Repositório RCAAP

The commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council is an invitation to the rediscovery of its fundamental intuitions, not only by way of historical curiosity, but as a genuine effort to receive and to learn from this event in the life of the Church. The term aggiornamento, used by Pope John XXIII to translate one of the intentions of the Council, is one of those intuitions to be revisited. That is what is proposed in this text, in placing its use at the time of the Council and in showing its theological meaning.

The Second Vatican Council coincided with the end of the long 19th century, which ran from 1840 to 1960. Not as a result of it, but after this date, western societies entered a new culture, which is not sufficiently comprehended by the concept of secularisation, a term that is too broad and polysemic. When ecclesiology bases itself on Lumen Gentium 8 [“The Church, a unique and complex reality that coalesces from a divine and a human element”], it concludes from it that a new enculturation is necessary, arising from more precise analyses. To respond to these new challenges involves developing an articulation of ecclesial responsibilities among ‘one alone’, ‘all’ and ‘some’ (synodality at all levels). While taking parishes into account, it is a matter of establishing channels of communication with those that we no longer reached, of being attentive to their requests for the sacred, for spirituality, even if in aesthetic terms, for interreligious dialogue. And it is important above all to develop an evangelical word that is not confused either with morality or with civil laws. Which supposes, in other words, that we take into consideration the historicity of Christian anthropology. It always continues to be essential to remain close to people and to the evolution of social justice.

Aware that what is at stake in the reception of Vatican II is the manner in which the Church lives its identity and mission at the present time, this study concentrates on the Council’s reception within the framework of the Church(es) in Portugal. Underpinned by certain hermeneutical criteria, the text focuses on five perspectives, from which it appears indispensable to read anew and to evaluate the Council’s reception in the Portuguese context. Under analysis, then, are: heuristic significance borne of ecclesial awareness and theological reflection on the process of the Council’s reception; perception of the conjunctural significance of the Council as an event; the difficult road of synodal practice in the life of the Church; difficulties in the reception of episcopal collegiality and of the theology of local Churches; the dimension of ‘pastorality’ as an interpellation to life and to the witness of the Church today. In global terms and in conclusion, it points to the necessity for a creative hermeneutic as an impulse and challenge to profound pastoral renewal.

Ecclesial movements currently occupy an important place in the Catholic Church. One may even consider that the ‘Church of movements’ has taken control in this period of advanced modernity, in opposition to the ‘parochial civilisation’ that marked Catholicism for centuries. The ‘charismatic Church’ comes to the help of the ‘hierarchical Church’, which is now struggling with some difficulties. This article examines the tension between parishes and movements that has broadly-speaking arisen from the emancipation of the individual in relation to territory and the construction of new living spaces. There emerges, as a consequence, a tendency to build the Church on the basis of affinity and of similarity (of means, age, choices…) more than on the basis of belonging to a given territory. This tension, however, already manifested itself prior to the Council, and infiltrated the Conciliar debates before making a leap forward in recent years with the explosion of movements.

It is a strange fact that an attentive observer of reality, as was Michel de Certeau, should apparently have paid so little attention to the Second Vatican Council: he dedicated just two articles to it. In this brief reflection the aim is to show how this virtual silence on the part of Michel de Certeau is, on the contrary, a ‘subtle voice of silence’: for Certeau the issue is not one of speaking about, but somehow to speak on the basis of the Second Vatican Council, taking seriously the ‘inaugural’ and methodical character of the event, which made possible what was to follow. The themes, the questions, the places and the personal commitment suggested by the Council are already present in Certeau, and the expression of his life, his competence, his time and his commitments are nothing but one of the possible parables that embody the revolution of the credible that the Council recognises, interprets and inaugurates. This article contains a rapid reconstruction of the scenario and an analysis of the two articles to cast light on some of the key points that Certeau reflects on: particularly the relationship between the today and the founding event that ‘permits’, as well as the role of language-conversation.

The Second Vatican Council, starting from a path already trodden, impressed its own characteristics on moral-theological reflection. Emphasis is placed here on certain aspects that have marked these fifty years of theological ethics: the indispensable relationship between morality and Scripture; the centrality of the moral conscience and the importance of discernment; the debate concerning the specificity of Christian morality. Themes that mark out the different roads of post-Conciliar moral theology, accompanied by interventions, at various levels, of the ecclesial Magisterium.

