An idea hatched in Wellington last year and tested during COVID lockdown received international recognition on Saturday when Flashes of Insight was featured in the influential “Letter from Rome”.
A weekly ‘must-read’ for informed Catholics, the Letter shapes and unravels the burning issues of the day in the Vatican and the Church.
The conversation on synodality offers more than “flashes” and raises important questions for the Church to consider, wrote Letter author Robert Mickens.
Referring to an hour-long conversation hosted by Dr Joe Grayland of Palmerston North between Cardinal John Dew, (Wellington), Archbishop Mark Coleridge (Brisbane) and Professor Thomas O’Loughlin (Nottingham), Mickens says it was “well worth the time” and “went quickly.”
“All four of these priests offered more than just “flashes” of insight regarding synodality. They also raised important questions about this new and not always clear path the Jesuit pope has pushed the Church to embark upon,” he wrote.
Speaking with CathNews from Sydney, one of the originators of “Flashes of Insight”, Michael Kelly SJ, is pleased Flashes of Insight influenced Mickens sufficiently to highlight it in his Letter from Rome.
“Against a backdrop of a synod in Germany and media talk about schism, La Croix International editor Robert Mickens obviously saw value in the Flashes of Insight conversation,” Kelly said.
“It (Flashes of Insight) is an obvious outcome of what the technology allows us to do when realizing value out of what is a global Catholic community,” he said.
Kelly said that “people all over the world have different insights into the same events and Flashes of Insight appreciates this difference in its assessment in things we actually share.”
While this type of technology has been around for several years it is only recently being more universally embraced, Kelly said.
He acknowledges it is ‘early days’ for Flashes of Insight but is hopeful.
Calling it a great opportunity he says starting something afresh is fraught.
“I have some appreciation of how difficult it is to start something locally, let alone virtually but we’ve got the technology.”
“Jesus used a technology of his time, a boat, and went out on the water to address the crowds from a better vantage point.”
“We’ve got the internet and a range of new tools.”
“It’s about the mission and we’re giving it a crack.”
Kelly is particularly hopeful that those who engage in the process, either by participating in the conversations, joining the audience, watching, and or commenting, will benefit.
He hopes people might also share Flashes of Insight.
Inviting people to join the conversation, Kelly said Flashes of Insight is dialogue rather than a formal didactic approach.
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