Vatican II and the Agency of Asian Churches

Felix Wilfred
(Emeritus Professor, State University of Madras, India)

One of Karl Rahner’s celebrated statements concerns the abiding significance of

Vatican II. He saw in Vatican II the Church becoming for the first time truly
“catholic,” universal.1 Though the statement is well-meant, I have been sceptical of
its presupposition. It implies that the Church is a reality of the West, and now it has
become universal by reaching out to the other parts of the world. Those from the
other ends of the world by participating in the council witnessed to its universality.
The view of Rahner was developed later by Walbert Bühlman who spoke of “The
Coming of the Third Church.”2 There is an unintended euro-centrism here regarding
the origin and expansion of Christianity. This is true also the more recent work of
Philip Jenkins, titled “The Next Christendom. The Coming of Global Christianity”. 3
But the facts tell us that Christian presence was an accomplished reality in several
parts of Asia – India, Iran, China, etc. – even before many parts of Europe heard of
the Gospel. There was a flourishing “Church of the East” which predates sixteenth
century European mission expansion into Asia. There has been in India a community
of Thomas Christians who have maintained their faith almost from the beginnings of
Christianity, and in China Christianity was present from seventh century onwards
attested by the Nestorian monument in Xian.4 So, then, what does it mean for Asia
when Rahner says that for the first time in Vatican II, the Church has become truly
“catholic,” a world Church? For us Asians, the significance of Vatican II lies
somewhere else, as will be clear in the following reflections.

1
Cf. K. Rahner, “Basic Theological Interpretation of the Second Vatican Council,” in Theological
Investigations, vol. 20(New York: Crossroad, 1981), 77-89.
2
Cf. Walbert Bühlman, The Coming of the Third Church (New York: Orbis Books, 1979).
3
Cf. Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom. The Coming of Global Christianity (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2002). When he speaks of “The Next Christendom” referring to the Churches in the
South, including those of Asia, it would give the impression as if Christianity in Asia were a later
expansion of Western Christianity. Moreover, the presentation of Christianity today as a religion of
the poor in the South needs to be analysed in depth. Perhaps here there are unintended prejudices.
For example the claim that reason is something Western and modern, and hence the critical attitude
towards Christianity and its rejection in Europe, while it is being increasingly accepted and is
flourishing in the pre-modern societies of the South wanting in reason, and rich in emotion. I thank
Dr M.P. Joseph for this insight on the work of Philip Jenkins in his paper presented at the Silver
Jubilee Conference of SATHRI held at Serampore during 15 – 17 August, 2014.

4
See Felix Wilfred, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (New York: Oxford University Press,
2014); see also Samuel Hugh Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. I, Beginning to 1500
(Bangalore: TPI Publications, 2006), 288.
Once Again Active Agents of Their Faith

One of the beautiful things about Vatican II was its spirit of freedom in living out
one’s Christian life. Thanks to it, for the first time, Asian Christians, after the colonial
period, became once again active agents in the practice of their faith – something
they were denied during the Western missionary expansion. There was a sense of
freedom, unfettered by the past, to shape the way they worship, understand and
interpret Christian faith in the Asian context and cultural universe. It brought about
renewal in the Christian communities, facilitated the bridging of faith and culture,
and evolving of innovative theological perspectives.

By and large, the mission historiography in Asia has been one in which the people of
the continent were viewed and treated as passive recipients of a message preached
to them; they were objects to be spiritually acted upon. Vatican II has reactivated
Asian Christians who have a long history of their own. If the missionary epoch made
Asian Christians dependent, Vatican II promoted the maturing of Asian Christians.
What happened at the Asian Synod of 1998 could be viewed as the result of this
maturation process set free by Vatican II. At the Synod,

What was new is not what the Asian bishops said, but that they said and how
and where they said. In front of the pope and the Roman Curia, with surprising
boldness and candour, humbly learn from but also have something to teach the
Church of Rome as well as the universal Church, precisely from their
experiences as Churches not simply in but of Asia.5

