POPE Benedict XVI’s style of functioning has come in for sharp criticism in the columns of some of our leading newspapers in Mumbai (The Times of India and The Indian Express). In the prevailing world situation at the moment, the task of the Pope, if he is to be true to his mission as Pope, has become extremely difficult. The “hermeneutic (interpretation) of discontinuity (with the pre-Vatican II Church)” in understanding the documents of Vatican II has taken an almost unshakeable grip on a very large and influential section of the Church. Hence, the Pope is sure to get isolated if he attempts to stress the “hermeneutic of reform and continuity with the pre-Vatican II Church”, and to show that the documents of Vatican II have been one-sidedly interpreted by many (sometimes without reading or studying them) to conform to the demands of secular and relativistic trends in the modern world.

In an article in the Osservatore Romamo, 28 January, 2009, Cardinal Franc Rode (Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life) writes: “The ‘hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture’ has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology; while the ‘hermeneutic of reform’ is one of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given us…..”

In the Holy Father’s analysis, he says, “The ‘hermeneutic of discontinuity’ is based upon a false concept of the Church and hence of the Council, as if the former were from man alone and the latter a sort of Constituent Assembly. Whatever in its documents reconfirms the past is said to be the fruit of compromise and may be legitimately forsaken in favour of the ‘spirit of the Council’……Operating at the root of this ‘pseudo-aggiornamento’ was what can best be described as ‘naturalism’. It supposed the radical centering of man on himself, the rejection of the supernatural, and operated in a climate of radical subjectivism. It showed itself in multiple ways: in talk about holiness that is totally divorced from fulfillment of Christ’s law and the concept of grace; in minimizing sin, in acceptance of the world as it is, with no need of conversion; in taking the world as the criterion according to which the Church ought to be reformed; in a notion of apostolate or ministry that consists in being at ease in the world rather than changing it; in rejection of authority, and especially divinely-constituted authority, hence the rejection of the Magisterium and all canonical and disciplinary ordering in the Church.”

The Cardinal further points out that, once naturalism is accepted as the new way, prayer becomes a thing of the past, obedience an early casualty, and social and political agitation become the acme of apostolic action. Thus, the faith is diluted. Everything becomes a problem for discussion. Religious reject traditional prayer and seek esoteric forms of spirituality. As a result, there has been a mass exodus of members of religious congregations, traditional apostolate and ministries have disappeared and vocations have dried up. Besides, many of those responsible for disastrous decisions and actions in the post-conciliar years have left the religious life themselves.

Pope Benedict XVI faces an uphill task in trying to reverse these trends and implement the true ‘spirit of the Council’, which was described at its inauguration by Pope John XXIII when he said that the Council wishes “to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion……..our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us. It is necessary that adherence to all the teachings of the Church in its entirety and preciseness be presented to the faithful in perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through methods of research and through literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another.” These words convey, in essence, the ‘hermeneutic of continuity and reform’. Would good Pope John XXIII himself, like Benedict XVI, also have got isolated were he the Pope today for trying to implement the true ‘spirit of Vatican II’? One is reminded of the situation in the Church in the fourth century, when Arianism (rejection of the divinity of Christ) was rampant in the Church and many saintly bishops and doctors of the Church, like Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen and Cyril of Jerusalem (who stoutly defended the divinity of Christ), were ostracized and even sent into exile. In the end, thanks to these heroic men and their sacrifices, the true faith of the Church triumphed at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople. History seems to be repeating itself in the Church in our own times.
Fr. JOSEPH M. DIAS S.J