Catholic Reading Wednesday and Community Catechesis Tonight

With many thanks to our awesome curator, Karen Celano, you can delve into a faith-related news article each Wednesday! Karen writes:

Last week, Pope Francis was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2013.  The choice of Francis for the magazine’s yearly issue was criticized by some as being the “safe choice” (also nominated were Edward Snowden and gay marriage advocate Edith Windsor), but I would argue that anyone who thinks Francis is representative of a safe and comfortable Christianity is not paying attention to Francis’ words and actions.

Francis has been accused of being “radical,” but this comes as no surprise to those who have always understood that Christianity is a radical proposition that does not conform to the standards of the world.  When Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium drew accusations by some on the extreme right that Francis was espousing Marxist economics, Francis, with his usual humor, answered: “The Marxist ideology is wrong.  But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”

Francis’ response reveals a man who practices what he preaches.  In Evangelii Gaudium Francis wrote that “the Gospel tells us to correct others and to help them grow on the basis of a recognition of the objective evil of their actions, but without making judgments about their responsibility and culpability” (EG 172).  Francis acknowledges that many good and well-intentioned people can espouse dangerous ideologies, and he encourages us not to be afraid of speaking out against those ideologies while still seeing the good in the people who endorse them.  When we confront people who disagree with us politically, economically, or religiously, can we do as Francis does – can we be unafraid to be associated with them, can we acknowledge their goodness, can we debate with them in a spirit of charity?

In the wake of criticisms that Francis is drastically altering Catholic economic thought, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI offered a technical explanation that bolsters Francis’ point, which is that, when free-market capitalism is taken to an extreme, it dehumanizes people, making them cogs in the amoral economic machine rather than true moral agents of their own destiny.  Indeed, this criticism of capitalism also holds true of Marxism, which Benedict says is similarly “deterministic in nature” and enslaves human beings to the “centrally administered economy.”  Both Benedict and Francis argue that any economic system which views itself as free from the demands of ethics and morality is not a system which the Church can endorse.  “A scientific approach that believes itself capable of managing without an ethos misunderstands the reality of man,” Benedict writes.  “Today we need a maximum of specialized economic understanding, but also a maximum of ethos.”  The Church stands above capitalism and above Marxism – and stands for human dignity.

Benedict speaks an academic language and Francis speaks more in the vernacular, but both are endorsing a fundamental challenge to the way secular society conceives of itself.  Anyone who sees in Francis just a kind and tender-hearted old man is missing Francis’ revolutionary message.  His interactions with children, the sick, and the poor are not isolated charitable incidents, but rather reveal a life lived according to a worldview which proclaims the inner dignity of the least of society’s members – those who are often inadvertently forgotten or left behind by our modern, loud, fast-paced, consumerist, results-driven society.  It is these people, Francis tells us, that any just and ethical economic system must take into consideration. 

But Francis’ awareness of human dignity comes from listening to and reflecting on the Word of God.  Once again, the Church stands above a culture that tells us we can achieve justice without God, or that we can have God without working for justice.  As Fr. Robert Barron points out, we cannot separate Francis’ teachings about social justice from his life of prayer and his proclamation of the Word of God.  If the secular media wants to turn Francis into mere promoter of a secular liberal social agenda, they too are misinterpreting him: Francis wants the world to know that the only way to achieve true justice is to listen to the Author of all justice, through prayer and obedience to His will. 

That is why, this Advent, Francis urges us all to pay attention to God – to offer Him our time in silence, to show ourselves willing to listen to Him.  At this time of year, we Christians must battle the clamorous noise of advertisements and crowds in order to make room for the One who established justice in the world.  I don't imagine the first Christmas was much different from Christmases today: Bethlehem flooded with people coming for the census, merchants excited about the opportunity to sell their wares to the new consumers, innkeepers looking to make extra money from the travelers.  But as we prepare for Christmas, Francis encourages us to slow down, to quiet ourselves, and to listen for the voice of the God who comes with tender love for all His creatures.  Only when we listen to the small, quiet voice of God can we begin to fathom how to create a more just world for all.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*