Can we continue to disbelieve in his disbelief?

Today's "Day by Day" meditation in Magnificat is extracted from the collection of writings of Madeleine Delbrel published in English under the title We, the ordinary people of the streets.

It has a striking relevance to the themes of Pope Francis' encyclical, Lumen Fidei - perhaps not least in the phrase I have used as the title of this post. At least, on my rapid scan reading of the encyclical this appears to be the case. The text of the meditation in Magnificat is taken from the second half of an essay entitled "The Good News" (p.171 ff in my copy of We, the ordinary people of the streets) and is a contribution to a series of discussions about parish life and evangelisation at a conference. If you can find the full text of the essay to read, it is worthwhile.

For his brothers and sisters around him, the Christian is a man who loves the things of this world as they really are, according to their true value, but he is also a person who prefers the God in whom he believes to all other things. This preference leads him to make certain choices. People see him choosing the invisible God. These choices pose a new question to the world, a question about whether there may not be something greater than the world...

The believer, even if his faith is weak, is never completely alone, never completely without help. The non-believer is one who knows loneliness in its absolute form, and inhuman loneliness. He is deprived of the relationship that most fundamentally belongs to him ....

Once we realise this profound misfortune that besets the non-believer, will be ever more dare to infer from what he says, from what he does, from what he seeks, that the Good News of the Gospel would be useless to him? Can we continue to disbelieve in his disbelief?  Or wouldn't the living God of the Gospel rather burn in us with an unbearable intensity to the extent that we did not cry his name out loud to those living in quiet desperation? If, in hearing us call upon God, they were to turn themselves around, it would be for them the beginning of the one and only good News.

Preaching in the Year of Faith (or "is anyone listening?")

In the last few weeks, I have had two quite contrasting experiences of the homily at Mass. On one occasion I just wondered whether the priest preaching the homily actually believed anyone present was listening; body language in the congregation gave absolutely no confidence that anyone was, and I had long ago exhausted the possibilities of the "Meditations of the Day" in Magnificat, so I certainly wasn't (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa). On another occasion, with a much larger congregation, the attentiveness to the homily was almost tangible; it felt as if you could almost touch it. Clearly, factors of place and circumstance will go some way to explaining why these two experiences were so radically different, but, equally clearly, in one the homily "wasn't working" and in the other it was.

In the context of the Year of Faith, the homily at Mass takes on a particular significance. For most Catholics, it is the "ordinary" way in which they receive an ongoing teaching about the content of the Catholic faith and about how that content is to be lived out in daily life. The Year of Faith asks us, if it isn't working, to look at the homily and ask why it isn't working.

It is some time now since I stopped feeling obliged to listen to homilies that lack substantial content or preparation, or are just a pedestrian re-statement of the Scripture readings; I will read a meditation from Magnificat instead or, if in an unfamiliar Church, reflect on the religious art portrayed in windows or images of the Church. Just looked at from a human point of view, if someone is going to stand up and speak to a congregation of which I am a part, I expect them to have something to say and I expect them to say it in a reasonably organised way. If they haven't got anything to say, be they a priest or not, they should not presume on my attentiveness. The privileging of the priest in this regard is an innate clericalism that I don't share.

The homily is a privileged occasion for the bishop or priest in that it is a most solemn exercise of their office as a teacher of the faith to those entrusted to their pastoral care. The liturgy does, after all, reserve the homily to the ordained ministry, and perhaps particularly to the designated pastor in a particular place. In that sense, the homily is not open to the critique that might be offered to an article in an academic journal, for example, or in a public debate. It is not a question of liking or disliking what one hears. But that does not absolve the priest from the obligation to bring to bear his purely human skills in preparing the homily, and failing to do so only undermines his exercise of his office.

According to n.65 of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, in the revised English translation:

The homily is part of the Liturgy and is highly recommended for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an explanation of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.

I have added italics to indicate that n.65 suggests some five different sources on which the content of a homily might be based (though arguably some of them inter-relate strongly enough to say that they do not really constitute different sources). One of the major practical barriers to substance in homilies is the assumption that "the homily must be about the Readings" and the resulting rather pedestrian re-statement of the reading (though Pope Benedict XVI exemplifies time and again how a homily based on the Scripture Readings can both have substance and be more than just a re-stating of the reading, often doing this by making a connection between the reading and other parts in Scripture).
So, in the Year of Faith, I think it would be quite in order for a parish priest to:

preach week-by-week on the different articles of the Nicene Creed, or on the text of the Sanctus, etc
preach on the life and mission of the saint when celebrating the feast day of a saint
relate the Readings to how they are used in the Catechism (using the Scripture index of the Catechism to enable this)
teach on key Catholic doctrines (eg the office of the Successor St Peter, heaven) when the Liturgical occasion presents itself
make use of a source such as Magnificat for short meditations if preaching on a week day
be willing to look at Pope Benedict's homilies, or his volumes Jesus of Nazareth, for ideas

A final thought:

I wonder, do the clergy really recognise when their congregation are listening and when they are not?

The Year of Faith: Comparing Pastoral Letters

On the whole, I think I preferred reading this on the web than listening to this in the pew.

In the former, I was particularly struck by the kind of summary profession of faith of Archbishop Smith beginning part way through the third paragraph and ending part way through the fourth. And what I couldn't really make out in the latter was the parallel reference to the "spirit" and the "documents" of the Council, the first being un-defined and it then not being clear that it is the latter that are definitive as the expression of the ecclesial experience of the Council. The profession of faith contained in the former, which could be seen as a proposed content for the primary proclamation of the Gospel, also appears more invigorating than the proposal for evangelistion contained at the end of the latter (though this clearly has merit, and is full of echoes for those with experience in the Legion fo Mary).

Archbishop Smith's account of the teaching on the "new people of God" and "co-responsibility" of the laity is also more coherent than Bishop McMahon's reference to

One of the predominant images was that of the ‘People of God’ having an inclusive character based on baptism.

 which appears, in comparison, to be selective and removed from its Biblical and ecclesial context.

And there is also Bishop Egan's Pastoral Letter, here, which is different again in its character, seeming more practical and immediately pastoral in its proposals.

Year of Faith: Official website

I have just added a link alongside to the website for the Year of Faith, hosted by the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation.

There is a lot to explore on the site.

Pope Benedict XVI in Frascati: the value of the Council

Pope Benedict XVI has paid a visit to Frascati, celebrating Mass on there on Sunday. The homily preached on that occasion (no English translation yet available) has attracted comment for reasons of Vatican politics (it expresses confidence in Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, one of Pope Benedict's closest collaborators are time when Cardinal Bertone is seen to be under criticism) and for reason of its coincidence with the general chapter of the Society of St Pius X (its affirmation of the importance of the documents of the Second Vatican Council was seen as a statement of principle in respect of the discussions between the Society and the Holy See which was one of the subjects being discussed at the general chapter).
There is a third interesting point.

Il vostro Vescovo mi ha informato circa l’impegno pastorale che maggiormente gli sta a cuore, che è in sostanza un impegno formativo, rivolto prima di tutto ai formatori: formare i formatori. E’ proprio quello che ha fatto Gesù con i suoi discepoli: li ha istruiti, li ha preparati, li ha formati anche mediante il «tirocinio» missionario, perché fossero in grado di assumere la responsabilità apostolica nella Chiesa. Nella comunità cristiana, questo è sempre il primo servizio che i responsabili offrono: a partire dai genitori, che nella famiglia compiono la missione educativa verso i figli; pensiamo ai parroci, che sono responsabili della formazione nella comunità, a tutti i sacerdoti, nei diversi campi di lavoro: tutti vivono una prioritaria dimensione educativa; e i fedeli laici, oltre al ruolo già ricordato di genitori, sono coinvolti nel servizio formativo con i giovani o gli adulti, come responsabili nell’Azione Apostolica e in altri movimenti ecclesiali, o impegnati in ambienti civili e sociali, sempre con una forte attenzione alla formazione delle persone.

[Your bishop has informed me about the pastoral effort that he has at heart, which in susbtance is an effort for formation, dedicated first of all to those responsible for formation: to form those responsible for formation. This is exactly what Jesus did with his disciples: he taught them, he prepared them, he formed them also through a missionary "apprenticeship", that they might be gradually able to assume the apostolic responsibility in the Church. In the Christian community, this is always the first service that leaders offer: on the part of parents, who in the family have a mission of education towards children, we think of parishes, which are responsible for formation in the community, of all priests, in their different fields of work: all live with a first importance an educative dimension; and the lay faithful, in addition to the role of parents already mentioned, are involved in the service of formation, with young people or with adults, as leaders in Azione Apostolica and in other ecclesial movements, or working in civil and social environments, always with a strong attention to the formation of persons].

