Fr Ormond Rush speaks during a working session of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall yesterday (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Vatican II’s discussion of tradition is the authority for the Synod on Synodality’s reflections today, Australian theologian Fr Ormond Rush told Synod members as the assembly’s final week opened yesterday. Source: CNA.
“Having listened to you over these past three weeks, I have had the impression that some of you are struggling with the notion of tradition, in the light of your love of truth,” Fr Rush said.
Tradition “was a major point of discussion at the Second Vatican Council,” he added. “Their answers are, for us, the authority for guiding our reflections on the issues that confront us today.”
The Townsville priest said the October 4–29 assembly was the Synod members’ “discernment regarding the future of the Church.”
Fr Rush addressed the Synod members and Pope Francis yesterday before they began to review a draft of a document summarising their conversations over the past three weeks. The assembly will vote to approve the document on Saturday, shortly before it is expected to be publicly released.
Speaking about discernment, the theologian told Synod members they should strive to see with the eyes of Jesus. He also warned them of “traps” where they could be “drawn into ways of thinking that are not ‘of God.’”
“These traps could lie in being anchored exclusively in the past, or exclusively in the present, or not being open to the future fullness of divine truth to which the Spirit of truth is leading the Church,” he said. “Discerning the difference between opportunities and traps is the task of all the faithful – laity, bishops, and theologians – everyone.”
Fr Rush spoke about a tension during the Second Vatican Council related to two approaches to tradition. Pope Benedict XVI, then Fr Joseph Ratzinger, was a theological consultant at Vatican II. He wrote about “a ‘static’ understanding of tradition and a ‘dynamic’ understanding,” Fr Rush said.
“The former is legalistic, propositional, and ahistorical (i.e., relevant for all times and places); the latter is personalist, sacramental, and rooted in history, and therefore to be interpreted with a historical consciousness,” the theologian described. “The former tends to focus on the past, the latter on seeing the past being realised in the present, and yet open to a future yet to be revealed.”
Fr Rush, one of the Synod’s 62 “experts and facilitators,” called the Synod “a dialogue with God” and told members that in the final synthesis document, which they will review this week, “God is waiting” for their answer.
Labor has committed to enshrining religious freedom laws (Bigstock)
Faith leaders say spillover from the conflict in the Middle East has made it “blindingly obvious” why Australia needs religious freedom laws, raising concerns over the potential for increased prejudice in the wake of the violence. Source: The Australian.
The Albanese Government last week announced it would expedite a $50 million grant program to improve security at faith-based places, including mosques and synagogues.
Both the Islamophobia Register Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry have reported surges in reports from their communities of racism and threatening behaviour being exercised against them.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week said Australia could not take its diversity and relative harmony for granted. “We need to … work with all community leaders to make sure that harmony is maintained in this nation,” he said.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said the rallies and racism in recent weeks showed why a religious freedom bill would be so “pertinent”.
“It has always been important, but the relevance and significance of it now is blindingly obvious,” he said. “All Australians … need to be able to go about their lives free from vilification and racial and religious incitement.”
The former Coalition government failed to pass its religious freedom legislation before the election, after numerous Liberal MPs crossed the floor over concerns the bill would not protect transgender children.
Labor has committed to enshrining religious freedom laws, indicating the “first step” would be a review of the sex discrimination act by the Australian Law Reform Commission. Its report is due by the end of the year.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the Government was committed to extending the federal anti-discrimination framework to protect people of faith from discrimination and vilification.
In a statement provided to The Australian, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli said “the Catholic Church wants to engage meaningfully with parliamentarians of all parties to ensure that any legislation would ensure critical religious freedoms are enshrined in law”.