ABSTRACT
Walter Bühlmann concluded his paper on ‘The New Ecclesiology of Vatican II’, with these words: ‘We live in an extraordinarily great Church-time and we probably speak too much of the crisis of the Church and too little of the challenge and chance of the Church.’1
Undoubtedly, there has been much talk of the ‘crisis of authority’ in the Roman Catholic church for at least three decades or more. This present volume wishes to contribute to the effort to move the debates forward in a positive fashion. It does so by seeking to provide an educational and reflective resource. Instead of focusing, however, on the negative valuejudgmental term of ‘crisis’ (whoever is deeming it to be a crisis, from whatever ecclesial standpoint), the editors wish to highlight the myriad of issues surrounding the topic of authority in the Roman Catholic church today, and the inseparable topic of governance, as elements of ecclesial life and ecclesiological concern for our times which might best be regarded both as gifts and as challenges. One may perceive a challenge in a negative light, but one may also see it as an opportunity to inspire or energize one to move on to better things beyond the Status Quo. It is in this light that we see the debates concerning authority today as a challenge – indeed a very positive set of challenges. But for any challenge to become positive, it must be met with on positive terms. It must be taken up in a spirit of willingness and determination. It is a task to be confronted, performed. To ‘resolutely take the way’ initiated by Christ, is to meet the challenges posed to the Christian community/ies today.
