In Synod's Home Stretch, The "Revenge of the Statues"?
Jim’s last post on a prolife rally reminded me of the ambiguity of all symbolic speech. It may rally the base, but it also rallies the opposition (maybe as much or even more). Most importantly, if handled poorly, symbolic speech can move the “middle men” to the other side.
This might be happening at the synod of bishops. Rocco’s image of the women of the Amazon, their female fertility symbol smashed and thrown into the Tiber, emerging as the first modern Roman Rite women to be clothed in the stole of the diaconate, says it all.
In a tweet Rocco reports the striking rebuke of the vandals and their defenders from Knoxville’s @BishopStika (ie. nobody’s “liberal”):
“Amazing to see all the racist hatred against the people of the Amazon region. Costume and culture are mocked as so many American Catholics think they have it together. Here we worship money, status, personal opinions, political parties, guns, vengeance, and politicians.”
Rocco remarks on the irony of the effect of B16’s precedents
If married former Protestant clergy can be ordained as priests, why not natives of the Amazon?
More stunningly if the Anglicans can get their own rite, and the traditionalists can get their own form of the Roman Rite, why not a Rite for the Amazon. Who would have thought that B16, the hero of the liturgical traditionalists may have paved the way for further inculturation of the Roman Rite.
In an earlier post Rocco summed up what he thought was important about this synod. first the synod process itself as a model for church government, and then inculturation as model for Catholicism.
Coming Soon: A Cultural "Revolution"?
UPDATE Thanks to Rocco
Pope Francis has said the following:
Good afternoon –I’d like to say a word on the statues of the pachamama that were taken from the church at Traspontina, that were there without idolatrous intentions and were thrown into the Tiber.
Before all else, as that happened in Rome and as bishop of the dioces, I ask the forgiveness of those who were offended by this act.
Now I’m able to tell you that the statues, which have created a great clamor in the media, have been recovered from the Tiber. The statues weren’t damaged.
The commandant of the Carabineri (Italian police) wished to inform us of this recover before the news became public. At this time the news is confidential and the statues are in the custody of the Commandant of the Carabineri.
The Commandant will be very happy to follow whatever indication is given on the publication of this news and the other initiative to be taken in regard to, as he says “the display of the statues during the closing Mass of the Synod” So we’ll see. I delegate the Secretary of State to respond to this.
This is beautiful news-thank you.
Good afternoon –I’d like to say a word on the statues of the pachamama that were taken from the church at Traspontina, that were there without idolatrous intentions and were thrown into the Tiber.
Before all else, as that happened in Rome and as bishop of the dioces, I ask the forgiveness of those who were offended by this act.
Now I’m able to tell you that the statues, which have created a great clamor in the media, have been recovered from the Tiber. The statues weren’t damaged.
The commandant of the Carabineri (Italian police) wished to inform us of this recover before the news became public. At this time the news is confidential and the statues are in the custody of the Commandant of the Carabineri.
The Commandant will be very happy to follow whatever indication is given on the publication of this news and the other initiative to be taken in regard to, as he says “the display of the statues during the closing Mass of the Synod” So we’ll see. I delegate the Secretary of State to respond to this.
This is beautiful news-thank you.
I read about them throwing the statues in the Tiber, and filming it. And of course sharing it to the world. What a jerk move. I'm not sure if the statues were supposed to represent Mary, or women from their culture. Either way it was beyond disrespectful. But I think the gesture backfired, it said more about the people doing it than the supposedly unenlightened culture of the native people.
ReplyDeleteDeus vult!???? Who are these clowns? And to what authority do they answer, and how do they connect with it?
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess we know all that.
They deserve married priests, women deacons and women priests, in that order, and they can take their sacred watered silk and go stew in the corner. I'm sorry if that isn't charitable, but it is less charitable to steal and destroy other people's property.
The Pray Tell blog had a lively discussion of the statue and its various meanings to variously angry and baffled beholders. One good thing that came out of it is the dissemination, by Bill Dorgan, of this quote by now-St. John Henry Newman from his essay on the development of Christian Doctrine:
ReplyDelete“The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees, incense, lamps and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water, asylums; holy days and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the east, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the church”.
Sounds like all that stuff Pope Francis's critics revere.
We all need to recognize that Pope Francis intends Synods to be the way of the future and to the future. And he is getting better at it synod by synod.
ReplyDeleteMany people dismissed the recent special synod on sexual abuse as a worthless few days gathering the heads of the bishop to "talk" with little or no action. But Francis issued major changes in how the Church deals with sexual abuse within a few months.
I expect the final document will be the usual compromises of a committee. Yes to the possibility of ordaining married men but with many hedges about how to do it. Yes to a greater role for native women leaders but a lot of hedging about how to do that.