This text presents an ethical-theological reflection on moral conscience and liberty, in the light of the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council. On the one hand, it seeks to show that the various elements of the Christian conception of moral conscience create openings for the possibility of freedom. On the other, it provides evidence that the Council’s doctrine corresponds to a change in paradigm, not only for this specific theme, but also for a reflection on morality in general, since the doctrine on moral conscience may be seen as a synthesis of all discourse on morals. The selection of the aspects to be covered seeks to aid understanding the significance of the contribution of Vatican II to this theme. Various elements are identified that help in framing these theological-moral categories and to understand how far an appropriate conception of the conscience permits a broad, personalised approach to human morality from the perspective of the believer, presenting a number of consequences for ethical reflection. It also seeks to clarify if liberty constitutes a condition for acting in conscience or if liberty is the result of our acting in conscience.

Taking as its starting point the definition of faith as given by the Dei Verbum, this article explores some of the fundamental elements of the condition of the believer, related to an understanding of it as a human act (fides qua) and as a content in which to believe (fides quae). On the first plane, to have faith is to accept life and its meaning as a freely given gift; on the second, to be a Christian believer is to comprehend existence as being coming from the other and being for the other, as a nucleus of relationships of real/personal differences lived by a corporeal or incarnate human being. All of these aspects are bound up with specific challenges in a culture that has sought to be self-sufficient and self-constructing, that stresses the value of individual self-realisation, that has a tendency to dissolve personal differences in global systemic holisms, and that manifests a certain mistrust in relation to corporeal existence, through its potentialising transfiguration.

The end of the Constantinian epoch was marked by the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, but the persistence of this model of Christendom is analysed from the perspective of four topics: the first studies the problems of the relations between the Catholic Church and the lay State, with the decisive step from religious freedom to the discovery of the value of contemporary secular law; the second describes the impact of the imperial model on the authority type within the Church; the third is dedicated to religion reduced to worship, an element of enormous pastoral impact; finally comes a conclusive reflection on the force of faith unprotected by power.

The present volume of the periodical Didaskalia presents an interdisciplinary study of the question “Religious identities in Portugal: representations, values and practices”. This falls into two parts, oriented by a unifying research topic: the presentday problem of the articulation between belief and belonging in the recomposing of religious identities.

In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in people ‘of no religion’ in Portugal. In quantitative terms, those ‘of no religion’ constitute the second largest group within the Portuguese population, and this increase confirms a general trend observable in the rest of Europe. Nevertheless, there has been a certain hesitancy in academic circles to describe this group in qualitative terms. Furthermore, behind this designation ‘of no religion’ is hidden an enormous variety of worldviews or social attitudes that can only be explained in systematic terms with some difficulties. In this article, I seek to present a numerical framework for this group, a terminological classification of people ‘of no religion’ and a first attempt to broach the question in qualitative terms. Given that this is a relatively recent phenomenon, hovering between something visible quantitatively but invisible qualitatively, this attempt may, however, prove to be just provisional.

The concept of secularisation is far from unanimous and uncontested. In the current debate on the theme, three aspects would seem to stand out: that of differentiation between the secular sphere and the sphere of religious institutions and norms, that of the decline of the religious as belief and practice, and that of the privatisation of the religious. An analysis of the debate and of the great diversity of situations regarding the presence of religion in modern life points to the need for a complex analysis. The same applies to modernity, or rather various modernities, as would seem to be more applicable nowadays. This text constitutes a reflection on the viability of applying certain theories on secularisation to the Portuguese reality, taking as a point of departure certain data from the study on “Religious identities in Portugal: representations, values and practices”. It concludes that Portuguese society may be considered secularised in certain respects, but not in all, which would seem to confirm the thesis of the existence of multiple modernities.

Portugal continues to be a country with a largely Catholic population, with high indicators of religious belief and practice when compared with the majority of European countries. In recent decades, however, a new panorama has arisen in relation to which the study “Religious identities in Portugal: representations, values and practices” has added useful information. As well as a multiplication of the indicators of secularisation and consequently of the increase of those ‘of no religion’, there has also been a steady rise in the population of those whose religion is not Catholic. It is these that form the object of the present article, which seeks to delineate the sociological features of the religious minorities and to reflect on the new theoretical challenges to the understanding of a reality that is ever increasingly European and global: new economy, market, media and migrations constitute central elements for an understanding of the emerging landscape.

