tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/pope-francis-i-5005/articlesPope Francis I – The Conversation2023-03-12T15:23:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016382023-03-12T15:23:57Z2023-03-12T15:23:57ZPope Francis: the first post-colonial papacy to deliver messages that resonate with Africans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514818/original/file-20230312-4561-9x10he.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis at Martyrs Stadium in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, in February 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When he was presented to a cheering crowd at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/13/pope-francis-mario-bergoglio-election">13 March 2013</a>, few people outside Latin America knew much about Jorge Bergoglio.</p>
<p>But a decade later, based on my work as a scholar of Catholicism, I would argue that most Catholics know and love Pope Francis. They also see a deep connection between his message and priorities, and their dreams and hopes for a better church and a world that is reconciled.</p>
<p>When Pope Francis was introduced in 2013, I was working as an African expert on global Catholicism for Canada Television. I went blank when the new pope was presented to the world on live TV because I had no biographical information on him. So, I <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pope/opinion-what-happens-in-the-catholic-church-matters-to-everyone-1.1193979">ran off the list</a> of what we African Catholics wanted from the new pope. </p>
<p>This included a decentralised and decolonised Catholicism, with more powers given to local church leaders to address local challenges using their own cultural and spiritual resources. There was also the urgent need to give African Catholics more places at the decision-making table in the world church. </p>
<p>Before Pope Francis, many of these challenges were either ignored, spiritualised or papered over through moral platitudes. Pope Francis has taken them on. He is the first post-colonial pope to <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/20220319-costituzione-ap-praedicate-evangelium.html">challenge the system</a> within the church and society that exploits the poor and vulnerable. </p>
<p>Pope Francis’ papacy is anchored on what he calls a “<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2019-12/the-revolution-of-tenderness.html">revolution of tenderness</a>”. This reflects two central themes: the courage to dream and the culture of encounter.</p>
<p>These two themes have resonated with African Catholics. They awaken a sense of hope that by collectively tapping into Africa’s human, material and spiritual resources, it’s possible to address the continent’s social, economic and political challenges. </p>
<h2>The courage to dream</h2>
<p>The word “dream” is a constant in Pope Francis’ vocabulary. It is the title of one of his recent books, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Let-Us-Dream-Better-Future/dp/1982171863/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=80694070239&hvadid=585362630358&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1009824&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8693299832780598455&hvtargid=kwd-1004150851821&hydadcr=19673_13388860&keywords=let+us+dream+pope+francis&qid=1678516851&sr=8-1">Let us Dream: The Path to a Better Future</a>. In it, he invites people to work together as one human family and break the chains of domination driven by nationalism, economic protectionism and discrimination. </p>
<p>He described his <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">recent trip to Africa</a> as a dream come true. It gave him the opportunity to <a href="http://www.vaticannews.cn/en/pope/news/2023-02/pope-at-audience-visit-to-drc-and-south-sudan-to-bring-peace.html">share a message of hope and peace</a> with the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. </p>
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<p>When he <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-03/pope-francis-urbi-et-orbi-blessing-coronavirus.html">stood alone</a> at St Peter’s Square in March 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis asked humanity “to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength”, and embrace the courage to dream again. </p>
<p>Reflecting on the question Jesus asked his disciples in the Bible, “<a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/116/MAT.8.26.NLT">Why are you afraid?</a>”. He encouraged humanity not to lose hope because of the fear and despair surrounding the loss of lives from the virus.</p>
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<span class="caption">Pope Francis walks to deliver a special blessing at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vatican Pool - Corbis/Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>The culture of encounter</h2>
<p>In his speech to the <a href="https://time.com/4049905/pope-francis-us-visit-united-nations-speech-transcript/">UN General Assembly in 2015</a>, Pope Francis invited the world to embrace a <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/a-culture-of-encounter-pope-francis-ubuntu-paradigm-for-global-fraternity">culture of encounter</a>. </p>
