Bishops told Bible is soul of theology

Published: 2005-06-29

NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- The study of Scripture "is the very soul of theology," University of Notre Dame theologian Lawrence S. Cunningham told a group of U.S. bishops at a mid-June conference at Notre Dame. More than 50 bishops attended the June 12-14 conference, which preceded their annual spring meeting in Chicago. The conference, open to bishops only, marked the 40th anniversary of "Dei Verbum" ("the word of God"), the Second Vatican Council document on divine revelation. It was co-sponsored by the university and the bishops' Committee on Doctrine and featured about 10 theologians and Scripture scholars as speakers. Their prepared texts were later made available to Catholic News Service. Cunningham, who spoke about the importance of reading and praying with the Bible and meditating on it, suggested that bishops in their own dioceses could imitate the example of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the now retired archbishop of Milan, Italy, whose weekly Scripture prayer sessions reached thousands of young adult Catholics.

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