It does seem to me that Pope Benedict has a very clear view of the importance of the documents of the Second Vatican Council for the life of the Church in our times, and his statements about this need to be read alongside his suggestions of a "hermeneutic of continuity" with regard to the Council. The acceptance of the teaching of the Council in this sense seems to me vital for a correct understanding of Pope Benedict's intentions with regard to the Year of Faith.

 I Documenti del Concilio contengono una ricchezza enorme per la formazione delle nuove generazioni cristiane, per la formazione della nostra coscienza. Quindi leggetelo, leggete il Catechismo della Chiesa cattolica e così riscoprite la bellezza di essere cristiani, di essere Chiesa di vivere il grande «noi» che Gesù ha formato intorno a sé, per evangelizzare il mondo: il «noi» della Chiesa, mai chiuso, ma sempre aperto e proteso all’annuncio del Vangelo.

[The Documents of the Council contain an enormous richness for the formation of new generations of Christians, for the formation of our consciousness. Therefore, read them, read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and so rediscover the beauty of being Christian, of being Church, of living the great "we" that Jesus has established on himself, to evangelise the world: the "we" of the Church, never closed, but always open and committed to announcing the Gospel.]

But an orientation towards "forming those responsible for formation" suggests an interesting orientation of this perceived importance of the teaching of the Council in the light of the forthcoming Year of Faith.

"Are you willing to offer yourselves to God?"

For the second year in the programme of preparation for the celebration of the centenary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima, the chosen focus is the first apparition of the Virgin to the three young visionaries. The theme is taken from the words of the Virgin to the children: "Are you willing to offer yourselves to God?"

The home page of the official website of the shrine at Fatima introduces this theme. It strikes me that this choice of theme has a resonance with the Year of Faith that will begin in October 2012. Particularly interesting to read in this regard is the (long) interview with the President of the organizing committee of the Theological-Pastoral Symposium held in June, theologian, professor and researcher from the Portuguese Catholic University, Isabel Varanda. The idea that it is Christ who both fully reveals God to man and reveals man to himself, that man is the "way of the Church", as expressed in this interview, is one of the fundamental insights of the Second Vatican Council, an insight to which Pope John Paul II was a key contributor. Some extracts follow, but it is worth reading the whole:

Yes, I believe that Jesus is the foundation. 

Jesus Christ, true God – entirely divine and true man – fully human, is the fullness of revelation: total revelation of God and total revelation of the human being. As John Paul II writes in his first Encyclical Redemptor Hominis, Jesus Christ reveals Man to Man himself. Through Christ, with Christ and in Christ, we enter the depth of the mystery of life and of the ultimate vocation of each one of us, which is to be children in the Son. Isn’t it true that, without this dimension of filiation, the ideal of fraternity has no basis nor does it have support?.....  

The offering of oneself is not quantifiable; it is not measurable; it is not subject to be valued by the concrete effects or results of the offering. It has to do, fundamentally, with each one’s discernment regarding the understanding of oneself as a gift for himself and for others. During the Symposium, we will be able to reflect, with the help of a doctor, of a priest and of an officer of Caritas, specifically in the first panel of the program, on the “possibilities and equivocations” of the offering of oneself. The problem will be retaken by a second panel, but through the prism of education, meant here not as synonymous of instruction, but rather as the “integral development of the person: which challenges the offering of oneself places in education, be it in the family, the school, the Christian community or in the social milieu? ....  

The question ["Are you willing to give yourselves to God?"] runs the risk of being left without an answer at a time when God isn’t appreciated, but, on the contrary, is forgotten and even abandoned. The God of Jesus Christ has been left abandoned; abandoned by the world, abandoned by His closest family, the Christians. The Church of Jesus Christ herself, often and in many ways, seems to have abandoned God when she supposedly spends her energies with the things of God, but forgets God in the process. I would dare say that the Church of Jesus Christ is going through a process of secularization of herself. This secularization of the Church, although it is an extraordinary source of dynamism and incarnation, can lead to the dilution of the identity of the Church of Jesus Christ, by not taking sufficient care of her foundation and by not being sufficiently attentive to the possible atrophy of her heavenly and eschatological dimension. If we leave the perimeter of security and comfort of our usual places of celebration – already with a marginal faith – it is worth to take a look at the outside, at those who stay outside, at those who do not want to come in. Then, wandering around, we are struck by the same shock: God has being left abandoned.  

