Congress seen as a wind-vane

The late Chairman Mao once said that the masses were poor and blank and therefore beautiful things could be written on them, as if they were blank pieces of paper. It comes as no surprise that the National Pastoral Congress is not toeing the Mao line; the Committee are sticking to the principle that the agenda will remain blank until the entire People of God have decided what should be written.
The one theme which repeats itself throughout all the literature of the Congress is that it should be representative. Archbishop Worlock, the father of the Con gress, in his introductory pastoral, urged everyone to think "how best to select the more representative people to attend the Congress."
He had already pointed out that many Catholics no longer went to Church — a clear invitation to "lapsed Catholics" to take P'art.
Fr Torn Shepherd has said that the Congress wants "real representatives", not just someone that priests appoint.
In his recent circular to diocesan co-ordinators of the Congress he says: "Particular attention is to be given to in eluding those not normally taking part in parish activities," and he stresses the need for the right proportion between men and women and the under-30s and over-30s.
Far from being a controversial issue this "popularism" is a uni fying element in the Congress preparation.
Those who say that these sort of meetings tend to get swamped by "unrepresentative professional Catholics" are glad to see "truly representative" Catholics being asked to take part.
On the other side, people who have seen the Commissions fail to generate the renewal demanded by the Second Vatican Council are looking for what the mass of Catholics actually think as a more realistic starting point.
One priest, who wished to remain anonymous, said last week that he was going to ask the barmen at three local Catholic social centres to listen to what people talked about. "If they only talk about the dogs, cars and the
gee gees then that's where the Congress agenda has to start from," he said.
The silent gentlemen who prop up the back wall of the 10 o'clock Mass on Sunday morning were being invitedkto sit down and tell the Church what it's all about.
At present those working for the Congress present it as a kind of wind-vane which will be placed on top of a spire. The Congress itself, three days in May next year, is the wind-vane. The spire is all the preparation. Which way will the wind-vane face? That depends on the way the Spirit blows when the spire is built.
In terms of motivation people are responding well to the invitation to help take part and give their views, but few are enthusiastic about being invited to miss the Cup Final on Bank Holiday weekend in May, 1980. The preparation may have more lasting significance than the Congress itself. There are those who say if you want to know which way the wind is blowing you simply lick your finger and stick it in the air. There's no need, they say, to build a great spire because the Spirit doesn't blow through great structures.
There are also those who want the spire built but want a great uncompromising gold cross put on it by the bishops instead of a wind vane. They want the Church Triumphal, now.
But everyone can at least see the value of the preparation work.
There has been little cynicism about it. Everyone agrees preparation is going well. Each diocese is preparing in its own way, but what should be happening is that each parish should have a discussion group talking about the preparation napers and the agenda for the Congress.
Each deanery should have appointed one man to see that the
parishes are doing this, and a meeting should be set up in the deanery made up of elected parish representatives to take the discussions one stage further.
Early next year the deaneries should begin to select representatives for the Congress, so that by the time individuals reach the Congress they should have have discussed the topics at three levels.
The Catholic organisations arc also being invited to take part, but whether as organisations or as individual members of parishes is unclear at present. The Conference of Major Religious Superiors, colleges of education and every other Catholic body is being invited to play its part.
But there are problems. The appeal to "grass roots" can be deceptive. Grass roots, in whatever quantity, remain grass roots. There may well be in England as many unifying elements among the Catholic community as there are on the Catholic Herald letters page — that is, practically none.
The community may be so heterogenous that it cannot be refined into 2,000 representatives.
Secondly, whatever one may do to make it "representative", the professional Catholics, better informed and more articulate, may one way or other get themselves elected.
The second problem is simply time. Everyone is complaining that they are being given too little time to get discussions going. There have been strikes and printing delays, but is the date for the Congress immovable or could it be postponed for a year?
We will have to wait for another two weeks to discover what topics everyone has chosen, but already other topics are coming up.
Liturgy, the gap between young and old, adult religious education, finding service in the Church for laicised priests, are all topics which have been thrown up in addition to the proposed ones.
Although Canon Law forbids a bishops' conference to commit itself to the recommendations of a National Pastoral Congress the question must now be whether the People of God, having been asked their opinions, will keep quiet again until they are satisfied.