Wednesday, June 11, 2025

The subtle lure of "ableism"

The vote in favor of New York state's assisted suicide bill had me digging up a short talk I offered at an archdiocesan gathering of disability advocates here in New Orleans when I first arrived. With some modifications (owing to the format, not the content), I share it here with you:

I imagine that part of what you will be doing this morning is discerning helpful ways to use media in the service of faith and prayer. And some of you are able to do that because media technology are being used in a helpful way. My community, the Daughters of St. Paul, isn’t just about selling books as a way of supporting ourselves; we are committed to evangelizing with the media, and we have a publishing house, Pauline Books and Media. But there's more to it even than that:

 

As Daughters of St. Paul, part of our mission is to make reparation for media that take people away from God, that twist human activity, but also human minds and hearts, and harm individuals and society. 


We have our work cut out for us.

 

In the second Letter to the Corinthians we see how the people of Corinth scorned Paul. He just didn’t measure up to the people they admired: people of eloquence and athletic stamina. Today we have “Instagram perfection” in which any outward disfigurement becomes a disability. 

 

Facing life with a serious disability or at the side of a person with a disability (especially when that is profound) has become almost unthinkable for many people today in part because of how the media have conditioned us: not only our way of seeing people, but the way limitations are typically presented, dealt with, ignored, or abhorred in media. When people with disabilities are represented, they can often be caricatures. 

 

So this morning, I invite you to join me in a prayer of  reparation for media:

  • Media that targets vulnerable persons or undermines their dignity in any way;
  • Media portrayals that focus on the human person in isolation, the person who defines himself or herself without relationships of love, trust, acceptance, forgiveness;
  • Media that promote false ideals of physical flawlessness with Instagram perfection and Photoshopped bodies;
  • Media especially that creates addictive experiences for children and young people, some of whom hate their own beautiful, strong, healthy bodies because of what they have seen and perhaps done in imitation of media models.

And let’s pray in intercession for people, especially media influencers, who cannot recognize the dignity of persons with disabilities, and whose media creations spread that narrow vision of the human person like a contagion.

 

 

 

For further reflection:

 

"Really and radically every person must be understood as the event of a supernatural self-communication of God" (FCF 127; Karl Rahner).

  

“God is there in these moments and can give us in a single instant exactly what we need. Then the rest of the day can take its course, under the same effort and strain, perhaps, but in peace. And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him. Then you will be able to rest in Him—really rest—and start the next day as a new life" (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross).


The French mystic Gabrielle Bossis, in prayer, understood Jesus telling her, “Give Me your suffering. No one can give it to Me in heaven. Give it to Me.”

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Sacred Heart resources

For those who attend my presentations on Devotion to the Sacred Heart and would like to delve a bit more into the resources I used, here is a list of the most important documents and books. (The book links are "affiliate links" which earn me a bit of credit for... more books!)

Books

I am assuming you already have my book, but just in case you don't, I will list it first!

Come to Jesus: Living the Nine First Fridays, by Sr. Anne Flanagan, FSP; there's also a Group Guide for my book, so you can make the Nine First Fridays with your neighbors, co-workers, or fellow parishioners. (It even has an original song for Eucharistic Adoration!)


Heart of the Redeemer, by Timothy T. O’Donnell (a classic)


A Heart on Fire: Rediscovering Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by James Kubicki, SJ


A Cardiologist Examines Jesus: The Stunning Science behind Eucharistic Miracles, by Dr. Franco Serafini


Papal Teachings (in historical order)

Leo XIII

Annum Sacrum (encyclical on the consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus)

Pius XI

Miserentissimus Redemptor (encyclical on the theme of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus)

Caritas Christi Compulsi (encyclical): This is primarily a social encyclical, released at the height of the Great Depression, but the Holy Father emphasizes devotion to the Sacred Heart as a much-needed remedy to restoring the social order. It is surprisingly relevant to the issues we are facing right now.

Pius XII

Haurietis Aquas (encyclical): This is the first major encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Issued for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Feast of the Sacred Heart on the Universal Calendar, it has been a theological reference point ever since.

