[P2P-F] Fwd: Pope Francis--the Good News! by Matthew Fox
Michel Bauwens
michel at p2pfoundation.net
Sun Dec 8 19:25:40 CET 2013
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tikkun <magazine at tikkun.org>
Date: Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 2:22 AM
Subject: Pope Francis--the Good News! by Matthew Fox
To: Michelsub2004 at gmail.com
Even as we mourn the loss of Nelson Mandela, hope springs high for the
possiibility that Pope Francis might become another warrior for peace,
economic justice, environmental sanity, and love among all human beings.
Matthew Fox, himself silenced by Cardinal Ratzinger (subsequently Pope
Benedict), is not usually an optimist about the Church, so this essay for
Tikkun is particularly impressive. Meanwhile, of course, no leader can
change history without the commitment and active involvement of millions of
others who provide leadership at a less global level. So we want to again
invite you to come to our Transformative Activist Training Jan
17-20(Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend) in Berkeley, Ca., (or
organize
one in your home town--if you get 50 people to sign up for it, Rabbi Lerner
and co-trainer Cat Zavis will be there!). Check it out: go to
www.spiritualprogressives.org/training<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BGZadjGH%2B3z8v3%2B37rX4f6JNfIL7y4tF>.
Don't miss this!!--Tikkun Magazine staff
*Pope Francis: A Breath of Fresh Air? *
by Matthew Fox
I recently wrote a book on Pope Francis, or better a book to him, entitled
Letters to Pope Francis.
The book was released in Italian on Thanksgiving Day. In it I challenge
him to live up to his
purposefully chosen namesake and that people would hold his feet to the
fire because no other
pope had ever taken up that name, ikon that it is, and that most people do
know what St Francis of
Assisi stood for: Ecology and nonchauvinistic relationships to the plant
and animal worlds; a
preferential option for the poor; and (this may be slightly less
acknowledged) an admirable and
almost startling balance of gender justice and consciousness. In his
celebrated poem, “Brother
Sun, Sister Moon,” he moves back and forth, back and forth, between
masculine and feminine
names for the sacred.
People who care about such matters recognize fresh consciousness in the
pope's refusal to move
into the palatial headquarters known as the papal apartments; in his
refusal to drive in limousines
and his call for bishops and cardinals to follow suit; his trips to
embrace embattled refugees on
islands off southern Italy; his visits to favelas or slums in Rio de
Janairo as well as his work in the
same in Argentina over the years. These actions, plus his strong words
denouncing the “idols” and
“gods” of the marketplace together seem to be framing a story of a
different kind of pope and
papacy from anything we have had since Pope John Paul I who was (most
probably) murdered
after thirtyone days in the office some thirtyfour years ago. It raises
hopes in the minds and
hearts of activists and progressive Catholics many of whom have left the
church behind but still
recognize its potential power as a source for good in many parts of the
world.
Theologically, Pope Francis is speaking the radical language of Vatican II
abandoned by his two
predecessors, that the church is NOT the hierarchy but “the people” whose
“sensus fidelium”
actually matters. The effort to poll parishioners about such subjects as
birth control, abortion,
women's rights and homosexual unions is a first (though quite lame effort
as the survey was
unprofessionally done asking for essay answers and not direct answers and
in many cases has been
ignored by the bishops who are simply filling in the blanks according to
their own theological
whims).
One sign that Pope Francis is being heard is the steam emerging from
people who do not want to
hear about justice, economic equality or church as people of God. (Rush
Limbaugh, for example,
had lots to complain about and did so loudly regarding the pope's recent
take on Wall Street calling
the pope's words “pure Marxism.”) But rightwing catholic naysayers are
caught in something of
a trap. It will be interesting to see how they emerge and this includes
stalwart power brokers like
the four right wing Catholics on the Supreme Court, all of whom voted for
“Citizens United”
Scalia, Thomas, Alioto and John Roberts. (Throw in Kennedy, another
Catholic though not so
extreme right for his scandalous vote in favor of Citizens United.) Then
there is Newt Gingrich, a
new convert to Catholicism (under pope Ratzinger); aspiring presidential
candidate Paul Ryan
(whose philosophy owes much more to atheist Ayn Rand than to the Gospels
or papal
pronouncements but who still claims to be a stalwart Catholic); Rick
Santorum; John Boehmer.
How these politicians dance around this pope's pronouncements on economic
justice will be a
spectacle that deserves watching. (Recall how the Catholic bishops under
Pope John Paul II were
instructed not to give communion to Catholic politicians who advocate for
the right to abortion and
how this cost Kerry the election in 2004. Will the same threats obtain
for Catholic politicians who
deny rights of the poor? And who are shills for the interests of the
“deified market” (the pope's
words) and “a “new tyranny” (the pope's words) of current day capitalism?
Stay tuned.
The pope has essentially told the shrill right wing Catholics who received
such support under the
previous two popes, to chill out and to cease reducing theology to “a
condom” or a set of rules and
to get moving on social and economic justice. There are currently
Catholic writers who have made
a living denouncing social justice such as George Weigel and it will be
interesting to watch them
squirm also with this new pope. Weigel is famous for complaining about
Catholics who take some
of the teachings of the church and leave others out. He did the same
with: 1) the war in Iraq (both
popes he so admires were against it)he was and is a committed neocon who
has never apologized
for getting us into Iraq and 2) economic alternatives to Wall Street rape
of Main Street, i.e
consumer capitalism. Yet he constantly trumps his version of Catholicism,
which is really
papalism, as the only way. “The truth of what is taught by the pope and
the college of bishops is
not a matter for debate” (61) he tells us in his most recent (and
scariest) book, Evangelical
Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21
reading what this pope is preaching?
How is it then that Weigel supported the invasion of Iraq when two popes
opposed it? Why did he
run from papal teachings on distributive justice? And from their
teachings on the death penalty?
When it comes to seminary training, Weigel says it should begin with the
Catechism and only then
move into Biblical studies which “should build upon this solid foundation
so that each candidate
has a deep understanding of what the Church teaches—and why.” He says
this is the way one
learns to think “with the Church” as if the Church is the maker of
catechisms—not the people of
the world or the carrier of Sacred Scripture. (By the way, the great idea
for a catechism came from
none other than the pedophile champion, Cardinal Law, as I make clear in
my book, The Popes
War.) Yes, we will soon learn what really constitutes the theology of our
hard right Catholic
propagandists and I suspect for many if not all of them Wall Street will
trump the Vatican.
But beyond the Catholics squirming in and out of political office, there
are the larger issues that
the pope is addressing to the capitalistic system itself at this time of
history. Being the first pope
from what we call “the third world,” Pope Francis can be expected to
understand the tides of
history and of economic oppression differently from being the recipient of
years of abuse than
from being the source of it. I end my letters to the pope suggesting that
he and the Dalai Lama
make a world tour together hitting most continents to speak to the
“Revolution in Values” that our
times call for. This is not because change comes primarily from the top
down but because a few at
st
Century Church. Will he continue to invoke papalism after
the top whom the media will be almost required to report about can, by
speaking out together, put
wind in the sails of those millions and indeed billions who pray for
and/or work for a saner world.
