‘Justice in the World’ By Fr Donal Dorr
10th October 2011 - by Ellen Teague
St. Patrick’s Missionary Donal Dorr provides a background to the fortieth anniversary of the document ‘Justice in the World’, produced by the 1971 Synod of Bishops.
One of the most important advances made by the Vatican Council of the 1960s was the idea of ‘collegiality’, that is, that authority and leadership in the Church is not vested in the pope alone but is a joint responsibility of the pope and the bishops. As a way of putting this into practice, it was decided to have regular gatherings of bishops elected by the conferences of bishops all over the world. The third of these Synods took place in Rome in 1971 and it issued the document Justice in the World. This document was – and still is – one of the most important documents that has ever been issued by leaders in the Church. Although it is now 40 years old, it inspires and challenges us today just as much – and perhaps even more – as it did when it was first issued.
The document opened up new ideas in the Church and, more importantly, new proposals for concrete action. For instance, it took a strong stand on the ecological issue at a time when this was only just coming on the horizon for most Christians. This was largely due to the influence of Barbara Ward (Lady Jackson), who was invited to speak to the bishops and who contributed significantly to the document.
The document was also very influenced by the new approach adopted by the Latin American bishops at their epoch-making gathering at Medellín in 1968. For them the big word was ‘liberation’. They were rejecting the kind of so-called ‘development’ which was being imposed on their countries largely by the United States and which was making the poor still poorer. The Synod document had to take account of the fact that for Church leaders in Africa the word ‘development’ was still a positive word. So Justice in the World speaks of liberation through development. But it was quite radical in challenging the idea of automatic progress and the assumption that poverty would be overcome by ‘the crumbs that fall from the table’ of a wrong form of ‘development’. The document takes a strong stand on the side of those who are voiceless and victims of oppression.
The radical and controversial aspects of the document come in relation to two key issues. The first of these is its statement that action on behalf of justice is ‘a constitutive dimension’ of the preaching of the Gospel. This word ‘constitutive’ means ‘essential’. So the document is saying that if the Church in any given situation is not working to promote justice, then it is failing to be what Jesus calls it to be. The bishops at the Synod had no hesitation in accepting this formulation. However, shortly after the Synod there was a concerted campaign by key Vatican figures to modify the wording of the document by replacing the word ‘constitutive’ with the word ‘integral’. Those who favoured this view were playing down the central role which the official Church should give to action for justice; they held that the Church could still be itself if in some situations its leaders felt it was inappropriate to take a strong stand on justice issues.
Behind this controversy lie two different spiritualities. On the one hand there are those who put the main emphasis on what they see as the ‘spiritual’ message of Jesus and the Church and who tend to play down the Church’s commitment to transformation of the world. On the other hand there are those who reject this ‘dualistic’ approach and insist that an essential aspect of living out our faith is to work to overcome injustice and to create a world of justice, peace, reconciliation, and respect for the environment. Several years after the Synod the new pope, John Paul II, came down quite firmly on the side of this latter spirituality by saying in Brazil that action on behalf of justice is an ‘essential’ aspect of evangelisation.
The second key element in the document Justice in the World is its statement that if the Church is to give effective witness to justice in the world then it must itself be just. It goes on to spell out various ways in which the institutional Church must be a model of justice. The document says that the lifestyle of bishops and ministers of the Church must be looked at, noting the danger that their possessions and privileges may hinder the Church in its proclamation of, and witness to, the Gospel. The Bishops’ document makes specific mention of the rights of lay people, stressing the right of people to share responsibility and to participate in decision-making. It is quite original and radical in saying: ‘We … urge that women should have their own share of responsibility and participation in the community life of society and likewise of the Church’. The document went on to say: ‘We propose that this matter be subjected to a serious study employing adequate means: for instance, a mixed commission of men and women, religious and lay people, of differing situations and competence.’ As far as I know, this document of 40 years ago is the only major statement issued from Rome which addresses seriously the issue of justice in the Church itself. I find it quite shocking that the proposal of a mixed commission was never taken up and is still hanging in the air.
Justice in the World is important not only because of its content but also because of the process that led to its composition. A preliminary draft of the document was prepared beforehand by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, an agency which itself was only about ten years old and which had been a key agent of change in the Vatican. The main drafter of the document was Philip Land S.J.; and key contributions came from the theologians Vincent Cosmao O.P., and Juan Alfaro S.J. From the beginning and right through the process there was close collaboration of bishops, theologians and expert consultants such as Lady Jackson.
Possibly the most important aspect of the whole process is that the document was issued by the gathering of the bishops themselves. This was in sharp contrast to what happened at all the later Synods. At these subsequent gatherings the bishops merely handed over to the pope the results of their deliberations, and left it to the pope to issue a document some time later based on whatever parts of these deliberations were acceptable to the Vatican. It is very likely that if this had happened in the case of the Synod of 1971, the final document would not have included its more radical and controversial aspects; they would have been toned down or edited out entirely.
I hope that the account I have given of the Synod document shows that it is by no means a relic from the past, of interest only to historians. Indeed both its contents and the process which gave rise to it could be the basis for an agenda for the Church today. Should we not ask our bishops to plead insistently with the pope and the Rome authorities to take up this agenda, as one important step in breathing new life and energy into our institutional Church, which has been so damaged by the scandals of recent times?
Further resources from Donal Dorr on www.donaldorr.com
The Center of Concern’s Maria Riley, O.P., and Jim Hug, S.J. reflect on the 1971 Bishops’ Synod document, Justice in the World. The statement is disturbingly accurate to the world situation today. http://www.educationforjustice.org/resources/justice-world-40-years-later
