Missing But Not Missed

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Mark Solo SVD (l) of the Indonesian Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue with John Prior, SVD Pope Paul VI famously wrote that the split between faith and culture was the drama of our time. What, then, when culture seems to have little or no public role for faith, as is the case in much of Europe today? Has religious faith become irrelevant to daily life? God, it seems, is missing but not missed. Can I live my life as though God were not there? From 6-8 March 2008, the Pontifical Council for Culture, a Vatican think-tank established by Pope John Paul II in 1982 to explore the interface between faith and culture, met in Rome to reflect on this issue. How come Ireland has become secularised so quickly? Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick suggested that in the past the Catholic Church was seen as a power-base obsessed with control, an institution without soul. Now, having lost its power, the Church needs to find ways to feel people’s pain, to walk with the vulnerable. As Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster put it: “Where do people itch – and are therefore willing to listen?” He suggested that the language of witness and solidarity can be heard still. Both bishops emphasised that in a world ever more noisy we need to learn anew the sound of silence and contemplation. To become the heart of a heartless world, the Church must recover its soul. Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick Ireland is not an isolated case. In Spain, regarded until recently as a Catholic country, the number of 18-30 year-olds who identify themselves as Catholic has dropped from 70 to 4 percent in just ten years. Ireland and the UK rejoice in the influx of Catholic migrants from Eastern Europe, and yet less than 10 percent of them remain active in church when abroad. Religion as a cultural background cannot withstand the onslaught of consumer values. Only faith as personal conviction nurtures gospel values. Joseph Doré, bishop emeritus of Strasbourg, pointed to the increasing number in Europe with no religious background at all and no sense of transcendence. Even those active in the Church, he said, seem to accept an eclectic amalgam of various religious beliefs. Mark Coleridge, Archbishop of Canberra, spoke of morality losing its foundation. “If it is ‘do-able’, useful and profitable, why not? There are no other concerns.” He pointed out that doctrine is too grand for our shallow life-style as we have such small hopes and expectations. Few feel the need to ask the big questions. We are inhabiting a shrinking world. If voices from a contracting Church in Europe sounded a note of alarm at rapid secularisation, voices from chaotic Africa and turbulent Asia were full of hope. Professor Yoshio Oyanagi of Japan reminded the Europeans that, for those of us living in societies embedded in other religious cultures, whether Shinto, Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu, secularisation is positive for the Christian minority. For instance, it removes the obligation to take part in Shinto rituals; it gives the Christian minority space to breathe. Manuelita Nunez C Consultor from Panana European Christians, only recently aware that they are a minority both on the Continent and in the Church as a whole, could learn from Asian Christians who have been living as minorities for more than a millennium. Being tolerant does not mean being hesitant; working together with Muslims is not weakness; listening to and learning from Buddhists does not diminish our Christian identity. Deep down people do feel pain and are not satisfied with merely accumulating consumer goods. Bishop Donal Murray quoted Julian Barnes: “I don’t believe in God, but I miss him! Please God try to exist, if only just a little!” There must be something more to life than shopping, sport and surfing the Internet. Consumer society in the West was likened to passengers on an ocean liner who listen to the cook rather than the captain. We know what we shall be eating but not where we are going! The only woman present among the 35 bishops, clergy and laymen at the biennial assembly, was Manuelita Núñez C. of Panama. She finds that in the Church the brain is dominating the heart. Living our faith is more important than deciding formulas. She believes we are too indifferent to each other. Why can’t we bring Jesus to others without too many teachings? This emphasis on transparent witness, was echoed by other participants from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Authentic witness breaks through the crassness and shallowness of a society that values money over people and possessions over solidarity with the weak. Archbishop Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam with Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship European participants focused on the need for a clear religious identity; many wish to return to Greek philosophy and Latin liturgy. Indeed, Bishop Józef Zycniski of Lublin declared that, “the suicide of Socratic thought creates monsters” – morality has lost its roots in natural law. And so European participants focused upon establishing a Christian counter-culture. Meanwhile the African and Asian bishops highlighted radical discipleship in Church communities that were simple, rooted in local cultures and in dialogue with mainstream religious culture. European bishops are strengthening their Catholic identity by seeking out the best in their past; Southern bishops are nurturing their Christian identity in a servant Church, witnessing gospel values in the family and family networks (base communities). Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor of Westminster Today, two-thirds of Catholics live in the Southern hemisphere. It won’t be long before Africa becomes the second most Christian continent after Latin America. Just a quarter of Catholics remain in Europe. We have become a world Church, a Church no longer of the West and the North but of the South and the East. One day this shift will surely be reflected in the personnel and thinking of the Vatican. The last word should go to Archbishop Polycarp Pengo of Dar-es-Salaam. In his quiet but convincing manner he said that only the audacity of the Spirit would allow us to begin anew. For even in unhealthy waters it is possible to swim in the direction of life and liberty. John Prior is an English Divine Word Missionary who has been working in Indonesia since 1973. For 15 years he has been a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Culture.

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