<p>This, he said, would lead to a “revolution of tenderness” and the globalisation of love and solidarity.</p>
<p>I have argued in <a href="https://works.bepress.com/stanchuilo/">my research</a> that the “culture of encounter” is his way of capturing the communal ethics of <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ubuntu_(philosophy)#:%7E:text=as%20a%20whole.-,Meaning%20of%20the%20word%20ubuntu,Bantu%20languages%20have%20similar%20terms.">ubuntu</a>, which encompasses African values of community, participation, inclusion and solidarity. </p>
<p>Under this theme, Pope Francis is <a href="https://www.osservatoreromano.va/it/news/2023-03/quo-051/the-transfiguration-of-pope-francis-and-god-s-people-in-africa.html">challenging people</a> to envision a world freed from violence and war; of a common humanity dwelling in peace in a healthy climate; and of economies that work for all, especially the poor.</p>
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<p>In his letter to bishops, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html">Fratelli Tutti (no.195)</a>, Pope Francis says the culture of encounter can shatter socially and historically designed narrow structures, systems and institutional practices. The dream of a better world, he says, can be realised if people learn to love rather than hate. </p>
<p>Pope Francis challenges all global citizens to contribute to mending the interconnections that have been ruptured among peoples, nations, cultures, churches and religions. These ruptures, he says, are the result of long years of exclusionary practices, unjust economic and global systems, and false ideologies of identity. </p>
<h2>Realising the dream</h2>
<p>In his apostolic exhortation <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20200202_querida-amazonia.html">Querida Amazonia</a>, Pope Francis writes about four dreams he has for all people.</p>
<p>First is a social dream, where everyone can live an abundant life in dignity and in a healthy environment. This can be realised, he proposes, through “an arduous effort on behalf of the poor”.</p>
<p>The second is a cultural dream where people’s cultures are affirmed. Their talents are valued, and they can apply their human potential and material resources as free agents. For an African continent that continues to suffer the effects of colonialism in both church and state, Pope Francis proposes a strong resistance to the destructive forces of neocolonialism.</p>
<p>The third dream is the hope for humanity that flourishes through responsible stewardship of Earth’s resources. This invites all peoples to care for, protect and defend the environment.</p>
<p>The fourth dream is Pope Francis’ hope that the Catholic church will become a community of communities, where people seek common ground. This requires the rejection of any forms of exclusionary practices in the church. It advocates the liberation of the poor, and the protection of the rights of the vulnerable and those who have suffered neglect, oppression and abuse. </p>
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<p>Realising this dream, in Africa particularly, requires dismantling the structures of neocolonialism, the global structures of injustice, and the dependency cycle that continues to characterise the relationship between the continent and the rest of the world. </p>
<p>It will also require a new crop of transformational leaders who are on the side of the people. Leaders who place the interests of their countries and the continent above selfish, ethnic or partisan interests. </p>
<h2>New identity</h2>
<p>Pope Francis’ revolution of tenderness can help bring about a new cohesive identity in Africa built on a historical consciousness of who we are, how far we have come and how we can reach the future of our dream. </p>
<p>The courage to dream and the culture of encounter are capable of ushering in new ethics of co-operation, collaboration and inclusion so that the common good is promoted and preserved for the benefit of all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stan Chu Ilo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis’ papacy is anchored on what he calls a “revolution of tenderness”.Stan Chu Ilo, Research Professor, World Christianity and African Studies, DePaul UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1776672022-03-18T12:31:29Z2022-03-18T12:31:29ZWho are the Jesuits?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451731/original/file-20220313-27-y5iwb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C6%2C981%2C672&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Venezuelan priest Arturo Sosa Abascal, second from right, receives congratulations after being chosen as new superior general of the Jesuits in 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-superior-general-of-the-society-of-jesus-father-arturo-news-photo/614819354?adppopup=true">Franco Origlia/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For centuries, the Jesuits have worn many hats: missionaries, educators and preachers; writers and scientists; priests with the poor and confessors to the royal courts of Europe.</p>
<p>I am <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/staff/">a scholar of Catholicism</a> and a priest who belongs to the <a href="https://www.jesuits.org/about-us/the-jesuits/">Society of Jesus</a> (more commonly known as the Jesuits) – often considered one of the Catholic Church’s <a href="http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/jesuits-and-globalization">most influential</a> religious orders.</p>
<p>But the Jesuits are also among the church’s more controversial groups: They have sometimes run afoul of Catholic groups holding different opinions or church authorities, and they also have been accused of conniving in politics. For example, fearful that the order would interfere in American politics, Founding Father <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691171623/american-jesuits-and-the-world">John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson</a> in 1816 that the order deserved “eternal Perdition on Earth and in Hell.” </p>
<p>So who are the Jesuits? And what makes them distinctive? </p>
<h2>Soldier to saint</h2>
<p>In 1521, the Basque nobleman <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc0693">Iñigo López</a> – known to history as St. Ignatius of Loyola – was seriously wounded in a battle against the French in Pamplona, Spain. Intense prayer over months of painful recuperation prompted a personal transformation that would lead him to found the Society of Jesus in 1534. </p>
<p>Ignatius compiled his spiritual insights into a prayer manual called the “<a href="http://spex.ignatianspirituality.com/SpiritualExercises/Puhl">Spiritual Exercises</a>.” This book was intended to help people “seek and find the will of God” and guide them through a monthlong silent retreat.</p>
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<span class="caption">St. Ignatius, the Basque nobleman who would become founder of the Jesuits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/st-ignatius-founder-of-jesuits-french-school-chateaux-de-news-photo/959546956?adppopup=true">Photo by Christophel Fine Art/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>While studying at the University of Paris, Ignatius gathered a small group of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004280601_006">like-minded men</a> whom he led through the “Spiritual Exercises.” They became the first Jesuits, soon <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jose-Coupeau-2/publication/290874574_Five_personae_of_Ignatius_of_Loyola/links/5c46141692851c22a385fd1a/Five-personae-of-Ignatius-of-Loyola.pdf">electing Ignatius</a> as their leader, the first superior general. By the time Ignatius died in 1556 there were some <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674303133&content=toc">1,000 Jesuits spread across Europe, India and Brazil</a>.</p>
<h2>One mission, many ways</h2>
<p>Catholic religious orders generally require their members to take <a href="https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/discerning-women/the-vowed-life">three lifelong vows</a>: poverty, chastity and obedience. The additional Jesuit “fourth vow” is a commitment to <a href="https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/jesuit/article/view/3721/3299">being available</a> to be sent to work wherever the needs of the church and the world are most pressing. Often, this means undertaking ministries in remote corners of the globe or in emerging fields of study. </p>
<p>Also built into the order is the desire to “<a href="https://www.georgetown.edu/news/the-jesuit-mission-seeking-god-in-all-things/#:%7E:text=What%20is%20a%20Jesuit%3F,seek%20God%20in%20all%20things.">seek God and find God’s will in all things</a>.” This conviction has historically drawn Jesuits to <a href="https://theconversation.com/jesuits-as-science-missionaries-for-the-catholic-church-47829">many different areas of study</a>, including mathematics and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08365-0">sciences</a>, and has sent them to far-flung places. Jesuit explorers <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23270072">mapped the Amazon River</a> and discovered the source of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.012">the Blue Nile</a>. <a href="https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/sacred-space-astronomy/asteroids-named-for-jesuits-an-update/">Sixteen asteroids</a> and some <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2019/07/12/why-are-so-many-craters-moon-named-after-jesuits">34 Moon craters</a> are named for Jesuit astronomers.</p>
<p>At a time when public education was scarce, they <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/offices/mission/pdf1/ju8.pdf">responded to that need</a> and built a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GguXDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA153&dq=Jesuit+education+history&ots=P-QUUqNIkA&sig=Kznv1Ismzt6bAI8XbWCbftY22u8#v=onepage&q=Jesuit%20education%20history&f=false">network of schools across Europe, Latin America and Asia</a>. Their schools developed <a href="https://doi.org/10.19272/201602104009">an innovative</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823296866">curriculum</a> that incorporated rhetoric, the classics, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442681569">the arts</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08365-0">science</a>.</p>
<p>Education continues to be one of the order’s major emphases, with <a href="https://iaju.org/printable-maps">nearly 200 Jesuit-founded universities</a>, and hundreds more <a href="https://www.educatemagis.org/blogs/the-2019-map-of-the-jesuit-global-network-of-schools-is-here/">high schools and educational projects</a> across the world.</p>
<h2>Lightning rods for controversy</h2>
<p>Jesuits’ work has sometimes immersed them in controversies and criticism. </p>
<p>Among the best-known was the “<a href="https://brill.com/view/title/34019">Chinese rites</a>” debate in the 17th century. Convinced that Christianity would spread more quickly if it adapted to local cultures, <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-histoire-monde-et-cultures-religieuses1-2011-2-page-129.htm">Jesuit missionaries in China</a> incorporated elements of <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199920082/obo-9780199920082-0171.xml#:%7E:text=Ancestor%20worship%20refers%20to%20rituals,geographical%20regions%2C%20and%20socioeconomic%20groups.">Confucian ancestor veneration</a> into Catholic rituals. This move was bitterly opposed by Franciscan and Dominican missionaries, and Pope Clement XI <a href="https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1072&context=obsculta">banned the strategy in 1704</a>. </p>
<p>The Jesuits’ close association with royal courts and the papacy made the order influential, but also vulnerable to opposition. Beginning with the territories of the Portuguese Empire, Jesuits were gradually <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639631.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190639631-e-31">expelled from all the Bourbon territories</a> – areas that today form parts of Spain, Italy and France and their former empires – and the Habsburg lands of Central Europe. Bowing to political pressure, the Vatican formally <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/rpjs/2/1/article-p1_1.xml">abolished the Jesuits</a>, and they had no official existence from 1773 until 1814.</p>
<h2>Adapting to change, embracing justice</h2>
<p>In 1965, <a href="https://jesuitsources.bc.edu/pedro-arrupe-witness-of-the-twentieth-century-prophet-of-the-twenty-first/">Father Pedro Arrupe</a>, a Basque who had spent much of his life in Japan, was elected as the Jesuits’ 28th superior general. At the time, the Catholic Church was implementing the teachings of the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/39715">Second Vatican Council</a>, adapting many practices to be more relevant to a changing world experiencing decolonialization, Cold War politics and the <a href="https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/10/latest-numbers-confirm-global-south-new-catholic-center-gravity">shift in Catholic population</a> to the Southern Hemisphere. </p>
<p>Under Arrupe’s leadership, the Jesuits formally declared that a <a href="https://www.scu.edu/ic/programs/ignatian-worldview/stories/decree-4-gc-32-service-of-faith-and-the-promotion-of-justice.html">commitment to justice</a> was essential to their order’s work. This development brought many Jesuits to take progressive stances in religion and politics alike. Jesuits in Latin America, for example, adopted aspects of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004505612_023">liberation theology</a>, which emphasized concern for the poor and oppressed: providing for people not only spiritually, but materially. Today, in the minds of many, Jesuits continue to be associated with more progressive <a href="https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/11/two-kinds-jesuits-dwight-longenecker.html">and liberal viewpoints</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Banners depicting six Jesuit priests massacred in 1989 in El Salvador are displayed during a 2008 memorial to mark the anniversary of their deaths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ElSalvadorCivilWarMassacre/2834cd7f7fd5412dabbd08b19738861e/photo?Query=%22el%20salvador%22%20jesuit&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=69&currentItemNo=12">AP Photo/Edgar Romero</a></span>
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<p>Like those in other Catholic orders, Jesuit priests around the world have been accused of sex abuse. A <a href="https://apnews.com/article/international-news-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-spain-bd48515c52e036fcaa96dcf4edb488d2">recent church report</a> in Spain, for example, identified 96 abusers, most of whom had already died.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, more historical research is coming to light on Jesuits’ involvement <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/jjs/8/1/article-p1_1.xml">with slavery</a>. In 2021, the order <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/15/us/jesuits-georgetown-reparations-slavery.html">pledged US$100 million</a> for descendants of people enslaved by Georgetown University in the 19th century and for racial justice initiatives.</p>
