Between an intervening torrent of scandal and what's become the standard frenzy of a never-ending newshole, some might feel as if the end of May 2018 is ancient history, but it isn't. At that time, reflecting on his own exceptional ascent to the papal Senate – a first in the modern era for his centuries-old post – the pontiff's cherished Almoner, now Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, set his call to the College in this memorable frame:
"It's almost as if Francis is wanting to say [that] those who take seriously the words of Jesus in the Gospel – feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the prisoner, receive the stranger – these are my principal collaborators."To be sure, for Francis, that accolade is hardly the sole province of the men in red. Still, when it comes to explaining this Consistory's elevation of the Vatican's lead hand on migrants (himself an immigrant) despite being a simple priest – and, among others, Papa Bergoglio's second pick whose ministry saw him sentenced to a Communist labor-camp (part spent in Siberia at that) – you'd be hard-pressed to find a more apt summary of what we're seeing at work.
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The first major event of the Fall Cycle at hand, the October 5th Consistory can't be viewed in a vacuum, but instead as part of a piece – a sizable element of both the usual ten-week rush of activity that marks the start of a new working year and, on the whole, as another critical building-block of a pontificate which aims to reorient the world's largest religious body at its topmost level well beyond Francis' days on Peter's Chair. Indeed, across multiple fronts, the weeks ahead will arguably serve as a lasting indicator of that sea-change – initially as a gauge of its chances of success, then more broadly, offering some initial glimpses of what its long-range impact will look like.To fully grasp this, one needs two things that modern news consumption (read: the Cookie Monster-esque gorging that often passes for it) invariably serves to undermine: a sense of focus and a sense of perspective. At least in this case, they're not in opposition to each other; first, it's necessary to block out the distractions from the central element... then place the pieces of said element in a long frame – and without that, you'll never have the picture of everything as it is, even as it always remains a work in progress.
Accordingly, every cycle has a certain leitmotif – the one main thread around which all the rest (well, the things of long-range significance) can be wrapped. Last year, clearly, that distinction belonged to crisis management on an unprecedented worldwide scale, which touched practically every major development from the States and Australia to Chile, India, Malta and, above all, Rome itself. This time, however, while the scandals boil on – with further significant developments to come – the key element is something different: a thread far less likely to score a similar degree of outside attention, yet one whose tensions within the walls, to say nothing of its potential for far-reaching consequences, are no less great.
Again, remember the focus in the long frame – six years ago last week, as the new Pope marked six months in office, these pages ran a piece on how Francis' ascent made the events of 9/11 a concrete turning-point in the Catholic world.
Fresh as it was then, the concept took no less than a dozen years to be fulfilled, but the driver behind it was the Synod of Bishops, which was already – and strikingly – emerging as an outsize component of the first American Pope's concerted effort to reboot both the concept of papal governance and, with it, the tone and shape of the post-Conciliar church.
With that history on-record, what ensued over Francis' first two Synods in 2014-15 shouldn't have come as the surprise it did – at least, in parts elsewhere. And now, that recent months have seen the term "Amoris Laetitia" barely register in the church's broader discourse seems to indicate how, for all the pixels spilled and convictions flared over the 2016 text, the once-raging battle over it has largely flamed out.
From the inception of Francis' papacy – first in small signs, then gradually building out – the inculturation of the Gospel has been at the heart of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's re-imagining of the church in the modern world. And if it sounds ironic that a lifelong homebody whose injured lung mostly kept him from seeing the world would take this as a priority, well, it should.
Nonetheless, where Vatican II and Paul VI began – and, indeed, John Paul II proceeded – in terms of opening the liturgy to vernacular languages and local customs that reflected the sacred in ways unknown to Western Europe, yet again, Francis is aiming to finish the job, taking for his "test pilot" a region he's already familiar with: the seven-nation spread of the Amazon basin, whose top clerics and enduring realities he's long known from his years in CELAM, Latin America's regional mega-conference of bishops (itself a model facilitator for what Bergoglio's kind of inculturated church looks like).