Paul VI

Investigabiles Divitiae Christi: 1965 Apostolic Letter on the 200th anniversary of the first approval of the Feast of the Sacred Heart (limited to Poland, but still); This is only available in Italian, Latin, and Croatian, so I am linking to a translation service for the English, which will no doubt be stilted. I hope the link works! https://www-vatican-va.translate.goog/content/paul-vi/it/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-vi_apl_19650206_investigabiles-divitias.html?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

If the translation link does not work, here is the Italian version for you to cut and paste in any translation service you rely on: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-vi_apl_19650206_investigabiles-divitias.html

John Paul II

General Audience (catechesis), June 20, 1979

Angelus message, June 27, 1982: This was the first in a series of brief reflections (I am trying to find the other ones!) on the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Unfortunately, it is not available in English, so I am linking to a translation service here: https://www-vatican-va.translate.goog/content/john-paul-ii/it/angelus/1982/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_19820627.html?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp And if this did not come out right, you can paste the original Italian into the translator of your choice: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/angelus/1982/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_19820627.html

Homily in Vancouver, September 18, 1984: Given at a Mass in honor of the Heart of Christ

Letter to the Jesuit Superior General, October 5, 1986: This letter was written from Paray-le-Monial and commemorates the Jesuit commitment to spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is only available in French, Spanish, and Italian, so, as I did above for Paul VI's document, I am linking to a translation service for the English. (In case it fails, here is the French page, so you can copy and paste the letter into a translator: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/fr/letters/1986/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19861005_preposito-francia.html?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp.)

Letter on the 100th Anniversary of the Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart, June 11, 1999

Angelus message, June 23, 2002

Angelus message, June 20, 2004

Benedict XVI

Letter to the Superior General of the Jesuits, May 15, 2006: Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius XII's encyclical Haurietis Aquas (I told you it was important!)

Francis

Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ (encyclical): the first Sacred Heart encyclical in 68 years, and a wonderful compendium of theology and devotion. If you only plan to read one Church document on the Sacred Heart, it should be this one. You can also get this in a very handy paperback from my community. This will allow you to underline, highlight, and bookmark to your heart's content: https://paulinestore.com/dilexit-nos-on-the-human-divine-love-of-heart-of-jesus-christ.html


Other online resources

A thorough study of Pope John Paul's teachings on the Sacred Heart, by Msgr. Arthur Calkins.

A 23-part study of devotion to Sacred Heart of Jesus in its relation to the Divine Mercy devotion, by Dr. Robert Stackpole begins with this first installment: The Plan of the Heart of Jesus to Drive Back the World's Darkness; links to the other installments (although not in order!) can be found on the webpage: https://www.thedivinemercy.org/search/content/More%20Brilliant%20than%20the%20Sun 



Monday, May 12, 2025

Pope Leo XIV: A Pope "with the smell of the sheep"

Screenshot of the official photo
We started the Easter Season on the last day of Pope Francis' earthly life, and now at the beginning of the Fourth Week of Easter we are at the start of a new Pontificate. A lot can happen in three weeks!

Most of us are just getting to know the new Holy Father. Unfortunately, some Catholics are already establishing litmus tests for him. This is not just unhelpful, it is spiritually dangerous. It means judging a Pope and his ministry according to our own cherished values, and not within the faith of the Church. (It may even be a signal that, for all practical purposes, our own values or personal convictions have replaced the faith of the Church.)

Anyway, we owe it to the Successor of St. Peter to give him the chance to shepherd the Church of God, and to allow ourselves to be shepherded. And for that, it helps to get to know where this new shepherd is coming from--in his own words, and not from headlines or social media. Because the disinformation (and the partially-edited information) is already swirling out there. If you see a post that intrigues you, go ahead and read it--but then go behind it, to the original source. Do your homework, in other words.

