Theology must first see itself as embedded in a web of relationships with other disciplines and other knowledge, said Msgr Patrick ‘Paba’ Anthony of Castries, St Lucia.

He was the guest speaker at a theology conference hosted by the Seminary of St John Vianney & the Uganda Martyrs (SJVUM), in collaboration with the Conference on Theology in the Caribbean Today (CTCT) to celebrate the close of the 80th anniversary year of the SJVUM and mark the achievements of Msgr Anthony’s recent conferral of an honorary doctorate.

The conference, titled ‘Turning Point – A Caribbean Response to Ad theologiam promovendam, Pope Francis’ call for theological renewal’, was held Friday, January 19 at the SJVUM.

Msgr Anthony cited the “arduous task” for theology to incorporate new categories elaborated by other knowledges to penetrate and communicate the truths of faith and transmit the teaching of Jesus in today’s languages with originality and critical awareness.

“If you think you have the truth of faith and you want to communicate it, don’t think you have it by yourself. Listen, be contemplative, and listen to the ears of your heart and you will learn things, new vocabulary that will help you as you try to communicate your truth.”

He commented since Catholic theology is today taught in many different kinds of institutions such as universities, seminaries, monasteries, pastoral centres and institutes as well as in non-Catholic institutions, the question for the future of Catholic theology will remain: how to be academically rigorous, critical and scientific while remaining committedly ecclesial and synodal.

“Those are the bedrock Catholic things. If you are faithful to the tradition of scripture, to Catholic doctrine and moral teaching, then you’re a real Catholic theologian,” he said.

Msgr Anthony shared he has been using his platform St Lucia Talk, Jesus Talk, a weekly television programme which captures the experiences of St Lucians via stories and folktales as a means of theological discourse.

“And Idris Hamid was the one in the early 70s who told us if you want to understand people and know where God is, go in their stories, histories and you will discover the wisdom of the people. So when our ancestors, through their own travails …. listen and let that be the theological place and their space because they are in dialogue with God,” Msgr Anthony said.

He gave the example of witnessing a bird trying to swallow a seed that is too large for its beak. “As an outsider, you will say ‘that bird can’t do that.’ But that’s not your experience, the bird’s experience is ‘I can do that’. Instead of imposing, just listen, sit back and watch,” he said.

The Caribbean, he commented, has the “capacity” to produce “world-class” persons such as poet Derek Walcott, sprinter Usain Bolt, and cricketer Brian Lara. But when it comes to religion and spiritualty, he observed a lack of self-confidence.

“In the Caribbean, we need to have conversion, reparation, because our reality has been shaped, moulded by powers who use, abuse and continue to abuse people for their own development, progress,” he said.

Identifying the groups “guilty” of exploiting and extracting from the Caribbean region, Msgr Anthony urged Caribbean people to approach them with hermeneutic suspicion of their interpretation as they, had “no legitimacy to talk to us as Caribbean people”.

“Don’t let them mamaguy you…question, question everything they say and come from your position of confidence that you have a right to question, challenge and show them…. We as Caribbean people, we are in a position to say to the world, you don’t know what life is about, come to us….”

He continued, “We have to take a new turn…. We cannot come with the same old mindset and try to respond because theology is really responding to God’s action in the world through our own dialogue with God’s word and our experience.”

Msgr Anthony urged theologians to scrutinise Caribbean history and experiences, learn from its ancestors, and from the mistakes made by the “barbarians” so they are not repeated.

“Don’t repeat it, so that we can show them the new humanity,” Msgr Anthony said.

After a Q & A segment, seminarians, clergy, staff and other invited guests celebrated a Mass to close the anniversary year in the seminary chapel. —KJ