Together they could speak to the obvious and real moral issues of our day:
Economic inequality
based on a system of avarice not only at the top but in the consumer
bottom and middle; gender
injustice (something the Catholic Church has to address internally as
well); ecological destruction;
unemployment, especially among the young; the pressing need for religious
and spiritual interfaith
or deep ecumenism; the necessary and desired marriage of science and
spirituality (as opposed to
silly fundamentalism either by religion or by science).
The young could be deeply inspired by such a road show and I have no doubt
that the two
principals would themselves learn from one another. This pope has
displayed a refreshing
humility and eagerness to learn from other religious leaders as in his
book of dialogs with Rabbi
Abraham Skorka of Argentina (who is also a PhD in science). It is a fine
book and they got
together over a two year period to produce it.
Teachings of Pope Francis that stand out include some of the following.
1. A walking of his talk of simpler lifestyle. Pope Francis was well
known in Argentina for
taking public transportation to work and refusing any limousinelike
service which so many
prelates take for granted. He has done the same in his new position as
pope where he
chooses not to live in the papal apartments but in a far more modest guest
house or hotel in
the Vatican. He drives a Ford Focus in Vatican city. Might he give over
the apartments to
Rome's homeless? He has also drawn some press recently for sneaking out
at night from
the Vatican in the simple priestly garb of black suit and color and
hanging out with
homeless in the streets of Rome. One senses he is trying to walk the talk
and follow his
own preaching about simplification. And he is putting pressure on other
prelates to do the
same.
2. As for his talk, he tends to mince no words when speaking of the
divergence of wealth and
poverty today. He speaks to globalization this way: “The globalization
that makes
everything uniform is essentially imperialist...it is not human. In the
end it is a way to
enslave the nations.” (Fox, 24)[1] Is globalization enslaving the
nations? Serious words
worthy of a serious discussion.
3. He says: “Christianity condemns both Communism and wild capitalism
with the same
vigor” and one needs to reject the “wild economic liberalism we see today”
and “seek equal
opportunities and rights and strive for social benefits, dignified
retirement, vacation time,
rest, and freedom of unions.”
4. He praises St Francis because “he brought to Christianity an idea of
poverty against
the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the
time” and for
this reason “he changed history.”
5. He takes on the neocon preoccupation with “world terrorism” and the
fear such
language arouses when he declares that “human rights are not only violated
by
terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic
structures that
create huge inequalities.” How important is that? To equate economic
structures
with terrorism? Yes, Wall Street terrorizes. Ask any Main Street
citizen.
6. He denounces the “flight of money to foreign countries” as a sin
because it
dishonors “the people that worked to generate” that wealth. He also
condemns
those who hide their wealth in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes
that are so
important for the common good.
7. Pope Francis has said: “The option for the poor comes from the first
centuries of
Christianity. It is the Gospel itself.” And he remarked that were he to
preach
sermons from the first fathers of the church on the needs of the poor he
would be
called a “Maoist or Trotskyte.” (119)
8. He critiques clericalism as a “distortion of religion” and says
priests should not
declare “I am the boss here” but listen to the community. “The Catholic
Church is
the entire people of God” he declares a la Vatican II—not words the
previous two
popes were at all home with. (85)
9. “Human rights are violated by...unfair economic structures that create
huge
inequalities.” (71)
10. On Holy Thursday P:ope Francis washed the feet of young people in
jail including
the feet of some women, one of them being Muslim. It is a custom to do
this ritual
after the memory of Jesus who also did it—but the Catholic right wing is
up in arms
about his daring to wash women's feet and those of a Muslim woman!
11. He endorses the concept of small communities over what he calls
“hierarchical
megainstitutions” because these better “nurture their own spirituality”
and after all
the “origin of Christianity was 'parochial and later organized into small
communities.” (94)
12. “Repair my church in ruins” he said on taking over the office of the
papacy. He
seems to get it. The schismatic church of John Paul II and Cardinal
Ratzinger
(Benedict XVI) has left a Catholicism which the young have abandoned en
masse.
They left a church in ruins run by fascist leaning opus dei cardinals and
bishops all
over the world. One Catholic paper in India declared “there is a civil
war in the
church.” I for one do not believe this pope or any pope could return
Catholicism to
its previous state—or should. As I concluded in my book, “The Pope's War,”
I see
the destruction of the Catholic Church as we know it the work of the Holy
Spirit. It
is time to simplify the message and the presence of those who follow a
Christ path.
It is time to travel with backpacks on our backs, not basilicas. The
pope's work will
not bring Catholics “back to the church” but hopefully it will inspire
Christians and
nonChristians alike to consider the basic teachings of Jesus around
compassion and
justice and start acting accordingly.
13. Says Pope Francis: “The worship of the golden calf of hold has found
a new and
heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy
which is
faceless and lacking any human goal.” We need, he says, a “balanced
social o;order
that is more humane” and that resits consumerism. “Money has to serve and
not
rule.” It is a “savage capitalism” that teaches “the logic of profit at
any cost” and
exploitation of people.
14. Says the pope: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty
because it has
been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from
being confined
and from clinging to its own security.” Structures can “give us a false
sense of
security” and “rules makes us harsh judges...while at our door people are
starving
and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, “give them something to eat.'”
He wants to
decentralize the church for “excessive centralization, rather than proving
helpful,
complicates the church’s life and her missionary outreach.”
15. Unfettered capitalism is a “new tyranny” “Today we are living in an
unjust
international system in which 'King Money' is at the center.” This
“throwaway
culture discards young people as well as its older people.....A whole
generation of
young people does not have the dignity that is brought by work.” A
“diminishing
of the joy of life” is the result of such idolatry (125f) and
interestingly he chose a
parallel phrase, the “Joy of the Gospel” for the title of his most recent
pronouncement.
In his recent document entitled “The Joy of the Gospel” Pope Francis
speaks bluntly as all the
prophet do. He says No—as all the prophets do. He denounces
“trickledown” economics as
“never having been confirmed by the facts” and being built on a “crude and
naive trust in the
goodness of those wielding economic power....Meanwhile, the excluded are
still waiting.”[2]
Following are some of his No's presented in his own words:
1. “No to an economy of exclusion....An economy of exclusion and
inequality kills....Today
everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the
fittest, where the
powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find
themselves
excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without
any means of
escape.”
2. “No to the new idolatry of money....While the earnings of a minority
are growing
exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority form the
prosperity enjoyed by
those happy few.....Selfserving tax evasion has] taken on worldwide
dimensions. The
thirst for power and possessions knows no limits....Whatever is fragile,
like the
environment, is defenseless before the interests of a defied market, which
becomes the only
rule.”
3. “No to a financial system which rules rather than serves. Ethics is
seen as
counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative.
It is felt to be a
threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person....
Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike,
but he is
obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help,
respect and promote the
poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and a return of economics and
finance to an
ethical approach which favors human beings.
4. “No to the inequality which spawns violence. [Violence happens
not]simply because
inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded form the
system, but because
the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to
spread, the
toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful
influence and quietly to
undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may
appear.....Evil
crystallized in unjust social structures...cannot be the basis of hope for
a better future.
Pope Francis speaks out against an “education that would tranquilize the
poor, making
them tame and harmless.” And he defines injustice as “evil.” He has
invited liberation
theologian Gustavo Gutierrez to the Vatican and the word is out that he
will canonize
Archbishop Romero. A different kind of papacy? Surely from the past two
popes; much
more like Pope John XXIII. Does that mean we go back to papalolatry?