The time has come for believers to take care of God. If not the believers, who will do it?

This is the context of the urgent invitation to a new evangelization. As you well know, next October there will take place in Rome the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The central theme of its agenda is symptomatic: The new evangelization for the imparting of Christian faith. Also in October, on the 11th, there will take place the official beginning of the Year of Faith. These are two important events for all Christians to tune in. Who knows if these two great ecclesial events won’t be a new wake-up call for our spent and tired faith to listen to the Gospel? Who knows if we aren’t then apt to announce to the young a “faith that makes us live”?  

There come to mind those words of Benedict XVI in his homily during the inauguration of his Pontificate, reminding us of John Paul II: “Be not afraid of Christ! He doesn’t take anything away; He gives everything”. I can’t pass up either the words of John Paul II, in 1979, in the first Encyclical of his Pontificate: “the fundamental task of the Church of all times and, particularly, of our time, is to direct the look of human beings and the conscience and experience of men towards the mystery of Christ, to help everybody to be familiar with the depth of the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Redemptor Hominis, n. 10).

 As in the first year of preparation, the shrine has prepared a "pilgrim itinerary" for those who visit the shrine during the year. It centres on the square (as it is now, but not as it was at the time of the first apparition) built at the site of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. It moves from the nativity scene facing the chapel of the apparitions, by way of the tombs of the visionaries to the chapel of the apparitions itself, suggesting prayers and reflections for each place in the itinerary. The leaflet for the itinerary can be downloaded from the shrine website.

Diversity champions?

Trads beware!

If one sees this from Vatican II - where now?

The easy answer to the question ‘where now’ is ‘nowhere in particular’. The Ordinary Magisterium will continue slowly to rein in the power that the Bishops think that they have.

or perhaps this:

For many years now priests and others have attempted always to prove their Church "street cred" by referring back to the documents of the Council, as if someone is looking over their shoulder at all times and requiring that they do so to prove their loyalty to the "company program". I have never felt so free as a priest now that I no longer use the Council as a wall in the past [,] the immense and beckoning vista beyond which I cannot see.

Can one really blame the proponents of Ireland assembly of religious and laypeople calls for open church, re-evaluation?

"It's about looking to a new church where the voice of the faithful, the voice of the laity, is heard more clearly as the Second Vatican Council wanted to happen," O'Hanlon said.

Asked whether he thought the Vatican was willing to listen to the voices calling for change around the ordination of women and an end to mandatory celibacy, he said "without trying we'll never know."

He said the vision of Second Vatican Council had to be fully realized: "If you have co-responsibility, you have to have some power. You can't ask people to be responsible without power...."

Remember, the context of the Year of Faith called by Pope Benedict XVI is the anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. So, dear Trads, if you wish to abandon the Council as a reference point for the Catholic Church of the present times, please don't try and claim that to do so is in line with the project of Pope Benedict XVI. And don't, either, complain if those of a liberal inclination wish, at the same time, to disregard the Council while speaking in its name. If you want to be a champion of diversity ...

Faith, heart and reason

Two things about today have prompted me to comment on this piece from a parish newsletter. It was published a week or two ago, and one should recognise that it is intended as a comment on the Gospel of that particular Sunday. I reproduce it in its entirety, but will be discreet about its provenance to spare any blushes!.

Six years I studied in Rome. Magnificent, but demanding. Academics, books, papers, theologies, philosophies, journals, doctrines – it goes on. Heads crammed with knowledge. Being brainy. All good stuff, but isn’t Christianity more?

Maybe years of working with people with disabilities, mental health issues, and in prison allows for a bigger understanding about what genuine Christianity is.

It seems that to be a Christian, you have to have met someone who is already -"Christian". It is based on experience. To experience Christianity for ourselves. Christ is passed on "personally". To become a genuine follower of Christ is to have met someone who shines with a Christ-like freedom, a joy, an inner energy, a vitality – and let them rub off on you. Let it be contagious. You catch on to it, and soon yours will rub off on to someone else.

This stuff cannot be "theologised", intellectualised or made into sermons. It is simply a way of living. Way bigger and beyond Rome’s academics. It’s personal, always "relational", and never something private.

