The Pope signalled how this shift must foster a "fundamentally contextual theology" based on a nexus between relationships, experience, and no longer being self-referential.

The following offers a brief exploration of these features to help appreciate Francis' call for a more open and forward-thinking theology today.

Theology's new relational basis rests - dialogue

According to Francis, theology's new relational basis rests in dialogue.

He said theology "cannot but take place in a culture of dialogue and encounter between different traditions and knowledge, between different Christian confessions and different religions, openly confronting all, believers and non-believers."

This perspective has significant consequences.

The central presupposition of a theology of dialogue is that anyone can understand what is believed about God more deeply when they open themselves to the truth statements of all religions.

However, not only has Francis promoted the importance of theology across religious borders, but for him, theology is no longer only "faith seeking understanding."

Non-believers or people without faith are to be involved.

Therefore, Francis has not only cast the Catholic theology net into the fresh waters of other faith traditions, but he has also overcome the risk of excluding people who do not have faith.

For Francis to undertake this theology across religious borders, we "will have to face the profound cultural transformations" that society is undergoing.

Those transformations affect us all. Intentionally or not, the Pope has made theology relevant for everyone.

Concrete human experience

The Pope has emphasised another source for theology, namely, human experience, the concrete situations in which we are inserted, and knowledge of things gained through our involvement in them.

This is really not revolutionary because experience has been a theological source in the Catholic tradition for quite some time.

However, what is new is Francis's push for the experience of the other.

He is clearly seeking that theology reaches into "the open wounds of humanity and of creation and within the folds of human history, to which it prophesies the hope of a unique fulfilment."

Perhaps Pope Francis' emphasis on broad interfaith experience, even for non-believers, is probably the document's most revolutionary aspect.

He has encouraged a search for the wisdom of the world, call that Wisdom whatever you want - in the Catholic tradition, it is the divine Logos Jesus Christ, to be more clearly a common trans-religious source of theological understanding.

In other words, Francis's new theology is simply a nuanced comparative and intercultural theology.

This new theology's existential basis is signalled by fostering a "fundamentally contextual theology, capable of reading and interpreting the Gospel in the conditions in which men and women live daily."

Still, despite Ad theologiam promovendam's revolutionary undertone, Francis's argument in favour of an existential theology across religious borders is actually rooted in the biblical command to love our neighbour.

He affirmed that "it is impossible to know the truth without practising charity."

Obviously, this requires engagement and connection; therefore, he has linked dialogue and experience-based knowledge because we cannot love what we do not know.

This may be the document's most outstanding and transformative feature.

Theology: a free search for truth

The Pope also made the case for theology no longer being self-referential, that is, a defence of already held positions.

The Motu Proprio begins: "To promote theology in the future we cannot limit ourselves to abstractly re-proposing formulas and schemes from the past."

Francis has indicated that for theology to be worthwhile today, it must reach beyond its own methods and engage with other branches of knowledge.

Rather than proving its own presuppositions, it must be the free search for truth "as part of a network of relationships, first of all with other disciplines and other knowledge."

In other words, theology must be transdisciplinary, that is, "the pooling and fermentation of all knowledge in the space of Light and Life offered by the Wisdom that flows from God's Revelation" (Veritatis gaudium, 2018).

Further, according to the Pope, contemporary theology must present itself as "a true knowledge, as sapiential knowledge, not abstract and ideological, but spiritual, elaborated on its knees, full of adoration and prayer."

In this sense, Pope Francis has blurred the fundamental distinction between theology as knowledge-based inquiry and religion as faith-based practice.

For the Pope, theology is no longer just an academic pursuit.

While prior Magisterial teachings have already affirmed that we can know something decisive about God through other faith traditions (Nostra aetate, 1965), Francis has catapulted Catholic theology into the open space of no longer determining its own position solely from the sources of Scripture and Tradition.

For Pope Francis, a theology whose sources remain within its own system is a closed theology that will eventually become irrelevant.

But a theology that goes beyond its own borders develops friendship with all, therefore being highly relevant for all times.

Evolving consequences

With these hallmarks, Pope Francis has promoted an open theology focused on dialogue and human experience. He has indicated how these are meaningful sources of theology, places we must go to understand more fully God, ourselves, and the world.

With Pope Francis now onboard, we can say that theology schools which do not allow theological inquiry across religious borders are not safe places to study today. They risk exclusivity, isolation, and the production of Francis' "little monsters" - priests and seminarians, even some laity more concerned about defence propositions for what they know little about.

Consequently, opportunities for theology students must exist in Catholic theology schools to study theology beyond a single faith tradition.

Let us hope that any future Catholic Chair of Theology at one of New Zealand's universities will embrace Francis' call for a forward-thinking, experience-based theology of dialogue and relationship.