Contribution of Asian Bishops at the Council

Vatican II, as is well-known, was a theological battlefield where the titans clashed on
number of doctrinal issues and questions. The conciliar documents themselves bear
the imprint of the conflicts, and not in few instances, compromises were made to be
able to take everybody along – something that would pave the way subsequently for
a conflict on the interpretation of the council.6 There is hardly anything remarkable
in the contribution of Asian bishops to the doctrinal issues debated in the council.
Rather, they saw the council eminently as a pastoral event, and became in the council
itself increasingly active whenever issues of pastoral nature came up. For, the
doctrinal issues were mostly done within the frame of traditional Western theology
and in the context of its past debates and controversies.

5
Peter C. Phan, “Reception of Vatican II in Asia: Historical and Theological Analysis,” in FABC Papers
no. 117 (Hong Kong, 2006).
6
For an analysis of the conflict in ecclesiology of Vatican II, see Antonio Acerbi, Due ecclesiologie:
ecclesiologia giuridica ed ecclesiologia di lumen gentium (Bologna: Edizione Dehoniane, 1975).
Since the Asian bishops viewed the Council in its pastoral significance, the reception
of it was made easy; in many areas, it corresponded to the expectations of the Asian
bishops. In fact, many of the innovations brought about by the council were
expressed by Asian bishops and bishops’ conferences as vota in the ante-preparatory
period and sent to Rome. In an important study on the participation of Indian
bishops at Vatican II, Paul Pulikkan notes some of the vota or proposals sent by
reform-minded Indian bishops.

Some of the important ‘reform-minded’ proposals of the Indian vota were thus:
the use of vernacular, liturgical renewal, the restoration of the permanent
diaconate (also the married), ecumenical dialogue with the non-Catholic
Churches, reform of the Roman Curia, adaptation and inculturation of
Christianity in India...7

The same could be said of the vota from other parts of the continent. It is easy to see
then that the reception of Vatican II was a matter of joy since it vibrated with Asian
pastoral aspirations, though the bishops were not able to provide articulate
theological foundation to what they intuitively felt were necessary and important.
But this lacuna was made good deftly in the post-conciliar period by Asian
theologians who have helped the Asian Churches by developing indigenous
theological reflections. Already while the council was in progress, there was a
conference held in Mumbai in connection with 38th International Eucharist Congress
(1964) in which Indian theologians voiced open views on the salvation of peoples of
other religious traditions and the need for dialogue with them. Once again we note
the active role played by the Asian Christians in the reception of the council, which
was by no means anything passive.

The Three Dialogues — Continuation of the Council

Asian bishops tried to relate and reflect on the teachings of the council in relation to
the larger concerns of their respective societies and nations. The Federation of Asian
Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) became the catalyst and clearing house for the major
ideas and orientations of Vatican II.8 It is this body which translated the dialogical
impetus of Vatican II in Asia in three major directions most relevant to the situation

7
Paul Pulikkan, Indian Church at Vatican II: A Historico-Theological Study of the Indian Participation in the
Second Vatican Council (Trichur: Marymatha Publications, 2001), 568.
8
At the institutional level, there have been assemblies of local Churches which helped to deepen the
life and practice of Christians and the teachings of the Council and its orientation. By way of example,
I may refer here to the “All India Seminar: Church in India Today” held in Bangalore, in 1969, with
the participation of large number of bishops, priests, religious and laity. Similarly The Second Plenary
Council of The Philippines in 1991 could be viewed as an important milestone in the reception of
Vatican II in that country.
of Asia – dialogue with the cultures, with religions and with the poor.9 Most
stimulating re-interpretation of Christian faith took place in Asia not by the reading
of Christian dogmas through Asian conceptual categories, as through the concrete
dialogical praxis in these three major areas. The new conception of culture – far from
the evolutionary one – to be found throughout the documents of the council, and the
orientations of Nostra Aetate provided the seminal thoughts to develop the practice
of dialogue with cultures and religions.