Once we see people like this who "get it", who have "caught on" to this bigger Christianity, once we draw close to them and let their ways rub off on us, why would we settle for anything less? It’s just so good, so right, so true.

Christ challenges his first disciples to come and see - for themselves. Come and experience so that his ways may catch-on in them. And their ways on to others, and on to others – and on to others...right down the centuries, and finally to us.

Do we know anyone with these Christ-like ways? Do we have the humility to let their Christianity catch-on in us? Or does pride get in the way? To let it catch on in humility, truth and integrity could transform ours, and others lives - forever.

This weekend the Venerable English College in Rome is celebrating the 650th anniversary of its first founding as a hospice for English pilgrims visiting Rome. Certainly with hindsight, I value the academic opportunities I had as a student in Rome too many years ago now for me to wish to number them. If anything, I now wish I had recognised better the opportuntities that were there.

Today is also the feast of St Thomas Aquinas, whose life reminds us of the role that study plays in the life of the Church, both past and present. The duty to study the content of the faith, in so far as one's circumstances permit, is a commonplace of what used to be termed the lay apostolate.

Whilst Father is correct in identifying the part played by personal contact in evangelisation, and this is the context of the Gospel of that particular Sunday, he is surely wrong in suggesting that the intellectual life of faith is opposed to this in some way. On the contrary, the intelligent is part of an evangelising personal encounter, and to deny its role in that encounter is to reduce the substance of the encounter. For those familiar with the writings of Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, whose charism is founded on an idea of Christian experience, this appears somewhat ironic. The second chapter of his seminal The Religious Sense addresses the necessity of a premise of "reasonableness" with regard to an examination of Christian experience. And part of the weekly task of a parish priest is precisely to express the vitality of Christian life in a sermon!

The forthcoming Year of Faith is going to ask of us a greater attention to the intellectual content of faith, both as what is believed and as an act of consent to that belief. This greater attention to the content of the faith runs throughout Pope Benedict's Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei.

Year of Faith (7): "By faith ..."

I had intended to finish my earlier series of posts about the Year of Faith that Pope Benedict XVI announced with the following excerpt from his motu proprio Porta Fidei. I have added emphases to draw attention to the beauty of this passage, which can be summarised as giving an account of how the Church has experienced its life "by faith":

One thing that will be of decisive importance in this Year is retracing the history of our faith, marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin....

During this time we will need to keep our gaze fixed upon Jesus Christ, the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2..... In him who died and rose again for our salvation, the examples of faith that have marked these two thousand years of our salvation history are brought into the fullness of light.

By faith, Mary accepted the Angel’s word and believed the message that she was to become the Mother of God in the obedience of her devotion (cf. Lk 1:38). Visiting Elizabeth, she raised her hymn of praise to the Most High for the marvels he worked in those who trust him (cf. Lk 1:46-55). With joy and trepidation she gave birth to her only son, keeping her virginity intact (cf. Lk 2:6-7). Trusting in Joseph, her husband, she took Jesus to Egypt to save him from Herod’s persecution (cf. Mt 2:13-15). With the same faith, she followed the Lord in his preaching and remained with him all the way to Golgotha (cf. Jn 19:25-27). By faith, Mary tasted the fruits of Jesus’ resurrection, and treasuring every memory in her heart (cf. Lk 2:19, 51), she passed them on to the Twelve assembled with her in the Upper Room to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14; 2:1-4).

By faith, the Apostles left everything to follow their Master (cf. Mk 10:28). They believed the words with which he proclaimed the Kingdom of God present and fulfilled in his person (cf. Lk 11:20). They lived in communion of life with Jesus who instructed them with his teaching, leaving them a new rule of life, by which they would be recognized as his disciples after his death (cf. Jn 13:34-35). By faith, they went out to the whole world, following the command to bring the Gospel to all creation (cf. Mk 16:15) and they fearlessly proclaimed to all the joy of the resurrection, of which they were faithful witnesses.

By faith, the disciples formed the first community, gathered around the teaching of the Apostles, in prayer, in celebration of the Eucharist, holding their possessions in common so as to meet the needs of the brethren (cf. Acts 2:42-47).

By faith, the martyrs gave their lives, bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel that had transformed them and made them capable of attaining to the greatest gift of love: the forgiveness of their persecutors.

