Post date: Oct 4, 2013 12:08:41 PM
“Let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend Mass, to those who have quit or are indifferent.... The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.... the proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives.”
In responding to questions about the structure of the Church; in seeking unity between the Eastern and Western Churches; and the role of women in the Church: “We must walk together: the people, the bishops and the pope.... We must walk united with our differences: there is no other way to become one. This is the way of Jesus. We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman.... The feminine genius is needed whenever we make important decisions.”
With regard to certainty and making mistakes: “In this quest to seek and find God in all things there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be.... The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.... Ours is not a laboratory faith, but a journey faith, a historical faith. God has revealed himself as history, not as a compendium of abstract truths.... The thinking of the church must recover genius and better understand how human beings understand themselves today, in order to develop and deepen the church’s teaching.”
October is the last month of the Year of Faith.
Bishop Malcolm’s theme for October is “Prayer.”