As is well-known, though there was no focused treatment on the “Church of the

Poor” (Pope John XXIII), the council did speak of the poor.10 In fact, Vatican II is but
the second council in the history of the Church which spoke of the poor, the first
being the Council of Jerusalem which gave the injunction to “remember the poor.” 11
The spirit of Vatican II and the stimulus it gave led the Asian Churches to engage
themselves in dialogue with the poor, and rightly so. For, Asia is still the home for
the largest number of the poor in the world. The numerous initiatives of the FABC
have again and again with insistence come back on the realities and experiences of
the poor of the continent. This is true also of some of the local Churches. As Bishop
Teodoro Bacani of the Philippines noted with reference to the situation in his
country,

The Church of the Poor is the Church in the Philippines’ way of receiving and
inculturating one of the most potent but undeveloped seeds which Vatican II
sowed in the Lord’s orchard. There was enough in Vatican II to inspire
Medellin and Puebla to a new way of evangelization. There was enough in
Vatican II to inspire the Church in the Philippines also towards a new way of
being Church.12

Unfazed Asians Sing Their Own Tunes

9
These three dialogues announced by the First General Assembly of FABC (Taipei 1974) became
programmatic for the subsequent developments in the thought of FABC and in its pastoral
orientations.
10
Cf. Jon Sobrino, “The Church of the Poor from John XXIII to Oscar Romero” in Concilium 2013/1,
99-107.

11
Cf. Aloysius Pieris, Give Vatican II a Chance (Gonawala-Kelaniya: Tulana Research Centre, 2010), 44.
12
Theodoro C. Bacani, “Church of the Poor: The Church in the Philippines’ Reception of Vatican II,”
East Asian Pastoral Review 42, 1&2 (2005), 157.
The vitality behind Vatican II is often attributed to ressourcement.13 Asian Christians
found exciting the return to the pluralism of earliest Christian tradition as it is in
harmony with the Asian cultural ethos. Be it in the field of Christian worship,
theological developments, interpretation of Scriptures, shaping of the life of the local
communities, Asian Christians worked out, thanks to the council, ways to be
themselves, without having to conform to any one single pattern. The centralizing
type of universality seemed to wane giving place to the pluralism of the Pentecost
(Acts 2:1-12).

It is the deep imbibing of Vatican II that prompted the Asian Churches to view with
apprehension some of the Roman positions, which they felt were going contrary to
the spirit of the council. Whereas Rome has been loud on explicit preaching of the
Gospel, baptism and conversion, Asian bishops and the Asian Christians have been
quietly insisting that the kind of mission most effective in the continent is that of
silent witnessing. While Roman documents laid stress on preaching Jesus Christ as
the only Saviour, Asian Churches focused on following the path of historical Jesus in
his commitment to the poor, in his spirit of dialogue and in his way of life reaching
out to the other. This, they felt was the way to gain a deeper understanding of the
mystery of Jesus Christ. As the Japanese Bishops’ Conference wrote in their response
to the Lineamenta of the Asian synod, “Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the
Life, but in Asia, before stressing that Jesus Christ is the Truth, we must search much
more deeply into how he is the Way and the Life.”14 Here we find reflected the
absorption of the pastoral nature of Vatican II. That the Asian Churches have
consistently maintained all this is itself a great sign of the continued reception of
Vatican II, unfazed by the trends of restoration and integrism. Suffused with the
spirit of pluralism, diversity and dialogue, Asia is, probably, too elusive to be caged
within such trends, as many interventions of the bishops showed at the Asian
Synod.

Contextual Interpretation and Reception

The past few decades have seen heated debates and writings on the way Vatican II is
to be interpreted. Key categories in these debates are “continuity” and
“discontinuity,” namely, whether Vatican II is to be viewed as a council in line with
the tradition of the Church, or whether it represents a caesura from the past. The
question was discussed also during the extraordinary synod of 1985. To my
knowledge, this question has not excited the Asian Churches or Asian Church-
leaders and theologians as it has done perhaps those in Europe and in Americas – at
least North America. The discussion within continuity-discontinuity frame would
13
Cf. Gabriel Flynn – Paul D. Murray, Ressourcement: A Movement for Renewal in Twentieth-Century
Catholic Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
14
Peter C. Phan, ed., The Asian Synod. Texts and Commentaries (New York: Orbis Books, 2002), 30.
seem to suffer from a static view of the Church without regard to God’s continuous
revelation. For some partners in this discussion, the identity, cohesion and continuity
of the Church could be maintained only when borders and boundaries are clearly
demarcated. One should clearly know who is in and who is out; what tradition is
and what innovation is; what is past and what is present. 15