Two years in the making, the Special (read: Regional) Assembly of the Synod for Amazonia opens on 6 October, its Pope-chosen theme a provocative call for "New Paths for the Church." More pointedly, the Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes – the "good friend" who inspired Francis' historic choice of name, and this gathering's linchpin figure from its inception – told the Vatican-approved Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica in June that "one act of inculturation [i.e. of Europe] does not suffice" for a global communion, explaining how the priority of "a truly indigenous church" (as opposed to a "church for the indigenous") presupposes that "there is no need to have a synod just to say what has already been said. Synods serve to identify new paths when the need is perceived.
"We have a great need for new paths," Hummes said, "not to fear new things, not to obstruct them, not to oppose them. We have to avoid bringing along old things as though they were more important than new ones." At the same time, the Franciscan prelate – a former prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy – made no effort to disguise how the Synod's "entire process has and will have universal repercussions."
Building upon that thread, just last week, another of the gathering's key organizers – the increasingly omnipresent Michael Czerny SJ, long Francis' "social justice warrior," now the first simple priest tapped to receive the red hat in nearly a half-century – likewise took to Civiltà to further underscore that, given the Synod's mandate, "'New paths for the Church' also means deepening the 'process of inculturation' and interculturality. And for this it is important that the original peoples make the church 'their own'... thus the process of inculturation is up to them.
"Being temporary" – and hence outsiders – the cardinal-designate added that "missionaries must accept a secondary role and give priority to the protagonism proper to the evangelized indigenous community."
To reiterate the duo's emphases, especially as parts of the wider discourse are already steaming with concern or even panic over next month's gathering, if there were any credible way to divine its outcomes in advance, no Synod would be necessary. In other words, especially with this Pope, it is imperative to mind the axiom that "process is process" – and thus, all the clickbait or agenda-driven innuendo in the world can never be conflated nor confused with the ecclesial reality that'll only ensue in a slow drip of long days once the three-week Synod actually convenes, let alone the post-event discernment leading up to the Pope's last word which, according to Czerny, is slated to appear early in 2020.
What's more in terms of unknowables, the complete composition of the Aula (Synod Hall) itself, both in terms of the voices in it and their according votes, remains to emerge as the customary list of papal appointees has yet to be released. As this Synod will be Francis' first where the bulk of the elected delegates are almost entirely from one geographic area – the standard procedure when the gathering is focused on a particular region – how the pontiff fills out the room from the rest of the global church is even more important than it'd normally be.
(SVILUPPO: Rounded out by 33 papal appointees, the complete slate of the Synod's 185 voting participants was released by the Holy See on Saturday, 21 September; all the bishops of Amazonia – and the presidents of their respective episcopal conferences – will be present as ex officio members.)
And while we're at it, an even broader sweep of history bears recalling: as next year brings the 40th anniversary of John Paul II's decision to create the groundbreaking Pastoral Provision to enable the priestly ordination of married ex-Protestant clergy – and these very weeks mark a decade since Benedict XVI expanded the same indult with his creation of the Anglican ordinariates (itself a pioneering "rupture" of law to foster inculturation) – to see the coming talks as suddenly auguring the "end of mandatory celibacy" would be ignorant at best, if not intentionally disingenuous or exploitative.
Still, odds are the Synod's main fireworks will end up on a completely different front – or several – that can't be sensed just yet. As the whole exercise of inculturation is geared toward seeking perspectives outside the range of European or North American norms and expectations, that's precisely the point.