<h2>Pope Francis and the future of the Jesuits</h2>
<p>The prospect of a Jesuit pope was once considered unlikely, given tensions at times between other church leaders and the order. Therefore, the 2013 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/hor.2020.66">election of Jesuit Jorge Bergoglio</a> as Pope Francis surprised many, and his papacy has continued in that vein.</p>
<p>Pope Francis has been alternately hailed as a <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250119391">modernizer</a> welcoming of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/support-your-children-if-they-are-gay-pope-tells-parents-2022-01-26/">LGBT Catholics</a> and criticized for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-12-2020-0166">insufficient responsiveness</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-crisis-4-essential-reads-169442">clerical sexual abuse crisis</a>.</p>
<p>Vatican observers note some characteristic <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-71377-9_3">Ignatian emphases in Pope Francis’ priorities, language and management style</a>, including more attention to the poor. He has stressed the need for <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/mission-ministry/explore/ignatian-discernment.php">considering all sides of an argument</a> when making church decisions and has shown a pragmatic willingness to consider new approaches.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two boys in a crowd hold a fan with a photo of Pope Francis." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451715/original/file-20220312-16-dp4dpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451715/original/file-20220312-16-dp4dpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451715/original/file-20220312-16-dp4dpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451715/original/file-20220312-16-dp4dpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451715/original/file-20220312-16-dp4dpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451715/original/file-20220312-16-dp4dpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451715/original/file-20220312-16-dp4dpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two boys wait for the arrival of Pope Francis in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2017. Francis visited to honor St. Peter Claver, a 17th-century Jesuit who ministered to African slaves who arrived in the port.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ColombiaPope/6bd53bedc1284961ac428f36347b1b68/photo?Query=%22pope%20francis%22%20jesuit&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=380&currentItemNo=92">AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Future Jesuit emphases will continue to evolve as the order adapts to new circumstances. But it is the “Spiritual Exercises” that remain the heart of the identity and mission of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-religion-jesuits/jesuits-elect-new-leader-a-latin-american-like-the-jesuit-pope-idUSKBN12E1I6">today’s 17,000 Jesuits</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177667/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dorian Llywelyn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Jesuits are among the Catholic Church’s most influential religious orders but no strangers to controversy.Dorian Llywelyn, President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1474872020-10-05T14:28:58Z2020-10-05T14:28:58ZFratelli Tutti: Pope Francis delivers new teaching aimed at healing divisions in the face of coronavirus<p>Pope Francis has delivered a message to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and people of goodwill everywhere which aims to soothe the fear caused by the coronavirus pandemic and unite communities riven by racism, inequality and climate change.</p>
<p><em>Fratelli Tutti</em> (All Brothers) was signed on October 3 in Assisi, central Italy. It is the third encyclical since Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio took the name Francis on his election to the papacy in March 2013. He has always wanted to make it clear that his papacy is one of action – placing the needs of the poor, marginalised and disenfranchised at the centre of his ministry. </p>
<p>As a community of believers, Catholics are expected by Pope Francis to mobilise and become agents for change in the world. This action was to be based upon the canon of Catholic social teaching that had built up since the late 19th century and was, until recently, known as the church’s “<a href="http://www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk">best kept secret</a>”. </p>
<p>Francis was going to make sure that Catholics put that teaching into action by providing a road map for change – and, in doing so, invited all people of goodwill to join him. While <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html"><em>Laudato Si’</em></a> (Praise to You, 2015) implored the world to “care for its common home”, <em>Fratelli Tutti</em> offers teaching devoted to the concepts of fraternity and social friendship based upon the example of <a href="https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=50">St Francis of Assisi</a> who “wherever he went … sowed the seeds of peace and walked alongside the poor, the abandoned, the infirm and the outcast, the least of his brothers and sisters”. </p>