I expect that Pope Francis will within a few months provide the new concrete ecclesial framework for working out all the details much as he did with the new sexual abuse guidelines.
In the meanwhile beginning in November week by week Francis will be meeting with regions of the US bishops. I suspect asking them how they plan to respond to the document produced by the Synod of the Amazon will be high on his list. And he will be writing the Post-Synod document at the same time, so they will know that what they are hearing privately will soon be in a public document.
Of course the liturgy beloved of traditionalists is the result of inculturation. It's just that it happened a really long time ago.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard about the statues that got pitched into the river I was expecting maybe that they might have looked something like the Venus of Willendorf. Which BTW was sculpted about 25,000 years ago. Wow. Europeans have been creating art for a long time! However the Amazonian statues were way different. here are some pictures which appeared in an article by Jamie Manson in NCR. They appear somewhat stylized, and seem to depict indigenous women as they are. No, they don't always wear clothes, but the statues in no way seem lascivious (which was the vibe I was getting from the naysayers).
Our Lady of Guadalupe has some mystic zodiacal symbols and other indications on her cloak that she could be -- gasp! -- Incan!!! Furthermore, she is unacceptably pregnant, of all things!! But, worst of all, she does not look like a 15th Century Italian painter's mistress. The tilma is very well protected, though.
ReplyDeleteWorse yet she spoke to Juan Diego in his native language rather than in Latin.
DeleteI see the Amazonian Synod, as well as the general reaction to the destruction of the statues; as a new chapter in the church's relations with indigenous people. Which at times in the past has been, at best, paternalistic; and at worst, enabling of evils such as enslavement and other forms of exploitation.
ReplyDeleteThe Synod is a recognition of the rights of the people to having their spiritual needs met; to their culture; and to their right to live unmolested in their homelands. And if there are things which are incompatible with living a Christian life, accompaniment and mentoring is surely better than destruction of their artifacts and property by morons who have no standing or authority.
This article, also in NCR, is very interesting, and may be reassuring to those who are worried about syncretism.
DeleteThe statue-thrown-in-the-river episode is pretty dramatic. I guess that conservatives are accusing Francis and his circle of syncretism. And Francis and his circle are accusing the conservatives of religious colonialism (is there a better term for that idea? -- that evangelism of 'mission territories' involves Christianity displacing the paganism of the status quo).
ReplyDeleteThere are some legitimately interesting questions that underlie that dispute. The church teaches that elements of truth are to be found in other religions; and that elements of God's revelation can be found in God's creation. I suppose it can be argued that "God's creation" includes humans who form cultures. Can elements of truth and virtue be found in pagan cultures? That seems pretty inarguable. What is supposed to happen to paganism and its symbols and its elements of truth and virtue once the people (or some of the people) of that culture embrace Christianity?
I fear my views can approach the conventional on that latter question: embracing Christianity implies - and even requires - a rejection of whatever/whomever was worshiped previously (without denying that there may have been elements of goodness and truth in that pagan practice). If I bow down before Jesus as Lord, and venerate his Virgin Mother, then I don't think I can bow down before the Mother Earth goddess anymore. That doesn't mean I smash the remaining images of Mother Earth; and it doesn't mean that I disrespect those who still bow before that idol. But in my eyes, the Mother Earth idol has lost its claims to divinity. I know longer owe it anything. I believe it is a representation of falsehood. I can still acknowledge that its cult had some elements of goodness, just as a lie may contain elements of truth. But that's concession is as far as I should go.
I guess I haven't reached the dance-naked-in-the-woods stage of Christianity yet.
"..embracing Christianity implies - and even requires - a rejection of whatever/whomever was worshiped previously (without denying that there may have been elements of goodness and truth in that pagan practice)." Jim, I agree with that. but I think the key has to be that people of their own free will reject the pagan practices and embrace Christ. Vandalism and coercion seem to me to be very poor evangelization tools. I think it is worth noting that many, if not most, of these people aren't recent converts from paganism. The roots of Christianity there go back several hundred years in some places. An elder named William in one of the NCR articles had this to say:
Delete"When one is baptized in the Catholic religion, one is Catholic," he said. "We do speak of the Earth, of nature — but we don't have any problem [with being Catholic], because everything is the same universe. All is complete. The jungle, the trees, all are created by God. And our Lord Jesus Christ came down to Earth to save us from our sins. That's the way it is."
Sounds to me like he gets it.
It is unclear to me what the statues really meant, if they represented Mary, or were just representations of indigenous women. Regardless, they were art, and shouldn't have been destroyed.
