Bishops call for Vatican III

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June 2002

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Bishops call for Vatican III
Thirty-one Roman Catholic bishops, including a cardinal and a senior member of the Roman curia, have signed a petition asking Pope John Paul II to convene a new ecumenical council. Nearly 2,000 others have visited a Madrid-based Web site publicizing the petition and "signed" an online version.

The petition states: "A new Council would help the Catholic Church respond evangelically, in a spirit of dialogue, in [every possible , close] collaboration with the other Christian Churches and Religions, to the grave challenges facing humanity, especially persons in situations of extreme poverty in a rapidly transforming and increasingly more interconnected world.

"We are aware of the difficulties involved in the organization of an Ecumenical Council and ask that, given present day acces to communication, it be established as a participative and conciliatory Council process, beginning at local and continental Church level.

"We propose a sufficient timescale and appropriate methodology so that the community of believers have ample opportunity to offer their reflections on issues that are important and urgent for them and that their contribution be the material for debate and decisions by the Council."

Organizers say they intend to collect signatures through the end of 2003, at which time they will present the results to the pope. The last ecumenical council was the Second Vatican Council of 1962 - 1965.

Among the initial signatories are 31 bishops, 23 of them from Brazil. The others come from Bolivia, Japan, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala and Mexico. The group includes 12 retired bishops.

The highest ranking prelate to sign on is Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, retired archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil. The signatories also include four non-bishops, a group composed of three priests and a lawyer.

Among the more prominent signatories is a high-ranking Vatican official, Archbishop Stephen Hamao, head of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Immigrant People. Hamao signed the petition, however, in his capacity as the emeritus bishop of Yokohama, Japan, in order to emphasize his link with his local church.

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