July 2022
Dialogue in the Church and in the society
Currently, the synodal process proposed by Pope Francis is an excellent moment to re-examine issues like: community discernment, collaboration in the Church and society; but also - perhaps above all – that of the dialogue we live within our Church, community, or society. I must admit that, especially in recent years I’ve been observing what is happening in the world and I have the overwhelming impression that the word dialogue has become extremely popular in theory, as it sounds well in homilies, reflections, or speeches by politicians or famous personalities. However, if we take a closer look at this, it turns out that, apart from the façade of beautiful words, for many this topic becomes generally inconvenient when we see how it is practised in the daily life of a community, family, and society.
In the context of the Church, the word dialogue has become particularly popular in relation to the so-called interreligious dialogue, broadly understood as ecumenism. We can see it in the attitude of the Popes ofthe 20th century up to Francis, with whom interreligious dialogue today seems to get a special focus with the world of Islam. The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes even farther, with a very strong emphasis on dialogue with those who have not yet accepted the Gospel. We read: The missionary task implies a respectful dialogue with those who do not yet accept the Gospel (CCC 856). Looking with hope at the reality of the Union of Catholic Apostolate, we see that dialogue and collaboration were at the heart of the life of our Founder, St. Vincent Pallotti. Already during his time at the seminary, Pallotti had tried to promote the missionary and ecumenical activity of the Church; then it culminated in the Celebrations for the Octave of Epiphany, he organized for the first time in Rome in 1836.
Pallotti was a man of dialogue and collaboration, open to anyone and any possibility of doing good together, even with people who showed no interest in God. It should be particularly emphasized here that in Pallotti dialogue primarily began within the Church among those who constituted it on a daily basis, and as a consequence, or perhaps because of this foundation, his dialogue spread all over and beyond, reaching out to the peripheries of the world of his time. It was also the premise for the establishment of the Union, which has in its very name the feature of unity, dialogue, and collaboration from the very beginning. As we read: the Union was called the "Pious Union of the Catholic Apostolate; to emphasize that its main purpose is to zealously cooperate with works for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls” (cf OOCC I, 192). We can’t collaborate with zeal, if dialogue and openness towards others do not become part of our DNA, because, as our Founder says: Reason and experience demonstrate that the good done individualistically is usually lacking and of limited duration. Even the best efforts of individuals cannot be successful unless they are united and directed to a common goal (OOCC IV, 122). If we want to be effective, if we really and deeply want to be the salt of the earth, we have to remember that this salt can give flavor to every reality of life, including the reality we do not understand or is strange and unknown to us, and which, on the surface, may arouse a natural sense of human fear: fear of the unknown, of a different opinion, or perhaps of a challenging disagreement that shatters our apparent order.
So, we see that, in the depths of our charism, we are invited to be people of dialogue that leads to collaboration. In the first part, I mentioned that dialogue has become a trendy word, but not necessarily a practiced one. This is unfortunately the case. Let us leave for a moment society, which by its very nature “lives its life”, and let us try for a moment to look at our reality in the Church, which by its own very nature should be a place of dialogue. A few simple examples. Today in Poland, in every parish we have Parish Councils, but some of them do not function at all in practice, because everything is decided by the parish priest already. He has the first and the last say. In our communities we have priests or consecrated people who avoid difficult topics. They have no problem voicing unpopular opinions from the pulpit or through the media, but not necessarily they are keen to meet others who are looking for answers to difficult questions that may challenge our thinking or sometimes show the fragility of our testimony. Lay people are no better in this regard, as the pandemic has clearly shown us. For it has turned out that also in our social environments we are not open to dialogue and sometimes we cross out people when they do not fit into our thought pattern.
Perhaps they are unusual, or even their way of living is in opposition to what we believe. Dialogue does not mean that we agree on everything, that we accept whatever the world brings, but dialogue does allow us to remain open to others, to be there for them like the bread when it is needed, and to be ready to accept them with whatever they bring, even with what is inconvenient. Is this not what it is all about? It’s about changing the world, not running away from it and its problems, or building an atmosphere of exclusion.
Fortunately, recent years have also borne in examples of beautifully conducted dialogue full of respect and love. The number of parishes where laity and priests are together, listen to each other, and where they sometimes disagree but in a healthy way, is constantly growing. Yes- they can disagree. In our Pallottine spirituality we speak of our diversity, of the variety of vocations, sometimes also of our different opinions, and although this can be difficult sometimes, if used well, it allows us to serve better, live better and be more humble. Dialogue requires humility and a deep awareness that I am not perfect, that I have flaws and also that I am often wrong. Pope Francis, in the Evangelii Gaudium, made it very clear: Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: “We have always done it this way” (Evangelii Gaudium 33). Doesn't dialogue make us open our horizons to new forms also in the field of evangelize? In our communities, let us answer the question: how do we live? Are we able to give up our habits and routines? Do we, like Jesus, do not exclude those who are different, but open ourselves to their voice? Do we have the courage to live a pure Gospel which shows that it is possible to be so close to
Him, and yet so distant from Him? Or apparently so distant, and yet close - like the tax collector in the Gospel. In the following part of Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis, writing about the Christian ideal, says: The Christian ideal will always be a summons to overcome suspicion, habitual mistrust, fear of losing our privacy, all the defensive attitudes which today’s world imposes on us. Many try to escape from others and take refuge in the comfort of their privacy or in a small circle of close friends, renouncing the realism of the social aspect of the Gospel. For just as some people want a purely spiritual Christ, without flesh and without the cross, they also want their interpersonal relationships provided by sophisticated equipment, by screens and systems which can be turned on and off on command. Meanwhile, the Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their
pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction. True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness
(Evangelii Gaudium 88).
I invite you and myself to take the risk of meeting others, to be open to dialogue and to constantly listen to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who blows as he wills, and not as we will.
Michał Grzeca
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