Saints Peter and Paul - 29.06.2014

FATHER LIAM SAYS: In 1939 there were no black African Catholic bishops.  In 1940 the first black African bishop of modern times was consecrated in Rome.  When he returned to Uganda a poem ‘The Hour of Africa has Come’ was written to mark the occasion.  His name was Joseph Kiwanuka.  There were no Catholic diocese in Africa at the time.  The African Church was run by the Sacred Congregation of the Faith – as was England from the time of the Reformation to the Restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850 – so rather than being diocesan bishops they were Vicars Apostolic.  By 1950, of the clergy working in Africa, less than 15% - some eight hundred priests – were African.  The rest were missionaries.  In terms of the Catholic Church, the hour of Africa was still some way off.

In contrast, six indigenous bishops were appointed in China in 1926 and the Church was flourishing.  In 1951 – when the Communist take-over happened, there were three million Catholics.  Out of a total of one hundred and forty-six bishops thirty five were Chinese and of the five thousand five hundred priests, two thousand five hundred were Chinese.  From the aspect of indigenisation this compares well with the Church in Latin America, the ‘Catholic’ continent where about half the clergy were still missionaries. 

But Bishop Kiwanuka in Uganda soon had his own Diocese of Masaka and his own Seminary and Ugandan sisters, priests and brothers.  But the Congo relied on Missionary priests and sisters – mainly from Belgium – while Angola and Mozambique were overwhelmingly served by Portuguese missionaries.  Belgium and Portugal were colonial powers and Catholic colonial powers did not do well in teaching self-reliance.

Pope Pius XII’s seventy strong College of Cardinals was dominated by Italians but Pope John XXIII, in his first consistory, included the first Tanzanian, Japanese, Philippino and Mexican Cardinals.  But the College of Cardinals and the Curia are still strongly Italian and European.  John XXIII faced a daunting task in bringing about change.  It would be very difficult for a Pope to get things done unless he had the co-operation and support of the Curia – the people who ran the Vatican - and they included quite a few Cardinals.  Their attitude to change was, in the words of Joseph Ratzinger, ‘an almost neurotic denial of all that was new’.  You might be very surprised at these words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  He himself was in the Curia for years and became its most important official as Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  But the words quoted come from a book he wrote in 1966 called ‘Theological Highlights of Vatican II’.  He took part in the Council as a theological advisor to Cardinal Frings and he was an enthusiastic advocate of reform.  But from 1968 onwards there was a distinct change in his theological thinking but his 1966 view of the Curia would strike many people as ‘spot on’ even to this day.

The second slate of Cardinals appointed by John XXIII included the name of Augustine Bea, the great German Jesuit biblical scholar, Rector of the Biblical Institute in Rome.  He was to play a hugely important role in bridging the gap between the Curia old guard and those committed to reform.  Cardinal Bea was very keen to improve relations with other Christian Churches.  In December 1961 he gained an audience with the Pope for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher.  Fisher was head of the Anglican World Communion and one of the Presidents of the World Council of Churches.  Cardinal Tardini – the Secretary of State at the Vatican – was annoyed as he felt he was not consulted sufficiently.  Cardinal Bea was forbidden from attending the meeting and no cameras were allowed.  The limousine bearing the leaders of the Anglican Communion was not allowed to carry Vatican licence plates and Cardinal Tardini was the one to entertain Archbishop Fisher to tea.  Cardinal Bea was head of the newly established Secretariat for Christian Unity set up to ‘show in a special manner our love and good will towards those who bear the name of Christ.’  But those who had been members of the Curia for years acted as if they had the ball and were not going to give up possession.  Pope John’s great project was the Second Vatican Council and as the opening of the Council approached the level of preparation began to be seen as decidedly low.  Some people felt that it should be delayed.  A year before, the Pope had set out his objectives.  The Council was to be outward looking, at the service of the whole world, and the Church should learn how to ‘read the signs of the times’.

But the signs of the times were not reassuring.  There was a real sense of danger and pending crisis.  The Cuban Missile Crisis was at boiling point and the threat of a possible nuclear war was palpable.  Some people think that Pope John, who was a seasoned diplomat, played some part in allowing Khrushchev and Kennedy to step back from the abyss without loss of face.  And with just three months to go to the opening of the Council he entrusted final preparations to Cardinal Suenens of Belgium and Cardinal Montini who was to succeed him as Pope Paul VI.

When Pope John opened the Council in St Peter’s on 11^th October 1962, he knew he was dying of stomach cancer.  He referred to ‘those who although consumed with zeal do not have very much judgement or balance’ and for whom the modern world was ‘nothing but betrayal and ruination’.  He spoke of ‘these prophets of misfortune who are forever forecasting calamity.’ who ‘go on as though they have learned nothing at all from history – and yet history is the great teacher of life.’

The first session of the Council ended on 8^th December and was scheduled to resume on 21^st September 1963, which indeed it did.  But meanwhile Pope John had died on 3^rd June after a short but hugely significant papacy.  He was canonised – together with Pope John Paul II – on 27^th April this year.