Interview with Cardinal George Pell
October 10, 2008
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, is one of three co-presidents of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible, which means that he alternates with Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of São Paulo, Brazil, in presiding over each session. [Among other things, it also means Pell shares responsibility for tracking attendance; as we were making our way out of the parking lot in front of the synod hall on Friday afternoon, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga pulled Pell aside to tell him he would be absent the next day because he was scheduled to ordain new priests. ?That sounds like a great thing to do,? Pell cheerily replied.]
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
In the first important ballot taken during the Synod of Bishops on the Bible, the roughly 250 bishops and clergy with the right to vote appear to have opted for a broadly moderate line, electing members of a commission that will craft the synod?s final message known as centrists on most theological matters.
The ?Commission for the Message? will produce a brief statement at the end of the synod, which is addressed to the wider world. That public message, along with a set of private propositions presented to the pope, represents the primary ?work product? of the meeting, which runs from Oct. 5-26.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Pope Benedict XVI today issued a ringing defense of his controversial predecessor, Pope Pius XII, the wartime pope whose alleged silence during the Holocaust has long been a sticking point in Jewish/Catholic relations.
Among other things, Benedict prayed aloud that the cause to declare Pius XII a saint ?may move forward happily.?
Benedict XVI?s comments came in a homily for a Mass in St. Peter?s Basilica commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Pius XII in October 1958. A reminder of the controversy surrounding Pius came earlier in the week, when the first rabbi ever invited to address the Synod of Bishops, Shear-Yashuv Cohen, said in Benedict?s presence that Jews cannot ?forgive and forget? what they regard as Pius? public silence about the Nazi genocide.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Ambivalence about modern Biblical scholarship, which uses the same historical and literary tools to study scripture that one might apply to any other ancient text, continues to course through the Oct. 5-26 Synod of Bishops, devoted to ?The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.?
On the one hand, speakers have praised the contributions of Biblical scholars and called their work ?essential? for a proper understanding of scripture. Yet several have also warned about a gap between exegetes and the rest of the church, especially the bishops, and the need for scientific study to be understood as no more than an appetizer, so to speak, before the main course of deep spiritual meditation.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
So far, the Synod of Bishops on the Bible has not featured particularly intense doctrinal debate. Most of the leading themes appear basically pastoral in nature ? how to foster better preaching, for example, or more widespread prayer with scripture, especially the use of Lectio Divina.
Around the edges, however, one doctrinal can of worms has been at least partially pried open, focusing on the extent to which the Bible is ?inerrant,? meaning free from error.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Amid growing political ferment over immigration policy in the United States and other parts of the world, Pope Benedict XVI today urged ?brotherly love to the full? for migrants and refugees, calling them ?the weakest and most defenseless ? marginalized and often excluded by society.?
The pope issued the call in the form of a message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, marked by the Catholic church on January 18. The message was presented today in a Vatican press conference by Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Refugees, and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the same council.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Much mischief in Catholicism often results from over-emphasizing one or another pole of a continuum. For example, push too hard on the church as a hierarchy, and the result is an inflated notion of authority; put too much stress on the church as the ?people of God,? and you get congregationalism.
Applied to the current Synod of Bishops on the Bible, this "both/and" feature of Catholicism means that the bishops need to do two things at once: foster a deeper knowledge and love for the Scriptures, without generating an exaggerated cult of the printed word divorced from broader notions of tradition and the living church. A more succint way of phrasing the point is this: How can the church stress the Bible as fundamental, without turning Catholics into fundamentalists?
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Over the first week and a half of a Synod of Bishops, the roughly 250 members have five minutes each to say whatever?s on their minds. That makes for moments of drama, but it also complicates efforts to isolate trends.
Judging solely by the first morning of discussion, however, it would seem that three points already seem to be emerging as recurrent themes:
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Since the Bible is shared by all Christians, there?s a natural ecumenical dimension to this Synod of Bishops. That aspect was symbolized this morning by the presentation of a special-edition, multi-lingual Bible to Pope Benedict XVI published by the American Bible Society, an inter-denominational group based in the United States devoted to publishing and distributing the Bible around the world.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
To steal a page from American politics, one might sum up five reports on the Bible from the perspective of five different continents delivered at the Synod of Bishops yesterday in a single sound-bite: ?It?s the culture, stupid!?
Each of the five bishops who spoke on behalf of his continent argued, in various ways, that the central challenge is to bring the Bible into conversation with the local culture ? whether it?s the secular humanism of contemporary Europe, or the traditional religions of sub-Sahran Africa.