Just like the Consistory, the Amazon Synod is merely a part of the coming cycle's emphasis on the interplay of cultural realities with ecclesial life. Among other relevant threads on deck between now and Advent:
- the challenges and opportunities the church faces in a changing US culture will be center stage as the Stateside bishops begin their first ad limina visit to Francis and his Curia in early November;
- over those same days, the bench is likely to affirm the dramatic evolution of Stateside Catholicism's cultural makeup – and its according shift of style and focus – with the watershed elevation of Los Angeles' Archbishop José Gomez as the first Hispanic to be elected as President of the American hierarchy (thus becoming the de facto leader of the nation's largest religious body);
- already addressed at length by the Pope in a sprawling late June letter, the scope and nature of the "binding synodal process" chartered by the German bishops (even as the body remains divided over it) has merely begun to be an ecclesial football between Rome and the leadership of global Catholicism's wealthiest outpost;
- and just before Thanksgiving, the Pope will fulfill his lifelong dream of going to Japan: a place of immense historic meaning for Bergoglio's own Jesuit community and a personal fascination for the man himself, yet more critically in the global sense, one of the faith's most venerable workshops for integrating a distinct local culture and its circumstances into the experience of a local church. (Given that latter element, coming as it does during this cycle – in light of the ferocious battles of times past between Rome and Asia's bishops and theologians on the very topic of inculturation – the timing of Francis' pilgrimage is no accident whatsoever.)
In more ways than any of us know at press time, we're in for a very interesting ride. And while one can hope that there's sufficient interest in it to keep at unfurling it here, as ever, the work can only happen by means of your support.
As this piece is the fruit of years of prep and a month in the drafting, may the effort – indeed, the process – not have been in vain... either way, Whispers can only keep on if the shop's bills are paid.
And just to be clear, if you think this is the only long-frame at hand over these weeks, well, think again.
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Just like that, though, such is the key thread that there's already more... at least to start.For one, lest some can use the refresher, as Evangelii Gaudium – the enduring "blueprint" of Francis' pontificate – approaches six years since its release, the new Pope's sweeping comments on inculturation made for what was arguably the document's most widely-ignored point, especially in proportion to its potential impact.
The People of God is incarnate in the peoples of the earth, each of which has its own culture. The concept of culture is valuable for grasping the various expressions of the Christian life present in God’s people. It has to do with the lifestyle of a given society, the specific way in which its members relate to one another, to other creatures and to God. Understood in this way, culture embraces the totality of a people’s life. Each people in the course of its history develops its culture with legitimate autonomy. This is due to the fact that the human person, “by nature stands completely in need of life in society” and always exists in reference to society, finding there a concrete way of relating to reality. The human person is always situated in a culture: “nature and culture are intimately linked”. Grace supposes culture, and God’s gift becomes flesh in the culture of those who receive it.
In these first two Christian millennia, countless peoples have received the grace of faith, brought it to flower in their daily lives and handed it on in the language of their own culture. Whenever a community receives the message of salvation, the Holy Spirit enriches its culture with the transforming power of the Gospel. The history of the Church shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression, but rather, “remaining completely true to itself, with unswerving fidelity to the proclamation of the Gospel and the tradition of the Church, it will also reflect the different faces of the cultures and peoples in which it is received and takes root”. In the diversity of peoples who experience the gift of God, each in accordance with its own culture, the Church expresses her genuine catholicity and shows forth the “beauty of her varied face”. In the Christian customs of an evangelized people, the Holy Spirit adorns the Church, showing her new aspects of revelation and giving her a new face. Through inculturation, the Church “introduces peoples, together with their cultures, into her own community”, for “every culture offers positive values and forms which can enrich the way the Gospel is preached, understood and lived”. In this way, the Church takes up the values of different cultures and becomes sponsa ornata monilibus suis, “the bride bedecked with her jewels” (cf. Is 61:10)”.
