Cardinal Hollerich: Church is rooted in places and cultures

By Christopher Wells

With the General Assembly of the Synod entering its third week, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich encouraged participants to not give in to fatigue.

The General rapporteur’s introduction to the fourth module – on the third and final part of the Instrumentum laboris – emphasized the need to engage the work “with the same decision and energy” that has characterized the Assembly so far.

A Church rooted in places and cultures

Cardinal Hollerich noted that this module is focused on “Places,” with the fundamental idea that “the Church cannot be understood without being rooted in a place and a culture (IL, 80).

Carefully explaining each section of this part of the IL, Cardinal Hollerich noted that now, more than in the past, the idea of place “has much less of a spatial and geographic connotation than in the past, not least due to globalism and the new digital reality. He asked synod participants to consider what this means for the Church’s mission, and how we should “rethink” the organizational forms of the Church.

The following paragraphs, Cardinal Hollerich said, deal with the relationships established between places and cultures, and especially among the various local Churches, including the Eastern Catholic Churches. Within the Church, these relationships have the character of a mutual exchange of gifts. He also noted the relationships that exist between the local Churches and the universal Church, and within each local Church.

The service of the Pope

Finally, he said, this final module is set to consider “the service of unity of the Bishop of Rome,” the Pope. Cardinal Hollerich said he interprets Pope Francis to be inviting the Synod participants to approach this exchange in the spirit of “parrhesia,” or frankness, with a view to offering advice on how to make the service of the Pope and the Roman Curia “more effective today.” The Pope, he said, “is entitled to what we truly think, beginning with the life and needs of the People of God in the places we come from.”

The lived experience of synod participants

While the topics of this module might seem technical or of interest only to insiders, the Cardinal said he hoped that Wednesday’s theological-pastoral fora, open to everyone, might help to dispel this impression.

In conclusion, Cardinal Hollerich expressed his opinion that this module, like those that have come before, engages “the lived experiences” of the participants in the General Assembly. “It seems to me,” he said, “that this is the most correct perspective in which to place ourselves to face the work ahead of us.”