Absolutely not.
But it does mean that it is good that a person in the public eye is
keeping his sights on
values that matter and speaking up for the kind of people of conscience
who read and act
on the values that Tikkun represents.
When it comes to issues of women, Pope Francis has much to learn
(including how women
were leaders in the early church). But I think he is capable of learning.
On homosexuality,
he has uttered a telling line, “Who am I to judge?” that certainly
distances him from the
previous two popes. On issues of abortion, at least he has spoken to the
need to care about
the women involved. Pope Francis is not perfect—none of us is—but he is
an ally to all
those seeking a world of justice and therefore peace.
[1]subsequent citations are from Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis
(South Orange, NY:
LevelFiveMedia, 2013
[2]Aaron Blake, “Pope Francis denounces 'trickledown' economics, The
Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2013.
Subsequent citations are found in this article.Pope Francis: A Breath of
Fresh Air?
Matthew Fox
I recently wrote a book on Pope Francis, or better a book to him, entitled
Letters to Pope Francis.
The book was released in Italian on Thanksgiving Day. In it I challenge
him to live up to his
purposefully chosen namesake and that people would hold his feet to the
fire because no other
pope had ever taken up that name, ikon that it is, and that most people do
know what St Francis of
Assisi stood for: Ecology and nonchauvinistic relationships to the plant
and animal worlds; a
preferential option for the poor; and (this may be slightly less
acknowledged) an admirable and
almost startling balance of gender justice and consciousness. In his
celebrated poem, “Brother
Sun, Sister Moon,” he moves back and forth, back and forth, between
masculine and feminine
names for the sacred.
People who care about such matters recognize fresh consciousness in the
pope's refusal to move
into the palatial headquarters known as the papal apartments; in his
refusal to drive in limousines
and his call for bishops and cardinals to follow suit; his trips to
embrace embattled refugees on
islands off southern Italy; his visits to favelas or slums in Rio de
Janairo as well as his work in the
same in Argentina over the years. These actions, plus his strong words
denouncing the “idols” and
“gods” of the marketplace together seem to be framing a story of a
different kind of pope and
papacy from anything we have had since Pope John Paul I who was (most
probably) murdered
after thirtyone days in the office some thirtyfour years ago. It raises
hopes in the minds and
hearts of activists and progressive Catholics many of whom have left the
church behind but still
recognize its potential power as a source for good in many parts of the
world.
Theologically, Pope Francis is speaking the radical language of Vatican II
abandoned by his two
predecessors, that the church is NOT the hierarchy but “the people” whose
“sensus fidelium”
actually matters. The effort to poll parishioners about such subjects as
birth control, abortion,
women's rights and homosexual unions is a first (though quite lame effort
as the survey was
unprofessionally done asking for essay answers and not direct answers and
in many cases has been
ignored by the bishops who are simply filling in the blanks according to
their own theological
whims).
One sign that Pope Francis is being heard is the steam emerging from
people who do not want to
hear about justice, economic equality or church as people of God. (Rush
Limbaugh, for example,
had lots to complain about and did so loudly regarding the pope's recent
take on Wall Street calling
the pope's words “pure Marxism.”) But rightwing catholic naysayers are
caught in something of
a trap. It will be interesting to see how they emerge and this includes
stalwart power brokers like
the four right wing Catholics on the Supreme Court, all of whom voted for
“Citizens United”
Scalia, Thomas, Alioto and John Roberts. (Throw in Kennedy, another
Catholic though not so
extreme right for his scandalous vote in favor of Citizens United.) Then
there is Newt Gingrich, a
new convert to Catholicism (under pope Ratzinger); aspiring presidential
candidate Paul Ryan
(whose philosophy owes much more to atheist Ayn Rand than to the Gospels
or papal
pronouncements but who still claims to be a stalwart Catholic); Rick
Santorum; John Boehmer.
How these politicians dance around this pope's pronouncements on economic
justice will be a
spectacle that deserves watching. (Recall how the Catholic bishops under
Pope John Paul II were
instructed not to give communion to Catholic politicians who advocate for
the right to abortion and
how this cost Kerry the election in 2004. Will the same threats obtain
for Catholic politicians who
deny rights of the poor? And who are shills for the interests of the
“deified market” (the pope's
words) and “a “new tyranny” (the pope's words) of current day capitalism?
Stay tuned.
The pope has essentially told the shrill right wing Catholics who received
such support under the
previous two popes, to chill out and to cease reducing theology to “a
condom” or a set of rules and
to get moving on social and economic justice. There are currently
Catholic writers who have made
a living denouncing social justice such as George Weigel and it will be
interesting to watch them
squirm also with this new pope. Weigel is famous for complaining about
Catholics who take some
of the teachings of the church and leave others out. He did the same
with: 1) the war in Iraq (both
popes he so admires were against it)he was and is a committed neocon who
has never apologized
for getting us into Iraq and 2) economic alternatives to Wall Street rape
of Main Street, i.e
consumer capitalism. Yet he constantly trumps his version of Catholicism,
which is really
papalism, as the only way. “The truth of what is taught by the pope and
the college of bishops is
not a matter for debate” (61) he tells us in his most recent (and
scariest) book, Evangelical
Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21
reading what this pope is preaching?
How is it then that Weigel supported the invasion of Iraq when two popes
opposed it? Why did he
run from papal teachings on distributive justice? And from their
teachings on the death penalty?
When it comes to seminary training, Weigel says it should begin with the
Catechism and only then
move into Biblical studies which “should build upon this solid foundation
so that each candidate
has a deep understanding of what the Church teaches—and why.” He says
this is the way one
learns to think “with the Church” as if the Church is the maker of
catechisms—not the people of
the world or the carrier of Sacred Scripture. (By the way, the great idea
for a catechism came from
none other than the pedophile champion, Cardinal Law, as I make clear in
my book, The Popes
War.) Yes, we will soon learn what really constitutes the theology of our
hard right Catholic
propagandists and I suspect for many if not all of them Wall Street will
trump the Vatican.
But beyond the Catholics squirming in and out of political office, there
are the larger issues that
the pope is addressing to the capitalistic system itself at this time of
history. Being the first pope
from what we call “the third world,” Pope Francis can be expected to
understand the tides of
history and of economic oppression differently from being the recipient of
years of abuse than
from being the source of it. I end my letters to the pope suggesting that
he and the Dalai Lama
make a world tour together hitting most continents to speak to the
“Revolution in Values” that our
times call for. This is not because change comes primarily from the top
down but because a few at
st
Century Church. Will he continue to invoke papalism after
the top whom the media will be almost required to report about can, by
speaking out together, put
wind in the sails of those millions and indeed billions who pray for
and/or work for a saner world.
Together they could speak to the obvious and real moral issues of our day:
Economic inequality
based on a system of avarice not only at the top but in the consumer
bottom and middle; gender
injustice (something the Catholic Church has to address internally as
well); ecological destruction;
unemployment, especially among the young; the pressing need for religious
and spiritual interfaith
or deep ecumenism; the necessary and desired marriage of science and
spirituality (as opposed to
silly fundamentalism either by religion or by science).