When properly understood, cultural diversity is not a threat to Church unity. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, transforms our hearts and enables us to enter into the perfect communion of the blessed Trinity, where all things find their unity. He builds up the communion and harmony of the people of God. The same Spirit is that harmony, just as he is the bond of love between the Father and the Son. It is he who brings forth a rich variety of gifts, while at the same time creating a unity which is never uniformity but a multifaceted and inviting harmony. Evangelization joyfully acknowledges these varied treasures which the Holy Spirit pours out upon the Church. We would not do justice to the logic of the incarnation if we thought of Christianity as monocultural and monotonous. While it is true that some cultures have been closely associated with the preaching of the Gospel and the development of Christian thought, the revealed message is not identified with any of them; its content is transcultural. Hence in the evangelization of new cultures, or cultures which have not received the Christian message, it is not essential to impose a specific cultural form, no matter how beautiful or ancient it may be, together with the Gospel. The message that we proclaim always has a certain cultural dress, but we in the Church can sometimes fall into a needless hallowing of our own culture, and thus show more fanaticism than true evangelizing zeal.
The Bishops of Oceania asked that the Church “develop an understanding and a presentation of the truth of Christ working from the traditions and cultures of the region” and invited “all missionaries to work in harmony with indigenous Christians so as to ensure that the faith and the life of the Church be expressed in legitimate forms appropriate for each culture”. We cannot demand that peoples of every continent, in expressing their Christian faith, imitate modes of expression which European nations developed at a particular moment of their history, because the faith cannot be constricted to the limits of understanding and expression of any one culture. It is an indisputable fact that no single culture can exhaust the mystery of our redemption in Christ.
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As a further backgrounder, the theme of integrating local culture into the mission of evangelization again loomed large four years ago. Yet despite coming as it did on the eve of Francis' lone US trek, the heightened relevance of the period didn't mean folks got the hint.In retrospect, the signs were all there much more than they seemed in the moment, even as the day itself was remarkable in real time... and the record here duly reflects it.
On his first trek back to Latin America following the release of Evangelii Gaudium – and, in what would prove to be a "tell" of the Pope's future plans, at the edge of Amazonia itself – the following is Whispers' report on Francis' Mass in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito, published here on 7 July 2015.
While it's rare for this scribe to completely re-up a piece from the Archive in a new report, again, in ways that couldn't have been imagined at the time, the content has held up quite well... and as ever, the headline says it all:
"Our Faith Is Always Revolution" – In Quito, Francis' "Mission" In Black and White
...and yet again on this Latin American homecoming tour, another powerful message from the Pope to reiterate one of his core priorities.
In the second homily of a papal trek whose messages are quickly shaping up as a crash course in "Francis 101," yesterday's Synod salvo in Guayaquil was followed up this morning by an emphasis on a missionary church in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito. And with it, amid the ongoing "fantasies of [his] many supposed 'defenders' who've sought to portray Francis less as Simon Peter than Simón Bolívar" – the 19th century leader of Latin America's liberation from colonial rule – the man himself aimed right at the difference between the two, then reaching beyond to the very "cry" of Jesus.
As context goes, today's focus – couched in a votive Mass for the Evangelization of Peoples (fullvid) – springs directly from the twin foundational texts of Jorge Bergoglio's ecclesiology: Evangelii gaudium, Francis' sweeping governing manifesto whose "dream" of a church driven to live "a missionary option" provides the sole roadmap through which this pontificate can genuinely be understood, and its predecessor, the 2007 Aparecida Charter of the Latin American bishops (its drafting led by the then cardinal-archbishop of Buenos Aires), which presented a vision of a church engaged in "permanent mission" and, with it, the foreshadowing of what the newly-elected Pope would famously term "a church which is poor and for the poor!"
Here, an additional note: for someone who recently admitted to not having watched television in nearly 25 years and previously said he couldn't operate a device that "has more than two buttons on it" – in the cited instance, a CD player (when his cherished opera recordings stopped being pressed on vinyl) – Francis' sense of effective settings and optics in a multimedia age is uncannily well-targeted. In that light, with today's second reading in the indigenous language of Quechua and the Pope clad in a striking black-on-white patterned chasuble of native origin, the pontiff served to viscerally underscore what's arguably the most consequential ad intra push in Evangelii gaudium (a point most Anglophone "experts" completely missed): namely, its cited "imperative... to inculturate the Gospel" – a work through which, once achieved, "the diversity of peoples who experience the gift of God, each in accordance with its own culture... expresses [the church's] genuine catholicity and shows forth the 'beauty of her varied face.'"