More than trying to make a historico-critical analysis of the documents, its genesis,
its borders and boundaries to arrive at the meaning of the council, Asians have
preferred to interpret them through their life and context. They have approached the
conciliar documents with the specific and unique questions and concerns of the
Asian peoples, and have continued to draw inspiration for the life of faith and for
Christian engagement.

Moreover, the interpretation of the council in terms of continuity or discontinuity

reflects a particular hermeneutics which is being increasingly challenged today. It
presupposes that the meaning of the text is identical with the meaning of the author,
and hence all efforts directed to find out what exactly the council meant by this or
that expression. Developments in the field of hermeneutics tell us that the meaning
of any text goes beyond the meaning of the author. 16 That is true of the council and
its vision.

In hermeneutically reconstructing what the council envisaged and what it outlined

in its documents, it is helpful to keep in mind “the hermeneutical function of
distanciation.”

An author of a text world (in the world behind the text) commits a vision to
writing by producing a text that imagines “a world” (the world of the text).
The text projects and proposes this world to an implied reader and ultimately
to a reader in the “real” world, inviting the reader to imagine that proposed
world in his or her own context (the world in front of the text). In the reader’s
application to the real world, vision can become a reality, no matter how
distant in time the receiver is from the production of the text. 17

The role of the interpreter is crucial today to understand the meaning of the text.
Asian Christians as interpreters in their Asian context, continue to derive new
15
This is Philip Endean’s motive in his critique of the apophatic and mystical theology of Rahner. Cf.
Philip Endean, “Has Rahnerian Theology a Future?,” in Declan Marmion – Mary E. Hines, eds., The
Cambridge Companion to Karl Rahner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 281-296.
16
Cf. Felix Wilfred, Keynote address at the “International Conference on Themes and Issues in
Eastern and Western Hermeneutical Traditions” held at the Faculty of Philosophy, Jnana-Deepa
Vidayapeeth, Pune, 31 Jan. & 1 Feb. 2014.
17
Ormond Rush, “Toward a Comprehensive Interpretation of the Council and Its Documents,”
Theological Studies vol. 73, no. 3 (2012), 565.
meanings by reading the conciliar texts. These texts are for them not historically
distant, but a present reality, and hence reception of the council is a continuous
process. It is a creative interpretation of the council in dialogue with Asian
experiences and realities of life. This is why discussion on interpretation in terms of
“continuity” or “discontinuity” does not cause any excitement to me, for example, as
an Asian, and I view it basically a Western discussion, and even an unproductive
polemics and a deflecting theological sophistry.

Asian thinkers are aware that the council could not offer answers to all their
questions and the problems they face today. They are not upset at that, since for
Asian Christians Vatican II remains a point of departure of a journey, a journey
which they themselves should make. More than individual texts, it is the overall
spirit and orientation of the council which matters for the Asian Churches to build
their future in conversation with their contexts. For example, as I noted earlier, there
was little in terms of texts on the poor in Vatican II, and yet, Asian Churches and
FABC have derived so much from the spirit of the council to face the reality of
poverty in the life of the continent. In fact, “dialogue with the poor” was viewed by
FABC as the legacy of Vatican II.

It looks to me that in modern times there has been no other Roman Catholic
document more relevant for mission in Asia than Gaudium et Spes – even though it
was not the document that dealt explicitly with mission. Why? Here is a document
with which one could sensibly begin a serious discourse on mission in this continent.
Its orientation vibrated with Asian concerns. For one thing, here we do not find the
kind of triumphalism and self-righteousness which are the major obstacle to the
witnessing of the Gospel; instead, we find a humble recognition that the Church is
groping and struggling with the rest of humanity,18 and that it has its own weakness
among its members.19 The document opens up a large space for dialogue and for a
missio inter gentes.

