There’s a lot of fuss being made both inside and outside the
Catholic Church about Pope Francis’s “simplicity” compared with Benedict XVI’s more “imperial” trappings.
Why this is relevant to anybody outside that particular religious body (or even
within it, for that matter) is something of a puzzle. You’d think people would have something
better to do with their time, but let’s take a look at this. Somebody thought enough of this to write and
article on it, so we can get a little mileage out of it ourselves.
After all, while CESJ is an interfaith organization and
takes no position on the faith-based teachings of any religion or philosophy,
we look to all spiritual leaders to see what guidance they can offer. That being the case, the pope, the head of
the Catholic Church that claims a seventh of the world’s population as members,
is deserving of attention, if nothing else.
The difference between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis is
simply not the big deal a lot of people seem to think. They just have different styles. All the popes have agreed on the basics,
whatever the "experts" say. In
the opinion of this writer, Benedict XVI used the trappings of the office of
pope very astutely to counter what he may have recognized as a certain lack of
"charisma" on his part in comparison with John Paul II — a very tough act to follow.
The office takes primacy of place over the man as far as the
Catholic Church is concerned — which, when we’re talking about “the pope,” is
as it should be. Don’t misconstrue this
statement, because Benedict XVI appears to be a very good man, but there have
been some very bad men as pope (can
you say, “Borgia”?). That does not,
however, take anything away from the authority or dignity of the office,
although it certainly damages its credibility.
Think about it. In a
sense, it didn't matter who followed
John Paul II, personally a very charismatic figure. Whoever it was knew he was going to look like a second banana, regardless of
anything he did. The fact that Benedict
did as well as he did in a very difficult position, in this writer’s opinion,
demonstrates the guidance of some kind of Holy Spirit. The role of public figure (and you don’t get
much more public than the pope) clearly did not come naturally to Benedict; he
had to work at it.
Francis is a different critter altogether, although
obviously an intellect fully the equal of Benedict XVI. Again in this writer’s opinion, Francis is
faced with a very tough job: clean up the Curia and, at the same time,
straighten out the philosophical mess that has been driving every pope since at
least Pius IX nuts.
This philosophical mess is the fundamental shift of the
natural law from its proper place based on the intellect (reason — lex ratio), to a very distorted basis on
the will (faith — lex voluntas). This, according to the solidarist jurist and
political scientist Heinrich Rommen, and the Aristotelian philosopher Mortimer
Adler, was the basis for the rapid growth of totalitarianism and decay of the
social order that characterized the 20th century, and now threatens the 21st.
Fulton Sheen obviously concurred, as this was, in essence,
the subject of his first book, God and
Intelligence, published in 1925 with a short introduction by G. K.
Chesterton. Chesterton, in fact, seems
to have been inspired by Sheen’s work to emphasize even more strongly the need
to base your understanding of reality on calm reason, not the wild emotion that
so many of Chesterton’s modern followers mistake for faith.
Chesterton’s St.
Thomas Aquinas: The “Dumb Ox” (1933) is both a warning and a guide for
those who would sacrifice knowledge to opinion to gain some end. The end, however good it seems, does not
justify the means.
Pius XII pointed out the dangers of putting faith before
reason specifically in Humani Generis
in 1950 . . . and has been carefully ignored, as was Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X,
Pius XI (Benedict XV had that Great War thing to distract him), Pius XII, John
XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I (remember him?
even in his brief pontificate he got in a few words about this problem),
and, of course, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Francis.
Frankly (there's a pun there), Francis has one [heck] of a
job to do. Fortunately, to all
appearances, he seems to be the one to do it.
Benedict said that the Holy Spirit inspired his abdication, and he may
be right. He did what he had to do:
prepare the Church and the world for Francis.
Now Francis has an even harder job to do — and it's not the "same
old thing," whatever the liberals and the conservatives hope or fear.
#30#