Intellectual bread ” “

“The intellectual bread of the Church was baked in the ovens of France”, remarked Pope Paul VI, at the end of Vatican Council II. His words were intended to be a recognition “of the golden age of French theology represented in the 1950s by the work of the Dominicans, Jesuits and the diocesan clergy who spearheaded a profound renewal of the Catholic Church in the fields of the study of Holy Scripture, patristics and theology, as also in those of the liturgy, pastoral ministry and the sociology of religions”. The work of French theologians in this period was recalled by Cardinal CAHAL B DALY who in recent days presented in Dublin Gabriel Flynn’s new book with the title ” Yves Congar’s view of the Church in an unbelieving world”, published on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the great Dominican theologian and expert of the Second Vatican Council. Especially well known for his contribution to the theology of the laity and to ecumenism, Congar was a personal friend of John Paul II and nominated cardinal by him. Himself a pupil of Father Congar (1904-1995), Cardinal Daly vividly described his life and work, underlining his continuing relevance in the light of the ideal presence of his counterpart, Father Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), he too one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century and he too made a cardinal by John Paul II. LOVE FOR THE CHURCH. Misunderstood and obstructed in the years before the Council “by some institutions of the Church, and in particular by the Holy Office”, these “two great theologians reacted in different ways, each according to his own personality, but, instead of becoming embittered, both were able to distinguish between the Church they loved and those who acted in her name during this period”, explained Cardinal Daly. “Congar and de Lubac were fundamentally kindred spirits. Above all men of the Church, of the Sources, they comprised in this definition both Holy Scripture and Tradition”, and “supported each other in various publications”, but “also took different roads”. Among the founders of the international review of theology Concilium, “Congar, albeit with some reservations, remained an energetic supporter of it”, while de Lubac “having rapidly found himself in disagreement with many opinions expressed in its pages, publicly dissociated himself from it”. Instead he went over to Communio, a theological journal with a quite different approach. DECLINE OF THE FAITH. At the centre of Congar’s reflection were – continued Daly – “the tensions that had arisen in the Church after the Council and the interpretation of the Council itself”. He was also fired by “the desire to see the Church renewed and reformed in such a way as to be able to arrest, and if possible reverse, the decline of the Christian faith and religious practice in France and in the whole Western world”. This phenomenon, however, in the view of Cardinal Daly, cannot be imputed just to the “failings or limitations of the ecclesiastical hierarchy”, but needs to be linked “to a significant degree also to the sociological changes that have taken place” in France, as in Ireland, over the last few decades. These changes include “urbanization, geographical mobility, the crisis of communities and parishes, transformations in the organization and hours of work, the replacement of Sunday by the “weekend” that has altered the character of the day of rest”, giving scope to “night life” instead. New habits have been formed, and these, Daly remarked, “usually don’t include Sunday mass”. That does not mean, however, that “the renewal of the Church is any less imperative, not just with the aim of bringing back non-practising Catholics, but especially because the Church needs to be faithful to her own mission and tradition. And this was also Congar’s hope”. We need – said Daly – a genuine and credible Church, indispensable qualities if she is “to carry out the mandate of preaching the Gospel entrusted to her”. CONGAR’S COUNCIL. A further aspect of the relevance of the great Dominican theologian, continued Archbishop Daly, was “his passion for unity between the divided Christian Churches”; an “ecumenical vocation”, as Congar himself called it, aimed at a reunification that would bring back the Churches to their own origins. “I am struck by the fact that the current condition of the Church in Ireland” was in some way already foreseen “in some pages that Congar wrote thirty years ago or even earlier”: the tendency, “fuelled by the mass media, to place in discussion any kind of authority, to give scope to everything that disturbs or contradicts the certainties we have acquired, by denigrating our finest values, which are dismissed as pointless … such tendencies, according to the theologian, represent new pastoral challenges for the Church that needs to address them at their roots”. Precursor of the Council “of which he became one of the most significant architects”: that’s how GABRIEL FLYNN, author of the book, describes Congar. Speaking at the book presentation, Flynn quoted the words of Cardinal Avery Dulles, professor of theology at Fordham University in New York: “Thanks to John XXIII, who was conscious of the importance of his work, he was able to play so important a role in Vatican II that it could almost be called ‘Congar’s Council'”.