Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm. Prior General
On the 11th of October, 2011, in the Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI invoked the Year of Faith, which would begin on the 11th of October 2012, (the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the II Vatican Council and twenty years after the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) and end on the solemnity of Jesus Christ the King, on the 24th of November, 2013. Pope Benedict XVI called on all of us to deepen our experience of faith and revive our conversion to the Lord, and similarly, to intensify our witness to charity.
Throughout this Year of Faith, a number of things have happened in terms of celebrations, courses, conferences and meetings, and now we are approaching the later stages of the year with the hope that it did really work to achieve the objectives set out at the beginning. We will end the year with a new Pope, who since he became Pope has been calling us on to renew our faith and to live it out in joy, hope and generosity towards the most needy.
Carmel too joined in the joy of this Year of Faith and in some of our provinces and missions a variety of events were organised and a number of publications were made. On the level of the General leadership of the Order I would like to highlight the series of lectures given at St. Albert’s International Centre in Rome (CISA) under the title, Carmelites and the II Vatican Council, in which the contribution of Carmelites to this most important event in the life of the Church was examined from a number of perspectives, while at the same time examining the effect of the Council on the life of the Order in areas such as the canonical, the pastoral and the liturgical.
In this regard I would like to take the opportunity that the publication of Citoc Magazine offers in order to pay tribute to those brothers of ours who now fifty years ago added their grain of sand to the unfolding of the great council assembly. Even though a number of Carmelite bishops took part in different sessions of the Council (they can be seen in the photograph that accompanies this article, taken in the grounds of St. Albert’s College), I will limit my remarks to three Carmelites who stood out in this regard. Firstly, the then Prior General, Fr. Kilian Healy is worthy of mention. On a number of occasions he called on Carmelites all around the world to pray for the Council and to adopt in their own lives the objectives of the Council, even though he himself, in an interview in CITOC (No. 3, July-September 2007) said that the Council went too far and surprised many of those who were taking part in it, and they did not really know where that major event was going to end up.
Secondly, I would like to mention the great Carmelite theologian, Bartolomé F.M. Xiberta, whose cause for beatification is underway. He was a member of the Preparatory Theological Commission of Vatican II, and also a consultor for the Spanish bishops. Xiberta played an active part in the writing of some sections of Lumen gentium and in the debates on some of the more cogent issues. Moreover, something of perhaps even greater importance, the main idea of his doctoral thesis (Clavis Ecclesiae, Rome 1921) would seem to have been indirectly taken up in chapter 11 of Lumen gentium and it was one of the ideas that inspired the renewal of sacramental theology in the 20th century. The great German theologian, Karl Rahner, in a beautiful letter written in June 1963, thanked Fr. Xiberta for his contribution to theology and told him that he was sending him the first volumes of his celebrated Schriften zur Theologie (Theological Investigations).
Finally, I wish to say a word about the conribution of Bishop Donal Lamont, the Carmelite bishop of Umtali (now Mutare) in the then called Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Lamont had made a name for himself by his 1959 pastoral letter, Purchased People. In that letter the young Irish bishop, based on a solid traditional theology, defended the equality of all humans and condemned in very forthright terms the racist policies of the colonial government. This criticism of the so-called apartheid system would lead much later to his deportation from Zimbabwe and the loss of his citizenship. Lamont too made an important intervention in the Council, in the writing of the document on the mission of the Church. The Roman Curia had put together a somewhat scanty draft document de missionibus that did not find acceptance among the Council Fathers, especially those who worked in mission territories. In an historic session, held on the 7th of November, 1964, various participants expressed the need to withdraw the draft and to write an entirely new document. Lamont made a devastating speech in the hall in which he compared the thirteen thesis in the draft to the “dry bones” of the prophet Ezequiel. In the end the draft was withdrawn and the following year the new decree Ad gentes was approved, a document that was thought by none less than Karl Barth to be the best of the Council document, as we learn from Congar’s, Journal du Concile.
Fifty years have passed since the opening of the Second Vatican Council, but its message is still very alive. Perhaps there is still much in it for us to discover and to develop. This Year of Faith may be a splendid opportunity for that, at all levels of life, personal individual, community, provincial and also as an Order. May Our Lady of Mount Carmel enlighten us so that our faith may continue to be a living faith, that will find its expression in generosity, service, joy and hope.
Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., Prior General
