Significance of synods

As a 92-year-old, baptised, believing Christian, I enjoyed reading Ray Azzopardi’s piece ‘A Church that listens’, (April 26). What indeed struck me most was the view emphasised by the Rome Synod Secretariat that “the synod is not an event but a process...”

And this immediately set me thinking.

Those of us who follow what was, and still is, happening beyond our shores will most likely recall the tension triggered by the ongoing hermeneutic controversy surrounding Vatican Council II. Some Vaticanologists insist that Vatican Council II constituted a definite break with the past and ushered in a new paradigmatic ecclesiological concept: a line which I, in my humble ignorance, tend to uphold.

Then there is the opposite school maintaining that Vatican Council II was a mere blip in the continuing process following the Vatican I scenario, thereby rejecting the view that there has been any intervening break since 1870.

It is precisely as a corollary of this pivotal feature that the forthcoming synods – the one due this October and the concluding one due next year – will have to reflect on. Whether we like it or not, I think that, sooner or later, we will have to accept that the momentous pontificates of Pope Woytila and Pope Ratzinger stalled, rather threateningly, the evolving process of aggiornamento following Vatican Council II.

These two pontificates, spanning a 35-year stretch, perhaps unconsciously, led us into a blind alley. This long period was punctuated by a series of unmistakably atavistic decisions. Strictly speaking, one perhaps would have to look back to the pontificate of Paul VI.

The tremendous load Papa Montini had to shoulder following Vatican II to stem the adverse tide mounted by the powerful Roman Curia of cardinals Ottaviani, Siri and Ruffini was truly heroic. He was indeed the first modern pope.

It would be unrealistically unfair not to appreciate the agonising atmosphere Paul VI had to put up with from 1968 – that is from the fateful year of his controversial Humane Vitae.

The significance of the coming synods becomes all the more obvious if we ask ourselves whether the Church, inherited by Pope Francis in 2013, found itself in a straitjacket analogous to that prevailing in the Church inherited by Pope John XXIII, in 1958 following the 19-year-long pontificate of Pius XII – a situation which necessitated the providential convening of Vatican Council II.

Despite Pope John-Paul II clarion call, Non abbiate paura, the prevailing situation is none too encouraging. Have we been overtaken by events? Time will tell.

Amabile Galea – Balzan  

Who are we kidding?

A man relieving himself at the stadium.

There has been much debate about improving the tourism model in Malta to attract more high-end visitors rather than focus on increasing the numbers, which cannot continue unchecked.

But how can this be achieved when many locals at best ‘tolerate’ tourists and, at worst, positively decry the invasion of their islands each summer?

What do locals do to ensure tourists go away with a positive experience and recommend visiting to friends and family?

This picture was taken by my nephew at the national stadium on a recent visit with his 15-year-old son, which left him beyond shocked. It is a still from the full video. What makes this man think it is perfectly acceptable to relieve himself in full public view? It is hardly an advert for high-end tourism!

Janet Wojtków – St Julian’s