By faith, men and women have consecrated their lives to Christ, leaving all things behind so as to live obedience, poverty and chastity with Gospel simplicity, concrete signs of waiting for the Lord who comes without delay. By faith, countless Christians have promoted action for justice so as to put into practice the word of the Lord, who came to proclaim deliverance from oppression and a year of favour for all (cf. Lk 4:18-19).

By faith, across the centuries, men and women of all ages, whose names are written in the Book of Life (cf. Rev 7:9, 13:8), have confessed the beauty of following the Lord Jesus wherever they were called to bear witness to the fact that they were Christian: in the family, in the workplace, in public life, in the exercise of the charisms and ministries to which they were called.

By faith, we too live: by the living recognition of the Lord Jesus, present in our lives and in our history.

The different elements of this "by faith" are not just a history that we can read and try to follow. These elements describe the ecclesial constitution of Christian faith, the nature of Christian life as being a participation in the "communion of saints" made visible in a human community. It is an account of an ecclesial and theological reality, as well as being a historical account. So, for example, I would argue that a "Marian character" and the three evangelical counsels form just as much parts of what it means to be the Church as do the Apostolic and missionary characters.

Year of Faith (6): the profession of faith

The Year of Faith promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1967-1968 came to its conclusion with the proclamation of what has since become known as the Credo of the People of God. Issued as a motu proprio, it was first declared by Pope Paul VI as the homily at the Eucharistic celebration that marked the end of the Year of Faith.

In Porta Fidei n.8, Pope Benedict XVI has also called on the Church, during a Year of Faith, to celebrate the profession of faith:

We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in the Risen Lord in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in our homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to know better and to transmit to future generations the faith of all times. Religious communities as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial bodies old and new, are to find a way, during this Year, to make a public profession of the Credo.

The profession of faith has, in the life of the Church, three particular expressions. The first is the question and answer form associated with the sacrament of Baptism and with the Liturgy of Easter Sunday. The second is the form known as the Apostle's Creed, particularly associated with the Church in Rome and with textual sources that reach back to the fourth century, but whose articulation in the twelve articles we have today dates from the ninth century. The third is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, deriving from the Council of Constantinople in 381, which gained a usage within the Liturgy of both East and West.

The profession of faith is something that is a possession of the Church and, at the same time, a possession of the individual believer. It is not an accident that, as part of the preparation for Baptism, a catechumen recieves a copy of the Creed from the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reflects this two-fold ownership of the profession of faith in its first section which is headed "'I believe' - 'We believe'".

167 "I believe" (Apostles' Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. "We believe" (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. "I believe" is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both "I believe" and "We believe"....

180 "Believing" is a human act, conscious and free, corresponding to the dignity of the human person.

181 "Believing" is an ecclesial act. the Church's faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. the Church is the mother of all believers. "No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother" (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519).

There is an interesting dynamic that arises from the wearing of an external sign of Christian faith, such as a cross or a witness wrist band. The wearing of such a sign is a witness, a testimony of faith. My own experience suggests that, primarily, this acts as a reminder or testimony to oneself; and that this reminder to oneself is much more significant than any witness or testimony that is given to others who might see the sign. What might be described as a question of conscience, or a  "moment of Christian witness", in this regard arises primarily in my view from this testimony of what one believes given to oneself and about oneself. The question of whether others see that testimony is secondary and not always of itself a question of conscience. [I would not, for example, insist on wearing a witness band on my wrist on a hospital ward which has a "bare below the elbows" policy as part of its infection control regime, being happy to remove the witness band before working on the ward and replacing it afterwards.] There is, though, a mutual interplay between the personal nature of this witness and its public nature; it is the wearing of the sign in public that provides the power of the witness to oneself. 

[There is a difference here between the Catholic who wears such a sign of witness and an evangelical Christian who might wear exactly the same sign, the difference arising from the ecclesial orientation of the Catholic witness compared to the highly individual witness of the evangelical Christian who lacks the Catholic sense of ecclesial adherence.]

The public profession of the Credo to which Pope Benedict calls the different communities in the Church enters precisely into this dynamic of witness and testimony. It is interesting that Pope Benedict refers to a "public profession" of the Creed. This might, of course, take the form of a Liturgical celebration. But could it not also take the form of a gathering in a public square in a city centre, so that the profession of faith is made in a visible way before others and before the world?

Year of Faith (5): the idea of a "journey of faith"

To describe catechetical programmes, and particularly those associated with the Rite of Christian Inititaion of Adults, as a "journey of faith" has become a common place in some parishes. Different people are seen as being "at different stages or places in their journey of faith". This idea has come to be associated with a reduction in the emphasis placed on doctrinal teaching as part of the catechetical process. Instead of being a person who "hands on" or "hands over" the content of the faith, the catechist is seen as someone who "accompanies others on their journey of faith". From the point of view of doctrine, an unfortunate aspect of this idea is that not accepting certain teachings of the Church can be seen as just being at a "different point in the journey of faith" rather than as being a call to conversion to deeper faith.

There is, of course, an authentic sense to the idea of a "journey of faith", when the word "faith" is taken to refer to the act of the individual who believes and not to the content of what is believed. Then, the journey of faith is one of deepening one's knowledge and love for the Person who is the content of what is believed. The journey is one in the act of believing, not, in the first instance, a journey in or of doctrine itself (though the journey is nourished by doctrinal teaching).

It is in this latter sense that Pope Benedict XVI refers to rediscovering the journey of faith in Porta Fidei nn.1-2(the emphasis added in bold is mine):

The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism (cf. Rom 6:4), through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, to draw those who believe in him into his own glory (cf. Jn 17:22). ....  

Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. During the homily at the Mass marking the inauguration of my pontificate I said: “The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.”

Year of Faith (4): the idea of "catechism"

In recognising the relationship between the Year of Faith to be celebrated in 2012-13 and the Second Vatican Council, Pope Benedict XVI makes a particular reference to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The starting date of the Year of Faith coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism (cf Porta Fidei n.4); and the Catechism has a particular role with regard to defining the content of the Catholic faith (cf Porta Fidei n.11):

In order to arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith, all can find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church a precious and indispensable tool. It is one of the most important fruits of the Second Vatican Council. In the Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum, signed, not by accident, on the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Blessed John Paul II wrote: “this catechism will make a very important contribution to that work of renewing the whole life of the Church ... I declare it to be a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion and a sure norm for teaching the faith.”

Pope Benedict goes on to explain (the added emphasis is mine):

It is in this sense that that the Year of Faith will have to see a concerted effort to rediscover and study the fundamental content of the faith that receives its systematic and organic synthesis in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here, in fact, we see the wealth of teaching that the Church has received, safeguarded and proposed in her two thousand years of history. From Sacred Scripture to the Fathers of the Church, from theological masters to the saints across the centuries, the Catechism provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the faith and made progress in doctrine so as to offer certitude to believers in their lives of faith.

The Year of Faith therefore has a clear import for the manner in which the Catholic faith is taught, be that in the preparation of new converts or in the catechesis of those who are already members of the Church. The Year of Faith represents a call to establish a clear role for doctrinal content in the teaching and living of the faith.

By the end of the Year of Faith, will every parish catechist have become familiar with, if not the content of the full Catechism, at least the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church? And will parish catechetical programmes, particularly those for sacramental preparation, be specified in terms of the questions of the Compendium that they will cover?

Year of Faith (3): The "Year of Faith" in relation to Vatican II

When he comments in Porta Fidei on Pope Paul VI's "Year of Faith", Pope Benedict XVI observes:

In some respects, my venerable predecessor saw this Year as a "consequence and a necessity of the postconciliar period", fully conscious of the grave difficulties of the time, especially with regard to the profession of the true faith and its correct interpretation.

In a similar way, Benedict XVI presents the "Year of Faith" that will commence in October 2012 in a strong relation to the Second Vatican Council. This relation is established in the choice of date for the commencement of the Year, and Pope Benedict quotes Blessed John Paul II to explain it further in Porta Fidei n.5:

It seemed to me that timing the launch of the Year of Faith to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council would provide a good opportunity to help people understand that the texts bequeathed by the Council Fathers, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, “have lost nothing of their value or brilliance. They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church's Tradition ... I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning."

There can be no doubt about Pope Benedict's commitment to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, or to his belief in the value of the teaching of that Council for the life of the Catholic Church in our own times. Traditional Catholics who might want to read into the Papacy of Benedict XVI some form of retreat from or negating re-evaluation of the teaching of that Council need to take note of this.