Carrying Forward a Legacy

Asian Churches not only have tried to actively realize in real life the spirit of Vatican
II, but also in some crucial areas have carried forward the council one step further. I
should mention at least two important areas – one is the theology of religions, and the
other, understanding of mission. Though in Asia, there have been fresh thinking and
initiatives to relate to peoples of other faiths right from the nineteenth century, 20 it is
18
Cf. Felix Wilfred, “Asian Christianity and Modernity: Forty Years after Vatican II,” East Asian
Pastoral Review, 42 (2005), 191-206.
19
Cf. GS 43.
20
Since for about one hundred years before Vatican II, there have been numerous initiatives –
intellectual as well as practical – for dialogue with peoples of other faiths, especially in India. I may
with Vatican II that interreligious dialogue became programmatic, and got a new
impetus. Asian theologians have drawn not only from Nostra Aetate but also from
important insights in the other documents such as Gaudium et Spes, Lumen Gentium to
build a relevant theology of religions. If we read synoptically the following conciliar
texts LG 16, GS 22, AG 22, DH 3, NA 1, they will take us to a broad vision of God’s
salvific plan for the entire human family across all borders, and make us realize that
the responses in human freedom to the offer of God’s grace take place through many
channels. FABC and Asian theologians have been inspired by these texts and found
in them a solid support for their work.21 The actual practice of dialogue has helped
them take forward the conciliar teachings to a new level. A reading of conciliar
teachings coupled with praxis of dialogue has made Asian Churches realize that the
Spirit of God is actively operative in and through the religious experience, symbols
and signs of neighbours of other faiths; that we need to consider their scriptures
seriously and ask whether they are also not inspired; and that other religions could
be channels of God’s salvific grace. Asian theologians went on also to discuss against
this background on the question of communicatio in sacris with peoples of other
faiths.22

The theology of religions inspired by the council, if taken seriously, needs to be

matched by a new theology of mission. There has taken place in the post-conciliar
period a mismatch between the two. Asian Christians on their part have worked out
an approach to mission that is in keeping with conciliar theology of religion and its
larger implications. On the other hand, they were told from Roman central offices to
follow a theology of mission that has again and again proved by history and
experience as not workable in the context of Asia. For example, Asian theologians
have resisted the efforts to make dialogue as a means of mission, as they believe that
dialogue has in itself an intrinsic value, its own scope and dynamism, and cannot be
turned into a means. A joint consultation of FABC-CCA in which several Catholic
bishops and theologians participated stated:

We affirm that dialogue and mission have their own integrity and freedom.
They are distinct but not unrelated. Dialogue is not a tool or instrument for
mission and evangelisation, but it does influence the way the Church perceives
refer here to the original views and practices of the Indian thinker Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya
(1861–1907) on Hindu-Christian relations; the work of J.N. Farquhar, The Crown of Hinduism (1915)
where he presented the theory of Christianity as the fulfilment of other religions; the ashram
movement which adopted Hindu world-view and way of life to interpret Christianity.
21
Cf. FABC Plenary Assembly in Taipei (1974) Final Statement. See also “Theses on Interreligious
Dialogue” by the Theological Advisory Committee of FABC. For the text, see Felix Wilfred – J.
Gnanapragasam, ed., Being Church in Asia (Manila: Claretian Publications, 1994).
Cf. D.S. Amalorpavadass, ed., Research Seminar on Non-Biblical Scriptures (Bangalore: NBCLC, 1974);
22

Paul Puthenangady, ed., Sharing Worship. Communicatio in Sacris (Bangalore: NBCLC, 1988). See also
Felix Wilfred, Beyond Settled Foundations. The Journey of Indian Theology (Madras: Department of
Christian Studies, University of Madras, 1993).
 and practices mission in a pluralistic world. Mission invites us to participate in
God’s continuing activity through the Spirit to mend a broken creation, to
overcome the fragmentation of humanity and to heal the rift between nature,
humanity and God.23

Asian theologians felt that the spirit of the council was vindicated by the event of
Assisi in October 1986 when Pope John Paul II brought together leaders of many
religious traditions to be united in prayer. A further consolidation of the conciliar
teaching was the statement in Redemptoris Missio that “the Spirit’s presence and
activity affect not only individuals but also society and history, peoples, cultures and
religions.”24 I see in this statement an instance of the influence of Asian theology of
religion on the universal Church.

