see the papacy as a stumbling block to Christian unity. However, he observed, the confusion within many of these same denominations helps to underline the importance of authority in matters of doctrine and discipline.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster, England, suggested that the cause of ecumenism could be served by organizing a “pan-Christian” assembly, uniting all believers at a forum for which the Pope would be a leader “only in love.” That proposal drew criticism from Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, who later told reporters that the British prelate had introduced an “eschatalogical dream” rather than a practical proposal.
Another topic raised frequently during the consistory was episcopal collegiality, and in particular the role of the bishops’ synod. Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Brussels, one of the few prelates who spoke freely with reporters before and after the formal sessions, reported that “many of the cardinals asked for a reform of the synod.” He suggested that the synod of bishops—composed of 250 bishops chosen by their episcopal conferences, representing the entire body of bishops from around the world —should hold scheduled meetings every year. Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston echoed that suggestion. And while he had reservations about annual meetings, Cardinal Schönborn conceded that there was a general agreement that the synod was in need of reform—”which is only normal after 30 years,” he added.
Quiet conclusion
Some news reports conveyed the impression that the cardinals were caught up in a heated dispute. But while there were a few pointed criticisms of the Roman Curia—Brazilian Cardinal Aloísio Lorscheider complained that the Pope is “imprisoned” by a “bureaucracy that seems to be deaf”—most of the prelates who actually participated in the meetings reported that the atmosphere was calm, amicable, and reflective.
There was, to be a sure, a certain degree of lobbying among the cardinals. Cardinal Danneels, for example, was conspicuously active in his efforts to focus attention on the subject of collegial Church governance. The Belgian prelate was one of the few cardinals who sought out reporters before and after the formal sessions. And John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter noticed that Cardinal Daneels had moved from one language group to another, passing out copies of his remarks. “If one didn’t know better,” Allen wrote wryly, “the 67-year-old Danneels would have seemed like a candidate on the stump—and not a bad one.”
But most of the cardinals, insofar as they spoke with reporters, did their best to quash media speculation about divisions within their College. Cardinal Paul Poupard cautioned reporters that media coverage of the consistory had been distorted in part by the tendency of journalists to ask for prelates’ comments on proposals that had been circulated by others. The result, he observed, was to create the impression that the cardinals were engaged in debates, when in fact he said that there was a remarkable degree of agreement among them. In particular he cited “the unanimity of the cardinals around the two poles of the Church, which are the See of Peter and the episcopal conferences.”
Boston’s Cardinal Law went even further in his bid to discourage speculation about the consistory. When asked what he had said when he addressed the consistory, the American prelate politely replied that his remarks had been intended for the ears of the Pope and the other cardinals—not for public consumption.
In his overall appraisal of the consistory, Cardinal Schönborn said that the unity among the cardinals was “stronger and more cordial than ever.” He conceded that the Church faces a crisis, particularly in the Western world, but added: “We must remain full of hope. It is just that hope that was strengthened in me by the assembly of the cardinals, and in my turn I will try to bring that hope to the Church in Austria.”
The final message approved by the cardinals began on a similarly positive note: “At the end of the consistory, we, who are cardinals from all over the world, reconfirm our deep communion of faith and love with the Holy Father, the Successor of Peter.”
The public statement—the first ever issued by an extraordinary consistory—mentioned the themes which had dominated the cardinals’ agenda during the week: ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, globalization and social justice, and the cause of world peace. The prelates offered a particular note of concern for Africa, “where peoples are tried by ethnic conflicts, by continual poverty, and by serious illnesses.” And they added: “In the Land of Jesus, the situation lately has been aggravated and too much blood has been shed.”
The cardinals’ statement did speak of the need for collegial government of the Church, but that issue was set within the broader context of communion among all believers. The cardinals wrote:
Communion, the unity of the disciples for which Christ prayed, is the condition, force, and fruit of the evangelizing mission. In a world that is heavily scarred by conflicts and in a Church which bears the wounds of divisions, we feel strongly the duty of cultivating the spirituality of communion: both within our Christian communities and in pursuing with charity, truth, and confidence the ecumenical dialogue as well as inter-religious openings, following the Holy Father’s example.