In sum, Ad theologiam promovendam has promoted an open theology that seeks to understand its own content in a relationship with the people and content of other faiths.

This is more in line with what theology really is, a seeking of understanding, and this is why it is important also for people who do not have faith, and especially important in a country like New Zealand, which has a remarkably high religious diversity with little means to manage that diversity.

• Dr Christopher Longhurst is a Catholic theologian, Fellow of KAICIID, serves on the executive of the Association of Practical Theology in Oceania, and is lecturer in theology at Te Kupenga Theological College of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Waikato Times reports a woman from within the Hamilton Catholic diocese saying that in a meeting with Lowe, she told him she was raped by a Catholic priest who had visited her house to perform a blessing.

In the course of the conversation, the Times discloses the woman says Lowe told her, "SNAP have blown things out of proportion at the Royal Commission [of Inquiry into Abuse in Care]."

The comments left her feeling "the church has let me down," she says.

"I was shaking, and it caused me to cry because the Bishop brought back a feeling that what the priest did to me was not significant.

"When survivors speak up against the abuse then the Bishop thinks this is out of proportion. I would like to know what a proportionate response is to being raped by a priest, as I was."

With legal matters continuing, the Waikato Times sought an interview with Lowe about the woman's experience but says the diocese responded with an emailed statement from Lowe.

Quoting from part of the email, The Times reports Lowe indicated he had been "actively helping [the woman] in my role as Bishop.

"I am not able to breach the confidentiality of my work with her by discussing it in public."

However, the abuse victim complained to a Catholic abuse Survivor network (SNAP) about Lowe and his response to her disclosure.

Against the background of ongoing legal matters, SNAP's national leader Dr Christopher Longhurst is looking to Lowe for a more pastoral resolution to his comment and the effect it had on the woman.

"I am sorry that Bishop Lowe has not been upfront with an explanation as to what he said," says Longhurst. "I do not believe this has anything to do with confidentiality. Privacy and confidentiality pertain to personal information, not to process or requests for clarification."

"To me, the Bishop's response seems like an example of the three Ds of avoiding accountability: deny, deflect, diffuse. A straightforward and honest response to our request for clarification would have been more appropriate," Longhurst adds.

"Stonewalling, silence and denial are the constant response from this Bishop," says Longhurst.

Longhurst feels an apology to the woman "would have been more appropriate and is still warranted".

Source

• The Waikato Times

SNAP's unhappy letter to Pope Francis follows the New Zealand Government's exclusion of faith-based survivors from early compensation pay-outs and a failed appeal to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.

The Government wants faith-based institutions to continue with their own redress schemes.

Abuse survivor and spokesperson for SNAP, Dr Christopher Longhurst (pictured), says it is his opinion that victims and survivors in New Zealand were not being treated justly under the Catholic Church's redress scheme.

However, Steve Lowe, Bishop of Auckland and Secretary of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, counter's Longhurst's opinion saying the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference and congregational leaders have listened to survivors through the inquiry hearings and implemented changes.

Lowe, in a statement, told CathNews that the New Zealand Government is in the process of forming an independent redress scheme for survivors of abuse in state and faith-based institutions and that the scheme follows on from interim recommendations made by the NZ Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.

He says the Church is continually updating and improving the complaints and disclosure processes to help survivors of abuse and will continue to engage actively on improvements throughout the remaining time of the Royal Commission and beyond.

Lowe says that the Church recognising the introduction of this scheme will result in significant changes to the Church's National Office of Professional Standards and A Path to Healing.

Longhurst remains unhappy.

He says he wrote to Cardinal Dew in November 2019, to the New Zealand Bishops Conference and even to the Pope's representative, Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, but his group is being ignored.

Following his unsuccessful bid to attract their attention, Longhurst accuses the Church of both a lack of integrity and competence to deal with the matters.

He alleges that while publicly the leaders of the local Catholic church extend an "open hand to the hope of healing", behind closed doors they traumatise survivors a second time by violating their own procedures. He accuses the director of the National Office of Professional Standards of falsifying the review report of an independent director.

Writing to the pope, Longhurst says:

"Most sadly, we are being harmed by the very Church office set up to provide healing, the Church's National Office for Profession Standards, tasked with administering Te Houhanga Rongo - A Path To Healing (APTH).

"Sadly, for some time now, NOPS officials have been breaching APTH's very principles and procedures in managing complaints cases.

"In one case, the NOPS director even falsified the review report of an independent investigator.

"Consequently, abuse survivors are not only being denied the promised compassionate and fair response but also re-traumatised by the very office set up to provide a path to healing," Longhurst says in his letter.

Reuters says it is uncertain if the Pope has yet seen the letter.

Sources

• Reuters
• Supplied: SNAP
• Supplied: NZCBC

Christopher Longhurst, who coordinates Aotearoa New Zealand's Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was commenting on the likelihood of Benedict's knowledge of instances of abuse.

Longhurst is also a respected Dogmatic Theologian at the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' theological college.

He posited his question in mid-January after German law firm Westpfal, Spilker, Wastl released a report on the handling of sexual abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

The independent report found between 1945-2019 at least 235 priests sexually abused "497 known victims".

On Tuesday 8 February, the Vatican released a "confessional" letter from Benedict in response to the charges made against him.

In his letter, he asks for forgiveness for any "grievous faults" in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich. He admitted to no personal or specific wrongdoing, however.

He does take personal responsibility and asks forgiveness for "the abuses and the errors" that occurred on his watch when he held different positions of great responsibility in the church, not just in Munich but also in Rome.

"I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church," he noted.

"All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate. Each individual case of sexual abuse is appalling and irreparable.

"The victims of sexual abuse have my deepest sympathy and I feel great sorrow for each individual case".

Ironically, among those accused of failing in their duty of care as leaders is Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who commissioned the independent report. Since 2017 he has twice failed to inform the Vatican of abuse allegations.

Benedict, as the former cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the archdiocese from 1977 to 1982. The lawyers found he did not act appropriately in four sexual abuse cases after having been made aware of them.

Soon after the report's release, Benedict sent 82 pages of observations to its authors, strongly denying any allegations of covering up cases.

A couple days later, he wrote to the authors again, apologising for mistakenly saying he did not attend a disputed ordinariate meeting in 1980 regarding the Munich assignment of a priest accused of abuse. He had attended the meeting, he said.

"Full responsibility" for the assignment was taken by former vicar general Father Gerhard Gruber in 2010.

Eleven days after the independent report's release, German Bishops' Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing said Benedict should apologise for his role in the Church sex abuse scandal and accept faults in the alleged cover-up of cases.

Source

• Supplied - SNAP Aotearoa New Zealand
• Law.com
• La Croix
• America
• Sky.com
• uCatholic
• Image: CNN

In March, the diocese struck a memorandum of understanding with the Male Survivors of Aotearoa (MSA) support group.

The document details the process where abuse survivors are referred to MSA, which in turn will help survivors access counselling and other services.

The commercial deal includes funding from the diocese.

However, Dr Christopher Longhurst (pictured), founder of the newly established New Zealand branch of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), wants more transparency over the agreement.

Last week he contacted the ODT expressing his concern the signatories were not prepared to make public a copy of the document, saying SNAP wants to use a copy as a template for its agreements.

Longhurst said he emailed Bishop Michael Dooley in July, but MSA replied declining to release the confidential document.

Longhurst again emailed Dooley in September asking him to "desist" from signing the confidential agreements, arguing that in the past secrecy had harmed victims.

Describing itself as New Zealand's recognised national organisation for male survivors of sexual violence, MSA says it supports more than 1500 survivors across the country and more than 40 in Dunedin.

MSA trustee Tony Chamberlain calls the requests "totally disrespectful and completely inappropriate".

"We consider the letter (email) a totally offensive affront to the integrity of all concerned", Chamberlain wrote to SNAP international chief executive, Zach Hiner.

Longhurst maintains the Diocese's approach is wrong, but stresses his opinion is not a personal attack on Dooley.

Longhurst is a survivor and lecturer at the Wellington based NZ Catholic Bishop's Catholic Institute.

"The issue is very clear. It's wrong for any peer support group to get into confidential agreements with the Catholic Church - absolutely wrong", Longhurst told the ODT.

However MSA Chairman, Philip Chapman defended the agreement and Dooley.

He says the existence of the agreement is not confidential and that Dooley had been totally supportive and clearly concerned for survivors.

Chapman acknowledged the modest financial contribution from the Church.

He said the funding was invested directly in the support services for the referred survivors.

Contacted in Rome, Dooley indicated his happiness with the document.

"This is an agreement between our two organisations with the good of survivors the priority", he told the ODT.

At the time he started SNAP NZ, Longhurst told CathNews that all it takes to heal is a little support.

"None of our members are experts. We're just survivors helping survivors", he said.

Sources

• ODT
• CathNews
• Image: TCI

The say they're losing faith that the Inquiry will uncover the extent of what happened to children in state and church care.

Some of them hope Sir Anand isn't the only commissioner to step down.

Controversy has followed the Commission since it was set up early last year.

That includes appointing a gang member to a key role, using survivors for trial or pilot interviews, claims Sir Anand fell asleep while a survivor told their story and accusations commissioners shut down questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Sir Anand's resignation is worrying, says social worker state care abuse survivor Paora Crawford Moyle.