At the same time, Asian theologians have critically questioned some of the post-
conciliar documents which, unlike the council, exhibit negative attitude to other
faiths and their spiritual practices. Even a cursory look into the documents of the
Theological Advisory Commission of FABC (later renamed as Office of Theological
Concerns) will convince anyone about the depth and breadth of the theological
creativity of Asia, taking seriously the injunction of Vatican II to open up new
avenues to truth. The Commission has produced with a lot of courage documents of
high theological quality on such issues as local Churches, interreligious dialogue,
Church and politics, Spirit at work in Asia today, methodology of doing theology in
Asia.25 These reflections are triggered from the experiences of Asia.

The Change of Mood

Besides the above developments, I should also mention a slack in the spirit of
Vatican II in the Asian Churches, especially from 1990s. There are several reasons for
this. Let me name what I think are two important ones. It is a truism to say that
leadership matters. Asian Churches experienced from 1990s a decline in the quality
of Church-leadership.26 There was a time when the Asian Churches felt being moved
forward on the path of Vatican II, through such charismatic figures as Cardinal
Stephan Kim of Korea, Cardinal Fumio Hamao of Japan, Archbishop Soter

23
The Joint Statement of the Consultation no. 5. See Living and Working Together with Sisters and
Brothers of Other Faiths in Asia (An Ecumenical Consultation, Singapore, July 5–10, 1987) (Hong Kong,
1989), 104-105.
24
Cf. Redemptoris Missio, nos. 28 & 29.
25
These documents are collected together into a volume: Vimal Tirimanna, ed., Sprouts of Theology
from the Asian Soil. Collection of TAC and OTC Documents [1987-2007](Bangalore: Claretian Publications,
2007).
26
Cf. Felix Wilfred, “Rethinking Church-leadership in India in the Light of Pope Francis,” in
Jeevadhara (January 2014), pp.48–67. The whole issue is dedicated to a critical reflection on Church-
leadership.
Fernandez of Malaysia, Archbishop Angelo Fernandes of India – to name only a few.
The engagement of these leaders meant for the Asian Churches a springtime. But
then subsequently Asian Churches, unfortunately, had a set of Church-leaders quite
mediocre and lacking in vision and sensitivity to the challenges of the Asian context.
Asian Churches slowly started becoming “maintenance Churches” with routine
activities wanting in the spirit of renewal and innovation. A second important
reason was the Roman intervention since the Fifth Plenary Assembly of FABC in
Bandung in 1990, out of a preoccupation that FABC is going too far and too fast.
There was an effort to restrain and control the Asian Churches which stunted many
new initiatives in the continent, and FABC has not recovered from it. 27 This is one
part of the story.

On the other hand, in spite of this situation, the Church at the grassroots has been
active and vibrant in the reception of the council. Individual Christians and groups
have forged ahead in their engagement with the socio-political and cultural situation
at the micro and macro levels. The spirit of Gaudium et Spes continues to inspire
several movements centred on the issues of justice, human dignity and rights. There
has been a deepening of Christian faith, efforts to reach out to peoples of other faiths
and dialogue with them. Especially, Asian theological pursuit has been quite active
in exploring many dimensions of the teachings of Vatican II.

