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    Compassion and Solidarity
    Compassion and Solidarity
    Compassion and Solidarity
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Compassion and Solidarity

    By Gregory Baum

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    About this ebook

    In the forthright style that has earned him a reputation for controversy, theologian Gregory Baum presents the Faith and Justice movement in the churches -- especially the Roman Catholic Church -- together with the considerable opposition to it. He discusses why many Christians are becoming activists, turning their faith into deeds by working for the liberation of the poor, not only in South America and the Third World but in Canada, as well.

    Baum argues for a new ecumenism, permitting a more representative opinion within the Church and, in a larger sense, for what he believes are the fundamentals of a "just society." He says that there is a new realization that God is on the side of the oppressed -- that Christians are here to help in the struggle for liberation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHouse of Anansi Press
    Release dateSep 29, 1992
    ISBN9780887848513
    Compassion and Solidarity
    Author

    Gregory Baum

    Gregory Baum is Professor Emeritus at McGill University, and is currently associated with the Jesuit-sponsored Centre justice et foi in Montreal.

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      I read this way back in University. I honestly don't remember it very well. I should probably read it again.

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    Compassion and Solidarity - Gregory Baum

    1. The Solidarity Movement in the Church

    IN THE RECENT DEBATES OVER THE CANADIAN refugee policy the Christian churches were vocal in their defense of compassion and common sense. We learned from the mass media that organizations representing churches, synagogues, labour, and human right groups had become the defenders of refugees and advocates of a more generous public policy. They tried to calm the near-hysterical reactions that swept certain sectors of the population. Have the churches always stood up for the poor? Have the churches always been in solidarity with the victims of society?

    In these five lectures I wish to speak of a new movement in the Christian churches that creates a startling link between religious faith and concern for others. What has taken place in the Christian religion is an outburst of compassion. I wish to dedicate these lectures to the memory of Bishop Adolph Proulx of Hull-Gatineau, Quebec, the compassionate and courageous champion of social justice, whose sudden death in the summer of 1987 deprived the Catholic Church of one of its most ardent and most influential activists.

    In the first lecture I shall describe this faith-and-justice movement in some detail. The movement began among the few, it involved a minority of Christians, and, surprisingly, it has since been endorsed by the church authorities. This is true of all the major churches, Anglican, Protestant, and Roman Catholic. Since I am a theologian in the Roman Catholic Church, it is from developments in this tradition that I shall illustrate the meaning and power of the new movement.

    In the second lecture I shall analyze the resistance to the new movement within the churches. Certain conflicts in the Catholic Church deserve attention, not least because they have a certain impact on society. In the third lecture I shall describe what this movement looks like in Canada. In particular, I shall analyze the radical social teaching of the Canadian Catholic bishops. In the fourth lecture I shall try to express the spiritual content of the new movement. It would be quite wrong to think that the new commitment to social justice affects only the ethics and the practice of Christians. I wish to show that it also affects their prayer, their perception of God, their spiritual life. In the final lecture I shall show that the social conflict over material things is actually, at the deepest level, a struggle over values.

    In this first lecture, then, I wish to tell the remarkable story of how the explosion of compassion and solidarity took place in the Roman Catholic Church. It occurred, as I mentioned above, in all the churches. It happened especially in 1948, when the World Council of Churches, which has its headquarters in Geneva, was established. Yet the development in the Roman Catholic Church is so remarkable because this Church is known to be doctrinally conservative, committed to the ancient creeds, and defensive in regard to its own historical tradition.

    The Catholic story must be told in two phases. The first one began in the early sixties with the Second Vatican Council, the full assembly of Catholic bishops convoked by Pope John XXIII. It was held in Rome from 1962 to 1965. A general council of this kind is an extraordinary event in the Catholic Church. The last one, the First Vatican Council, took place over a hundred years ago. The purpose of Vatican II was to permit the Catholic Church to find a creative response to the challenge of the modern world. Pope John said that he wanted to open the windows of the Church to let light and air come in. He wanted the Church to engage in self-criticism. He wanted the bishops of the Council to listen to the reform movements in the Catholic Church. And he wanted them to learn from the renewal efforts of the other Christian churches. At the Vatican Council, the Catholic Church discovered a new sense of solidarity with other religious communities and in fact with the whole of the human family.

    It is no exaggeration to say that in the past, the solidarity of Christians was confined to Christians. In her official liturgy, magnificent though it was, the Catholic Church prayed only for the Christian people, not for outsiders, not for humanity. The one exception was the liturgy of Good Friday, when the Church prayed for the conversion of all outsiders to the Catholic faith.

    To illustrate the new sense of solidarity, let me mention first the positive approach taken by the Council to the ecumenical movement. This movement, created by Protestant and Anglican Christians earlier in the century, aimed at enhancing the unity of faith and action among the Christian churches. The Catholic Church had refused to participate in the ecumenical movement. At Vatican II, the Church modified its position. For the first time the Catholic Church recognized the other Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ, as co-heirs of the Gospel. The Council recognized other Christian churches as churches in the true theological sense, as believing communities used by the Holy Spirit as agents of grace and salvation. At the Council the Catholic Church committed itself to take part in the ecumenical movement.

    I had the good fortune to be deeply involved in this effort of Vatican II. Pope John XXIII had appointed me as theological expert at the Secretariat for Christian Unity under the chairmanship of Cardinal Bea. One of the tasks of the Secretariat was to promote the spirit of ecumenism at the Council. We were allowed to invite Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox observers. We engaged in dialogue with them and communicated their recommendations to the Council. More than that, the Secretariat submitted a draft proposal for a decree on ecumenism. The bishops were at first very cautious in regard to the new approach to other Christians and their churches, but the conciliar debate touched them and they changed their mind. To witness this spiritual transformation taking place in the Catholic Church was one of the most moving and exciting experiences of my life.

    It is easy to document the impact of Vatican II on the relations between Catholics and Protestants in Canada. Here the churches have learned to cooperate. While they differ in regard to certain points of doctrine, they stand for the same social values and adopt common positions on matters of social justice. Before John Paul II visited Canada in 1984, the Canadian churches published a joint letter addressed to all their members, in which they welcomed the Pope as a witness to the Gospel. I know of no other country where this happened.

    In Canada, theological education has to a large extent become ecumenical. Catholics and Protestants read one another’s biblical studies and theological writings; they use one another’s textbooks. In some schools, for instance in the Toronto School of Theology, Protestant and Catholic seminaries and faculties cooperate in providing theological education for their students. Similar efforts at theological cooperation are found all over Canada and in the United States.

    Of even greater importance is that on the social day-to-day level, Christians have overcome the estrangement of the past. They have learned to trust one another. Spiritual solidarity has come to transcend the confessional boundaries.

    Of worldwide historical importance is the change in the Catholic Church’s attitude toward the Jewish people and Jewish religion. The Vatican Council was willing to listen to the theological position worked out by critical Catholics who took with utmost seriousness the Holocaust, the mass murder of the Jews during World War Two. After the war, critical Christians, including Catholics and Protestants, created a movement in the churches to review the

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