March 22, 2016, 11:16a.m. – THE HEAD of the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education called on Filipino theologians to proclaim the Gospel and look for more suitable ways of explaining timeless Catholic teachings in a recent symposium at Ateneo de Manila Loyola School of Theology.
“Theologians are sons and daughters of the Church and they are called to proclaim the Gospel,” said the Italian cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi. “Integral to the spirituality of the theologian are: a love of truth, readiness for the conversion of the art and mind, a striving for holiness, and a commitment to ecclesial communion and salvation,” said Cardinal Versaldi.
Theologians, he said, should continue proclaiming Catholic doctrines but must “seek for more suitable ways of communicating doctrine to the men of their time.”
Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo expressed disappointment at the treatment of theologians in today’s secularized word.
“While people ask modern-day questions, the Church gives answers, the theologians answer—but their answers are not taken seriously. The Church and theologians continue to be clowns by being not taken seriously,” Quevedo said, adding that theologians are more often than not looked upon as “ultra-conservative and out-of-touch.”
For his part, UST Central Seminary Rector Fr. Quirico Pedregosa Jr., O.P., encouraged theologians to establish a healthy relationship with the laity. He said teaching theology should be a twofold dialogue between those who teach and those who are served.
“We have to be with the people more. We have to listen more. Most of the people for whom we work, their experience are an important locus in theology. We have to go to the peripheries where God’s presence is articulated,” Fr. Pedregosa said.
Systematic theology should not only “provide a delightfulness of God, but [also] the transforming knowledge of God,” he said. “What we need is a systematic theology that is not only informative. We need a theology that is formative, or better, transformative,” he said.
The theological symposium, titled “Leading and Serving through Theology: 50 Years after Vatican II” was held on March 10 and 11 to mark the golden jubilee of the Loyola School of Theology. Gabriel M. Agcaoili and Lea Mat P. Vicencio
