Going forward, looking back

A large group gathered in the Manresa Jesuit Centre for Spirituality, Clontarf, on Tuesday 5 October, for the first of three ‘conversations’ on “A Renewed Vision for the Church”. Jesuit theologian Gerry O’Hanlon opened the discussion by tracing the history of the Christian community’s understanding of itself as ‘Church’ from its origins and up to Vatican two. He outlined the development of Papal primacy, infallibility and and a form of centralisation that caused Pius XI to say that the Church as the mystical body of Christ had become a monstrosity – the head grown very large, the body shrunken. This gave rise to an animated discussion on the Church today as experienced by those gathered. This Tuesday, 12 October, Gerry O’Hanlon will talk on Vatican II, concluding the following Tuesday by plotting a way forward in the context of what has been learnt and discussed so far.