A New Age

In our time, we are on the doorstep of a new age.  This awareness was triggered by the work of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).  The Council was the watershed between an earlier age of the Church and a new period which we are still entering.

This has happened in a very significant way several times in the history of the Church.  A new age was signalled in New Testament times themselves as the Church moved out of a purely Jewish culture into the world of the Greco-Roman Empire.  This movement occurred over several centuries but a definitive point was reached in the fourth century with the conversion of the emperor Constantine who set afoot a process by which the Empire gradually became Christian.  The Fall of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the barbarian kingdoms which followed set the scene for yet another age.  The high Middle Ages when all of Europe was Christian was yet another time.  The Renaissance and the Enlightenment (18th Century) brought about another age of Christianity and so on. 

In each of these times significant changes came about in the understanding and presentation of the faith.  In most of those earlier times of change, only the prominent classes of society had any awareness of the changes occurring.  In our day, all of us are aware of the changes that have happened and which are happening.

I would be interested to know what topics would be of interest to all of you who read this segment in the Parish Newsletter.  What are your questions, your comments, your wonderings about the meaning of the faith?  Please email the Parish Office those questions, comments and the like or leave a comment at the bottom of this article; they can be a guide to what is discussed in Understanding Our Faith in the coming weeks.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin