Changing to Be Faithful: Living Tradition in a Synodal Church,
by Eamonn Conway, foreword by Cardinal Mario Grech
(Messenger Publications, €14.95 / £12.95)
This is a book written to enlighten the ordinary reader in the whole Synodal process and what it means for the Church, now and into the near future.
In reading it, two images came into my mind again and again. One was the old adage of “My grandfather’s axe” – “this is my grandfather’s axe which I have inherited, my father changed the handle, and I have changed the head; but it is still my grandfather’s axe.” It still does the job it was made to do, it can still cut, shape and share what I need.
That is certainly a very ancient concept of what tradition is: something that stays the same while changing. The other image that came into my mind is of a giant beech tree in south Dublin – a sight familiar to many with a Jesuit experience – which over perhaps two hundred years still flourishes, but in which every single cell that carries the sap from root to leaf is completely different to what it was when I first saw so many years ago.
Here again the tree stays the same because it changes. This fact – that continuity implies change to survive – seems to be a basic fact of creation which cannot be denied. One might almost say it is the will of God.
Echoes
Echoes of these images appear constantly in this clearly written, well sourced and authoritative book taken from Newman, Ratzinger, Rahner, and von Balthasar. I think it will be widely read in Europe, Australia and elsewhere and help many to an understanding of what is involved in Synodality.
The author arranges his material into two parts. The first part deals with the structure of renewal. and the second part, of equal length, deals with the culture of renewal, what must be done in order for the Church to go forward.
The author admits that there is in a sense a continuation of what began with Vatican II, and that people may feel a certain sense of fear at the very idea of change. Which is strange in a way, for if they think about their personal existence they can see in action this need for change to stay the same: retirees in their seventies still retain within themselves the essential seven-year-old that made their first communion.
People speak easily enough of the “pilgrim Church”; but on a pilgrimage the destination is a separate experience from getting there; on such a camino every day brings change, brings something different, and that is the essence of the charism of the call. Just as we cannot bathe in the same river twice, so we cannot walk the same route twice. For the essential pilgrim the journey is what matters not the destination.
Eamonn Conway, who is a priest of the diocese of Tuam, now lectures in the University of Notre Dame Australia. and was singled out by Pope Francis as an expert to assist the bishops in their consideration of synodality in all its aspects.
This suggests a global span, which is addressed in part in these pages. Certainly, South America, from which the Church derived Pope Francis and the present Pope, is discussed. But in these pages I felt an absence of concern with the condition of Catholics – indeed Christians as whole of whatever tradition, from Ethiopia to Malabar – who face very challenges which are a matter of daily fear, as often as not, of death and disaster. The Church in the North can perhaps engage in debate, the Church in the South faces a struggle for survival of a different kind.
So this excellent book will aid a great many people, and will be welcomed for that fact. But the challenges of change are many and varied, and will have to be met if the Church to which so many are dedicated, and which so many want to share with others, can continue to change. If the edge of the Church’s axe is to stay sharp, it will need changing; if it is to grow the sap must flow from the roots through fresh cells to reach the leaves.
If these issues concern you, please read this book, and share it.