Against said backdrop – his chosen Gospel the John 17 account of the Last Supper – here's the Vatican translation of today's preach:
The word of God calls us to live in unity, that the world may believe.-30-
I think of those hushed words of Jesus during the Last Supper as more of a shout, a cry rising up from this Mass which we are celebrating in Bicentennial Park. Let us imagine this together. The bicentennial which this Park commemorates was that of Latin America’s cry for independence. It was a cry which arose from being conscious of a lack of freedom, of exploitation and despoliation, of being “subject to the passing whims of the powers that be” (Evangelii Gaudium, 213).
I would like to see these two cries joined together, under the beautiful challenge of evangelization. We evangelize not with grand words, or complicated concepts, but with “the joy of the Gospel”, which “fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. For those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness, loneliness, and an isolated conscience” (ibid., 1). We who are gathered here at table with Jesus are ourselves a cry, a shout born of the conviction that his presence leads us to unity, “pointing to a horizon of beauty and inviting others to a delicious banquet” (ibid., 15).
“Father, may they be one... so that the world may believe”. This was Jesus’ prayer as he raised his eyes to heaven. This petition arose in a context of mission: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world”. At that moment, the Lord experiences in his own flesh the worst of this world, a world he nonetheless loves dearly. Knowing full well its intrigues, its falsity and its betrayals, he does not turn away, he does not complain. We too encounter daily a world torn apart by wars and violence. It would be facile to think that division and hatred only concern struggles between countries or groups in society. Rather, they are a manifestation of that “widespread individualism” which divides us and sets us against one another (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 99), they are a manifestation of that legacy of sin lurking in the heart of human beings, which causes so much suffering in society and all of creation. But is it precisely this troubled world, with its forms of egoism, into which Jesus sends us. We must not respond with nonchalance, or complain we do not have the resources to do the job, or that the problems are too big. Instead, we must respond by taking up the cry of Jesus and accepting the grace and challenge of being builders of unity.
There was no shortage of conviction or strength in that cry for freedom which arose a little more than two hundred years ago. But history tells us that it only made headway once personal differences were set aside, together with the desire for power and the inability to appreciate other movements of liberation which were different yet not thereby opposed.
Evangelization can be a way to unite our hopes, concerns, ideals and even utopian visions. We believe this and we make it our cry. “In our world, especially in some countries, different forms of war and conflict are re-emerging, yet we Christians wish to remain steadfast in our intention to respect others, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and to ‘bear one another’s burdens’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 67). The desire for unity involves the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, the conviction that we have an immense treasure to share, one which grows stronger from being shared, and becomes ever more sensitive to the needs of others (cf. ibid., 9). Hence the need to work for inclusivity at every level, to strive for this inclusivity at every level, to avoid forms of selfishness, to build communication and dialogue, to encourage collaboration. We need to give our hearts to our companions along the way, without suspicion or distrust. “Trusting others is an art, because peace is an art” (cf. ibid., 244). Our unity can hardly shine forth if spiritual worldliness makes us feud among ourselves in a futile quest for power, prestige, pleasure or economic security. And this on the backs of the poorest, the most excluded and vulnerable, those who still keep their dignity despite daily blows against it.
