On synod reforms and that theology which was "done with faith"

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican Insider
December 12, 2014

“None of the speeches given called into question the fundamental truths regarding the Sacrament of Marriage indissolubility, unity, faithfulness and openness to life,” Francis said at the Wednesday Audience, describing what was discussed at the recent Synod on the family. His words seem to indicate that the different positions taken during the lively Synodal debate over the possibility of opening up the sacraments to remarried divorcees did not deny the “fundamental truths” of marriage.

Italian journalist and theologian Gianni Gennari recalled the elements that were examined further and related developments in an article on Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae encyclical and birth control. This issue was mentioned in the Synod documents but was not discussed as much as other topics were. “Until 1951,” Gennari says, “the very thought of using so-called natural methods was considered a serious sin, a mortal sin. In 1931, Pius XI’s “Casti Connubii” was very clear: no reason or contraceptive method (even so-called natural methods) was considered acceptable! … In the years that followed, a heated discussion took place in the Church over progestogens etc. and in 1951, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the “Castii Connubii”, Pius XII planned to condemn all such methods again.” The personal words repeatedly pronounced by the Jesuit Fr. Virginio Rotondi were decisive in making him change his mind in the famous address he gave to obstetricians in November 1951, giving the nod to natural methods.

Pius XII’s decision to open up to “natural methods” of contraception marked a “big change”, leaving the Roman school of the theology surprised and displeased. As Gennari pointed out, this was “a decisive change in Catholic doctrine”. With the exception of true indissolubility, it is rash to talk about “dogmas of the faith” when it comes to sexuality and marriage, using these as an obstacle a priori. In fact, the true and absolute doctrine of the Church regarding sexuality, family and other such topics, has changed a number of times over the centuries, including recently.” Gennari recalled that in one of his catecheses on the body and sexuality, John Paul II described as “having no basis in the Word of Christ”, something which had been stated in the Council of Trent and confirmed in paragraphs 21 and 28 of Pius XII’s encyclical “Sacra Virginitas” published in 1954. Paragraph 21 of Pius XII’s document said that “according to the teaching of the Church, holy virginity surpasses marriage in excellence”. Paragraph 28 solemnly set this in stone, mentioning the Council of Trent’s “anatema sit” on those who claimed that “virginity does not surpass marriage”. Regarding this point, John Paul II expressly denied that this position had any basis in faith itself. In the Audience held on 14 April 1982, Wojtyla said: “In Christ's words on continence for the kingdom of heaven there is no reference to the inferiority of marriage with regard to the body, or in other words with regard to the essence of marriage, consisting in the fact that man and woman join together in marriage, thus becoming one flesh. "The two will become one flesh" (Gn 2:24). Christ's words recorded in Matthew 19:11-12 (as also the words of Paul in 1 Cor 7) give no reason to assert the inferiority of marriage, nor the superiority of virginity or celibacy inasmuch as by their nature virginity and celibacy consist in abstinence from the conjugal union in the body. Christ's words on this point are quite clear … Marriage and continence are neither opposed to each other, nor do they divide the human (and Christian) community into two camps (let us say, those who are "perfect" because of continence and those who are "imperfect" or "less perfect" because of the reality of married life).”

“On the other hand,” John Paul II concluded, “there is no basis for a presumed counterposition according to which celibates (or unmarried persons), only by reason of their continence, would make up the class of those who are "perfect," and, to the contrary, married persons would make up a class of those who are "imperfect" (or "less perfect").” Taking these recent examples into consideration, Gennari urges caution when speaking in absolute terms about an “unchangeable doctrine” on marriage, sexuality, family and other such topics being, in an attempt to set “limits ahead of the upcoming Synod”.

At last Wednesday’s Audience, Pope Francis expressed trust in the path the Synod is taking, showing that he was not in any way afraid to face differing positions, but stressed the profoundly different nature of the Synod in comparison to parliament. “Always, when we seek the will of God in a Synodal assembly, there are diverse points of view and there is discussion, and this is not something unpleasant. May it always be done with humility and a spirit of service to the assembly of brothers.” And the whole thing unfolded “cum Petro et sub Petro”, in the presence of the Pope that is. The Pope is a “guarantee of freedom and trust for everybody, and a guarantee of orthodoxy.”

That trust is also reflected in the following example from 1950 given in Joseph Ratzinger’s autobiography. "We all lived in the perception of the Reincarnation, which we noticed already in the 1920s, of a theology able to consider questions with renewed courage and of a spirituality that got rid of what was outdated and surpassed, to revive a new way of joy of the redemption. Dogma was not perceived as an external link, but as the vital source which made new knowledge possible.”

Before publishing the Apostolic Constitution defining the dogma of the Assumption, Pius XII asked theology faculties around the world for an opinion. “Our teachers’ answer was emphatically negative” Ratzinger wrote. “What here became evident was the one-sidedness, not only of the historical, but also of the historicist method in theology. ‘Tradition’ was identified with what could be proved on the basis of texts. Altaner, a patrologist from Würzburg, “had proven in a scientifically persuasive manner that the doctrine of Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven was unknown before the fifth century.” This doctrine could not therefore belong to the ‘apostolic tradition’, a conclusion also shared by Ratzinger’s teachers in Munich.

“This argument is compelling if you understand ‘tradition’ strictly as the handing down of fixed formulas and texts,” Ratzinger remarked. “This was the position that our teachers represented. But if you conceive of ‘tradition’ as the living process of truth whereby the Holy Spirit introduces us to the fullness of truth and teaches us how to understand what previously we could still not grasp (cf. Jn 16:12-13), then subsequent ‘remembering’ (cf. Jn 16:4, for instance) can come to recognize what it had not caught sight of previously and yet was already handed down in the original Word.” Ratzinger wrote that in 1949, one year before the proclamation of the dogma was issued, Professor Gottlieb Söhngen expressed firm disagreement. Another professor, Eduard Schlink, who taught Systematic Theology at Heidelberg, asked him: “What will you do if the dogma is proclaimed anyway? Wouldn’t you have to turn your back on the Catholic Church?” Söhngen’s response was this: “If the dogma is proclaimed, I will bear in mind that the Church is wiser than I am and that I have more faith in the Church than in my erudition.”” I think that this small scene says everything about the spirit in which theology was done [in those days],” Ratzinger said, “both critically and with faith.”