Aggiornamento
The aggiornamento ( ad͡: ʒɔrna′mɛnto ; Italian : giorno - the day; bring to the day, roughly: adaptation to today's conditions ) is one of Pope John XXIII. Introduced term for the necessary opening of the Catholic Church (especially its liturgy and its external appearance) in order to better enable it to serve in the modern world. It was interpreted as the leitmotif for convening the Second Vatican Council , which met from 1962 to 1965 .
The term was initially only used generally, for example when the “aggiornamento” of canonical church law (“revision”) was mentioned. The later Pope John XXIII. In 1957 - at that time still as Cardinal Roncalli - used the term anew at a provincial synod in Venice: “Do you often hear the word 'aggiornamento'? See our holy Church, always youthful and ready to follow the different course of life with the purpose of adapting, correcting, improving, encouraging. "
The council popes, however, immediately opposed the view that the present time horizon must become the criterion of Catholic identity. So John XXIII warned. on September 9, 1962 before a misinterpretation of the aggiornamento, "which only wants to sweeten life or flatter nature". The slogan of the "Aggiornamento" nevertheless became independent. When, in 1968, in the discussion about the encyclical Humanae Vitae on the one hand and the liturgical reform (1965–1975) on the other, it emerged that Rome would continue to make use of the "Petrine principle", i.e. not surrender the papal authority, this motivated many liberals (namely Hans Küng ) to public opposition. Conversely, traditionalist currents led to increased opposition, ultimately leading to a conflict with Pope Paul VI. and the break with the Roman Catholic Church (Lefebvrian consecrations 1976, excommunication Archbishop Lefebvres 1988).
In essence, the line taken in the aggiornamento of the 1960s was continued and brought universal respect and worldwide admiration to the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, especially among the younger generation. The problem is that Catholicism has to combine a necessary intransigence , i.e. a lack of compromise, with the fact that the church mandate “arrives” at all in the respective historical context. The laborious delimitation of the unchangeable from the changeable is the core of the papal-episcopal magisterium through the centuries.
Therefore, almost all of the papal doctrines are characterized by the fact that, while they reject some things, they also make concessions. If reforms are carried out, continuity is always emphasized. Despite all the problems, this update of the denomination by the ecclesiastical office has proven to be overall more reliable and more successful than an autonomous “theological” innovation can achieve.
The Catholic priest Alfons Beil (1896–1997) gave a remarkable translation and interpretation of the “Aggiornamento” in his memoirs From my life: Experiences, testimonies and questions (Heidelberg, 1989), chapter 1.6. “The Council and the time after” (p. 29), where it says, among other things: “On October 11, 1962, John XXIII. so the Second Vatican Council. […] The council was indeed, as John had hoped, at a new Pentecost; a window was opened to let fresh air flow into the room of the church. The result was the 'aggiornamento', as the Pope put it, literally: To 'bring the church up to date'. This does not mean, however, the adjustment of the church to the world in contrast to the apostle in Rom. 12: 2 as people would like to put it, to whom 'the whole direction does not fit', but renewal of the church from its origin, but with careful attention to it God's sign of the times. "
Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI.) Warned in 1968 in his book Introduction to Christianity against an overly simple view of the aggiornamento. It is true that those who want to preach the faith often feel like someone who has stepped out of an ancient sarcophagus , in the costume and thinking of the ancient world in the middle of today's world. “The basic paradox that already lies in belief in itself is deepened by the fact that belief appears in the guise of what was then, yes, it seems to be what was then, the form of life and existence from then. All the assumptions, whether they call themselves intellectually and academically 'demythologizing' or ecclesiastically pragmatically 'aggiornamento', do not change that, on the contrary: these efforts reinforce the suspicion that what is in reality what was then is being convulsively passed off as today . "
literature
Michael Bredeck: The Second Vatican Council as a Council of the Aggiornamento. On the hermeneutical foundation of a theological interpretation of the Council (= Paderborn Theological Studies, No. 48). Paderborn 2007.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Lexicon for Theology and Church 3/1993, Vol. 1, Col. 219.
- ^ Joseph Ratzinger : Introduction to Christianity . Munich 1968; therein: Introduction, I Believe - Amen, First Chapter.