The young could be deeply inspired by such a road show and I have no doubt
that the two
principals would themselves learn from one another. This pope has
displayed a refreshing
humility and eagerness to learn from other religious leaders as in his
book of dialogs with Rabbi
Abraham Skorka of Argentina (who is also a PhD in science). It is a fine
book and they got
together over a two year period to produce it.
Teachings of Pope Francis that stand out include some of the following.
1. A walking of his talk of simpler lifestyle. Pope Francis was well
known in Argentina for
taking public transportation to work and refusing any limousinelike
service which so many
prelates take for granted. He has done the same in his new position as
pope where he
chooses not to live in the papal apartments but in a far more modest guest
house or hotel in
the Vatican. He drives a Ford Focus in Vatican city. Might he give over
the apartments to
Rome's homeless? He has also drawn some press recently for sneaking out
at night from
the Vatican in the simple priestly garb of black suit and color and
hanging out with
homeless in the streets of Rome. One senses he is trying to walk the talk
and follow his
own preaching about simplification. And he is putting pressure on other
prelates to do the
same.
2. As for his talk, he tends to mince no words when speaking of the
divergence of wealth and
poverty today. He speaks to globalization this way: “The globalization
that makes
everything uniform is essentially imperialist...it is not human. In the
end it is a way to
enslave the nations.” (Fox, 24)[1] Is globalization enslaving the
nations? Serious words
worthy of a serious discussion.
3. He says: “Christianity condemns both Communism and wild capitalism
with the same
vigor” and one needs to reject the “wild economic liberalism we see today”
and “seek equal
opportunities and rights and strive for social benefits, dignified
retirement, vacation time,
rest, and freedom of unions.”
4. He praises St Francis because “he brought to Christianity an idea of
poverty against
the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the
time” and for
this reason “he changed history.”
5. He takes on the neocon preoccupation with “world terrorism” and the
fear such
language arouses when he declares that “human rights are not only violated
by
terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic
structures that
create huge inequalities.” How important is that? To equate economic
structures
with terrorism? Yes, Wall Street terrorizes. Ask any Main Street
citizen.
6. He denounces the “flight of money to foreign countries” as a sin
because it
dishonors “the people that worked to generate” that wealth. He also
condemns
those who hide their wealth in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes
that are so
important for the common good.
7. Pope Francis has said: “The option for the poor comes from the first
centuries of
Christianity. It is the Gospel itself.” And he remarked that were he to
preach
sermons from the first fathers of the church on the needs of the poor he
would be
called a “Maoist or Trotskyte.” (119)
8. He critiques clericalism as a “distortion of religion” and says
priests should not
declare “I am the boss here” but listen to the community. “The Catholic
Church is
the entire people of God” he declares a la Vatican II—not words the
previous two
popes were at all home with. (85)
9. “Human rights are violated by...unfair economic structures that create
huge
inequalities.” (71)
10. On Holy Thursday P:ope Francis washed the feet of young people in
jail including
the feet of some women, one of them being Muslim. It is a custom to do
this ritual
after the memory of Jesus who also did it—but the Catholic right wing is
up in arms
about his daring to wash women's feet and those of a Muslim woman!
11. He endorses the concept of small communities over what he calls
“hierarchical
megainstitutions” because these better “nurture their own spirituality”
and after all
the “origin of Christianity was 'parochial and later organized into small
communities.” (94)
12. “Repair my church in ruins” he said on taking over the office of the
papacy. He
seems to get it. The schismatic church of John Paul II and Cardinal
Ratzinger
(Benedict XVI) has left a Catholicism which the young have abandoned en
masse.
They left a church in ruins run by fascist leaning opus dei cardinals and
bishops all
over the world. One Catholic paper in India declared “there is a civil
war in the
church.” I for one do not believe this pope or any pope could return
Catholicism to
its previous state—or should. As I concluded in my book, “The Pope's War,”
I see
the destruction of the Catholic Church as we know it the work of the Holy
Spirit. It
is time to simplify the message and the presence of those who follow a
Christ path.
It is time to travel with backpacks on our backs, not basilicas. The
pope's work will
not bring Catholics “back to the church” but hopefully it will inspire
Christians and
nonChristians alike to consider the basic teachings of Jesus around
compassion and
justice and start acting accordingly.
13. Says Pope Francis: “The worship of the golden calf of hold has found
a new and
heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy
which is
faceless and lacking any human goal.” We need, he says, a “balanced
social o;order
that is more humane” and that resits consumerism. “Money has to serve and
not
rule.” It is a “savage capitalism” that teaches “the logic of profit at
any cost” and
exploitation of people.
14. Says the pope: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty
because it has
been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from
being confined
and from clinging to its own security.” Structures can “give us a false
sense of
security” and “rules makes us harsh judges...while at our door people are
starving
and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, “give them something to eat.'”
He wants to
decentralize the church for “excessive centralization, rather than proving
helpful,
complicates the church’s life and her missionary outreach.”
15. Unfettered capitalism is a “new tyranny” “Today we are living in an
unjust
international system in which 'King Money' is at the center.” This
“throwaway
culture discards young people as well as its older people.....A whole
generation of
young people does not have the dignity that is brought by work.” A
“diminishing
of the joy of life” is the result of such idolatry (125f) and
interestingly he chose a
parallel phrase, the “Joy of the Gospel” for the title of his most recent
pronouncement.
In his recent document entitled “The Joy of the Gospel” Pope Francis
speaks bluntly as all the
prophet do. He says No—as all the prophets do. He denounces
“trickledown” economics as
“never having been confirmed by the facts” and being built on a “crude and
naive trust in the
goodness of those wielding economic power....Meanwhile, the excluded are
still waiting.”[2]
Following are some of his No's presented in his own words:
1. “No to an economy of exclusion....An economy of exclusion and
inequality kills....Today
everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the
fittest, where the
powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find
themselves
excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without
any means of
escape.”
2. “No to the new idolatry of money....While the earnings of a minority
are growing
exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority form the
prosperity enjoyed by
those happy few.....Selfserving tax evasion has] taken on worldwide
dimensions. The
thirst for power and possessions knows no limits....Whatever is fragile,
like the
environment, is defenseless before the interests of a defied market, which
becomes the only
rule.”
3. “No to a financial system which rules rather than serves. Ethics is
seen as
counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative.
It is felt to be a
threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person....
Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike,
but he is
obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help,
respect and promote the
poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and a return of economics and
finance to an
ethical approach which favors human beings.
4. “No to the inequality which spawns violence. [Violence happens
not]simply because
inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded form the
system, but because
the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to
spread, the
toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful
influence and quietly to
undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may
appear.....Evil
crystallized in unjust social structures...cannot be the basis of hope for
a better future.
Pope Francis speaks out against an “education that would tranquilize the
poor, making
them tame and harmless.” And he defines injustice as “evil.” He has
invited liberation
theologian Gustavo Gutierrez to the Vatican and the word is out that he
will canonize
Archbishop Romero. A different kind of papacy? Surely from the past two
popes; much
more like Pope John XXIII. Does that mean we go back to papalolatry?
Absolutely not.
But it does mean that it is good that a person in the public eye is
keeping his sights on
values that matter and speaking up for the kind of people of conscience
who read and act
on the values that Tikkun represents.