For example, you may have seen allegations that in the past, Father (or Bishop) Prevost dropped the ball in cases of sexual abuse by priests. That was investigated very promptly by a reliable news service. (Crux of the News is a for-profit news service that specializes in Catholic Church news, and reflects very high ethical and journalistic standards.) You can read their full report here: https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2025/05/serious-questions-of-credibility-surround-coverup-allegations-against-new-pope

On another topic dear to my heart, I have seen a few posts about the then-Father Prevost's short intervention at the 2012 Synod of Bishops. So I went to the Vatican website (vatican.va) and looked for it! Yes, it is there--and now it is here, for your convenience. Lo and behold, he is talking about our media-dominated culture! I have helpfully highlighted a few lines I think especially pertinent. (Those highlights are me, pushing my agenda!)

- Rev. F. Robert Francis PREVOST, O.S.A., Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine (Augustinians)

At least in the contemporary western world, if not throughout the entire world, the human imagination concerning both religious faith and ethics is largely shaped by mass media, especially by television and cinema. Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel.
However, overt opposition to Christianity by mass media is only part of the problem. The sympathy for anti-Christian lifestyle choices that mass media fosters is so brilliantly and artfully engrained in the viewing public, that when people hear the Christian message it often inevitably seems ideological and emotionally cruel by contrast to the ostensible humaneness of the anti-Christian perspective.
If the "New Evangelization" is going to counter these mass media-produced distortions of religious and ethical reality successfully, pastors, preachers, teachers and catechists are going to have to become far more informed about the challenge of evangelizing in a world dominated by mass media
The Fathers of the Church, including Saint Augustine, can provide eminent guidance for the Church in this aspect of the New Evangelization, precisely because they were masters of the art of rhetoric. Their evangelizing was successful in great part because they understood the foundations of social communication appropriate to the world in which they lived.
In order to combat successfully the dominance of the mass media over popular religious and moral imaginations, it is not sufficient for the Church to own its own television media or to sponsor religious films. The proper mission of the Church is to introduce people to the nature of mystery as an antidote to spectacle. Religious life also plays an important role in evangelization, pointing others to this mystery, through living faithfully the evangelical counsels. 

For a week or two, Pope Leo will be a media darling. Don't let that make you undiscerning when it comes to stories or articles that relate in some way to his ministry. Even Catholic media can be influenced by criteria that are not in line with the Church's wisdom. When in doubt, throw them out and just stand with Peter!!!

 


Saturday, April 26, 2025

Appreciating Pope Francis (Part 3)


In my previous two posts, I wrote about two core influences on the way Pope Francis, starting early in his ministry as a Jesuit leader, saw his role (and that of the Church in the world). They led him to appreciate the input of the often-overlooked. In other words, to listen to the "faithful people."

As rector of the Colegio Maximo in Buenos Aires, in 1976 Jorge Mario Bergoglio revised the academic program to “root students in Jesuit and Argentine traditions, rather than foreign models” (Ivereigh, 140). “Bergoglio wanted the Jesuits to value popular religious traditions alongside high culture” (The Mind of Pope Francis, p 44-45). He wanted nearness, listening to the life of the people and not, as the First Letter of John says, “not just talking about it.” Closeness to the people meant cultivating a genuine appreciation of the popular expressions of faith. As Francis says in Evangelii Gaudium, popular devotions are the inculturation of the Gospel on the part of a believing people; they are a sign of the Gospel’s having taken root and beginning to bear fruit; they are a new “incarnation” of the Word among us. (How fitting it is, then, that his last encyclical would be focused on a popular devotion, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus!) 

 

In other words, when he started his ministry, there was no “polar opposition” between the European philosophical and theological mindset and that of the local churches. There was only a European approach. It did not even have to attempt any form of inculturation, much less incorporate Argentine cultural and philosophical works into the program of studies. Nothing but the European achievements had a place in the Jesuit seminary. And in the 70’s, with some of the Jesuits embracing a Marxist approach to social problems, it may have seemed that allowing anything but the most stringently vetted, historically proven texts into the formation program was playing with fire. 

