Collection of essays aim to explore the philosophy behind Francis' papacy
(BOOK REVIEW) Division within the Catholic church is nothing new. Whether it took the form of schism centuries ago or debate to come out of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, these differences have been a constant. Throughout history, there has often been a struggle between the theological and the political. In other words, papal criticism has been with us for a very long time. It’s just more pronounced these days — and with a wider reach — thanks to the internet.
Discovering Pope Francis: The Roots of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Thinking, published this month by Liturgical Press, is just that, an inside look into the pontiff’s mind. Why does Pope Francis think the way he does? What influenced him most as a young man? Which philosophies is he most attached to? These are some of the questions this book tries to answer for a church that continues to battle internally over a variety of issues.
This collection of eight essays — along with a foreword by the pontiff himself and the first chapter by the book’s editors — try to offer insight into the philosophies that helped shape the man. Anyone who is Catholic (or just interested in Catholic thought) needs to consider reading this book. Before one can criticize this pope, you need to know where he came from. As a result, both Catholic liberals and conservatives will certainly use this book as ammo to make their cases.
Discovering Pope Francis was issued earlier this month by Liturgical Press.
To fully understand Francis is to go back when he was Bergoglio in Argentina. Born in the capitol Buenos Aires, Bergoglio was ordained a priest as a Jesuit post-Vatican II in 1969. He rose through the ranks, serving first as Argentina's provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He was then appointed the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and made a cardinal in 2001 by Saint John Paul II. Throughout those years, Bergoglio was influenced by Europeans and South Americans,
Francis was cardinal through much political turmoil in Argentina throughout the early 2000s. Many in the government used their association with him as almost an endorsement. Before becoming pope, Bergoglio was careful to check who received Communion from him since the gesture could be seen as an endorsement. After taking on the country’s political establishment, Bergoglio learned to be an outsider. It’s something he still takes with him. Francis, who was elected pope in 2013, became the first Jesuit to become pope and the first from South America. He has faced increasing criticism — particularly from theological conservatives in the United States — on several questions, including the admission of civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to communion with the publication of the encyclical Amoris laetitia.
This book can also be seen as an attempt at reconciliation. It seeks to find the common ground that unites all Catholics — and doesn’t dwell on the politics that often tears them apart. Discovering Pope Francis is in a way also an opportunity for fans of this papacy to defend him. This exploration of the pope’s thinking may not find consensus, but it will at the very least illuminate those who read it. The book’s release also coincided with the recently-concluded Amazon Synod, where one of the most debated proposals was whether married men could be ordained priest and women as deacons to cope with a priest shortage in isolated South American communities. The proposals debated by the bishops sparked outrage among traditionalists, who viewed the synod as an effort by progressives to change Catholic tradition.
Despite its best intentions, this book’s shelf life may be already done, eclipsed by the Amazonian Synod. What some critics of its proposals have called Bergoglio’s Vatican III, the changes outlined by the bishops would dramatically change Catholicism globally. A counterweight to this book, with plenty of context and backroom intrigue, is a piece recently written by George Weigel, a senior fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies in First Things. Weigel bemoans this papacy’s embrace of liberation theology fueled by church progressives in Northern Europe.
In his analysis, Weigel writes: “At stake is the very nature of the church: Is the Catholic Church a communion of disciples in mission, sacramentally constituted and hierarchically ordered, or is the Church to understand itself primarily by analogy to the world, as a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to good works in aid of the poor, the environment, migrants, etc.? At stake is the realization of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19–20: ‘Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.’ That is what is at stake.”
Indeed, this papacy’s biggest problem has been ambiguity on doctrine and a lack of leadership. Discovering Pope Francis tries to remedy that. The book offers a much-needed spectrum of voices that are necessary to understand the theological origins of this papacy. Those who provided essays also can’t all be labeled liberal Catholics — although post-synod none of that may matter. While true that Francis has brought the social teachings of the church to the forefront, that has often been mistaken as Marxism by his opponents. Instead, this book is an attempt at debunking what the media, especially in the United States, likes to cast as a political debate. Again, ambiguity has been this pope’s biggest flaw. He can remedy that, conservative Catholics argue, by rejecting the synod’s proposals in creating a special “Amazon rite.”
In the book’s foreward (printed in Spanish and English), Pope Francis writes that the collection “brings to the English-speaking world the richness of the ideas of the men and women who influenced my own spiritual, theological and philosophical development. We are living and experiencing a true change of epoch, and the cultural and technological shifts which have marked this period of history have made the transmission of faith increasingly difficult.”
That’s something both those on the Catholic doctrinal left and right can agree on. It’s the solutions put forth — whether to emphasize traditional beliefs or embrace secular society — where this pontificate has run into some problems. Those problems include the ongoing clergy sex abuse scandal and how that’s been handled by the Vatican hierarchy. The book has been put together by Dr. Brian Yee, a professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology in Wisconsin, and Father Thomas Knoebel, who works in the Diocese of Milwaukee. The book, as the writers explain, came out of a symposium put together to examine this papacy.
The growing friction between conservative and progressive Catholics appears to be growing. Add politics in the Trump era to it and you get a combustable cocktail. Will Arbery’s play Heroes of the Fourth Turning, currently playing in New York, and the debate between Sohrab Ahmari, a Catholic convert, and David French, who is evangelical and a big defender of the First Amendment and religious liberty, is about both the culture war, politics and the role of Christianity in the 21st century.
There is an essay in the book by Peter Casarella, associate professor of theology at Notre Dame, where he defends the current pontificate in these terms: “When [Francis] talks about the church as a ‘field hospital,’ he is offering a way for us to overcome our current polarization by attending first to those most in need and only in a second stage to work out our conflicts that are mainly ideological and not truly doctrinal.”
The book does a very good job putting forth the philosophies that have influenced Francis’ theology. What it will not do is persuade those Catholics who disagree with this pope’s methods to embrace them. It does try to mend fences while also putting out the doctrine that should unite Catholics, not polarize them. This effort at dialogue is worth reading for all Catholics, but it all may be too late for a church increasingly in turmoil.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He currently teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City.