Pope Benedict's comments on inter-faith dialogue and collegiality hint at new possibilities for the church, writes Gina Menzies
Writing in this paper yesterday, Paddy Agnew reported of a deal having been done with the conclave cardinals to secure Cardinal Ratzinger's election. The plea from all sections of the church, conservative and liberal, over these last weeks has been for a devolved authority to local churches: some recognition of the collegiality promised by the second Vatican council. The change of tone and emphasis of the new Pope's first address suggest that the Holy Spirit knows something about politics.
To these issues could also be added the issue of women, theological inquiry and social justice.
Since the time of Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum and more recently, John XXIII's Pacem In Terris, the church has been to the forefront in promoting the social agenda of human rights and justice in the world. It was one of John Paul II's most consistent themes, encapsulated in his encyclicals, Solicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social things) and Centisimus Annus (On the Hundredth Anniversary).
There is no reason to believe that Benedict XVI will change direction in relation to this agenda. His 24-year relationship with Pope John Paul II and his own experience of life under oppressive regimes suggest that, in these matters, there will be no turning back. What would be different would be if these very rich documents were propagated to the whole church. Forty years after the council, they remain in storage for most of the community.
Now it is time to promote a similar radical justice within the church. This may be harder for someone who formerly held the position of faith enforcer.
If Pope Benedict is going to open dialogue with other faiths why not also allow a breathing space for theological inquiry, especially in relation to sexual morality?
At least could we have some open debate about church teachings in relation to homosexuality, the use of condoms in Aids programmes, contraception and bioethics? A moral theology based on an antiquated understanding of natural law will not persuade this informed generation of young people.
Pope Benedict has talked of adult faith; adult faith needs to be allowed to ask questions, to contribute its insights from the lived experience of all members. All theology uses some experience in reaching its formulations: the narrow base of experience used in contemporary moral theology in particular is an obstacle to greater understanding in sensitive areas that affect the lives of many.
How can we tell this generation that some of our young people's homosexual friends are intrinsically evil? I know the teaching says that homosexual acts are evil, not those who are homosexuals, but what kind of Christian message of love and tolerance is received by such language?
The same argument can be made about the exclusion of divorced members from Eucharistic nourishment. If those who concealed clerical abusers of children are fit to celebrate the Eucharist how can it be that an innocent spouse in a second relationship is denied bread at the Lord's table?
It is useful to remind the magisterium, the teaching authority of the church, that all good teaching involves listening. A self-appointed teaching authority that refuses to hear other voices only talks to itself and goes unheeded. The theological commission established to consider contraception by Pope Paul VI reached a different conclusion to the final document issued by the church. The reason, given by theologians who recognised the need to change church teaching in this area, came from their listening to Catholic married couples who brought their experiences to the commission's deliberations.
Listening experiences, especially to those outside the main discourse, has changed church teaching many times in its history. Papal visits could take on a new dimension, they could become an exercise in listening rather than lecturing.
The last century was the first time the church recognised democracy, the practice of religious freedom, condemned the death penalty, permitted the rhythm method of contraception, and ceased to blame Jews for the death of Christ.
None of these changes destroyed what is called the deposit of faith. If anything these changes enriched church teaching, not by adapting to the world but by listening to the insights of the human sciences and the experience of its own members.
It is time to rehabilitate theologians marginalised under the last papacy. The writings of Hans Küng, many liberation theologians and our own Sean Fagan, deserve to be re-evaluated in the light of the theological questions asked by an adult faith that Pope Benedict has already said is the aspiration for the whole community.
Condemnations, inquisitorial witch-hunts and silencing are unimpressive responses to those who disagree with you. Whoever is to be appointed as the new prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and a move to make its processes more transparent and just will indicate if change is really possible under Pope Benedict XVI.
The television scenes that went around the world following the death of John Paul II were reminders of the ruled and the rulers. Phalanxes of scarlet princes, rows of purple bishops, splendid in Renaissance robes, left no room for doubt. When women were involved they did a reading or a prayer or distributed communion. Women are still forbidden to read the Gospel, deliver a homily, break the bread or be involved in decision-making roles in the church.
The visual manifestation of such a lop-sided assembly is in stark contrast with the Jesus movement of first century Palestine. One could not help thinking how out of place Jesus would have felt in St Peter's Square in recent days. It begs the question was this the community that Jesus intended?
The retinue of Jesus included women, married and single. They shared his ministry: a woman anointed him before his passion, stayed at the cross and were the first witnesses and messengers of the resurrection. And, in John's Gospel, chapter four, Jesus engages in a deep theological conversation with a Samaritan woman. If Jesus wanted to exclude women from his ministry it would have been easy.
First-century Palestine was not a place where women had equal standing in the community. Instead, Jesus, by his words and actions, made a radical statement about inclusive and collaborative ministry.
The treatment of women in a discipleship of equals could well be the defining issue of Pope Benedict's papacy. Now that the world's bishops have secured a role in decision-making along the collegial format of Vatican II, can we also hope for devolution at other levels of decision making?
All the social teachings written under John Paul II and undoubtedly influenced by Cardinal Ratzinger, advocated subsidiarity, a system of governance that allows decisions to be taken at the lowest level possible by those most affected by such decisions. It is a model that operates in well-functioning families.
A family is neither a dictatorship nor a democracy but a community of persons where everyone who is affected by decisions contributes to that decision-making process.
Such a model for the future direction of the church would not only lead to its reform but may be absolutely necessary for its survival.
Gina Menzies is a theologian and a critic.