Spiritual Renewal and Dialogue in the Parish
By Monsignor Vincent J. Grimalia, V.G.
 

Because our parishes are Eucharistic and evangelizing communities, a spirituality of communion and mission must be promoted through various means.

One helpful resource will be a study of the “Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults” and the understanding of Church that it expresses. One pertinent instruction states: “Since the Church is apostolic, catechumens should also learn to work actively with others to spread the Gospel and build up the Church by the testimony of their lives and the profession of their faith.” This is an expectation for catechumens on their journey into the Church, because all Catholics have a vocation to active participation in the mission of the Church.

Pastoral care in all of its aspects and dimensions must educate and form an awareness of the responsibility of active participation in the mission of the Church through an understanding of vocation. Pastoral care that merely attends to private and personal needs must be renewed through efforts to motivate a life of Christian service and stewardship. A study of the RCIA process will help a Parish Pastoral Council assist the pastor in the spiritual renewal of the parish.

In a talk, later published in Catholic Evangelization Today, Monsignor David Bohr affirmed this insight when he compared and contrasted the difference between a mentality of mission and a mentality of maintenance. He stated that a new focus for parish life is necessary in these words:

“Ministry perceived from the perspective of evangelization takes on a new dynamism, a new purpose and focus. Given the principle of entropy, the law of inertia, it is so easy for church leaders, and members as well, to slip into a maintenance mentality. Our churches can easily provide the comfortable pew where we simply bask in the consoling news of God’s love and plead that he lend an attentive ear to our self interest and private concerns. Ministry within the churches then becomes a matter of pastoral maintenance and customer satisfaction. Parishes become suburban clubs of the saved. Members develop a consumer mentality regarding weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Paying their dues, they simply expect the church to supply the needed religious and social services.”

Enrichment of Faith and Formation of Attitudes

The importance of ongoing formation in faith, morality, the development of attitudes for Catholic living and the development of skills for participating in the mission of the Church can be cultivated through prayer and adult religious formation. All Catholics need a greater awareness of the meaning of vocation, communion, mission, and stewardship for their personal lives and to help them to fulfill their responsibility to be active members of the Church.

Without prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and the personal search for meaning guided by faith, the spiritual renewal of the Church and parish community will be limited. Bishop Martino joins with recent popes in calling for ongoing formation and education if spiritual renewal is to happen in the parishes of the Diocese of Scranton. Through a variety of means, not only members of Parish Pastoral Councils and Parish Finance Councils, but all members of the parish, can benefit from life-long religious learning.

Deeper Understanding of the Church and Dialogue

Pope Paul VI, in his first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam, noted: “We are convinced that the Church must look with penetrating eyes within itself, ponder the mystery of its own being, and draw enlightenment and inspiration from a deeper scrutiny of the doctrine of its own origin, nature, mission, and destiny…We believe that it is a duty of the Church at the present time to strive toward a clearer and deeper awareness of itself and its mission in the world, and of the treasury of truth of which it is heir and custodian.”

The need for a deeper awareness and understanding of the mystery of the Church that leads to a spiritual renewal, according to Pope Paul VI, requires us to consider the need and nature of dialogue: the dialogue with God, the dialogue of the Church with the world and its many cultures, and dialogue within the Church and in our parishes.

Pope Paul VI stated: “Dialogue, therefore, is a recognized method of the apostolate. It is a way of making spiritual contact.” If our parish renewal is to occur, we must first have a spiritual contact with God and with one another. Pope John Paul II noted the importance of a parish becoming a school for teaching the spirituality of communion and mission. Ongoing parish pastoral planning and spiritual renewal requires prayer, a foundation in the Eucharist and a commitment to its evangelizing mission. There is also a need for a correct understanding of authentic dialogue.

Dialogue requires the willingness and the ability to listen as well as the ability to speak. We must make an effort to listen, which involves letting go of our personal agenda, if we want to understand what a person is saying. If we are merely waiting to respond or are preparing to verbalize our own opinion while the other person is speaking, rather than listening to the other person, no real communication will take happen; there will merely be two or more monologues taking place. Without an ability to listen there is no real communication. Humility, patience and charity are essential if there is to be real dialogue.

Tensions in the Church

That Pope John Paul II had mastered the art of dialogue is demonstrated in an April 1988 letter to then-Cardinal Ratzinger. In that letter, published in L’Osservatore Romano, our late Holy Father made some pertinent observations about divisions and factions within the Church in regard to the implementation of the Second Vatican Council.

Pope John Paul II noted: “Given that the work of the council taken as a whole constitutes a reconfirmation of the same truth lived by the Church from the beginning, it is likewise a ‘renewal’ of that truth… in order to bring to the great human family in the modern world both the way of teaching faith and morals and also the whole apostolic and pastoral work of the Church.”