Taking as a starting point the data from the survey “Religious identities in Portugal: representations, values and practices”, the present study seeks to characterise the Catholic population from a dual perspective: how it differs from other religious positions, and its internal plurality, considering the rhythms of Sunday practice and the forms of involvement in the communities. Constituting an ‘ecclesiosphere’ – from the innermost circles to those on the periphery of identification – Portuguese Catholicism reveals a strong cultural involvement in Portuguese society. This involvement does not come across in the figure of a compact Catholicism, but reveals itself in a plurality of modes of belonging – socially visible, but often invisible in the logic of the pastoral action of Catholic institutions.

The present article analyses representations, values and practices relating to religious identities among the populations of the Azores islands and Madeira, establishing certain comparisons with a similar study undertaken in mainland Portugal. We begin, taking an overall view of religious positions, with a scrutiny of socio-demographic variables such as gender, level of education and socio-professional situation together with a series of other indicators that constitute the believer’s profile: parental transmission, fulfilling of religious precepts, factors leading to distancing or approximation, daily interchanges, practices of prayer, participation in services, configuration of beliefs, attitudes and values. Roughly 90% of residents living on the islands consider themselves Catholics. It is precisely on this believing population that we subsequently focus, taking as a starting point a graduated typological classification according to practice: Catholics that are nominally so, occasional, irregular, regular, practising and militant.

This text analyses the articles that appeared in Portuguese newspapers in relation to the presentation of the study Religious Identities in Portugal by the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference in April 2012. Of the fifteen articles published, almost half were reports, in which journalists obtained information from the Catholic institution that was behind the study and sought statements and opinions from specialists in religion and those responsible for other religious faiths in order to establish other perspectives, complementary but not antagonistic. Many of the texts are signed by journalists, who carried out a very rigorous portrait of the results of the study. From the same analysis it may be concluded that other journalistic texts on the Catholic Church, publicising other activities and other leaders, also contributed to the ‘news bubble’: the intersection of events, results and social agents in the news, as if these constituted the only possible narrative.

In the work of Marcel Gauchet an unusual category emerges that has not yet received the critical attention that it warrants: the notion of Remnant. While making explicit the dialectic between the decline of religion as a social function, and its persistence on a social level, the author speaks of “a perhaps inalienable remnant”. And what may be still more surprising is that what Gauchet says of contemporary society, has already been made explicit at key moments of the Biblical tradition itself: Religion has always been understood as the Remainder of Religion.

The text reflects on the conditions in which ecclesial communities respond to the demands of a plural integration of those that present themselves as being Catholics, but whose degree of relationship with concrete ecclesial reality is varied. With this in mind, in the light of a Conciliar ecclesiological vision, certain criteria need to be received and made explicit at a deeper level, in theological terms, in ecclesial consciousness and in creative practical attitudes. In other words, it is a matter of refining the consciousness of the Catholicity of the Church, of concretising the sense of sacramentality of the same Church and of finding more suitable means of putting forward and affirming faith. In the final analysis, at issue is a profound pastoral renovation of Christian communities, on the basis of criteria for action and of pastoral structures more in tune with central aspects of the identity and mission of the Church.

The recent survey on religious identities in Portugal provides data that show a strengthening of the tendency towards the individualisation of belief that latterly has become increasingly evident. It is important to gather from these data what relates concretely to Catholics and to submit the configurations of belief that they indicate to critical theological enquiry. It is a matter of understanding what in them is in accordance with the truth of Christian faith and what appears to be strange to it. It is an exercise that requires dialogue between the ‘I’ of faith and the ecclesial ‘we’. The latter should open up space so as to let the former find expression in the first person singular. But it has also to check if this ‘I’ provides indications of affiliation in the faith that the Church lives and proclaims. It is possible that the ‘I’ of faith may surprise the ecclesial ‘we’ in certain respects, in a positive sense. But it may equally prove necessary to point out faults that need particular attention.

The arrival of democracy as a hegemonic form of government has led to an updating of the issues surrounding the relationship between religion and politics. There are particular aspects of this relationship in a democratic context that need to be articulated with traditional narratives with regard to modernity as ‘secularisation’, and also with the most recent criticisms to which these historical narratives have been subjected. The original promise of democracy consisted in overcoming once and for all the tensions that the relationship between religion and politics aroused. But since an early stage it was realised that this promise would not be met so easily, as the current discussion in various Western democracies on the presence of the religious in public spaces well demonstrates. The difficulties begin straight away in the disappointing self-evidence of the borderline between the ‘public space’ and the ‘private domain’. But they do not end there.