On March 25 and 26, numerous bishops and theologians will meet at Loyola University Chicago at an event entitled “Pope Francis, Vatican II, and the Way Forward.” The event is sponsored by Boston College’s Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Loyola University Chicago’s Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture. The directors of each of those institutes—Fr. Mark Massa, S.J., Michael P. Murphy, and David Gibson, respectively—are heading the event.
In speaking with The Torch, Fr. Massa, a historian of the American Catholic Church who is also a former dean of BC’s School of Theology and Ministry (STM) and a current faculty member in BC’s Theology Department, described how the event was inspired first by a phone call from his friend Michael Sean Winters, one of the senior editors of the National Catholic Reporter, and then a meeting of the two at nearby Sturbridge Village. Winters, related Fr. Massa, proposed the question “Why don’t we have an event where theologians can talk with bishops?” Fr. Massa responded, “Well that’s exactly what Common Ground was,” referencing an initial effort at such dialogue between bishops and theologians begun in 1996 by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago.
However, according to Fr. Massa, this effort “foundered … first of all Common Ground was too big. If you have too many people in a room then no real conversation takes place. It’s like talking in a big class.” Winters, also recognizing this shortcoming of Common Ground, proposed to Fr. Massa the idea of “a Common Ground that works, a smaller thing.” With this idea, Fr. Massa called in his colleagues Gibson and Murphy of the centers listed above, and the three began developing the idea over many Zoom meetings into a full-fledged conference. The invitees include the “centrist bishops … who are open to having a conversation” along with members of the Catholic press. Chatham House Rules will be in effect, in which “the quotes can be quoted but nobody can be ascribed,” said Fr. Massa.
“We want to show that opposition to Pope Francis, not universally, but to a large extent is opposition to Vatican II,” said Fr. Massa in describing the goal of the meeting. “Francis is trying to cash the check that Vatican II wrote: synodality was the big thing.”
“Synodality … simply means that decisions should be made on the local level,” Fr. Massa said. “Every national church, every group of dioceses, should have a synod to talk about local things in conversation with each other … the idea is that you try to have conversations as close to the local level as you can and not appeal everything to Rome.”
“It’s an opening meeting that we hope will become an annual or semi-annual event that will provide a forum where bishops and theologians can talk frankly to each other about important things that really get buried in the press … I don’t want to leave these important questions to the secular press who don’t understand what’s going on.”
Speaking long-term, Fr. Massa proposed an aim of “How can we move the American church away from these culture wars divided between conservatives and liberals…to a united position where it’s possible to be on a spectrum of positions and still be considered a good Catholic and not be called names by people who disagree with you.”
Friday’s keynote addresses include Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University, renowned scholar of Vatican II, on “Opposition to Francis Rooted in Abandonment of Vatican II as a Source of Renewal” as well as M. Therese Lysaught of Loyola University Chicago on “Reclaiming the Moral and Intellectual Tradition from the Culture Wars.” Saturday’s keynote will be Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos, O.F.M. and head of the Latin American Bishops Council (CELAM) on “The Latino Experience of Synodality.” Fr. Massa will be speaking on the panel “The Money, Media, and Networks that Oppose Pope Francis.” Fellow BC theologian Hosffman Ospino of the STM will be speaking on the panel “Pastoral-Theological Ideas for Affective Collegiality with Pope Francis and Receiving Vatican II.”
Fr. Massa also offered some of his own thoughts on the state of dialogue within the Church in America. “Nothing is so bad as when the Church starts to get involved in political debates,” he said. “We’ve reduced people to soundbites … when you reduce theology to those kinds of political monikers you really cover as much as you’re uncovering.”
“Catholicism is the big tent, we’re by far the biggest single denomination in the United States, and it has not been good at keeping its Catholics,” Fr. Massa said in describing the American Church. “I would like the BC community to understand that there are a lot of people who are working very hard to make Catholicism more conversant and to make Catholicism serve where we are as American Catholics in a clearer, better way than we have up to now.”
Thomas is a student in BC’s Carroll School of Management, who fittingly serves as the current Business Manager of The Torch in addition to his position as Campus News Editor. Thomas can be found around campus singing at Masses with the Liturgy Arts Group, tabling for the BC Pro-Life Club, deep in conversation while enjoying BC Dining cuisine, or gazing in awe at Gasson Hall and its Collegiate Gothic style architectural neighbors.
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