In future CrossCurrents I will offer commentary on some of the issues in this document. But in this edition (and the last) I am simply sharing some of the key passages from this remarkable document, available here:
I’ve selected them to convey his central focus: motivating and equipping Catholics to take on the challenge of the New Evangelization. Today’s citations are from the last half of the 90-page document.
Under the heading “The Social Dimension of Evangelization,” Francis immediately roots Catholicism’s social mission in our most basic core belief:
The very mystery of the Trinity reminds us that we have been created in the image of that divine communion, and so we cannot achieve fulfilment or salvation purely by our own efforts…Accepting the first proclamation, which invites us to receive God’s love and to love him in return with the very love which is his gift, brings forth in our lives and actions a primary and fundamental response: to desire, seek and protect the good of others.
Calling on all Catholics to live out “the Gospel of fraternity and justice,” he reminds us that “God’s word teaches that our brothers and sisters of the prolongation of the incarnation for each of us.” This means that our Catholic faith is never a private matter:
What these passages make clear is the absolute priority of “going forth from ourselves towards our brothers and sisters” as one of the two great commandments which ground every moral norm.
This implies the Church’s active role in social and political life. Those who accuse Francis of playing politics or being Marxist seem blind to the truth: his position is rooted in the ancient core of Catholic tradition:
183. Consequently, no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer an opinion on events affecting society…An authentic faith – which is never comfortable or completely personal – always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better that we found it…All Christians, their pastors included, are called to show concern for the building of a better world.
To exemplify what he means, Francis focuses on two principles social issues: poverty and peace.
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| Paying his own bill to set a good example |
Once again, he begins by rooting our view of the poor in faith itself:
87. Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society…[This]means working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the poor, as well as small daily acts of solidarity in meeting the real needs which we encounter.
This leads to a distinctly Catholic notion about private property rooted in the concept of “solidarity” (made famous by John-Paul II, yet at odds with much of American culture):
189. Solidarity is a spontaneous reaction by those who recognize that the social function of property and the universal destination of goods are realities which come before private property. The private ownership of goods is justified by the need to protect and increase them, so that they can better serve the common good; for this reason, solidarity must be lived as the decision to restore to the poor what belongs to them.
Indeed, Francis finds that the priority of the poor in our faith is an unmistakable message in the Gospel texts:
Jesus taught us this way of looking at others by his words and his actions. So why cloud something so clear? We should not be concerned simply about falling into doctrinal error, but about remaining faithful to this light-filled path of life and wisdom.
It is no surprise that Francis, the first Jesuit pope, cites the famous Jesuit slogan: we are called to a “preferential option for the poor”:
201. None of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice…202. The need to resolve the structural causes of poverty cannot be delayed…As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.
This in turn leads Francis to a critique of our dependence on the dynamics of capitalism:
204. We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market. Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programmes, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality.
He then displays his celebrated humility: he apologizes for offending but still defends his critique:
208. If anyone feels offended by my words, I would respond that I speak them with affection and with the best of intentions, quite apart from any personal interest or political ideology…But the current model, with its emphasis on success and self-reliance, does not appear to favour an investment in efforts to help the slow, the weak or the less talented to find opportunities in life.
Referring to himself as “the pastor of a Church without frontiers,” he notes that the welfare of migrants is a particular challenge, decries the prevalence of human trafficking, especially women, and then links these concerns to the defense of the unborn, clearly rooting the Church’s opposition to abortion in a consistent theory of human rights:
This defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be.
When he moves on to peace, Francis once again links faith and justice:
218. Peace in society cannot be understood as pacification or the mere absence of violence resulting from the domination of one part of society over others… Demands involving the distribution of wealth, concern for the poor and human rights cannot be suppressed under the guise of creating a consensus on paper or a transient peace for a contented minority. The dignity of the human person and the common good rank higher than the comfort of those who refuse to renounce their privileges. When these values are threatened, a prophetic voice must be raised…In the end, a peace which is not the result of integral development will be doomed; it will always spawn new conflicts and various forms of violence.
He then proposes four principles that could constitute “a genuine path to peace within each nation and in the entire world.” 1. Time is greater than space, 2. unity prevails over conflict, 3. realities are more important than ideas, and 4. The whole is greater than the part. Unfortunately, each of these requires lengthier explanation then space allows.
But Francis notes that no principles matter without a dialogue that includes the Church:
In a culture which privileges dialogue as a form of encounter, it is time to devise a means for building consensus and agreement while seeking the goal of a just, responsive and inclusive society…We do not need plans drawn up by a few for the few, or an enlightened or outspoken minority which claims to speak for everyone.
He gives special attention to ecumenical dialogue:
The credibility of the Christian message would be much greater if Christians could overcome their divisions …We must never forget that we are pilgrims journeying alongside one another.
If we concentrate on the convictions we share, and if we keep in mind the principle of the hierarchy of truths, we will be able to progress decidedly towards common expressions of proclamation, service and witness.
He also specifically mentions dialogue with Judaism and with Islam:
As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion…With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.
Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.
Francis clearly sees pluralism as an essential path toward faith’ s influence in modern culture:
255 A healthy pluralism, one which genuinely respects differences and values them as such, does not entail privatizing religions in an attempt to reduce them to the quiet obscurity of the individual’s conscience or to relegate them to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques. This would represent, in effect, a new form of discrimination and authoritarianism.
His final chapter is designed simply to “offer some thoughts about the spirit of the new evangelization.” First, he says, evangelizing requires both thought and action:
262. Mystical notions without a solid social and missionary outreach are of no help to evangelization, nor are dissertations or social or pastoral practices which lack a spirituality which can change hearts. These unilateral and incomplete proposals only reach a few groups and prove incapable of radiating beyond them because they curtail the Gospel.
Next he argues that all evangelizing must be rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus:
265. The Gospel responds to our deepest needs, since we were created for what the Gospel offers us: friendship with Jesus and love of our brothers and sisters.
But this conviction has to be sustained by our own constantly renewed experience of savouring Christ’s friendship and his message…We know well that with Jesus life becomes richer and that with him it is easier to find meaning in everything. This is why we evangelize.
Third, he calls us all to be missionaries:
272. We must constantly be missionaries…A committed missionary knows the joy of being a spring which spills over and refreshes others…We do not live better when we flee, hide, refuse to share, stop giving and lock ourselves up in own comforts. Such a life is nothing less than slow suicide.
Finally, he warns against fatigue and discouragement, and offers the Resurrection as our chief support. We cannot, he says, be Christians who experience only Lent and never Easter:
276. Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. …Such is the power of the resurrection, and all who evangelize are instruments of that power.
In a remarkable passage, Francis confides his own personal unsettling experience of the “interior certainty” the Resurrection offers in difficult times:
279. Because we do not always see these seeds growing, we need an interior certainty, a conviction that God is able to act in every situation, even amid apparent setbacks…It is true that this trust in the unseen can cause us to feel disoriented: it is like being plunged into the deep and not knowing what we will find. I myself have frequently experienced this.
In his final section, Francis explains why Mary is the star of the new evangelization:
288. There is a Marian “style” to the Church’s work of evangelization. Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong who need not treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves. …This interplay of justice and tenderness, of contemplation and concern for others, is what makes the ecclesial community look to Mary as a model of evangelization.
What I am struck by most in this document is how much it resembles the papacy of Francis to this point: relatively little of what he says is new; it relies largely on brilliantly synthesizing the work of his predecessors (John XXIII, Paul VI, John-Paul II, and Benedict XVI) and of Vatican Council II. But his style brings a freshness, an energy, and--there’s no other word for it--a joy that is inspiring millions.
© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2013
