Archbishop Chaput shares theological critique of youth synod prep document

Philadelphia, Pa., Sep 23, 2018 / 14:01 pm

Archbishop Charles Chaput offered Friday on First Things a critique by a theologian of the working document for the upcoming Synod on Youth, which highlights five principal theological difficulties in the document.

The synod will be held Oct. 3-28 at the Vatican. Archbishop Chaput is one of five representatives who were chosen by the US bishops' conference to attend the meeting.

In addition, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark; though Tobin has elected not to attend, citing pastoral obligations in his local Church amid the sexual abuse crisis.

The Archbishop of Philadelphia wrote Sept. 21 that in recent months he has "received scores of emails and letters from laypeople, clergy, theologians, and other scholars, young and old, with their thoughts regarding the October synod of bishops in Rome focused on young people."

"Nearly all" of those "note the importance of the subject matter", "praise the synod's intent", and "raise concerns of one sort or another about the synod's timing and possible content," he wrote.

Archbishop Chaput shared the text of a critique of the instrumentum laboris, which he received "from a respected North American theologian."

He noted it "is one person's analysis; others may disagree. But it is substantive enough to warrant much wider consideration and discussion as bishop-delegates prepare to engage the synod's theme."

The theologian identified five principal problems with the text of the instrumentum laboris for the youth synod: naturalism, an inadequate grasp of the Church's spiritual authority, a partial theological anthropology, a relativistic conception of vocation, and an impoverished understanding of Christian joy.

The author said the document "displays a pervasive focus on socio-cultural elements, to the exclusion of deeper religious and moral issues," and expresses a desire to examine reality through the faith and experience of the Church, while "regrettably fail[ing] to do so."

Four examples of this naturalism are given. One of them is the discussion in section 144, where "there is much discussion about what young people want; little about how these wants must be transformed by grace in a life that conforms to God's will for their lives."

"After pages of analysis of their material conditions, the IL offers no guidance on how these material concerns might be elevated and oriented toward their supernatural end … the majority of the document painstakingly catalogues the varied socio-economic and cultural realities of young adults while offering no meaningful reflection on spiritual, existential, or moral concerns. The reader may easily conclude that the latter are of no importance to the Church," the theologian wrote.

The theologian next discussed the document's "inadequate grasp of the Church's spiritual authority," saying that "the entire document is premised on the belief that the principal role of the magisterial Church is 'listening.'"

By its emphasis on listening and dialogue, the instrumentum laboris suggests that "the Church does not possess the truth but must take its place alongside other voices," the author wrote. "Those who have held the role of teacher and preacher in the Church must replace their authority with dialogue."

This misunderstanding of the Church's teaching authority results in a "conflation of the baptismal and sacramental priesthood", the theologian wrote, and it also "presents a pastoral problem": "the Church as mother and teacher cannot through negligence or cowardice forfeit this necessary role of setting limits and directing (Cf. §178). In this regard §171, which points to the motherhood of the Church, does not go far enough. It offers only a listening and accompanying role while eliminating that of teaching."

Third, the theologian discussed the "partial theological anthropology" of the instrumentum laboris, which they said "fails to make any mention of the will" in its discussion of the human person.

"It is the will that is fundamentally directed toward the good," the author notes. "The theological consequence of this glaring omission is extraordinarily important, since the seat of the moral life resides in the will and not in the vicissitudes of the affect."

Then is discussed the "relativistic conception of vocation" in the document, which gives the impression "that vocation concerns the individual's search for private meaning and truth."

An example of this problem is section 139, which "gives the impression that the Church cannot propose the (singular) truth to people and that they must decide for themselves. The role of the Church consists only in accompaniment. This false humility risks diminishing the legitimate contributions that the Church can and ought to make."

The last principal difficulty of the instrumentum laboris is its impoverished understanding of Christian joy, according to the theologian.

Spirituality and the moral life "are reduced to the affective dimension, clearest in §130, evidenced by a sentimentalist conception of 'joy.'"

According to the theologian, the document presents joy as "a purely affective state, a happy emotion …  Despite its constant reference to 'joy,' nowhere does the IL describe it as the fruit of the theological virtue of charity. Nor is charity characterized as the proper ordering of love, putting God first and then ordering all other loves with reference to God."

Consequent upon this understanding of joy is a lack of "any theology of the Cross" in the instrumentum laboris.

"Christian joy is not antithetical to suffering, which is a necessary component of a cruciform life," the theologian writes. "The document gives the impression that the true Christian will be 'happy' at all times, in the colloquial sense. It further implies the error that the spiritual life itself will always result in felt (affective) joy."

"The pastoral problem that results from this comes to the fore most clearly in §137: Is it the role of the Church to make youth "feel loved by him [God]" or to aid them in knowing they are loved regardless of how they might feel?"

The theologian added that there are other serious theological concerns in the document, noting, "a false understanding of the conscience and its role in the moral life; a false dichotomy proposed between truth and freedom; false equivalence between dialogue with LGBT youth and ecumenical dialogue; and an insufficient treatment of the abuse scandal."