While so-called religious extremists grip the media these days, some are conversing about the late Pope John Paul II's 1985 Synod "to celebrate what the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) had set forth, and, to search out ways to implement it better," claim notes of the late John Cardinal Dearden.
He was among eight invited prelates in Rome for that synod because they were primary sources and witnesses of the historic ecumenical council decades earlier.
Dearden led Detroit's Catholic community for over two decades since 1959 before he retired for health reasons.
Before that Vatican synod, however, in 1984, Dearden told a crowd at the Center for Pastoral Studies at Orchard Lake, MI., that a "sense of historical perspective allows us to see the 20 years since Vatican II for what they are: The church is more alive and dynamic and meaningful in people's lives than it has been for years."
"We are especially proud as his people for his labor and contributions in making the Vactican Council a reality in our lives," said the Rev. Clifford Rutkowski of Detroit, who introduced him.
"Collegiality has led a new way of acting in the church," Dearden, who also often spoke of "communio," a rich Latin word full of meaning, voiced at the Orchard Lake symposium.
"Despite some exaggerations, people are aware that they are the church and do not just belong to it," according to Dearden documents and archival entries at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Calling for more conversation, Dearden was conscious of the "obstacles," yet, a "sense of hopefulness."
"During the synod I could sense a still strong desire to continue the kind of dialog that has been taking place. It is one that calls for patience, understanding and a great trust that, in God's good time, it will bear fruit," pages of notes by Dearden show.
Repeatedly, Dearden praises "The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World," part of a two-inch thick tome of proceedings of Vatican II, with chapters on the liturgy, Mary, and more:
"In the synod it received much positive comment. Issues such as war and peace, human rights and social awareness have come to the fore," reflected Dearden who hailed from Pittsburgh, only days after the much-loved Pope John XXIII announced the Council. Pope Paul VI completed the council after his predecessors sudden death. The council has stirred people the world over ever since, some even suggesting that Roman rite priests be allowed to marry, while some people call for women to hold higher positions in the church.
Recently, a faceoff and tensions mounted between two opposing groups of opinion, in the Burton Manor in Livonia, MI., and, thousands who met at Cobo Center in Detroit on the same weekend from as far away as Germany.
A local young adult who was baptized a Catholic at birth, admitted that he did not attend either conference, said: "Both gatherings could have been welcomed by hierarchy, like Jesus conversed with the outsider, the Samaratin sinner. Talk is good. A welcoming bishop at each could have moderated and bridged both as a learning lesson."
While some say that the synod that evaluated Vatican II was effective, others asked for increased inclusion of their administrative and human skills now at the local level.
"Not everything that happened in the church after Vatican II was due to the council," Dearden confessed.
He recommended that a "solid grounding in the total body of that teaching, sound in presentation must be approached by the student with patient seriousness, free of partisan opinions."
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