When it comes to issues of women, Pope Francis has much to learn
(including how women
were leaders in the early church). But I think he is capable of learning.
On homosexuality,
he has uttered a telling line, “Who am I to judge?” that certainly
distances him from the
previous two popes. On issues of abortion, at least he has spoken to the
need to care about
the women involved. Pope Francis is not perfect—none of us is—but he is
an ally to all
those seeking a world of justice and therefore peace.
[1]subsequent citations are from Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis
(South Orange, NY:
LevelFiveMedia, 2013
[2]Aaron Blake, “Pope Francis denounces 'trickledown' economics, The
Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2013.
Subsequent citations are found in this article.Pope Francis: A Breath of
Fresh Air?
Matthew Fox
I recently wrote a book on Pope Francis, or better a book to him, entitled
Letters to Pope Francis.
The book was released in Italian on Thanksgiving Day. In it I challenge
him to live up to his
purposefully chosen namesake and that people would hold his feet to the
fire because no other
pope had ever taken up that name, ikon that it is, and that most people do
know what St Francis of
Assisi stood for: Ecology and nonchauvinistic relationships to the plant
and animal worlds; a
preferential option for the poor; and (this may be slightly less
acknowledged) an admirable and
almost startling balance of gender justice and consciousness. In his
celebrated poem, “Brother
Sun, Sister Moon,” he moves back and forth, back and forth, between
masculine and feminine
names for the sacred.
People who care about such matters recognize fresh consciousness in the
pope's refusal to move
into the palatial headquarters known as the papal apartments; in his
refusal to drive in limousines
and his call for bishops and cardinals to follow suit; his trips to
embrace embattled refugees on
islands off southern Italy; his visits to favelas or slums in Rio de
Janairo as well as his work in the
same in Argentina over the years. These actions, plus his strong words
denouncing the “idols” and
“gods” of the marketplace together seem to be framing a story of a
different kind of pope and
papacy from anything we have had since Pope John Paul I who was (most
probably) murdered
after thirtyone days in the office some thirtyfour years ago. It raises
hopes in the minds and
hearts of activists and progressive Catholics many of whom have left the
church behind but still
recognize its potential power as a source for good in many parts of the
world.
Theologically, Pope Francis is speaking the radical language of Vatican II
abandoned by his two
predecessors, that the church is NOT the hierarchy but “the people” whose
“sensus fidelium”
actually matters. The effort to poll parishioners about such subjects as
birth control, abortion,
women's rights and homosexual unions is a first (though quite lame effort
as the survey was
unprofessionally done asking for essay answers and not direct answers and
in many cases has been
ignored by the bishops who are simply filling in the blanks according to
their own theological
whims).
One sign that Pope Francis is being heard is the steam emerging from
people who do not want to
hear about justice, economic equality or church as people of God. (Rush
Limbaugh, for example,
had lots to complain about and did so loudly regarding the pope's recent
take on Wall Street calling
the pope's words “pure Marxism.”) But rightwing catholic naysayers are
caught in something of
a trap. It will be interesting to see how they emerge and this includes
stalwart power brokers like
the four right wing Catholics on the Supreme Court, all of whom voted for
“Citizens United”
Scalia, Thomas, Alioto and John Roberts. (Throw in Kennedy, another
Catholic though not so
extreme right for his scandalous vote in favor of Citizens United.) Then
there is Newt Gingrich, a
new convert to Catholicism (under pope Ratzinger); aspiring presidential
candidate Paul Ryan
(whose philosophy owes much more to atheist Ayn Rand than to the Gospels
or papal
pronouncements but who still claims to be a stalwart Catholic); Rick
Santorum; John Boehmer.
How these politicians dance around this pope's pronouncements on economic
justice will be a
spectacle that deserves watching. (Recall how the Catholic bishops under
Pope John Paul II were
instructed not to give communion to Catholic politicians who advocate for
the right to abortion and
how this cost Kerry the election in 2004. Will the same threats obtain
for Catholic politicians who
deny rights of the poor? And who are shills for the interests of the
“deified market” (the pope's
words) and “a “new tyranny” (the pope's words) of current day capitalism?
Stay tuned.
The pope has essentially told the shrill right wing Catholics who received
such support under the
previous two popes, to chill out and to cease reducing theology to “a
condom” or a set of rules and
to get moving on social and economic justice. There are currently
Catholic writers who have made
a living denouncing social justice such as George Weigel and it will be
interesting to watch them
squirm also with this new pope. Weigel is famous for complaining about
Catholics who take some
of the teachings of the church and leave others out. He did the same
with: 1) the war in Iraq (both
popes he so admires were against it)he was and is a committed neocon who
has never apologized
for getting us into Iraq and 2) economic alternatives to Wall Street rape
of Main Street, i.e
consumer capitalism. Yet he constantly trumps his version of Catholicism,
which is really
papalism, as the only way. “The truth of what is taught by the pope and
the college of bishops is
not a matter for debate” (61) he tells us in his most recent (and
scariest) book, Evangelical
Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21
reading what this pope is preaching?
How is it then that Weigel supported the invasion of Iraq when two popes
opposed it? Why did he
run from papal teachings on distributive justice? And from their
teachings on the death penalty?
When it comes to seminary training, Weigel says it should begin with the
Catechism and only then
move into Biblical studies which “should build upon this solid foundation
so that each candidate
has a deep understanding of what the Church teaches—and why.” He says
this is the way one
learns to think “with the Church” as if the Church is the maker of
catechisms—not the people of
the world or the carrier of Sacred Scripture. (By the way, the great idea
for a catechism came from
none other than the pedophile champion, Cardinal Law, as I make clear in
my book, The Popes
War.) Yes, we will soon learn what really constitutes the theology of our
hard right Catholic
propagandists and I suspect for many if not all of them Wall Street will
trump the Vatican.
But beyond the Catholics squirming in and out of political office, there
are the larger issues that
the pope is addressing to the capitalistic system itself at this time of
history. Being the first pope
from what we call “the third world,” Pope Francis can be expected to
understand the tides of
history and of economic oppression differently from being the recipient of
years of abuse than
from being the source of it. I end my letters to the pope suggesting that
he and the Dalai Lama
make a world tour together hitting most continents to speak to the
“Revolution in Values” that our
times call for. This is not because change comes primarily from the top
down but because a few at
st
Century Church. Will he continue to invoke papalism after
the top whom the media will be almost required to report about can, by
speaking out together, put
wind in the sails of those millions and indeed billions who pray for
and/or work for a saner world.
Together they could speak to the obvious and real moral issues of our day:
Economic inequality
based on a system of avarice not only at the top but in the consumer
bottom and middle; gender
injustice (something the Catholic Church has to address internally as
well); ecological destruction;
unemployment, especially among the young; the pressing need for religious
and spiritual interfaith
or deep ecumenism; the necessary and desired marriage of science and
spirituality (as opposed to
silly fundamentalism either by religion or by science).
The young could be deeply inspired by such a road show and I have no doubt
that the two
principals would themselves learn from one another. This pope has
displayed a refreshing
humility and eagerness to learn from other religious leaders as in his
book of dialogs with Rabbi
Abraham Skorka of Argentina (who is also a PhD in science). It is a fine
book and they got
together over a two year period to produce it.