 

But the 1968 Medellín Conference (2nd Episcopal Conference of Latin America) had affirmed “‘popular religious tradition’…teología del pueblo—immersion to the degree possible in the lives of the neighborhood and the families there, a ‘unity of theory and praxis’ in line with the ‘preferential option for the poor.” A later document from the Argentine bishops “saw the people as active agents of their own history” and said “the activity of the Church should primarily derive from the people” but not “people” understood in Marxist terms—it was “ordinary people,” not a class.

 

Borghesi writes: “Bergoglio…sought to restore a place of dignity to the country’s own historical and cultural background, which had become somewhat lost in…modernizing, Americanizing, and Marxist currents” as well as a “return to the sources” for the Jesuits, with special attention to the movement of the Spirit of God.

 

The “San Miguel” document from the Argentine bishops does not express “pueblo” in “sociological or Marxist terms”; “the declaration saw the people as active agents of their own history…it asserted that ‘the activity of the Church should not only primarily derive from the people’… the option for the poor understood as radical identification with ordinary people as subjects of their own history, rather than as a ‘class’ engaged in social structure with other classes” : not Marxist; a “liberation theology without Marxism.” (We can ask ourselves if “culture wars” from the right fall more in line with this “class struggle” than conservatives might like to admit.)

 

Gustavo Gutiérrez (OP; died Oct 2024), who introduced the term “liberation theology” revised his own seminal work to take on this “theology of the people.”: “being poor is a way of living, thinking, loving, praying, believing, and hoping”; “the economic dimension [“lack of food and housing, the inability to attend properly to health and educational needs, the exploitation of workers”] itself will take on a new character once we see things from the cultural view.” 

 

“Gutiérrez now recognized the importance of popular belief, prayer and dialogue with Latin American culture in its concrete expressions, and he turned away from Marxism’s primacy of praxis and revolutionary (counter) violence. .. popular devotion, freed from ‘devotionalism’ and the prejudices of an Enlightenment point of view [one that the earlier Gutiérrez had fully embraced, considering “the religious dimension of the culture of the people…a sort of premodern residue” (The Mind of Pope Francis, 51, 50)] is a legitimage locus theologicus, proof of a distinctly Latin-American enculturation of faith”

 

Evangelii Gaudium 126 (within 122-126): underlying popular piety, as a fruit of the inculturated Gospel, is an active evangelizing power which we must not underestimate: to do so would be to fail to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit. … they are a locus theologicus which demands our attention.”

 

Bergoglio to the Jesuits in 1974: “By faithful people I means simply the people who make up the faithful, the ones with whom we have so much contact in our priestly ministry and religious witness. It is clear that now… ‘people’ has become an ambiguous term because of the ideological assumptions with which this reality is discussed and perceived. …I was very struck [in my studies] by a formula of the tradition [from Denziger]: the faithful people are infallible ‘in credendo,’ in belief. From this I have drawn my own personal formula… When you want to know what Mother Church believes, turn to the Magisterium, since it has the role of teaching in an infallible way; but when you want to know how the church believes, turn to the faithful people. The Magisterium will teach you who Mary is, but our faithful people will tach you how to love Mary. Our people have a soul, and when we speak of a people’s soul, we also speak of a hermeneutic, a way of seeing reality, a knowledge….”

 

“The concept of the believing people refers for him to the historical ways that faith animates life, reality, culture It points to the how of the incarnation. … the historically lived terrain that nourishes the faith of the Church” (The Mind of Pope Francis).

 

Text Box: Starting point of listening.Evangelii Gaudium 125: “it is only when we start from the affective co-naturality that loves supplies that we can appreciate the theological life present in the piety of the Christian people, especially in that of the poor." 

 

Text Box: Both/and
Polar opposites
Puebla Document (Latin American bishops): The Catholic wisdom of the common people is capable of fashioning a vital synthesis. It creatively combines the divine and the human, Christ and Mary spirit and body, communion and institution, person and community, faith and homeland, intelligence and emotion. This wisdom is a Christian humanism that radically affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God, establishes a basic fraternity, teaches people who to encounter nature and understand work, and provides reasons for joy and humor even in the midst of a very hard life.”

