Conference titled Vatican II: For the Next Generation, will examine signs of today's times
By Deborah GyapongCatherine Clifford
Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA (CCN)

A conference here Sept. 27-29 marking the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council will examine how to "hand on the Gospel today" in light of Vatican II's teachings, said Catherine Clifford, a Saint Paul University theology professor and an organizer of the conference.

"One of our goals is to promote the pastoral renewal of the Church," said Clifford. The conference will be titled "Vatican II: For the Next Generation."

Co-sponsored by the Vatican II and 21st Century Catholicism Research Centre at Saint Paul University and Novalis Publishing, the conference will begin a week before bishops from around the world gather in Rome for the Synod on the New Evangelization.

The conference line-up has drawn some controversy, however. The SoCon.ca blog has launched an online petition that blogger John Pacheco hopes will reach 200 names before he sends it at the end of June to Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana.

The letter urges the nuncio to advise Cardinal Peter Turkson, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who is to give a keynote address, to avoid the "scandal" of appearing at a conference of "dissenters."

"The world we live in today is very different from the world 50 years ago," Clifford said. Many of the questions are not the same questions the bishops were reflecting on from 1962-<0x2019>65 at the council."

"We're called to read the signs of this time and to engage in that open dialogue in a spirit of humility with other Christians, other faiths, and contemporary society."

When Vatican II opened 50 years ago, it took place against the backdrop of the Cold War, less than 20 years after the end of World War II, said Clifford.

Since then there has been a marked shift to the global integration of societies and culture, she said. "The Internet is part of that."

"It's an era of an unprecedented migration of peoples," she said. "The population of the world has more than doubled; the population of the Catholic Church has more than doubled."

"The majority of Catholics live not in Europe and North America but in the southern hemisphere," she said. "We are a very different Church than we were 50 years ago."

The world is marked by more global structures such as the United Nations, she said. "There is still armed conflict and war but there is more consensus that violence is not the way to solve conflict but only a last resort."

Though poverty and social injustice remain challenges, "in some ways those issues are far more complex than they were 50 years ago," she said.

Another sign is the growing recognition of the dignity of the human person that is probably even stronger than it was 50 years ago, when the civil rights movement in the United States was gaining momentum, she said.

Cardinal Peter Turkson's keynote address will be titled, "Vatican II: A Council of Justice and Peace." He will receive an honorary doctorate at a convocation in the university chapel Sept. 28.

Other conference attendees include Christoph Theobald, SJ, a professor of dogmatic theology from the Centre Sevres in Paris, and Boston College systematic theology professor Richard Gaillardetz. The conference will feature a panel of bishops and advisers who participated in the Council, including Bishop Remi De Roo, a former bishop of Victoria; Bishop Gerard J. Deschamps of Daru-Kiunga, Papua New Guinea; and advisers Gregory Baum, a former Augustinian priest; and Father Leo Laberge, OMI.

The letter to be sent to the nuncio says, "The Holy Father has consistently maintained that the documents of the Vatican II must be understood and interpreted in light of our Catholic Tradition, in a 'hermeneutic of continuity,' to use his nomenclature."

"This is, of course, opposed to the 'hermeneutic of rupture or discontinuity' which the Holy Father has criticized and denounced as a break from our Holy Tradition," the letter said. "But it is very likely that many, if not even most, of the individuals at this conference are advocating positions not only against our Holy Father's vision of Vatican II, but also other positions which are seriously contrary to Catholic teaching."

The letter then critiques the stands of participants on a range of issues.

Clifford said things these theologians have said have been "taken out of context" and are "not a fair representation of the views of the people they are criticizing."

"I think they misrepresent the work and damage the reputations of these people," she said, describing them as "respected theologians and leaders who have given a life of service to the Church and I think in no way are disloyal to the Church and its teaching."

Clifford said the conference has received a high level of positive interest and registrations are flowing in. More information can be found at http://ustpaul.ca or from vaticancentre@ustpaul.ca.