Pope Francis received the members of the International Theological Commission on the morning of November 24, thanked them for their valuable work and proposed three directions for their work, namely to be creatively faithful to tradition, to be open to contributions from different disciplines, and to sexual cooperation. At the same time, the Pope encouraged the training of more women theologians to promote the all-round development of theology.
(Vatican News Network)Pope Francis received the members of the International Theological Council at the Vatican on the morning of November 24, urging them to “follow the path indicated by the Second Vatican Council … which is the foundation of the path of the Church today” A reliable guide “. The Pope also specifically mentioned the importance of increasing the number of women theologians.
The Pope first thanked the International Theological Council for its valuable contributions since the foundation of Pope Paul, and encouraged the members of the Council to work in the direction led by the Second Vatican Council. He therefore proposes three guidelines for all members of the International Theological Council: to be creatively faithful to tradition, to be open to contributions from different disciplines and to collaborate collectively.
Regarding creative fidelity to tradition, the Pope explained: “Tradition, the origin of faith, either grows or dies. It is said that tradition is a guarantee of the future, not a collection in a museum. From bottom to top Reason to grow is like a tree from the root.” Conversely, when you close down, traditionalism becomes “the dead faith of the living”. This is going backwards and is dangerous. The Pope stressed that the tradition pushes us forward, and the Church must start from the foundation of tradition and develop upwards.
The Pope said: “Today there is a great danger, that is to go in another direction, that is ‘conservatism’, to go back”. He thinks it’s best to step back and go back to the original place, which is safer. “We’ve seen it happen in some movements, some church movements, that are stuck in one period, going back into the past.” So the Pope invited the theologians present to help correct this trend in the Church.
The Pope then spoke of the second direction of orientation, urging theologians to carefully open their hearts to the contributions of other disciplines, safeguarding the “powerful” form of “interdisciplinarity” as a “vision that emanates from divine revelation”. of all mankind in the space of light and life offered by wisdom” (cf. Apostolic Constitution, Joy of Truth, n. 4).
The third leading direction is group cooperation. In this regard, the Pope noted, theologians can make a concrete contribution to the fraternal journey of the Synod of Bishops 2021-2024, in which the entire People of God is invited to participate. The Pope said that theologians should go further and force yourself to take a leap forward. He said: “But I would like to make a distinction between the theologian and the evangelist: the evangelist must teach correct, sound doctrine, not what may be new; the theologian goes further, but is bound by the teaching of the Church. The the mission of the theologian is always to take a leap forward because it is to seek, to try to explain theology better”.
At the end of his speech, the pope also specifically raised the question of women theologians, saying: “I think it might be important to increase the number of women theologians, not to make them fashionable, but because they think differently from men, and make Theology becomes deeper and more “flavored”.
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