Last
week, a storm swept in from the Atlantic bringing high winds and rain to the
northern part of the
UK
. We are, after all, approaching
Winter in the northern hemisphere, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
Yet this one was different.
For the first time in the
UK
we had a storm that had a name,
Abigail. Over many years we have got use to hurricanes in the Western
hemisphere, as well at typhoons in the Pacific basin, having names. The National
Hurricane Centre (NHC) in the
US
lists each year the names for
expected storms, alternatively choosing male and female names. Now the Met
Offices in
London
and
Dublin
have adopted the same pattern of
identifying storms; hence the arrival of Abigail. Gertrude gets her place later
in the list.
“We
are not living an era of change but a change of era.”
Changing
the way we describe a weather system is a small matter, change within the Church
is quite another ball game. These words of Francis are well worth considering.
In the years since the close
of the second council of the
Vatican
we have passed through three quite
clearly distinct periods. First, we experienced the amazing shock of those three
years of the Council, called by John XXIII, followed by the papacy of Paul VI.
The spirit of change was in the air, expectancy and hope abounded. The
consequent fall out from the encyclical of 1968 is of course, still with us.
During the 70s we also lost numerous priests and religious for a multitude of
reasons. You might say that we treated them with a lack of care and charity.
There lies the root of a crisis we now face, with an advancing age profile of
those who stayed and very few entering seminary to replace them in the coming
years.
By
the time John Paul and Benedict occupied the See of Rome, the energy of the
Council was in decline. During those decades, there was a concerted attempt to
apply the brakes, to look back and seek the holy comfort zone of history as a
place for refuge.
That was never going to work
and our problems as a people, Christians bearing the Lord’s name, continued to
grow. The arrival in Rome of Jorge Bergolio from
Argentina
, the first pope to take the name
of Francis, was a sea change (if you will pardon the pun) of the first order.
“Before
the problems of the church it is not useful to search for solutions in
conservatism or fundamentalism, in the restoration of obsolete conduct and forms
that no longer have the capacity of being significant culturally,” he said
at one point during his remarks.
“Christian
doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts,
interrogatives — but is alive, knows being unsettled, enlivened,” said the
pope. “It has a face that is not rigid, it has a body that moves and grows, it
has a soft flesh: it is called Jesus Christ.”
Those
remarks made recently by Francis in
Florence
, neatly
sum up his mission, to walk forward with us, a pilgrim in a
pilgrim
Church
.
There
are many issues that we face but not all have immediate solutions. We have to be
persistent yet patient. In the exercise of patience, we must take care not to
create groups who won’t listen to each other. For unless we talk and listen
there will be no development.
So
in the end there has to be openness. We can name storms for easy reference in
the weather forecast but let’s be very careful when it comes to labels within
the Church. Divergence of opinion has been a fact of the humanity of the Church
through the ages and has so often led to closure in our discussions and
consequently lost opportunities. Rather like storms, we have this tendency to
name groups before we feel able to discuss their position.
In
our cautiousness don’t let us forget the critical times which it is our lot to
occupy. For it is now that we need informed conversations. How we handle the
post-synod exchange will be a measure of our spirit.
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