Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, February 17-18, 2023
On 17 and 18 February 2023, at the initiative of the Relational Ontology Research (ROR) group, in collaboration with the Faculty of Communication of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and the University’s Centre for Priestly Formation, an Expert Meeting was held on the topic of Authority and Mediation: Asymmetrical Relations in the Church.
The aim of the meeting, which the ROR intended to organise in the spirit of the Synod, was to reflect on the theme of the exercise of authority in the Church. The latter is the universal sacrament of salvation and historically acts and qualifies as a hierarchically structured reality.
The structure of the Church expresses its connection with the life and salvation of Christ through the interweaving of the relationships created in the exercise of its specific power. These relationships, by their very nature, are ‘asymmetrical’, but enjoy the influence of grace, which is nothing but a flow of mediation by the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the men and women who belong to the Church are called to consciously take the risk of leadership in which the exercise of power integrates a way of acting that faithfully represents the mediation between God and the world.
Returning to reflect on the crux of such an issue through a trans-disciplinary and synergetic dialogue is of fundamental importance, because it means returning to reflect on the very identity of the Church.
In recent years, the trust placed in the salvific mediation of the Church has been severely weakened by faults and abuses that have emerged at various levels and in various spheres. It emerged from the meeting that the Church itself has the resources and capacity to heal these wounds.
Within the Church, in particular, the ecclesiastical hierarchy, as well as the various movements and lay institutes, have shown that they are able to implement coherent actions, linked to their charisma, and are increasingly aware that they can heal and/or contain possible drifts in the exercise of power.
Highlighting the ambivalences and risks, but also the specificity of this role of mediation, as characterising the life and mission of the Church, seems fundamental in order to understand in the post-modern and post-Christian context the unavoidability of the exercise of this spiritual power.
