Modernists now cry out for a "theology of provisionality" and Church spaces to become living spaces. And worry about right-wing extremists among Catholic influencers.
Theologians: Church spaces should become living spaces
Panel discussion on "A church that allows more life?!" - Werlen: The church must support people in their "cry for life" - Vicar General Mattel and ÖPI Director Eder-Cakl: Synodality as a hopeful path for the Church into the future.
Church spaces are not only places of prayer, silence, and for quite a few people, places of home – they can also become "living spaces" where they courageously open up, venture into new creative paths, and become an expression of a church that is undergoing transformation as a whole: the participants in a panel discussion on Wednesday in Salzburg agreed on this. As part of the discussion format "Constructive Theology: A Church That Allows More Life?!" jointly organized by "Salzburg University Weeks" and "Christ in the Present," the former Abbot of Einsiedeln, Martin Werlen, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, Harald Mattel, and the director of the Austrian Pastoral Institute (ÖPI), Gabriele Eder-Cakl, debated together.
Werlen advocated a radical departure from what he considers an outdated approach to church interior design. "We should no longer think in terms of the Church and its spaces, but rather in terms of people and their cries for life," he argued. He had the impression that the church was too focused on "preserving the status quo" and "not enough with the people." "Sometimes I feel like the extended arm of the Monuments Office. Yet the church is only a church when it hears people's cries for life." In the St. Gerold/Vorarlberg provostship, which Werlen has led as provost since 2020, the church interior was radically redesigned, benches replaced with chairs, and the sanctuary was altered. Sometimes, it's just small touches that make people "suddenly breathe a sigh of relief in a church."
The director of the Austrian Pastoral Institute (ÖPI), Gabriele Eder-Cakl, emphasized the need for reform within the church, but at the same time emphasized that the "Synodal Process" initiated by Pope Francis and continued by his successor, Pope Leo XIV, is the right path to becoming a church "that lets live more." She is particularly encouraged by the testimony of so many young people who have given impressive testimony of their faith in Rome in recent weeks during the "Youth Jubilee." The "longing for a fulfilling life, for true love," for example, is driving a growing number of 15- to 25-year-olds to be baptized. At the same time, she senses "great fear of change, especially among church leaders."
However, despite all the enthusiasm she encountered from young Christian influencers—she participated in a meeting of 1,000 such influencers in Rome—Eder-Cakl sees a problem in some of the questionable religious attitudes within this group. "We must not close our eyes to the fact that there are also fundamentalist individuals and groups, including right-wing extremists, who want to be more papal than the Pope in everything and deny other people their Catholicism." However, she adds, it is important to constantly seek dialogue and not break it off.
Cathcon: So how do you think calling people right-wing extremists just because they disagree with your very modernistic version of Christianity is going to lead to dialogue?
Harald Mattel, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, pointed to the positive experiences that come with implementing synodal processes right down to the parishes. Through more conscious listening to one another and the joint search for paths into the future, a kind of "theology of provisionality" emerges that rekindles people's enthusiasm for the church. If this succeeds, the church will also once again become a home. In all of this, it becomes clear: "The church is always more than just its buildings."
Cathcon: The secular world is trying to seize sacred space to live in Catholic Churches, the dwelling place and the throne room of God upon earth. Synodality is being used as a coercive weapon to achieve secular aims.
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