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BOOK
Review
Hinze, B. 2006. Practices of Dialogue in the Roman
Catholic Church: Aims and Obstacles, Lessons and Laments. New York, Continuum, 326 pp.
This book is a scholarly report on the “triumphs
and tragedies” of continuing efforts “to
move from a strictly hierarchical approach” of
the traditional church to the “more dialogical
approach” urged by Vatican II. The post-Vatican
church’s mission includes “activities of
teaching, administering the sacraments, governing,
pastoral care, and work for justice … in which
all of the members of the church are actively participating.” Hinze’s
book belongs in the personal library of each member
of VOTF concerned with our church’s path into
the future.
Examples of progress towards this vision range from
(a) parish councils hampered by a “consultative-only
clause” to (b) diocesan pastoral councils and
diocesan synods, both promising for the future but
still under development, and on to (c) ecumenical and
interreligious dialogues. Interspersed among these
episodes are commentaries on the Call to Action (CTA)
movement initiated by what is now the U. S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops and intended to be responsive to
Vatican II, but still awaiting a pastoral plan of action,
priorities, and plan for implementation. CTA now hosts
annual conferences that are the largest progressive
Catholic gatherings in the country – even though
distanced from the bishops.
The Catholic Common Ground Initiative, stimulated
by the late Cardinal Bernardin but heavily criticized
by prominent U. S. cardinals concerned with undermining
traditional authority, never arrived at the intended
consensus. Dialogues on authority and leadership by
women religious remain “to be fully worked out” because
of differences between what women and men want.
The author concludes from these diverse episodes that
our church is embarked on “a difficult pedagogical
pilgrimage involved in identity formation which is
associated with the genre called Bildungsroma.” This
is a long, arduous, and gradual maturing process consisting
of repeated clashes between the protagonists’ needs
and desires and the views and judgments enforced by
an unbending social order.
His most cogent observation is: “The issues
raised by the critics of dialogue and the defenders
of an older hierarchical model of authority and tradition – and
here [Cardinal] Dulles offers the most fully developed
U. S. Catholic example – must be matched by an
alternative theology of the church’s identity
and mission equal in scope and depth and spiritual
richness to his own. Such an alternative theology,
I would argue, does not need to deny the crucial role
of papal, episcopal and clerical authority. However,
the theology of ordination and of offices and their
exercise must be reformulated within the large field
of vision associated with the dialogical understanding
of the church and world that has become more clearly
into view during and since Vatican II.”
In the final analysis, this transition must be reflected
at the local level. The parish of the next millennium
will operate on the principles of subsidiarity (matters
ought to be handled by the smallest (or, the lowest)
competent authority) and collegiallity (seeking consensus
in addition to a role in decision making). These characteristics
are identified in William Bausch’s The Parish
of the Next Millennium [another book that deserves
space in the personal library of each member of VOTF].
Heartening developments abound. Under the leadership
of Albany diocese’s Bishop Howard J. Hubbard,
a three-year initiative entitled “Called to BE
Church” is being mounted (www.rcda.org). Bishop
Hubbard’s charge centered on the message of Vatican
II: “… the council pointed out that the
responsibility for the life and mission of the church
is a responsibility whose dimensions are universal,
applying to clergy, religious, and laity alike. All
are bound together by a variety of gifts and ministries
and all are called to serve the one mission, the mission
of Jesus, to be served by a multiplicity of ministries
and ministers.” Thomas F. Malone, Greater West
Hartford, CT VOTF
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