Water of life

 

‘Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again;

but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give

will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give

will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.’

John 4:14

Our planet cannot survive without water. All living creatures need water to live. Water is one of keys to life in our universe, albeit, a major key. The enormous pain that we as a country have experienced over the past few years or more of drought has to be balanced by the joy, and then the fear, of the extensive flooding across Queensland, northern New South Wales, Victoria and even here in Tasmania.

While water is both a recreational activity and a place of work, many lives are lost at sea, in rivers and lakes. In the new age of climate change, whole government agencies have been established to reduce the damage done by our output of carbon into the atmosphere. The debate continues over the location of desalination plants. Water is high in the political, economic, social and environment agenda.

In our Christian experience water is a symbol for life itself. The Jews of Jesus’ time already possessed a deep and rich understanding of the meaning of water – it signified divine vitality, revelation and wisdom. In John’s Gospel (4:1-42) the author contrasts the water of Judaism (which cleans, satisfies thirst and promotes life) with the life-giving water of Christ. The Samaritan women to whom Jesus offers this water becomes confused, perhaps thinking that Jesus is offering her running water, rather than water from the well. But no, the water Jesus is offering will quench one’s thirst forever. The links to our baptismal waters are evident.

The ambivalence between water’s life-giving qualities and its death-bringing aspects provides us with a dilemma. In baptism we are reborn and made anew in Christ, and our sinful past is washed away, we are new creations. When whole townships are washed away, the locals often use similar baptismal language, for they rebuild and start anew.

For us there is only one baptism. How, then, do we continue to seek that living water once we have been baptised? And for that we return to the divine vitality, revelation and wisdom which water symbolised to the Jews. And these may be found by enriching our spiritual lives through prayerful reading of the scriptures, through participation in the living Christian community of worship and through a life of good works and giving alms. The image of living water would then make true sense. As Sunday’s antiphon invites us: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

                                                                                                                     

Peter Douglas

Use the force

There are 10 countries in which the Catholic Church has no child protection policies whatsoever. That was the startling statistic that emerged last week as the Vatican marked the first anniversary of its historic summit aimed at fighting the scourge of abuse around the world.

In 2011, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) asked all bishops’ conferences to draw up policies for handling abuse allegations. These texts did not need to be as detailed as, say, the child protection policies of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. In fact, they could consist of little more than a preamble and a few quotations from The Code of Canon Law.

Nevertheless, nine years on there are 10 jurisdictions that have produced no written policy at all. This is a pity, but there may be good reasons why they have failed to do so. As officials explained to reporters in Rome last Friday, the 10 countries (which they declined to name) suffer from war and extreme poverty. In such conditions even something as vital as child protection norms comes second to the sheer struggle for survival.

On the first anniversary of the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, the Vatican was understandably keen to put a positive spin on its efforts to halt abuse. Perhaps it is indeed an achievement for the Church to have guidelines on combating abuse in all but 10 nations worldwide. But it seems that in many cases the policies are rudimentary and urgently in need of updating.

In its quest for good publicity, the

Vatican also announced an eye-catching new initiative last week: a “task force” to help bishops’ conferences to either develop or update procedures for handling abuse cases. This body will consist of canon lawyers and other experts, and will be led by the Maltese professor Andrew Azzopardi, a protégé of Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who has done more to fight abuse than almost any other figure in the Church. The new group has a dedicated email address, taskforce@org.va, where bishops and religious superiors will be able to seek answers to their child protection questions. We applaud the Vatican for taking this step. Many bishops’ conferences

The abuse ‘task force’ can only respond to requests and has no power to compel desperately need help in the battle against abuse. Azzopardi’s team should be of some assistance to them. It is good news as well that the CDF is preparing to release a handbook helping bishops and heads of religious orders to understand how they are supposed to handle abuse allegations. We also note the other major steps that the Vatican has taken since the child protection summit in February 2019. Last May, Pope Francis issued Vos estis, which seeks to ensure that Church leaders are held accountable for their handling of abuse cases. In December, the Pope lifted the pontifical secrecy rule in abuse cases. These are all excellent measures.

But, as always, there are some caveats. First, the new task force can only respond to requests for assistance. In other words, even though the body is under the protection of Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the number three official in the Vatican Secretariat of State, it has no power to compel laggardly bishops’ conferences to produce adequate guidelines.

Second, the task force is being funded by donors to a dedicated fund rather than by the Vatican itself. The Holy See may be experiencing financial difficulties, but surely it should be prioritising child protection. The Church is, after all, unable to proclaim the Gospel effectively if it is seen to be indifferent to the welfare of its most vulnerable members.

Third, the task force will only have a two-year term. Given the slow progress so far, it’s unlikely that all the world’s bishops’ conferences will have effective, up-to-date guidelines by 2022.

Fourth, as the Vatican observer John Allen has pointed out, the idea of assisting bishops’ conferences with their guidelines is not new. Indeed, that was supposed to be one of the tasks of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, founded by Pope Francis in 2014. Over the past six years, the Pontifical Commission has been scandalously underfunded and marginalised. So, as Allen noted, it is unclear whether the new task force is “a response to a genuine lacuna in the system, or … just bureaucratic duplication that may not actually add value”.

In two years’ time we will know which of these descriptions is most apt. For now, we should welcome the new task force and pray for its success.

CATHOLIC HERALD, MARCH 6 2020 3