He then spoke of two general tendencies that have arisen in the Church: “One of these tendencies is characterized by a desire for changes that are not always in harmony with the teaching and spirit of Vatican II…These changes claim to appeal to progress, and so this tendency is given the name ‘progressivism.’ In this case progress consists in an aspiration towards the future which breaks with the past, without taking into account the function of Tradition which is fundamental to the Church’s mission…”

Then, Pope John Paul II described the other tendency: “The opposite tendency, which is usually called ‘conservatism’ or ‘integralism,’ stops at the past itself, without taking into account the correct aspiration towards the future which manifested itself precisely in the work of Vatican II. “

Next, the late Holy Father compared and contrasted the two tendencies: “While the former tendency seems to recognize the correctness of what is new, the latter sees correctness only in what is ‘ancient,’ considering it synonymous with Tradition. But it is not what is ‘ancient’ as such, or what is ‘new’ per se, which corresponds to the correct idea of Tradition in the life of the Church. Rather, that idea means the Church’s remaining faithful to the truth received from God throughout the changing circumstances of history.”

Subsequently, he commented on why these two tendencies may have arisen: “The position taken up by individuals, groups or circles connected with one or the other tendency is to a certain extent understandable, especially after an event as important in the history of the Church as the last Council.”

He further reflected on these tendencies and helped us to understand them with a view towards restoring unity and communion in the Church: “If on the one hand that event unleashed an aspiration for renewal… on the other hand certain abuses in the realization of this aspiration, in so far as they forgot essential values of Catholic doctrine on faith and morals and in other areas of ecclesial life, for example in that of the Liturgy, can and indeed must cause justified objection. Nevertheless, if by reason of these excesses every healthy kind of ‘renewal’ conforming to the teaching and spirit of the Council is rejected, such an attitude can lead to another deviation, which itself is in opposition to the principle of the living Tradition of the Church obedient to the Spirit of Truth.”

These wise words of the late pope demonstrate the need for prayer, study and reflection in regard to the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, spiritual renewal, and the revitalization of our parishes.

It is the right and the responsibility of the teaching authority of the Church, the Magisterium, to make decisions about the correctness or incorrectness of ideas and activities in the Church. Pope John Paul II noted in that letter to then-Cardinal Ratzinger: “The Church, like that householder in the Gospel, wisely brings ‘from the storeroom both the new and the old’ (Matthew 13:52), while remaining absolutely obedient to the Spirit of Truth whom Christ has given to the Church as her divine Guide.”

Pope John Paul encouraged the nurturing of a spirituality of communion, reconciliation and unity throughout the Church on every level. The advisory work of Parish Pastoral and Finance Councils assists the pastor in the evangelizing mission of the parish and requires the ongoing theological and spiritual formation of council members, if they are to help the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and subsequent documents to become alive and life-giving in the Diocese and parish. Ongoing adult formation, through a variety of ways for different learning styles and people, will be an essential means for spiritual renewal and pastoral planning for members of the councils and for all members of the parish, at every age level.

When a parish does a self-assessment it needs to understand theological criteria and canonical standards that must be met. The whole parish needs to understand the mission of the parish and evaluate its effectiveness or fruitfulness. To accomplish these important activities, an understanding of people and an ability to listen and to speak are important.

Qualities of Dialogue

Pope Paul VI noted in Ecclesiam Suam some essential characteristics of dialogue: clarity, meekness, confidence and prudence.

“Clarity before all else; the dialogue demands that what is said should be intelligible… It is an invitation to the exercise and development of the highest spiritual and mental powers a man possesses… In order to satisfy this first requirement, all of us who feel the spur of the apostolate should examine closely the kind of speech we use,” he said. “Is it easy to understand? Can it be grasped by ordinary people? Is it current idiom?”

There is a need for religious literacy and an understanding of Catholic vocabulary if one is to understand and practice the faith today. The Church has a language and a culture that needs to be experienced and understood, and can no longer be taken for granted in our secular culture. Words like sacrament, vocation, communion, mission, stewardship and evangelization are examples of terms that need to be part of every Catholic’s vocabulary. In ecumenical dialogue, it is also important to learn the vocabulary of various religious traditions if communication is to occur.

Meekness is the second quality Pope Paul sees as required: “It would indeed be a disgrace if our dialogue were marked by arrogance, the use of bared words or offensive bitterness. What gives it its authority is the fact that it affirms the truth, shares with others the gifts of charity, is itself an example of virtue, avoids peremptory language, makes no demands. It is peaceful, has no use for extreme methods, is patient under contradiction and inclines towards generosity.”

Confidence is the third quality identified by Pope Paul: “…confidence not only in the power of one’s own words, but also in the good will of both parties to the dialogue. Hence dialogue promotes intimacy and friendship on both sides. It unites them in a mutual adherence to the Good, and thus excludes all self-seeking.”

“Finally, the prudence of a teacher who is most careful to make allowances for the psychological and moral circumstances of his hearer… The person who speaks is always at pains to learn the sensitivities of his audience,” he said.

In other words, the speaker adapts himself to the language of his audience. Pope Paul stated: “In a dialogue conducted with this kind of foresight, truth is wedded to charity and understanding to love.”