News: The Number One Reason Why Folks Admire Pope Francis
December 18, 2013
In a word, authenticity. Pope Francis is renovating the crumbling structure of what it means to be a Christian these days, see?
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
And folks are observing Our Pope in action, and they are judging him by his fruits. Folks are recognizing in Papa Francesco what I personally fall short of showing them. He is leading them with mercy, and they are following him with interest, even though he believes in many things that are contrary to their own ideals of life.
Pope Francis has been on the cover of TIME, The New Yorker and he was even voted as The Advocate‘s person of the year. Some may say that this is a Palm Sunday moment for Pope Francis, and maybe it is. A week later Jesus was denounced by the crowds, but not necessarily by the same crowds that adored him during the triumphal entrance. And think: if one person’s soul is saved as a result of Papa Francesco being on the cover of The Advocate, it is worth it, no? After all,
…where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hmmmmm.
The Pope’s Apostolic Exhortation has been a touchstone of controversy since it’s release towards the end of November. Everybody from Rush Limbaugh to President Obama has had a take on something that was said in the Pope’s communique to the faithful. That more than just the faithful are reading it, or at least hearing things from it, is something of a minor miracle, wouldn’t you say?
That some of the Marthas, who worry about so many things, took issue with some of il Papa’s sketches on economics (as if they were full blown blueprints) was interesting to me. From the hue and cry that ensued, you’d have thought that he is the only Pope in modern memory to have ever criticized market economies. Which leads me to wonder if anyone ever actually read Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Caritas in Veritate(not to mention Rerum Novarum, Centisimus Annus, etc.)
Seriously. Here’s a sample from Chapter 3, paragraph 35 of CiV.
In a climate of mutual trust, the market is the economic institution that permits encounter between persons, inasmuch as they are economic subjects who make use of contracts to regulate their relations as they exchange goods and services of equivalent value between them, in order to satisfy their needs and desires. The market is subject to the principles of so-called commutative justice, which regulates the relations of giving and receiving between parties to a transaction. But the social doctrine of the Church has unceasingly highlighted the importance of distributive justice and social justice for the market economy, not only because it belongs within a broader social and political context, but also because of the wider network of relations within which it operates. In fact, if the market is governed solely by the principle of the equivalence in value of exchanged goods, it cannot produce the social cohesion that it requires in order to function well. Without internal forms of solidarity and mutual trust, the market cannot completely fulfil its proper economic function. And today it is this trust which has ceased to exist, and the loss of trust is a grave loss. It was timely when Paul VI in Populorum Progressio insisted that the economic system itself would benefit from the wide-ranging practice of justice, inasmuch as the first to gain from the development of poor countries would be rich ones[90]. According to the Pope, it was not just a matter of correcting dysfunctions through assistance. The poor are not to be considered a “burden”[91], but a resource, even from the purely economic point of view. It is nevertheless erroneous to hold that the market economy has an inbuilt need for a quota of poverty and underdevelopment in order to function at its best. It is in the interests of the market to promote emancipation, but in order to do so effectively, it cannot rely only on itself, because it is not able to produce by itself something that lies outside its competence. It must draw its moral energies from other subjects that are capable of generating them.
Whoa, Frank. That was so 2009.
Of course nowadays, Pope Francis is exhorting us to evangelize. He’s not exhorting us to embrace the market economy. You’d think the title of his exhortation was a big tip off to that fact, eh? “The Joy of the Gospel.” Oh, you wanted economics in depth? Maybe next time.
Some have complained that the Pope’s language is just weird, on top of it being insulting in a way to those in the flock who have been faithful, dutiful, etc. Hint: the weirdness comes from the scriptures. Let me provide a few samples from the Good Book. Here’s Jesus,
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”