Vincent Kundukulam
Synodality has become the caption of almost all the seminars in the Church today. Proliferation of symposia on synodality runs, I feel, the risk of Church not becoming synodal in her very way of being. I fear so because that is what often happens when we excessively discuss about something. A certain contempt develops in us when a thing is done without giving heart to it. It is like doing a ritual that has nothing to do with life.
Presentation of papers, discussion in groups and publication of books about the synodal living gives us a feeling of having sufficiently done for it whereas we need not have really integrated any trait of synodal spirituality into our being. We had several similar cases in the past. Popes used to dedicate certain years for this or for that cause, and then there takes place a bundle of programs across the Church at universal regional, and diocesan levels. After some time, looking back we realize that no substantial change has taken place either in the faithful or in the Church. It may also happen now with the case of synodality.
Synodality is not a topic to be closed by conducting some colloquia; rather it is the way Church has always to be in order to function like a spiritual institution. It is the device to keep Church relevant to the world. This is very true at present when the problems in the Church and challenges from the society are very crucial. As it is stated in the introduction to the Vademecum for the Synod on Synodality, on the one hand, Church has to respond to global issues like pandemic, conflicts, violence, wars, climate change, migration, racism and inequality that has become rampant among various sections of people. On the other hand, she has to resolve the sufferings of vulnerable people within Church, especially of those who become victims of the abuse of power, money and sex by the clerics and religious.
At present, there is a high-level feeling of desolation among the faithful. As Richard Lennan has observed in a recent article in Theological Studies, lay people had hoped that their Church would ever be a locus for good in the world. But now, they realize that the fact of belonging to Church does not comply with integrity of life. They doubt whether it is the Holy Spirit Himself who initiates, sustains and guides Church. Since there is an urgent need to regain the credibility of Church, we can’t be content with merely identifying the ways and means of God interacting with the world through events and issues. We need to equip ourselves with convictions that would transform us into catalysts of Church and society for the good of the world.
In this regard, one may ask the question, do we need to become so much worried of those who lose faith because of the counter witnesses in the Church? It is true, the faith in the Church and faith in God are not same. But only the grown-up adults in faith can distinctively and distinctly distinguish them. The faith of the ordinary believers is the outcome of the life-witness of the Church authorities. When they see that the life of those in leadership is inconsistent with gospel, they tend to distance themselves from the institutional Church. This happens also due to the impact of the democratic culture where one is free to dissent with policies s/he finds incompatible with his/her value system. As rightly said by Alphonse Borras in a recent article in Concilium, there is a gap between the wants of modernity and the practices of the Church in terms of the participation of the faithful in ecclesial life and in the testimony of the gospel.
It is true, synods cannot function according to the democratic values. But the nature, traits and mission of Church impel us to take seriously the individual and common participation of the faithful in the decision-making processes and bodies of Church. There is no short-cut to regain the lost credibility than to witness participation, transparency and integrity in Church life.
kundu1962@gmail.com