Dark Clouds

Some of the developments in the Church under Benedict XVI have been a matter of
preoccupation to Asian Christians. One of the great innovations of Vatican II was to
allow the celebration of God’s Word in one’s own tongue. Sacrosanctum Concilium
(the liturgical document of Vatican II) stated: “The Church has no desire, not even in
liturgy, to impose a rigid monolithic structure. Rather, on the contrary, it cultivates
and encourages the gifts and endowments of mind and heart possessed by various
races and peoples.”28

The worship in Christian communities in the local language and through their
symbols and signs brought faith closer to life. The numerous creative initiatives in
27
Cf. Felix Wilfred, “Fifth Plenary Assembly of FABC. An Interpretation of Its Theological
Orientation,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 54 (1990), 583-592. I have shown in this article
the kind of Roman intervention by Cardinal Jozef Tomko, for example, to force upon Asia at this
Assembly a particular a-historical understanding of mission, whereas Asian bishops tried to
underline the importance of the context in understanding mission in Asia as was delineated in my talk
to the Assembly immediately following that of the cardinal.
28
SC 37.
India, Indonesia, Japan and many other parts of the continent bear witness to the
seriousness with which Asian Christians have put into practice the council.

But Asian Christians were aghast at the efforts under Benedict XVI to ease
restrictions on the use of Tridentine mass and the encouragement to the use of Latin.
Asian Christians are not able to make much sense of all this nor reconcile it with the
spirit and teachings of Vatican II. Such efforts have to be read in conjunction with the
attempts to dampen Asian practices of inculturation. The spirit of the Christian
Pentecost is that every language is the language of God, of the Spirit. The “pastoral
initiative” of Tridentine mass, apparently, to avoid rift in the Church, can be the
source of new division and dissension in Christian communities. No less
preoccupying have been more recent Roman efforts to water down initiatives of
interreligious dialogue. This has justifiably raised alarm among Asian Christians. We
hope Pope Francis will set at rest such retrograde and Euro-centric trends in the
Church and encourage the Churches in Asia and in other parts of the world in their
efforts to bring the Gospel closer to the people, especially to the poorest of the poor.

Conclusion

To get back to the thought of Rahner on the enduring significance of Vatican II, for
Asians it is too restrictive to think of it in terms of the ecclesia becoming truly
universal. For Asians, the abiding significance of Vatican II is not bound up with
such an ecclesiological vision. Rather, the most significant thing for Asians is council’s
theological vision that the revelation and self-communication of God has truly a catholic or
universal reach. And this is a key point in the reception of the council in Asia. It
crystallizes their many experiences, and especially helps them see in a new light
millions of their neighbours of other faiths as part of a single God’s plan of
revelation and salvation. This has consequences for the life of Asian Christians in all
spheres of life and mission.

Asian Christians have paid great attention to the approach and orientation Vatican II
attuned to God’s creation, revelation and relationship to the entire humanity. Here
lies the key to the understanding of the Asian reception of the council. The council
has brought new impetus to Asian Christians to view and enter into new
relationship with their neighbours and concern themselves with what affects all. As
the FABC-CCA consultation observed, “God’s recreating activity is prior to and
more comprehensive than the Church’s mission, and it directs our attention beyond
the Church to the Kingdom.”29In the reception of the council, Asian Christians have
been attentive to whatever in the council that orients them in the direction of the
Kingdom of God.

29
See Living and Working Together with Sisters and Brothers of Other Faiths in Asia, 105.
By involving themselves in these questions and concerns, Asians have made council
their own. The accent is more on the renewal of relationships with neighbours of
other faith, and with the larger society, rather than on the Church. In the light of
these relationships Asians have come to understand also the ecclesiological vision of
the council. Asians carry forward the legacy of the council in a living manner by
trying to renew Christian life and mission in a multi-religious and pluri-cultural
continent. It is challenging, of course; but it makes Christian life exciting as well.

Being inspired by the Council for us in Asia is to overcome the temptation of

creating a self-centred Church, but to become truly a Church of the people,
dialoguing continuously with peoples of other faiths and engaging oneself with
those issues and questions that concern the lives of everyone across religious
borders. Here is truly the test of universality. This spirit of universality practised at
the local level will enable the Asian Church also to make its contribution for a better
Asia.