 

Text Box: He clarifies: not a mere “synthesis” that combines things or puts them side by side, but a “creative union” that is something new and yet retains the key features of both perspectives.The then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires comments: “The tensions mentioned by Puebla…are universal. The vital synthesis, the creative union of these tensions, inexpressible in words because it would require all of them…translates into ‘proper names” like Guadalupe and Luján, into pilgrim faith, into gestures of blessing and solidarity, into offerings and into songs and dances…. This heart with which and thanks to which our people love and believe is a theological place with which the preacher must be vitally connected.”

 

In 1974 (most likely to SJs), the future Pope taught: "This faithful people does not separate its Christian faith from its historical expressions, nor mix them up in a revolutionary messianism. This people believes in resurrection and life; it baptizes it children and buries its dead. Text Box: “Unity is superior to conflict”: the first of the “fundamental principles”Our people pray…for health, work, bread, family harmony; for the nation, they ask for peace. … a people that asks for peace knows perfectly well that peach is the fruit of justice.”

 

 

Text Box: 2nd principle: The whole is superior to the partsJMB in 1974: “In fruitless clashes with the hierarchy, destructive conflicts between ‘wings’ [left-wing, right-wing], we …. ‘absolutize’ what is secondary…giving, in the end, more importance to the parts than to the whole.” 

 

Over the course of time, the future Pope articulated the principles that he consistently used in entering into discussions, seeking resolution of serious issues, and even evangelizing. Knowing these four principles can help us interpret the things Pope Francis write (they are all over the place in Evangelii Gaudium) and what he did, that “style of relating” to the “other” that drove some people crazy because it seemed to stand in between two sides, as if relativizing one’s own perspective. Instead, it was not so much relativizing a perspective as attempting to keep two “antinomies” united in tension. He would tell us, I am sure, that this is the only way we can enter into a fruitful conversation. It is his way of establishing open communication, of listening to and for the other.

 

In these “theoretical principles,” he is articulating a hierarchy of values that bear on dialogue:

Unity is superior to conflict.

The whole is superior to the parts.

Time (process) is superior to space.

Reality is superior to ideas.

 

All three of the original principles/criteria aim at “unity of action”

 

Text Box: 1-Unity is superior to conflict
2-The whole is superior to the parts

These are “criteria of synthesis and are intended to foster social and political peace”

“The method for arriving at synthesis… “  Text Box: 3-Time is superior to spaceprocesses rather than “the desire for domination that calls for occupation of spaces.” (I remember a physicist in my theology class who said, “I have learned to be at peace with process.”)

 

Text Box: 4. Reality is superior to ideas.In 1980, another principle: JMB, 1976: “We are divided because our commitment to people has been replaced by a commitment to systems and ideologies. We have forgotten the meaning of people, concrete people…with all their historical experiences and clear aspirations.”

 

Text Box: “Unity through reduction is relatively easy but not lasting.”To his fellow Jesuits he said, in 1976: “Unity through reduction is relatively easy but not lasting. More difficult is to forge a unity that does not annul differences or reduce conflict.” 


In 1978, to the Jesuits united for a congregational meeting, he summed up: “Neither one nor the other: neither traditionalists nor utopianists”; rather, “resort to the ‘classic’ … [and not what is merely] ‘traditional,” to the empty traditionalism that is concerned only with maintaining peace…. By ‘classics,’ we refer to those powerful moments of experience and religious and cultural reflection that make history because, in some way, they touch the irreversible events of the journey of a people, of the Church, of a Christian…”

“The ‘classics’ have provided the strength of synthesis in moments of conflict. These are not easy ‘compromises’ or cheap ‘irenicsm.’ these are the syntheses that, without denying the contrary elements that cannot be simply combined in such crises, find resolution at a higher level, through a mysterious journey of understanding and of fidelity to what is perennial in history. For this reason, the ‘classic’ possesses thisdouble virtue of being faithful to history and of inspiring new paths to be undertaken.”

 

Then, in 1999: “The true, the beautiful, and the good exist. The absolute exists.”

 

And again, in 2002 [on “information”]: “good, truth, and beauty are inseparable at the moment of communication between us, inseparable in their presence and also in their absence. And when they are absent, good will not be good, truth will not be truth, and beauty will not be beauty.”


