Catholic Theology in 2023
The Year in Review
I started the Window Light newsletter back in February to be a source for ongoing commentary on Catholic theology and ministry, aiming at both timely analysis of current events and controversies and thought-provoking snapshots of theologians and theological disputes of the past. The year 2023 proved to be a fortuitous year to start such a newsletter, since it saw many developments with important implications for Catholic theology, some of which will prove to be historically significant.
Even so, I began the newsletter on a personal note, exploring my vocation as a theologian even as I gave up a job as a theology professor. At the time, I noted that my personal journey reflected broader trends in the field of theology as an increasing number of theologians either never find work on the full-time tenure track or leave academia as a result of university closures or cuts to theology programs.
The increasing recognition of this transformation of the field of Catholic theology, and the need to respond and adapt to it, became one of the most important developments of 2023. At their annual conventions, the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), the College Theology Society (CTS), and the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) all discussed the future of Catholic theology and the increasingly tenuous relationship between Catholic universities and theology as a discipline. In late October, the CTSA also held an online panel and discussion on theology in an age of academic precarity. I was glad to take part as a panelist in that discussion, but I’m especially grateful to have played a role in furthering the conversation on the future of theology and the theological vocation.
These professional societies have also adapted to a changing world in other ways, as well. As I wrote about in May, the CTSA voted to divest from fossil fuels, hoping to serve as a model for other Catholic institutions.
From a global perspective, certainly the most important theological event of 2023 was the Synod on Synodality in October. This ecclesial gathering brought together in Rome representatives from every continent except Antarctica, including, for the first time, bishops, priests, religious brothers and sisters, and lay people together as voting delegates. The Synod assembly also included theological experts and facilitators who led discussions at the gathering. The Synod was likewise unprecedented because, rather than focusing on a specific topic like evangelization or the family, it was focused more on the process of listening and sharing, a process that began at the parish level in 2021 and worked its way up to the continental level before the global gathering in October. The purpose of the Synod, which will continue with a second session next year, is to find ways for the Church to foster the participation of all its members and to become more inclusive and welcoming in a way consistent with its identity and mission.
Beginning this summer, Window Light featured extensive coverage of the Synod, including analyses of the documents written during the continental stage of the synodal process and an overview of the Synod participants from continents other than North America (all collected here), and a commentary on the synthesis document produced by the Synod participants.
I say that the Synod was an important theological event for a number of reasons. For one, the synodal process depended on the work of many theologians, not least the members of the International Theological Commission, who issued a document on synodality in the life and mission of the Church back in 2018, and the members of the Theological Commission who assisted the Secretariat for the Synod in conducting the synodal process beginning in 2021. Theologians also played important roles by participating in the synodal process at the parish, diocesan, national, and continental levels, and helping to draft national and continental documents, as well as the Working Document for the Continental Stage meant to guide the continental assemblies and the Instrumentum Laboris written in preparation for the worldwide assembly. As I already noted, theologians also served as experts at the Synod assembly in October, some addressing the gathered delegates on topics to be considered by the assembly. A handful of theological experts also played a role in writing the final synthesis document.
Back in July, I wrote about how the synodal process fit into Pope Francis’s institutional legacy. In 2023, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of Francis’s pontificate, an anniversary marked by a number of conferences and events, including one at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa I reported on here.
Another element of Pope Francis’s institutional legacy that I noted was his reorganization of the Roman Curia and the appointment of several new cardinals and curial officials, perhaps none more important than the appointment of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández as the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was clear that the appointment of Fernández represented a shift in direction at the Dicastery, and his work there has already made waves, in two areas in particular.
The first is the ongoing implementation of Pope Francis’s 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, particularly its teaching on the reception of communion by the divorced and remarried. Fernández, at the time the rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, played an important role in drafting the document. Amoris Laetitia’s teaching, seeming to open the door for the reception of communion by the divorced and remarried, immediately generated controversy, and in 2017, Pope Francis made the unusual move of making the guidelines produced by the bishops of the Buenos Aires region of Argentina on handling the issue officially part of the “authentic magisterium” of the Church. I don’t know if Fernández, who was still serving as rector, played a role in drafting those guidelines, although it would not be surprising. One of Fernández’s first major acts as Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was the publication of a response to a set of dubia, or questions, posed by Cardinal Dominik Duka, the Archbishop Emeritus of Prague in the Czech Republic, seeking further clarification on the authoritative status of the Buenos Aires guidelines and their implementation. Fernández’s response offered some definitive answers to longstanding questions on just what Amoris Laetitia means in practice.
Second, Fernández has implemented pretty significant changes in the Church’s pastoral practices geared toward the inclusion of LGBTQ persons. In early October, a group of cardinals published another dubia letter, originally submitted in July, that had posed a number of questions to the Vatican, including the question of whether the Church could offer blessings to same-sex unions. Fernández, in turn, published a set of responses that had been written by Pope Francis in July, responses which the cardinals had claimed were not sufficiently clear. Francis’s responses were, in fact, clear, and he opened the door to blessing persons in same-sex relationships. Then, this past month, Fernández published a more definitive statement on the issue, Fiducia Supplicans. The document’s argument, as I laid out here, is fairly straightforward, although it has generated some controversy, which I can hopefully cover in a later post. Fernández’s work on LGBTQ inclusion has not been limited to the question of blessings, however; for example, in November the DDF issued a statement on the participation of LGBTQ persons in the sacraments of baptism and matrimony, including whether transgender adults could be baptized.
Also in November, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Ad Theologiam Promovendam, in which Francis recognized the need for a paradigm shift in Catholic theology. Although a relatively minor document—it was written to announce the revision of the statutes of the relatively obscure Pontifical Academy of Theology—it generated a great deal of controversy, particularly over its call for theology to be “contextual.” I outlined some of the debate over Ad Theologiam Promovendam here.
The discussion in response to Ad Theologiam Promovendam was not the only conversation concerning theological method this year, however. At the beginning of the year, the Journal of Moral Theology published a special issue on “intersectional theology,” and the Catholic Moral Theology blog published a series of essays in response to articles in the issue, including one by me in response to an article by Hoon Choi. I published a broader reflection on intersectional theology here.
Of course, not everything published in Window Light this year was in response to current events. I conducted a number of fascinating interviews with theologians and scholars, and in the new year I hope to renew the newsletter’s focus on interviews, now that I don’t have an onerous teaching schedule. I also published several theological reflections and historical analyses, including this one on the development of the Church’s teaching on the salvation of those outside the Church, which, to my surprise, became the most viewed article of the year.
What else will the new year bring, besides new interviews and theological reflections? Of course, 2024 is an election year in the United States, and given the state of American politics, likely to be a highly unusual and contentious one. I’ve already written my manifesto on what I wish the U.S. Catholic bishops would say about our political situation, but I’m sure there will be more commentary on Catholicism and the elections.
In October, we will also experience the second Synod gathering in Rome. Local churches around the world are supposed to be considering the ideas proposed in the synthesis document that emerged from the recent gathering, and then October’s assembly is meant to generate concrete policies or recommendations, which should be interesting! Window Light will continue to cover the Synod with the same attention you have come to expect.
One last note: I apologize for the slow pace of publication for the past couple of weeks. In part, this was due to the confluence of end of semester grading and the holiday season, but also to unexpected family circumstances. I will try to publish again in a week’s time, and publication may continue to be slow through the first half of January, but then hopefully will return to the normal pace later in the month.
Happy New Year!
Great review of 2023, Matt. Keep sharing these great reflections! these