From the editor’s desk

From ice age to thaw

Cardinal William Levada, the new head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has yet to gain a reputation as either a hard man or a soft man. But on the basis of one of the most wide-ranging interviews he has given since his appointment last year - he was formerly Archbishop of San Francisco - he is certainly entitled to credit as an open-minded one. If his words (reported on page 27) indicate a general policy, there is a discernible thaw in the theological ice age that marked the papacy of Pope John Paul II. That pope was holy, charismatic, learned and immensely intelligent, and saw himself as parish priest of the world, Polish-style. The downside of this strength was that there was only one opinion that mattered in the Church, and that was his own. His successor, Pope Benedict, had, as Joseph Ratzinger, acted as his doctrinal policeman. In appointing Cardinal Levada he presumably knew what he was getting - a man who admitted in this interview that "the Magisterium is usually far behind on the evolution of moral challenges. Usually the Magisterium won't take a position on issues that evoke opposed opinions that can both claim to stand on solid faith arguments." Perhaps for "won't" one should read "shouldn't".

Cardinal Levada is clearly no fundamentalist. He understood the role of the successors of the apostles as being to interpret revelation in new circumstances and in the light of new challenges, in a world where such challenges grow exponentially. "That creates a living tradition that is much larger than the simple and strict passing of existing answers, insights and convictions from one generation to another ... The mission of the Church is not to prohibit people from thinking, investigating different hypotheses or collecting knowledge, its mission is to give those processes orientation."

It would be a mistake to over-interpret his remarks. He also said, for instance, that the Church has to have a way of judging whether "our actions are in accordance with the commandment to love your neighbour". But on a series of issues facing the Church, from the use of condoms in the fight against Aids to its relations with other faiths, this approach would open the Church's mind to other possibilities than those received from past teachings. It makes the tradition alive and dynamic again. The cardinal's words convey a sense of feeling his way forward cautiously rather than of rushing to judgement and denunciation. Newman's model for the development of doctrine, so contrary to the way the Church was behaving in the late nineteenth century when he wrote, was of a triangular relationship that linked the sense of the faithful, theologians and the Magisterium, with the last speaking only when necessary, rarely and late. That model feeds the Magisterium with ideas and insights from below, rather than seeing it as a source of doctrine to be imposed from the top down. It appears to be close to the Levada model.

Is it also the Ratzinger model? Or is Pope Benedict prepared to tolerate a little relaxation of doctrinal discipline because all the major questions have already been answered - conservatively? If so, a certain tension between Pope and Prefect can be anticipated, as theologians who have gone to ground emerge from their burrows and test out their new freedom.