“…truth cannot be found by herself. Next to her is goodness and beauty. Or, to put it better, the truth is good and beautiful. ‘A truth that is not entirely good always hides a good that is not true,’ said an Argentine thinker" (Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 2008).

This is as much as I am able to write on the fly, drawing from a talk I prepared for a congregational meeting that took place this past January. I highly recommend the book The Mind of Pope Francis, and consider it essential for a proper understanding of the ministry of Pope Francis, and an important tool for interpreting his documents, talks, and practical choices. 

And now, may the Holy Spirit strengthen us for the next stage of our journey as the Body of Christ!

Friday, April 25, 2025

The Best Pope Francis Story Ever

This has got to be one of the best Pope Francis stories ever. It's from his friend and confrere, Diego Fares (†2022). (Fares gets a big nod in the first pages of the Pope's Sacred Heart encyclical.)

“Pope Francis’ invitation to be shepherds, to have the smell of the sheep and not be princes or pilots, comes from 40 years ago, from when we were novices" and the then-Father Bergoglio was the Jesuit provincial and then seminary rector. 

One of the seminarians walked "through the vegetable garden of the Massimo College, where there were pigs, cows and sheep, and he saw that Bergoglio, the rector, was helping a sheep give birth."
Surprised, the seminarian offered to help. The rector thought for a moment, took a lamb that the ewe had rejected and handed it over, saying, "Take care of it!" Nonplussed, the seminarian asked how. He was told to "warm up some milk and give it to the lamb with a bottle."
Fares continued: "For five months, this student had the lamb in his room, which took on the smell of sheep... The lamb followed him around the house, all the way to church and into the classrooms."
Then the future Pope told him: "I have put you to test and you have learned that if you take care of it, the sheep will follow you. This is what you must do."

Appreciating Pope Francis (Part 2)

In my previous post, I wrote about Amelia Podetti's insights into the place of Latin America in society, and how  “The concept of the ‘periphery’ … is borrowed not from pro-Marxist theory…but rather from Beroglio’s awareness of the [The Mind of Pope Francis, 35] change of perspective that arises when one is attentive to what is (seemingly) marginal.” In Podetti's application, that "seemingly marginal" reality was the existence of the American continents, and the unique Latin American culture that developed from the encounter of European and native cultures. 

By definition the “view from the margins” will be different; also, one periphery to the next offers a different take, and all of these together contribute something to the whole. The view from a periphery does not cancel or replace the view from a different perspective; it enhances it (on both sides; there is a mutual growth in appreciation), though ordinarily, voices from the margins were silenced, ignored, or beat into submission. When the peripheries, the voices from outside, are included in a dialogue, all parties (including those peripheries) are enriched with broader understanding; all parties have more to work with in coming to an eventual agreement or course or action.


The meeting of peripheries with a self-identified "center," or the contradictions that can arise when a problem or situation is addressed by groups with varying viewpoints, does not necessarily end in conflict or in the absorption of one party into the other. It can lead to a fruitful resolution when the different perspectives are held in "polar opposition." 


In polar opposition we are not aiming for a simple synthesis, but for a “resolution on a higher plane”; “a mutual interaction of realities (Bergoglio, 1989). 


To seek “a mutual interaction of realities,” as then-Cardinal Bergoglio put it, does not burden us with a ready-made goal, no matter how noble it may seem to one or the other party. Being at peace with polar opposition can allow a solution, a synthesis, to appear that may not occur to any of the conversation partners.

 

Polar opposition is not a form of dualism: not an “either/or,” “yes/no,” or even a synthesis where both parties give in a little to find the middle ground. Not even a little bit.


It is not dialectical opposition (polarization), but a remedy for it: a “rich truth” that holds both ends together in tension (whereas the tendency is always to pick a side).