It "makes [me] and probably my brothers ... really wonder what's going on in there and what else is to come," she says.

"Are the cracks starting to appear?"

Moyle says she is concerned the work the Inquiry should be doing won't get done because the Commission was having to spend so much time on damage control.

Another survivor, Anne Hill, says she has found it "re-traumatising and at times very frustrating because the issue of child abuse gets lost in issues about who has the power to speak now".

Liz Tonks from the network of survivors of abuse in faith-based institutions wants the problem fixed quickly.

"Any issue that needs to be resolved and isn't straightforward and just doesn't let them get on with the job is a setback. Survivors have been waiting for this for years," she says.

Just who who will take over when Sir Anand leaves the Inquiry in November is of concern.

Dr Christopher Longhurst, a Catholic and national leader of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, is concerned Judge Coral Shaw, whom he has already found "dismissive", might take Sir Anand's place.

He will be telling other survivors to stay away if she takes over Sir Anand's job, he says.

Moyle agrees, saying there are "scores of people already who won't come forward ... because of how the commissioners are treating survivors".

A lawyer and youth advocate, Sonja Cooper, who will be providing expert evidence to the Commission disagrees with Moyle and Longhurst.

Cooper says in her view Shaw is eminently capable and would have learnt from past criticisms.

Source

• RNZ
• Scoop
• Image: Suff

Yes.

To disqualify chairman Sir Anand Satyanand simply on the basis of his own faith, rather than any deeds, would be to indulge intolerance.

The church has far too often been a place of abuse and scandalously sustained cover-ups of it. But we are not entitled to assume that corruption is so profound, so inherent, that no Catholic could be relied upon to confront it.

Of course Catholicism or religion aren't the only sort of faith that is relevant here.

It matters hugely that abuse survivors have faith as well - faith that in stepping forward with their so-often harrowing accounts of betrayal and denial, they will be given a decent hearing.

Yet we go too far if we decide that to be able to accept this inquiry is being conducted with integrity, it's best to assume that Sir Anand doesn't have any.

These are painful times when most of the nation is acutely aware of the harm that can be done making generalised assumptions carelessly linking people of any faith to the worst behaviours of those who profess to share that religion, but in truth debase it.

It has emerged that when his Catholicism became an issue Sir Anand, who is a former Governor General and before that a judge, tendered his resignation from the commission.

But Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin didn't accept it. She has a fair point that when he was appointed, the inquiry was to focus only on state care. He was the one who recommended it be widened also to include faith-based institutions.

While this was hardly a bolt-from-the-blue idea that hadn't occurred to anyone else, it was a good, necessary extension.

Martin gets a little point-scorey when she adds, rhetorically, that any atheist on the commission could be said to be compromised too - presumably on the assumption that they would be biased in the other direction and have it in for the churches.

It's perhaps unsurprising that she resisted the fatuous line that since the inquiry also deals with abuses of those under state care, there could hardly be a more compromised chairman than the man who as Governor General personally represented our head of state, the Queen. Continue reading

• Image: Wikipedia

Some have expressed concern about a perceived conflict of interest because of his Catholic faith.

Documents obtained by Stuff show Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin rejected his offer.

Instead, she asked Satyanand for a plan to combat any risk to the integrity of the Royal Commission.

Some child abuse survivors and their advocates are calling for Satyanand's resignation offer to be accepted.

They say his position risks tainting the inquiry's credibility.

On Friday, Martin said she had full confidence in Satyanand and the commission's conflict of interest policy.

"Sir Anand was appointed when the Royal Commission's terms were only about abuse in state care. He conducted the consultation process and recommended to the Government that the inquiry also cover faith-based institutions," she said.

"He thought that his Catholic upbringing and background were well-known, but made a point of raising this matter as he wanted to be transparent."

She said he did "the right thing" raising it, and an atheist chair "would be a potential conflict too".

Satyanand first outlined concerns in a September letter to Martin.

"I ... think it's appropriate to establish that you know I am a practising Catholic by religion. I was brought up in a Catholic household and went to Sacred Heart College in Auckland.

I have kept up associations with that school and have attended a number of its public occasions there through the years."

He was involved in a patron's group which helped raise $9m to rebuild Wellington's St Mary of the Angels church.

Satyanand is a former lawyer, judge and ombudsman. He was the 19th Governor-General of New Zealand, from 2006 to 2011.

After returning to civilian life, Satyanand chaired the Commonwealth Foundation for two two-year terms, ending December 2016.

He led the Commonwealth team observing the national elections of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.

Satyanand also chaired a commission set up by the Anglican church to develop options on the ordination and blessing of people in same-sex relationships.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• rotaryoceania.zone
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image.