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Theological Considerations—Hermeneutical, Ecclesiological, Eschatological Regarding Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2013

Bernard P. Prusak
Bernard P. Prusak
Affiliation:
Villanova University
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Abstract

This article analyzes the International Theological Commission's Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past (MR). The document offers methodological reflections about how to proceed in implementing Pope John Paul II's call for the church to ask for forgiveness for past offenses at the dawn of the third millennium of Christianity. MR thus seeks to clarify “the reasons, the conditions, and the exact form of the requests for forgiveness for the faults of the past.” The article raises some specific concerns regarding the three operative distinctions that MR proposes to be applied: between the holiness of the church emphatically differentiated from holiness (and sinfulness) in the church; between church and social context in making historical and theological judgments; and between magisterium and authority in the church (that allows MR to explain how behavior contrary to the Gospel by persons vested with authority in the church need not imply involvement of the magisterial charism).

Type
Editorial Symposium
Information
Horizons , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , Spring 2005 , pp. 136 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 2005

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References

1 English text in Origins: CNS Documentary Service 29/39 (16 March 2000): 625–44, here 628.

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