Polar opposition is the philosophy behind the Catholic “both/and.” Bergoglio got this from his studies of Romano Guardini. In fact, the Jesuit's doctoral dissertation topic was on Romano Guardini, particularly his study of "Contrast" in a 1925 work Der Gegensatz (never translated). The future Pope was also powerfully drawn to the book, The End of the Modern World (another book I have read, and which requires two readings in order to have been read once).


The bottom line Pope Francis drew from this was to affirm the values he finds, and hold them together—in tension—with the values he finds in the opposite side. Imagine the Pope holding a strap or rope that is tightly pulled by one party, and with his other hand, he is holding another strap, being pulled from the opposite direction by another party. The challenge for him is not to let either rope go slack, even though he may have to tilt to one side (say, in matter of doctrine) or the other (for instance, applying social teachings to contemporary issues). If he lets go of either rope, the values represented by those who hold it are lost. 


In common thought, people enter into conversations about difficult matters assuming (at best!): “Each participant may have part of the answer; together we will compromise until we can agree.” This is not how polar philosophy sees things; it is not that each participant will inevitably have “part” of the answer, but that all have values to contribute. A common goal may begin to appear through the process of recognizing the underlying values within the other party’s convictions. Francis urges us to seek “resolution on a higher plane”; both parties have to move, holding their conclusions (not their values) more loosely.

 

In polar opposition, it is essential to MAINTAIN THE TENSION created by the two sets of values. It is the Catholic “both/and” in action.

 

Guardini himself said (in a 1967 interview): “The theory of opposites is a theory of confrontation [face:face] which does not happen as a struggle against an enemy but as the synthesis of fruitful tension... a construction of concrete unity.”

“The essence of this approach is that the other is not seen as an adversary, but as an 'opposite,’ and the two points of view thesis and antithesis are brought into unity.”

 

Pope Francis said: “Romano Guardini helped me… He spoke of a polar opposition in which the two opposites are not annulled. One pole does not destroy the other. There is no contradiction and no identity [no ‘melding’ or melting of one into the other]. For him, opposition is resolved at a higher level… . however, the polar tension remains…. It is not cancelled out. The limits are overcome, not negated. Oppositions are helpful.”


“Guardini aimed to overcome the profound contrast that marked the generation that, emerging from the rubble of World War I, found deep divisions and seemingly unresolvable animosities everywhere.... To Guardini, the polarities of life, the oppositions, are only such when they are not absolutized, when one does not exclude the ‘other’ but presupposes it. Polarity can never become Manichaeism, the reign of contradictions that refuse conciliation”

 (The Mind of Pope Francis, 107). 

 

And so, in politics, “We cannot simplistically divide the country’s people into the good and the bad, the just and the corrupt, the patriots and the enemies of the state” (then-Cardinal Bergoglio).


Inspired by his studies of Guardini, Father Bergoglio began to elaborate a set of principles that guided his pastoral approach ever since. These have now become part of his papal magisterium. In Evangelii Gaudium, the Holy Father introduces these principles of “unity of action” in the context of renewing evangelization; he is really re-launching the Church into a renewed fidelity to its own identity; to a renewed understanding of what it means to be “Church in the modern world” (the name of one of the four key documents of Vatican II). 

 

The four theoretical principles guided him in the incredibly difficult, violent days of the dirty war, when polarization led to unbelievable barbarism, especially on the part of the presumedly “civilized” and civilizing agents of the government. Vile acts of complete disregard for human life were sanitized with the language of a holy war: “Cristo vence” inscribed on the planes that were dumping student protesters alive into the ocean. 

That is the crucible where Bergoglio fleshed out the first three principles for unity of action:

 

·      UNITY is superior to conflict

·      The WHOLE is superior to the parts

·      REALITY is superior to Ideas (added in 1980: This is Pope Francis in a nutshell! He was always and only talking with the person in front of him, so no reports of their conversation can be entirely accurate; they are all “outside” of the original conversation, imposing or presuming contexts that reveal more about the interpreter than about the Pope’s thought, which is seen as if through a periscope.

·      TIME is superior to space (added later, in 1980)


But to keep the polar opposition fruitful, it is not enough to maintain the status quo. Both parties are obliged to listen. And that's the subject of the next post!