The Brussels Declaration

Not since the Reformation has Roman Catholic theology been such a popular topic as in the years following the Second Vatican Council. New opinions by theologians on such diverse subjects as sexual morality, original sin, papal infallibility and even the nature of the Mass and sacraments have provoked applause, shock and division. Last week, in an attempt to arrive at some "common denominators" that might ease the division, 225 of those theologians --mostly Catholics but including a few Protestants--met in Brussels to discuss 'The Future of the Church."

Their consensus turned out to be a major statement for Catholic theology embracing 15 resolutions, each passed by more than two-thirds of the theologians voting. The congress called for more democratic methods of choosing the Pope, bishops and priests. It called for pluralism in both theology and church structure, insisted on Christian involvement in securing political freedom, and urged investigation of a role for women in the ministry.

At first it seemed as if the congress might simply have been a good opportunity for theologians to gather and learn how far they had come since Vatican II and how far they had yet to go. Sponsored by Concilium, a five-year-old international journal of theology edited by some of Catholicism's most progressive thinkers, the congress provided an array of theological superstars including The Netherlands' Edward Schillebeeckx, France's Yves Congar, Germany's Karl Rahner, Hans Kueng and Johan Metz. Participants came from 32 countries, including 40 from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Some 700 observers signed up and nearly 200 journalists arrived for the five-day conference. Earnest, grave, mostly business-suited in the now-common European priestly fashion, the theologians gathered in Brussels' vast Palais des Congres. The conference began peacefully enough. Then, when Schillebeeckx and his Concilium colleagues offered 28 rough-draft resolutions for the congress to consider, the lid came off.

Three a Day. A U.S. liberal, Fordham Jesuit Ladislas Orsy, led the rebels. "Are you trying to manipulate us?" he asked the organizers from the floor. Liberals and conservatives alike protested the prepackaged resolutions. After two days of sometimes bitter floor debate, the participants finally voted 144 to 47 to publish their own resolutions.

This crisis behind them, the theologians went briskly to business. Three-a-day speeches, directed toward such topics as the contemporary meaning of the Christian message and the place of the church in society, had begun during the resolutions squabble. Yves Congar spoke of the rise of small, experimental Christian communities, arguing that despite irregularities "they represent something valuable, and must be accepted." Belgian Theologian Antoine Vergote argued for a more relaxed church attitude in promulgating sex ethics, charging that too many potential Catholics are discouraged by moral laws presented as "finished and perfect systems that one must take or leave." Johan Metz reiterated the political corollary of the theology of hope: that the memory of Jesus Christ's passion, death and resurrection is "a dangerous and liberating remembrance of freedom" that requires Christians to challenge oppressive systems.

Important Viewpoints. Boiled down to resolutions, the ideas went to eleven separate working groups, where the proposals were attacked phrase by phrase as if the participants were drafting a new Nicene Creed. Afterward, each group reported its objections, and the resolutions were once again reworked. "It's impossible," moaned one participant as his group tried to revise three resolutions on the church in society. "We're trying to do in three paragraphs what Vatican II did in one of its longest documents." Yet the results, in the end, were substantial.

In a preamble to the final documents, the congress organizers said, "we do not wish to offer any theological definition or answers. But we are of the conviction that the following viewpoints are important in both theory and practice." Excerpts from their conclusions:

ON THEOLOGY. "The work of theology is to be carried out in the light of both the Gospel message and society, i.e., the contribution of various cultures, their sciences, arts, literature and religions. This implies a theological pluralism . . ."

ON THE NATURE OF CHRIST. Those who would speak of Jesus without taking into account his relation to God fail to recognize him as the Christ. Those who would speak of Jesus without taking into account his relation to men fail to recognize his relevance as the Christ."

ON POLITICAL ACTION. "Christian communities must acquire a critical awareness of their historically conditioned situations and take a position in favor of freedom in the various societies of which they are a part."

ON POLITICAL PRISONERS. "We express our solidarity with those who are actually working for the liberation of men, in particular with those who are exiled, imprisoned, or tortured because of this involvement." Among the prisoners singled out: Joaquim Pinto de Andrade, who for the past ten years has been either in prison or in exile in Angola, seven Brazilian Dominicans accused of being members of a terrorist group, and the Berrigan brothers, now in prison for destroying U.S. Government draft files. The resolution also referred to "many others whose names cannot be publicly mentioned"--a reference presumably including some imprisoned in Communist countries.

ON CHURCH ORGANIZATION. "The New Testament presents diverse types and even several principles of organization of the Christian communities. On this basis there have been developed, in the course of history, multiple forms of church order. In the light of history, we ought to respect and pursue diversity."

ON ELECTION IN THE CHURCH. "The nature of the church, the people of God and the evolution of history necessitate today a revision of the procedure by which a Pope, a bishop or a pastor is chosen. Thus, it would be appropriate if the members of the Christian community would be able to participate in the choice of their ministers."

ON WOMEN IN THE CHURCH. "We must denounce discrimination against women in the church, a discrimination which often exists also in the rest of society. The church should examine seriously the possible role of women in the ministries."

A few participants who craved more radical statements were disappointed. "They've been thinking about these things for ten years," explained Chicago Divinity School's Langdon Gilkey, one of the Protestant theologians at the congress, "and they're bored. But what is happening here is exhilarating. It's absolutely revolutionary." That may well be so. The very fact that the theologians chose to express themselves so positively, Yves Congar suggested, was revolutionary in itself.

If the resolutions of the Brussels declaration are to accomplish anything concrete in the Roman Catholic Church, there must be an answer for "the widening credibility gap" between hierarchy and theologians that Belgium's Leo-Jozef Cardinal Suenens noted during the congress. To bridge that gap may well require something as dramatic as the proposal Suenens made in his opening address to the meeting: a second Council of Jerusalem, including Orthodox and Protestant Christians as well as Roman Catholics. But it might begin, as the theologians suggest in one of their resolutions, with a recognition that "the magisterium of the church and the theologians serve one same Christian message." If that realization blooms and the hierarchy in fact listen to even a fraction of the ideas put forth at Brussels, the church and the world in which it lives will surely be different.

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