Vatican II and the Synod on Youth

Friends: Be sure to tune into The World Over with host Raymond Arroyo tomorrow night (Thursday 10/11/18) on EWTN. Raymond will interview TCT's Robert Royal, who will report from Rome on the first week of the ongoing Synod. The World Over airs at 8:00 PM Eastern.   Vatican II and the Synod on Youth Eduardo Echeverria: St. John XXIII opened Vatican II with a call for a new proclamation of Catholic tradition. Does Pope Francis want to change tradition? In his recent opening speech at the Synod of Bishops on Young People, did Pope Francis, as many claim, actually re-capture John XXIII’s vision in his opening address to Vatican II?             Pope Francis states that “sophisticated theological argument” is unnecessary “to prove our duty to help the contemporary world to walk towards God’s kingdom.” What then is needed?             Chiefly needed, he says, is the freedom to speak the truth with charity. This need is exercised in the practice of dialogue in which we listen to each other before we present a mutually honest, transparent, and constructive critique of each other’s views: “The first fruit of dialogue is that everyone is open to newness, to change their opinion thanks to what they have heard from others.”

            He adds, “Let us feel free to welcome and understand others and therefore to change our convictions and positions: this is a sign of great human and spiritual maturity.” This “openness” is so important to Francis that he takes it to be a “sign of a Church that really listens, that allows herself to be questioned by the experiences of those she meets, and who does not always have a ready-made answer.”

            Indeed, “The accumulation of human experiences throughout history is the most precious and trustworthy treasure that one generation inherits from another.” Let’s call this the “learning Church.”

Click here to read the rest of Professor Echeverria’s column . . .https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/10/10/vatican-ii-and-the-synod-on-youth/