Teachings of Pope Francis that stand out include some of the following.
1. A walking of his talk of simpler lifestyle. Pope Francis was well
known in Argentina for
taking public transportation to work and refusing any limousinelike
service which so many
prelates take for granted. He has done the same in his new position as
pope where he
chooses not to live in the papal apartments but in a far more modest guest
house or hotel in
the Vatican. He drives a Ford Focus in Vatican city. Might he give over
the apartments to
Rome's homeless? He has also drawn some press recently for sneaking out
at night from
the Vatican in the simple priestly garb of black suit and color and
hanging out with
homeless in the streets of Rome. One senses he is trying to walk the talk
and follow his
own preaching about simplification. And he is putting pressure on other
prelates to do the
same.
2. As for his talk, he tends to mince no words when speaking of the
divergence of wealth and
poverty today. He speaks to globalization this way: “The globalization
that makes
everything uniform is essentially imperialist...it is not human. In the
end it is a way to
enslave the nations.” (Fox, 24)[1] Is globalization enslaving the
nations? Serious words
worthy of a serious discussion.
3. He says: “Christianity condemns both Communism and wild capitalism
with the same
vigor” and one needs to reject the “wild economic liberalism we see today”
and “seek equal
opportunities and rights and strive for social benefits, dignified
retirement, vacation time,
rest, and freedom of unions.”
4. He praises St Francis because “he brought to Christianity an idea of
poverty against
the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the
time” and for
this reason “he changed history.”
5. He takes on the neocon preoccupation with “world terrorism” and the
fear such
language arouses when he declares that “human rights are not only violated
by
terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic
structures that
create huge inequalities.” How important is that? To equate economic
structures
with terrorism? Yes, Wall Street terrorizes. Ask any Main Street
citizen.
6. He denounces the “flight of money to foreign countries” as a sin
because it
dishonors “the people that worked to generate” that wealth. He also
condemns
those who hide their wealth in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes
that are so
important for the common good.
7. Pope Francis has said: “The option for the poor comes from the first
centuries of
Christianity. It is the Gospel itself.” And he remarked that were he to
preach
sermons from the first fathers of the church on the needs of the poor he
would be
called a “Maoist or Trotskyte.” (119)
8. He critiques clericalism as a “distortion of religion” and says
priests should not
declare “I am the boss here” but listen to the community. “The Catholic
Church is
the entire people of God” he declares a la Vatican II—not words the
previous two
popes were at all home with. (85)
9. “Human rights are violated by...unfair economic structures that create
huge
inequalities.” (71)
10. On Holy Thursday P:ope Francis washed the feet of young people in
jail including
the feet of some women, one of them being Muslim. It is a custom to do
this ritual
after the memory of Jesus who also did it—but the Catholic right wing is
up in arms
about his daring to wash women's feet and those of a Muslim woman!
11. He endorses the concept of small communities over what he calls
“hierarchical
megainstitutions” because these better “nurture their own spirituality”
and after all
the “origin of Christianity was 'parochial and later organized into small
communities.” (94)
12. “Repair my church in ruins” he said on taking over the office of the
papacy. He
seems to get it. The schismatic church of John Paul II and Cardinal
Ratzinger
(Benedict XVI) has left a Catholicism which the young have abandoned en
masse.
They left a church in ruins run by fascist leaning opus dei cardinals and
bishops all
over the world. One Catholic paper in India declared “there is a civil
war in the
church.” I for one do not believe this pope or any pope could return
Catholicism to
its previous state—or should. As I concluded in my book, “The Pope's War,”
I see
the destruction of the Catholic Church as we know it the work of the Holy
Spirit. It
is time to simplify the message and the presence of those who follow a
Christ path.
It is time to travel with backpacks on our backs, not basilicas. The
pope's work will
not bring Catholics “back to the church” but hopefully it will inspire
Christians and
nonChristians alike to consider the basic teachings of Jesus around
compassion and
justice and start acting accordingly.
13. Says Pope Francis: “The worship of the golden calf of hold has found
a new and
heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy
which is
faceless and lacking any human goal.” We need, he says, a “balanced
social o;order
that is more humane” and that resits consumerism. “Money has to serve and
not
rule.” It is a “savage capitalism” that teaches “the logic of profit at
any cost” and
exploitation of people.
14. Says the pope: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty
because it has
been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from
being confined
and from clinging to its own security.” Structures can “give us a false
sense of
security” and “rules makes us harsh judges...while at our door people are
starving
and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, “give them something to eat.'”
He wants to
decentralize the church for “excessive centralization, rather than proving
helpful,
complicates the church’s life and her missionary outreach.”
15. Unfettered capitalism is a “new tyranny” “Today we are living in an
unjust
international system in which 'King Money' is at the center.” This
“throwaway
culture discards young people as well as its older people.....A whole
generation of
young people does not have the dignity that is brought by work.” A
“diminishing
of the joy of life” is the result of such idolatry (125f) and
interestingly he chose a
parallel phrase, the “Joy of the Gospel” for the title of his most recent
pronouncement.
In his recent document entitled “The Joy of the Gospel” Pope Francis
speaks bluntly as all the
prophet do. He says No—as all the prophets do. He denounces
“trickledown” economics as
“never having been confirmed by the facts” and being built on a “crude and
naive trust in the
goodness of those wielding economic power....Meanwhile, the excluded are
still waiting.”[2]
Following are some of his No's presented in his own words:
1. “No to an economy of exclusion....An economy of exclusion and
inequality kills....Today
everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the
fittest, where the
powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find
themselves
excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without
any means of
escape.”
2. “No to the new idolatry of money....While the earnings of a minority
are growing
exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority form the
prosperity enjoyed by
those happy few.....Selfserving tax evasion has] taken on worldwide
dimensions. The
thirst for power and possessions knows no limits....Whatever is fragile,
like the
environment, is defenseless before the interests of a defied market, which
becomes the only
rule.”
3. “No to a financial system which rules rather than serves. Ethics is
seen as
counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative.
It is felt to be a
threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person....
Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike,
but he is
obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help,
respect and promote the
poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and a return of economics and
finance to an
ethical approach which favors human beings.
4. “No to the inequality which spawns violence. [Violence happens
not]simply because
inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded form the
system, but because
the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to
spread, the
toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful
influence and quietly to
undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may
appear.....Evil
crystallized in unjust social structures...cannot be the basis of hope for
a better future.
Pope Francis speaks out against an “education that would tranquilize the
poor, making
them tame and harmless.” And he defines injustice as “evil.” He has
invited liberation
theologian Gustavo Gutierrez to the Vatican and the word is out that he
will canonize
Archbishop Romero. A different kind of papacy? Surely from the past two
popes; much
more like Pope John XXIII. Does that mean we go back to papalolatry?
Absolutely not.
But it does mean that it is good that a person in the public eye is
keeping his sights on
values that matter and speaking up for the kind of people of conscience
who read and act
on the values that Tikkun represents.
When it comes to issues of women, Pope Francis has much to learn
(including how women
were leaders in the early church). But I think he is capable of learning.
On homosexuality,
he has uttered a telling line, “Who am I to judge?” that certainly
distances him from the
previous two popes. On issues of abortion, at least he has spoken to the
need to care about
the women involved. Pope Francis is not perfect—none of us is—but he is
an ally to all
those seeking a world of justice and therefore peace.
