Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 12:1 (Winter 1969)
Article: An Analysis Of The Roman Catholic Congress On The Theology Of Renewal In The Church
Author: Charles A. Tipp

JETS 12:1 (Winter 1969) p. 27

An Analysis Of The Roman Catholic Congress
On The Theology Of Renewal In The Church

Charles A. Tipp, M.A., B.D.*

I Changes in Catholic Theology Today

For five days, August 20-24, 1967, Toronto was called the “Theological Capital” of the world. To commemorate Canadds Centennial of Confederation, the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops brought to Toronto some of the leading theologians of the world-Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish, as well as Roman Catholic.

The Congress and Institute on the Theology of the Renewal of the Church attracted some 2,000 delegates to the University of Toronto campus for a program arranged by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (University of Toronto). All sessions included bishops, priests, religious orders and laymen and all addresses were followed by a discussion led by a panel which usually included a Protestant or Jewish member.

The Congress was opened by Dr. Norah Michener, the wife of Canada’s Governor General, who is a graduate of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. In the opening address she, said: “To return to the University of Toronto, in which I spent so many years as a graduate student, and of which my husband was a Governor, gives me great personal pleasure. This is especially true, because this International and Centennial Congress on the Theology of the Renewal of the Church, takes place under the aegis of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, to which, and to whose Professors, I owe so much.

“My Canadian listeners will be interested to know that my husband and I have established an Oecumenical Chapel in Government House, where services of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Communions are regularly held. In it hangs a large painting of the Crucifixion, done by a Hindu artist, named Arup Das, whom I came to know in India during our three-years’ stay in that country. He is a contemplative, and has a great devotion to Christ. The Crucifixion, along with two other paintings by Arup Das, hung in the Indian Pavilion at Expo until recently, when they were returned to Government House. I had never thought to buy a Crucifixion, but I could not resist this painting, done in vivid yellow, orange, brown and black. It has something new and startling to say, and it shows forth the innate and pervasive spirituality of the East.”

Canadian Catholic laymen underwrote the cost of the Congress$100,000.

Some priests came from as far away as Australia and some came from behind the Iron Curtain. One noted theologian was excluded-

*Associate Professor of Missions and History, Ontario Bible College, Toronto, Canada

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