Pope Benedict immediately continues, though, and with a footnote referencing his Address to the Roman Curia of December 2005, which contained his account of a "hermeneutic of continuity" with regard to the Second Vatican Council:

I would also like to emphasize strongly what I had occasion to say concerning the Council a few months after my election as Successor of Peter: “if we interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church.”

Can one read the petition coming from a Traditional Catholic background for a "more in-depth examination of the Second Vatican Council" in a way that is compatible with Pope Benedict's vision of the relation between the "Year of Faith" and the Second Vatican Council? As a headline, this petition looks like a challenge to the positive evaluation of that Council expressed in Porta Fidei (though we should note that the petition was published before the announcement of the "Year of Faith"). However, a reading of the text of the petition itself suggests that what it seeks is a detailed point-by-point working out of the "hermeneutic of continuity" and rebuttal of its contrary "hermeneutic of rupture" with regard to the Council. Whilst one might wish to express some caution with regard to the Church politics behind this petition, and to be careful not to promote it as a challenge to a positive evaluation of the teaching of the Council, its substantial content might well provide worthwhile points on which to deepen the Church's understanding of the content of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council during the "Year of Faith".

Year of Faith (2): inspired by Pope Paul VI

When I first read news reports that Pope Benedict XVI had announced a "Year of Faith" I thought immediately of the "Year of Faith" celebrated at the initiative of Pope Paul VI from 29th June 1967 to 30th June 1968. That year culminated in the solemn proclamation by Pope Paul of what is now known as his Credo of the People of God. This formed the homily during the concluding celebration of the year on 30th June 1968, and was an extended proclamation of the Nicene Creed used at Mass; Fr Tim gives some idea of its significance in this post. It was subsequently promulgated as a motu proprio. I have on my bookshelves Monsignor Eugene Kevane's Creed and Catechetics which tells the story behind Pope Paul's Credo and provides much documentation relating to the "Year of Faith" and the background controversies in catechetics.
I was therefore delighted to read in Porta Fidei n.4 an explicit reference to Pope Paul VI's "Year of Faith":

It is not the first time that the Church has been called to celebrate a Year of Faith. My venerable Predecessor the Servant of God Paul VI announced one in 1967, to commemorate the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul on the 19^th centenary of their supreme act of witness. He thought of it as a solemn moment for the whole Church to make “an authentic and sincere profession of the same faith”; moreover, he wanted this to be confirmed in a way that was “individual and collective, free and conscious, inward and outward, humble and frank”. He thought that in this way the whole Church could reappropriate “exact knowledge of the faith, so as to reinvigorate it, purify it, confirm it, and confess it”. The great upheavals of that year made even more evident the need for a celebration of this kind. It concluded with the Credo of the People of God, intended to show how much the essential content that for centuries has formed the heritage of all believers needs to be confirmed, understood and explored ever anew, so as to bear consistent witness in historical circumstances very different from those of the past.

Pope Paul's equivalent of Porta Fidei was an Apostolic Exhortation Petrum et Paulum Apostolos. Reading that exhortation suggests that Pope Benedict has been inspired in a more specific way by Paul VI's earlier "Year of Faith".

Compare Pope Benedict XVI, in Porta Fidei n.8:

On this happy occasion, I wish to invite my brother bishops from all over the world to join the Successor of Peter, during this time of spiritual grace that the Lord offers us, in recalling the precious gift of faith. We want to celebrate this Year in a worthy and fruitful manner. Reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all believers in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing. We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in the Risen Lord in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in our homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to know better and to transmit to future generations the faith of all times. Religious communities as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial bodies old and new, are to find a way, during this Year, to make a public profession of the Credo.

And Pope Paul VI, in Petrum et Paulum Apostolos:

We would be very happy if in every cathedral the Creed were recited expressly in honour of SS. Peter and Paul, in the presence of the bishop, the college of priests, the seminarians and the lay Catholics active in promoting the kingdom of God, men and women Religious, and as many members as possible of the assembly of the faithful. Similarly every parish and every religious house should do the same in the presence of its assembled community. And so we should like to suggest that on a fixed day this profession of faith be made in every single Christian household, in every Catholic association, in every Catholic school, hospital and place of worship, in every group and gathering where the voice of faith can be raised to proclaim and strengthen a sincere adherence to our common Christian calling.

The idea that, on a given day, every Catholic community in a diocese should gather to solemnly proclaim the Creed appears to me a very powerful one.