[1]subsequent citations are from Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis
(South Orange, NY:
LevelFiveMedia, 2013
[2]Aaron Blake, “Pope Francis denounces 'trickledown' economics, The
Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2013.
Subsequent citations are found in this article.Pope Francis: A Breath of
Fresh Air?
Matthew Fox
I recently wrote a book on Pope Francis, or better a book to him, entitled
Letters to Pope Francis.
The book was released in Italian on Thanksgiving Day. In it I challenge
him to live up to his
purposefully chosen namesake and that people would hold his feet to the
fire because no other
pope had ever taken up that name, ikon that it is, and that most people do
know what St Francis of
Assisi stood for: Ecology and nonchauvinistic relationships to the plant
and animal worlds; a
preferential option for the poor; and (this may be slightly less
acknowledged) an admirable and
almost startling balance of gender justice and consciousness. In his
celebrated poem, “Brother
Sun, Sister Moon,” he moves back and forth, back and forth, between
masculine and feminine
names for the sacred.
People who care about such matters recognize fresh consciousness in the
pope's refusal to move
into the palatial headquarters known as the papal apartments; in his
refusal to drive in limousines
and his call for bishops and cardinals to follow suit; his trips to
embrace embattled refugees on
islands off southern Italy; his visits to favelas or slums in Rio de
Janairo as well as his work in the
same in Argentina over the years. These actions, plus his strong words
denouncing the “idols” and
“gods” of the marketplace together seem to be framing a story of a
different kind of pope and
papacy from anything we have had since Pope John Paul I who was (most
probably) murdered
after thirtyone days in the office some thirtyfour years ago. It raises
hopes in the minds and
hearts of activists and progressive Catholics many of whom have left the
church behind but still
recognize its potential power as a source for good in many parts of the
world.
Theologically, Pope Francis is speaking the radical language of Vatican II
abandoned by his two
predecessors, that the church is NOT the hierarchy but “the people” whose
“sensus fidelium”
actually matters. The effort to poll parishioners about such subjects as
birth control, abortion,
women's rights and homosexual unions is a first (though quite lame effort
as the survey was
unprofessionally done asking for essay answers and not direct answers and
in many cases has been
ignored by the bishops who are simply filling in the blanks according to
their own theological
whims).
One sign that Pope Francis is being heard is the steam emerging from
people who do not want to
hear about justice, economic equality or church as people of God. (Rush
Limbaugh, for example,
had lots to complain about and did so loudly regarding the pope's recent
take on Wall Street calling
the pope's words “pure Marxism.”) But rightwing catholic naysayers are
caught in something of
a trap. It will be interesting to see how they emerge and this includes
stalwart power brokers like
the four right wing Catholics on the Supreme Court, all of whom voted for
“Citizens United”
Scalia, Thomas, Alioto and John Roberts. (Throw in Kennedy, another
Catholic though not so
extreme right for his scandalous vote in favor of Citizens United.) Then
there is Newt Gingrich, a
new convert to Catholicism (under pope Ratzinger); aspiring presidential
candidate Paul Ryan
(whose philosophy owes much more to atheist Ayn Rand than to the Gospels
or papal
pronouncements but who still claims to be a stalwart Catholic); Rick
Santorum; John Boehmer.
How these politicians dance around this pope's pronouncements on economic
justice will be a
spectacle that deserves watching. (Recall how the Catholic bishops under
Pope John Paul II were
instructed not to give communion to Catholic politicians who advocate for
the right to abortion and
how this cost Kerry the election in 2004. Will the same threats obtain
for Catholic politicians who
deny rights of the poor? And who are shills for the interests of the
“deified market” (the pope's
words) and “a “new tyranny” (the pope's words) of current day capitalism?
Stay tuned.
The pope has essentially told the shrill right wing Catholics who received
such support under the
previous two popes, to chill out and to cease reducing theology to “a
condom” or a set of rules and
to get moving on social and economic justice. There are currently
Catholic writers who have made
a living denouncing social justice such as George Weigel and it will be
interesting to watch them
squirm also with this new pope. Weigel is famous for complaining about
Catholics who take some
of the teachings of the church and leave others out. He did the same
with: 1) the war in Iraq (both
popes he so admires were against it)he was and is a committed neocon who
has never apologized
for getting us into Iraq and 2) economic alternatives to Wall Street rape
of Main Street, i.e
consumer capitalism. Yet he constantly trumps his version of Catholicism,
which is really
papalism, as the only way. “The truth of what is taught by the pope and
the college of bishops is
not a matter for debate” (61) he tells us in his most recent (and
scariest) book, Evangelical
Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21
reading what this pope is preaching?
How is it then that Weigel supported the invasion of Iraq when two popes
opposed it? Why did he
run from papal teachings on distributive justice? And from their
teachings on the death penalty?
When it comes to seminary training, Weigel says it should begin with the
Catechism and only then
move into Biblical studies which “should build upon this solid foundation
so that each candidate
has a deep understanding of what the Church teaches—and why.” He says
this is the way one
learns to think “with the Church” as if the Church is the maker of
catechisms—not the people of
the world or the carrier of Sacred Scripture. (By the way, the great idea
for a catechism came from
none other than the pedophile champion, Cardinal Law, as I make clear in
my book, The Popes
War.) Yes, we will soon learn what really constitutes the theology of our
hard right Catholic
propagandists and I suspect for many if not all of them Wall Street will
trump the Vatican.
But beyond the Catholics squirming in and out of political office, there
are the larger issues that
the pope is addressing to the capitalistic system itself at this time of
history. Being the first pope
from what we call “the third world,” Pope Francis can be expected to
understand the tides of
history and of economic oppression differently from being the recipient of
years of abuse than
from being the source of it. I end my letters to the pope suggesting that
he and the Dalai Lama
make a world tour together hitting most continents to speak to the
“Revolution in Values” that our
times call for. This is not because change comes primarily from the top
down but because a few at
st
Century Church. Will he continue to invoke papalism after
the top whom the media will be almost required to report about can, by
speaking out together, put
wind in the sails of those millions and indeed billions who pray for
and/or work for a saner world.
Together they could speak to the obvious and real moral issues of our day:
Economic inequality
based on a system of avarice not only at the top but in the consumer
bottom and middle; gender
injustice (something the Catholic Church has to address internally as
well); ecological destruction;
unemployment, especially among the young; the pressing need for religious
and spiritual interfaith
or deep ecumenism; the necessary and desired marriage of science and
spirituality (as opposed to
silly fundamentalism either by religion or by science).
The young could be deeply inspired by such a road show and I have no doubt
that the two
principals would themselves learn from one another. This pope has
displayed a refreshing
humility and eagerness to learn from other religious leaders as in his
book of dialogs with Rabbi
Abraham Skorka of Argentina (who is also a PhD in science). It is a fine
book and they got
together over a two year period to produce it.
Teachings of Pope Francis that stand out include some of the following.