Yeah, I wouldn't be dancing naked in the woods, either. Talk about scaring wildlife! But if I had always been there, in a hot place, and had no access to cheap clothes likely made in a 3rd world sweatshop, or a washer and dryer, I might be wearing considerably fewer clothes than I do in late autumn in the northern hemisphere.
Katherine, I agree completely. Including the certainty of my scarring the psyches of any nearby chipmunks and raccoons for life with an unclothed buck-and-wing in the forest.
DeleteRegarding the image itself: I think it's been clarified (or so I am given to understand by reading commentaries) that it is not of the Virgin Mary or any Christian symbol. The Holy See apparently has not stated exactly what it is supposed to represent (perhaps fittingly for this topic, as we're talking about the ambiguity of symbols). Pretty clearly, it's a representation of fertility. It's hard not to associate that with pagan cultic meaning.
I don't know whether the vandals stated their reasons for dunking the statue in the river - so that act has a certain amount of ambiguity. My take on it is that it was an act to defend and protect the holiness of the holy ground - of the church, and of Rome more generally. That notion, that Rome is holy ground, becomes more complicated in the world in which we live. I suppose that the growing Muslim population of Italy is fanning paranoia in some quarters.
In regard to the relative nakedness of some cultures, I always liked the story of the anthropologist. who once he had gained the trust of the local isolated cultured, asked them what they thought of the clothes they he wore.
DeleteThe natives said they understood perfectly why he wore so many clothes, and they would do the same if they had a "white skin disease" like him.
Inculturation is an ancient debate in Christianity. Many Jewish Christians wanted to keep Jewish practices. We moved beyond many Jewish practices, but did not give up the essentials.
ReplyDeleteThe New Testament was written in Greek rather than in Hebrew or Aramaic. That was because Judaism had already become inculturated in the Greek world with the Scriptures written in Greek. Both Jews and Christians used allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures to win converts. Both Jewish and Christian apologists used Greek philosophy to make Judaism and Christianity more understandable to Greeks and Romans.
Christianity did not set up a separate education system until the ancient one disappeared. Rather Christians were educated in the Greek and Roman classics. Most Christians used their pagan literary backgrounds to promote Christianity. However some dissented. Tertullian thundered “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” That did not keep him from embracing the heresy of a prophetess. Jerome felt guilty about his classical background dreaming “thou are a Ciceronian at the last judgment.” Thankfully he used his talent to translate the scriptures.
In general the Scriptures were translated into local languages rather quickly. The notion of keeping the liturgy and a whole clerical culture in Latin for centuries after it has ceased to be a language of the people was a later development. That error, not inculturation, needs to be seen as the bad development.
We still are not at the stage of historical understanding to recognize that Roman Catholicism made great errors in keeping the liturgy in Latin, the clericalism of private Mass, and not having frequent communion for the laity. (There were good reasons for the Reformation) We are still stuck in those bad developments when in the name of clerical celibacy (which is a key part of the clericalism of the West) we deny the sacraments to many people in third world nations.
Why are we now considering a married priesthood and some deacon like office for women leaders? Because the Pentecostals are winning the evangelization of the Amazon. They are against the pagan gods and the native culture. Their answer is the prosperity gospel, the Money god of North American Christians. A married priesthood, women deacons and an Amazon rite seems to me to be a good alternative.
Good point about the Pentacostals. Nothing against them, but if the Catholic church doesn't meet their own people's spiritual needs, someone else will.
DeleteAlso, the church has a chance to do better than it did sometimes in the past, when it was complicit in the taking of land from native peoples. It shouldn't be controversial that they have a right to live in peace in their homelands.
Speaking of ambiguity, there is this hymn in the Quechua language, which was printed in 1631, making it the oldest published hymn in the New World: Hanacpachap Cussicuinin. It originally had 14 or so stanzas. It is a hymn to the Virgin Mary, but some of the stanzas were a bit controversial because they resembled one of the prayers to a native goddess. Actually the verses I have seen translated reminded me of the Litany of Loretto. Just goes to show there can be crossover, intended or not, with other traditions. And as for fertility symbols, Mary has surely had prayers directed to her by women with fertility issues asking for her intercession.
ReplyDeleteI think Crystal Watson originally shared this song; I like it.
Speaking of inculturation, four of the only six times I have been to Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral (New York. Cardinal Dolan) it happened to be the day of the NYFD Communion Breakfast. And in they marched in full array, their flags, horns and drums (not organs and silver trumpets) blasting up a bit of Old Erin -- and wearing their hats!!
ReplyDeleteAnd no one got the vapours, declared the Chair of Peter vacant or threw their drums into the East River. Just sayin'.