Appointment of Experts to the General Synod of
Bishops XIII
From Missionary Catholic Ireland: One!
(An edited version of this was recently published by The Scottish Catholic Observer.)
For the last quarter of the 19th Century and most of
the 20th, the missionary activity of the Catholic Church — the “Old
Evangelisation”, as it were — was inextricably linked to Catholic Ireland; and
for much of the latter century this included the diaspora settled in the three
countries of Great Britain. Indeed, during that century, the alma mater of your
humble but esteemed scrivener here, Our Lady’s High School, Motherwell,
produced more priests than any other school in Great Britain, and perhaps even
Ireland itself. One ended up in the Sacred College of Cardinals, but most went
on the missions.
It was, then, somewhat of a surprise that when
Archbishop Nikola Eterović, the Croatian Secretary General of the Synod of
Bishops, announced the names of the 45 Adiutores
Secretarii Specialis (or Experts) approved by Pope Benedict to assist the
Fathers of General Synod XIII on “The New Evangelisation for the Transmission
of the Christian Faith”, only one was an Irishman: Rev Professor Dr Éamonn
Conway.
Fr Conway, a priest of the Archdiocese of Tuam, is
Head of Theology and Religious Studies at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Formerly President of the European Society for Catholic Theology, he is
currently President of the International Network for Societies of Catholic
Theology, which has the delightful acronym INSeCT.
Only two experts have been recruited from Great
Britain; both of them are lay, and it may surprise some that 50% of them is a
woman. This is Dr. Caroline Farey, a Professor at the Maryvale Institute,
Birmingham, where she directs the BA programme in Applied Theology for
Catechesis. She also lectures in Philosophy at St Mary’s College, Oscott, Seminary
of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, where she teaches Metaphysics, Epistemology,
and on St Thomas Aquinas.
The other British expert has also been tapped from
the Maryvale Institute, its Deputy Director, Professor Petroc Willey.
Encouraged by Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna (who is likely to enter the next
conclave as papabile despite a recent
little local difficulty) in 2008 Dr Willey co-authored (with Professor Barbara
Morgan and Fr. Pierre de Cointet) “Catechism of the Catholic Church and the
Craft of Catechesis”.
The Maryville Institute is entirely independent of
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Doubtless most of that
hierarchy will be amazed that none of their own experts have been recruited by
the Holy Father and Archbishop Eterović. But will they be able to read the
runes?
Of course, although Scotland provides no Experts
specifically for the General Synod, we do have several very gifted priests
working in the Vatican who may be called upon to contribute their various gifts
in different ways during the three weeks of the Synod (October 7-28). Principal
among these is Monsignor Leo Cushley, and he can expect to be particularly
busy. As Head, caposezione — I know,
it sounds a bit Mafia-ish — of the English Language Section of the Secretariat
of State he is the Holy Father’s English Language Interpreter. And when the
Pope has no prior call on his services, he is also the Cardinal Secretary of
State’s, Cardinal Bertone’s, interpreter. And there are going to be an awful
lot of English speaking prelates (and others) meeting with both in coming
weeks. (Not to mention the fact that his other many duties and responsibilities
won’t go away for the month of October.)
Mgr Gerard McKay, a judge of the Roman Rota, has for
some considerable time now been a consultor to the Vox Clara Committee which
produced the new English translation of the Roman Missal. This, of course,
underpins the New Evangelisation in the Anglophone Catholic Church. And as an
official of the Doctrine Section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Mgr Patrick Burke may have much to ponder in coming weeks.
As to the remaining 42 experts appointed to the
Synod, 18 have been recruited from within Italy, although four of these are
non-Italians (two Spanish, one Serbian and one Nigerian), 6 from the rest of
Europe, 6 from North America (five from the USA and one from Canada), 3 from
Latin America, 6 from Africa and 3 from Asia.
Ten of the 45 Experts are female, seven religious
and three laywomen. Unsurprisingly, neither of the two American nuns is
associated with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the USA Green
Party at prayer.
Of the 35 male Experts, one of the Italian
appointees ensures that for three weeks in October there will be Four Popes of
Rome. To add to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, the real Pope, as regular
readers will know, there is the Red Pope, currently His Eminence Fernando
Filoni, Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples
(Propaganda Fide as was before a
certain Paul Joseph Goebbels got propaganda a bad name) and the Black Pope, Fr Adolfo
Nicolás, Superior General (though usually called the Father General) of the
Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).
Joining this holy trinity (as opposed to THE Holy
Trinity) will be Professor Rodolfo Pope, Professor of Art History and
Aesthetics at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome.
Another of the male Experts is a priest to whom Holy
Family Parish, Mossend, can lay part claim. Fr Marko Ivan Rupnik is a
Slovenian, a Jesuit, an expert in missiology, a theologian and an artist. More
specifically, he is a theologian artist in the great mosaic tradition of
Eastern iconography. In September 1991 he was appointed Director of the newly
established Centro Aletti, Rome, by its founder, Fr Clarence Gallagher SJ, the
Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute Rome, another alumnus of Our Lady’s
High School and, to quote himself “a wee guy from the Clydesdale Road”.
Our surprise at the dearth of experts from the Irish
Church and its diaspora — to Fr Conway can be probably be added the entire
North American contingent (a Butler, a Driscoll, a Martin, a Miller, a Peters
and a Goulding) and possibly the Englishwoman — is perhaps explained by the
first paragraph of the Introduction to an INSeCT colloquium held at De Paul
University, Chicago, June 14-16, 2011. This read:
“The Rapidly Changing Global Context: In the past
fifty years the world population of Catholics has doubled. At the same time,
the centre of gravity in the Catholic world has shifted from Western Europe to
the Southern Hemisphere. The largest concentrations of Catholics live today in
Brazil, the Philippines, and Mexico. Even more remarkably, the Vatican Yearbook
reports that the Catholic population of Africa has increased by 33% in the past
decade alone. By the year 2050, it is expected that fully 70% of Catholics will
reside in the global south.”
That is why we have to re-evangelise the global
north.
PS: I would advise readers who appreciate religious
art to look up the Capella Redemptoris Mater
on the internet and take the stunning visual tour. This is the larger of the
Pope’s private chapels. If I remember correctly, it was when Pope John Paul II was celebrating the 40th
anniversary of his episcopal ordination that the Sacred College of Cardinals made a
presentation to him of a substantial sum of money which he chose to use for the
redecoration and rededication of this chapel wherein the Lenten Retreat of the
Papal Household is held and the Advent sermons of the Preacher to the Papal
Household, currently Father Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap, are delivered.
Fr Marko Rupnik was chosen for the task and the late
Cardinal Tomáš Špidlík SJ, whom Fr Clarence also recruited to the staff of the
Centro Aletti, advised on the theological theme.