1. A walking of his talk of simpler lifestyle. Pope Francis was well
known in Argentina for
taking public transportation to work and refusing any limousinelike
service which so many
prelates take for granted. He has done the same in his new position as
pope where he
chooses not to live in the papal apartments but in a far more modest guest
house or hotel in
the Vatican. He drives a Ford Focus in Vatican city. Might he give over
the apartments to
Rome's homeless? He has also drawn some press recently for sneaking out
at night from
the Vatican in the simple priestly garb of black suit and color and
hanging out with
homeless in the streets of Rome. One senses he is trying to walk the talk
and follow his
own preaching about simplification. And he is putting pressure on other
prelates to do the
same.
2. As for his talk, he tends to mince no words when speaking of the
divergence of wealth and
poverty today. He speaks to globalization this way: “The globalization
that makes
everything uniform is essentially imperialist...it is not human. In the
end it is a way to
enslave the nations.” (Fox, 24)[1] Is globalization enslaving the
nations? Serious words
worthy of a serious discussion.
3. He says: “Christianity condemns both Communism and wild capitalism
with the same
vigor” and one needs to reject the “wild economic liberalism we see today”
and “seek equal
opportunities and rights and strive for social benefits, dignified
retirement, vacation time,
rest, and freedom of unions.”
4. He praises St Francis because “he brought to Christianity an idea of
poverty against
the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the
time” and for
this reason “he changed history.”
5. He takes on the neocon preoccupation with “world terrorism” and the
fear such
language arouses when he declares that “human rights are not only violated
by
terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic
structures that
create huge inequalities.” How important is that? To equate economic
structures
with terrorism? Yes, Wall Street terrorizes. Ask any Main Street
citizen.
6. He denounces the “flight of money to foreign countries” as a sin
because it
dishonors “the people that worked to generate” that wealth. He also
condemns
those who hide their wealth in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes
that are so
important for the common good.
7. Pope Francis has said: “The option for the poor comes from the first
centuries of
Christianity. It is the Gospel itself.” And he remarked that were he to
preach
sermons from the first fathers of the church on the needs of the poor he
would be
called a “Maoist or Trotskyte.” (119)
8. He critiques clericalism as a “distortion of religion” and says
priests should not
declare “I am the boss here” but listen to the community. “The Catholic
Church is
the entire people of God” he declares a la Vatican II—not words the
previous two
popes were at all home with. (85)
9. “Human rights are violated by...unfair economic structures that create
huge
inequalities.” (71)
10. On Holy Thursday P:ope Francis washed the feet of young people in
jail including
the feet of some women, one of them being Muslim. It is a custom to do
this ritual
after the memory of Jesus who also did it—but the Catholic right wing is
up in arms
about his daring to wash women's feet and those of a Muslim woman!
11. He endorses the concept of small communities over what he calls
“hierarchical
megainstitutions” because these better “nurture their own spirituality”
and after all
the “origin of Christianity was 'parochial and later organized into small
communities.” (94)
12. “Repair my church in ruins” he said on taking over the office of the
papacy. He
seems to get it. The schismatic church of John Paul II and Cardinal
Ratzinger
(Benedict XVI) has left a Catholicism which the young have abandoned en
masse.
They left a church in ruins run by fascist leaning opus dei cardinals and
bishops all
over the world. One Catholic paper in India declared “there is a civil
war in the
church.” I for one do not believe this pope or any pope could return
Catholicism to
its previous state—or should. As I concluded in my book, “The Pope's War,”
I see
the destruction of the Catholic Church as we know it the work of the Holy
Spirit. It
is time to simplify the message and the presence of those who follow a
Christ path.
It is time to travel with backpacks on our backs, not basilicas. The
pope's work will
not bring Catholics “back to the church” but hopefully it will inspire
Christians and
nonChristians alike to consider the basic teachings of Jesus around
compassion and
justice and start acting accordingly.
13. Says Pope Francis: “The worship of the golden calf of hold has found
a new and
heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy
which is
faceless and lacking any human goal.” We need, he says, a “balanced
social o;order
that is more humane” and that resits consumerism. “Money has to serve and
not
rule.” It is a “savage capitalism” that teaches “the logic of profit at
any cost” and
exploitation of people.
14. Says the pope: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty
because it has
been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from
being confined
and from clinging to its own security.” Structures can “give us a false
sense of
security” and “rules makes us harsh judges...while at our door people are
starving
and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, “give them something to eat.'”
He wants to
decentralize the church for “excessive centralization, rather than proving
helpful,
complicates the church’s life and her missionary outreach.”
15. Unfettered capitalism is a “new tyranny” “Today we are living in an
unjust
international system in which 'King Money' is at the center.” This
“throwaway
culture discards young people as well as its older people.....A whole
generation of
young people does not have the dignity that is brought by work.” A
“diminishing
of the joy of life” is the result of such idolatry (125f) and
interestingly he chose a
parallel phrase, the “Joy of the Gospel” for the title of his most recent
pronouncement.
In his recent document entitled “The Joy of the Gospel” Pope Francis
speaks bluntly as all the
prophet do. He says No—as all the prophets do. He denounces
“trickledown” economics as
“never having been confirmed by the facts” and being built on a “crude and
naive trust in the
goodness of those wielding economic power....Meanwhile, the excluded are
still waiting.”[2]
Following are some of his No's presented in his own words:
1. “No to an economy of exclusion....An economy of exclusion and
inequality kills....Today
everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the
fittest, where the
powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find
themselves
excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without
any means of
escape.”
2. “No to the new idolatry of money....While the earnings of a minority
are growing
exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority form the
prosperity enjoyed by
those happy few.....Selfserving tax evasion has] taken on worldwide
dimensions. The
thirst for power and possessions knows no limits....Whatever is fragile,
like the
environment, is defenseless before the interests of a defied market, which
becomes the only
rule.”
3. “No to a financial system which rules rather than serves. Ethics is
seen as
counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative.
It is felt to be a
threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person....
Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike,
but he is
obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help,
respect and promote the
poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and a return of economics and
finance to an
ethical approach which favors human beings.
4. “No to the inequality which spawns violence. [Violence happens
not]simply because
inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded form the
system, but because
the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to
spread, the
toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful
influence and quietly to
undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may
appear.....Evil
crystallized in unjust social structures...cannot be the basis of hope for
a better future.
Pope Francis speaks out against an “education that would tranquilize the
poor, making
them tame and harmless.” And he defines injustice as “evil.” He has
invited liberation
theologian Gustavo Gutierrez to the Vatican and the word is out that he
will canonize
Archbishop Romero. A different kind of papacy? Surely from the past two
popes; much
more like Pope John XXIII. Does that mean we go back to papalolatry?
Absolutely not.
But it does mean that it is good that a person in the public eye is
keeping his sights on
values that matter and speaking up for the kind of people of conscience
who read and act
on the values that Tikkun represents.
When it comes to issues of women, Pope Francis has much to learn
(including how women
were leaders in the early church). But I think he is capable of learning.
On homosexuality,
he has uttered a telling line, “Who am I to judge?” that certainly
distances him from the
previous two popes. On issues of abortion, at least he has spoken to the
need to care about
the women involved. Pope Francis is not perfect—none of us is—but he is
an ally to all
those seeking a world of justice and therefore peace.
[1]subsequent citations are from Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis
(South Orange, NY:
LevelFiveMedia, 2013
[2]Aaron Blake, “Pope Francis denounces 'trickledown' economics, The
Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2013.
.
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