The radical ecclesiology of mercy

There is the concept that change in the Church and Christianity means ‘progress’, whereby believers — both individually and as a community — increasingly behave more like followers of Jesus Christ and less like subjects of an empire or a firm.

Jan 08, 2016

By Massimo Faggioli
There is the concept that change in the Church and Christianity means ‘progress’, whereby believers — both individually and as a community — increasingly behave more like followers of Jesus Christ and less like subjects of an empire or a firm.

And, according to this notion, one could say that the Church has made noticeable progress during this past century.

We are all aware that there is a gap between the model offered by Jesus and the Kingdom he preached on the one hand, and the Church’s own wit ness to Jesus, on the other hand.

Catholic theology during the 20th Century, and especially at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), acknowledged the gap between the Gospel and the Church, and Pope Francis is continuing that tradition of re-evangelization — re-evangelization of the Church even before the secular world.

The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy is part of that.

Loosely wrapped in medieval symbolism and language tied to the doctrine of the indulgences, Francis’ Jubilee is re-focusing the Church on mercy. This has the potential of beginning a new age, in the way the  Church relates to its members.

Italian theologian Stella Morra offers an insightful analysis of this in a little but remarkable book she recently published — Dio non si stanca. La misericordia come forma ecclesiale,  (God never tires. Mercy as ecclesial form) published by Edizione Dehoniane, Bologna.

Morra speaks of the “symbolic overabundance of the sacrament of reconciliation” — something she says the Church needs badly. But she notes that academic Catholic theology has given up on symbolism, leaving it to music and the arts, which are now largely estranged from religion and the Church.-- Global Pulse

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