Friday,
4/27/12
St.
Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus presents us with the world’s most
dramatic reversal of religious beliefs. Making his way along the road, Saul was
suddenly switched from being a persecutor of Christians to being their
champion.
Such
changes usually come slowly. I have seen this over the last five years. I have observed
slow changes on a personal level and on a world-wide one. First, I wrote a 550
page book on my ups and downs as a Catholic over eighty years. With that published,
I have been writing a church history I call my “take” on Christianity.
In my
550 page biography I saw how in my major seminary years I had taken Rome’s rulings as my god. However, as a
missionary in Korea I began looking for relief from Rome’s certainties. When
Vatican II came along I was soured by the nuts it spawned. Then, in the
seventies, Vatican II’s fine scholars made me a Vatican II man for life.
So far
in my 225 page “take” on Christianity I have felt shame for the way we were wedded to the nobility for centuries. The
French Revolution was horrible, but at least it spoke up for common people. I
am looking forward to writing about Vatican II documents that emphasize the
dignity of all persons created in God’s image.
As the
Curia’s delegate in Bulgaria, Turkey and France Archbishop Giuseppe Roncalli
dutifully repeated the party line. Then, when he was elected as pope, he took it
as a call from God to take the muzzle off two neglected elements of
Christianity.
One element
comes from Our Lord’s saying we must read the signs of the times. That need was
encapsulated in the pope’s Italian word Aggiornamento.
The
second essential Christian element is a demand for adhering to what was laid down
by the Apostles. That is encapsulated in the French word Ressourcement.
That Italian
and French word reverberated through the four years of Vatican II sessions. But
now the Curia isn’t speaking of them. They say what makes for true Christians
is obedience to authority.
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