Such unity is already an act of mission, “that the world may believe”. Evangelization does not consist in proselytizing, for proselytizing is a caricature of evangelization, but rather evangelizing entails attracting by our witness those who are far off, it means humbly drawing near to those who feel distant from God in the Church, drawing near to those who feel judged and condemned outright by those who consider themselves to be perfect and pure. We are to draw near to those who are fearful or indifferent, and say to them: “The Lord, with great respect and love, is also calling you to be a part of your people” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 113). Because our God respects us even in our lowliness and in our sinfulness. This calling of the Lord is expressed with such humility and respect in the text from the Book of Revelations: “Look, I am at the door and I am calling; do you want to open the door?” He does not use force, he does not break the lock, but instead, quite simply, he presses the doorbell, knocks gently on the door and then waits. This is our God!
The Church’s mission as sacrament of salvation also has to do with her identity as a pilgrim people called to embrace all the nations of the earth. The more intense the communion between us, the more effective our mission becomes (cf. John Paul II, Pastores Gregis, 22). Becoming a missionary Church requires constantly fostering communion, since mission does not have to do with outreach alone… We also need to be missionaries within the Church, showing that she is “a mother who reaches out, showing that she is a welcoming home, a constant school of missionary communion” (cf. Aparecida Document, 370).
Jesus’ prayer can be realized because he has consecrated us. He says, “for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth” (Jn 17:19). The spiritual life of an evangelizer is born of this profound truth, which should not be confused with a few comforting religious exercises, a spirituality which is perhaps widespread. Jesus consecrates us so that we can encounter him, person to person; an encounter that leads us in turn to encounter others, to become involved with our world and to develop a passion for evangelization (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 78).
Intimacy with God, in itself incomprehensible, is revealed by images which speak to us of communion, communication, self-giving and love. For that reason, the unity to which Jesus calls us is not uniformity, but rather a “multifaceted and inviting harmony” (Evangelii Gaudium, 117). The wealth of our differences, our diversity which becomes unity whenever we commemorate Holy Thursday, makes us wary of all temptations that suggest extremist proposals akin to totalitarian, ideological or sectarian schemes. The proposal offered by Jesus is a concrete one and not a notion. It is concrete: “Go and do the same” he tells that man who asked “who is my neighbor?” After having told the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus says, “Go and do the same”. Nor is this proposal of Jesus something we can fashion as we will, setting conditions, choosing who can belong and who cannot; the religiosity of the ‘elite’. Jesus prays that we will all become part of a great family in which God is our Father, in which all of us are brothers and sisters. No one is excluded; and this is not about having the same tastes, the same concerns, the same gifts. We are brothers and sisters because God created us out of love and destined us, purely of his own initiative, to be his sons and daughters (cf. Eph 1:5). We are brothers and sisters because “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6). We are brothers and sisters because, justified by the blood of Christ Jesus (cf. Rom 5:9), we have passed from death to life and been made “coheirs” of the promise (cf. Gal 3:26-29; Rom 8:17). That is the salvation which God makes possible for us, and which the Church proclaims with joy: to be part of that “we” which leads to the divine “we”.
Our cry, in this place linked to the original cry for freedom in this country, echoes that of Saint Paul: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). It is a cry every bit as urgent and pressing as was the cry for independence. It is similarly thrilling in its ardor. Brothers and sisters, have the same mind as Christ: May each of you be a witness to a fraternal communion which shines forth in our world!
And how beautiful it would be if all could admire how much we care for one another, how we encourage and help each other. Giving of ourselves establishes an interpersonal relationship; we do not give “things” but our very selves. Any act of giving means that we give ourselves. “Giving of oneself” means letting all the power of that love which is God’s Holy Spirit take root in our lives, opening our hearts to his creative power. And giving of oneself even in the most difficult moments as on that Holy Thursday of the Lord when he perceived how they weaved a plot to betray him; but he gave himself, he gave himself for us with his plan of salvation. When we give of ourselves, we discover our true identity as children of God in the image of the Father and, like him, givers of life; we discover that we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, to whom we bear witness.
This is what it means to evangelize; this is the new revolution – for our faith is always revolutionary. This is our deepest and most enduring cry.