<h2>COVID encyclical</h2>
<p>It is inevitable that this encyclical will be known as the COVID-19 encyclical – and Francis himself acknowledges in paragraph 7 that this 45,000 word tome was written during the first wave of the pandemic. But he sees the questions regarding the purpose and meaning of life that many asked during the lockdowns as an opportunity to reset a pattern of catastrophic systemic failures that has created an unequal and polarised world. As he states in paragraph 33:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the pain, uncertainty and fear, and the realisation of our own limitations, brought on by the pandemic have only made it all the more urgent that we rethink our styles of life, our relationships, the organisation of our societies, and, above all, the meaning of our existence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The pandemic has taught people and society that “no one is saved alone; we can only be saved together”. The coronavirus has presented the world with an opportunity for real systemic change – Francis suggests that to believe we can carry on as before is “denying reality”. </p>
<p>Through <em>Fratelli Tutti</em>, Francis offers a new vision of society in which human dignity and the human rights of all are respected. He believes that actions based on the common good – the concept that everyone should be able to contribute meaningfully to society – must form the bedrock of politics and that people must acknowledge and respect everyone as their equal. Further that social and economic policy must be based on long-term planning rather than short-term populist soundbites.</p>
<p>Francis addresses this invitation to all people of goodwill – not just Catholics. But he takes pains to point out such a transformation will not be easy. Rather, it will be a process without an endpoint, something to be continually worked at, an action rather than a goal. <em>Fratelli Tutti</em> is an encyclical which above all teaches that complacency is the enemy of a peaceful and just society. </p>
<h2>Dark clouds</h2>
<p>But in order to engage in action, the problem must be diagnosed so that people know where to direct their energies. There can be no doubt from the first chapter, “Dark clouds over a closed world”, that Francis understands the complexity of the crisis facing the world. </p>
<p>As well as the existential crisis that has led to the disintegration of communities and social relationships, he paints a grim picture of a world undergoing what he calls a “third world war fought piecemeal” which – along with hunger and human trafficking – presents a sustained attack on the dignity of the human person. </p>
<p>He also understands the need for nuance and contextualisation in creating a new vision for humanity. So for example, there are oblique references to Brexit, the populist politics that have led to “hyperbole, extremism and polarisation becoming political tools”. He also observes the resurgence of racism, and the disintegration of intergenerational relationships - all of which demonstrate the innate individualism, lack of empathy and aggressive nationalism which lies at the heart of the global crisis. </p>
<h2>Decisive commitment</h2>
<p>The solution to this crisis “demands a decisive commitment” from individuals and from politicians and religious leaders in particular. Politicians need to reorientate their mindset away from individualism towards a commitment to the common good and what the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has termed “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html">social love</a>”. This is, he notes, “a force capable of inspiring new ways of approaching the problems of today’s world, of profoundly renewing structures, social organisations and legal systems from within”. </p>
<p>Politics needs to become a vocation of service, charity and generosity rather than a means to exercise power. Religious leaders need to engage in dialogue with one another in order to “reawaken the spiritual energy that can contribute to the betterment of society”, and to prevent the distortion of religious beliefs that lead to violence. </p>
<p>Ultimately, this is an encyclical which teaches that we are dependent upon one another to thrive and reach our full potential as human beings. As Francis puts it “if only we might rediscover once and for all that we need one another, and that in this way our human family can experience a rebirth; with all its faces, all its hands and all its voices, beyond the walls we have erected.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Power does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pope’s message also highlights Brexit, racism and inequality as ‘dark clouds over a closed world’.Maria Power, Human Dignity Project Director, Las Casas Institute for Social Justice, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1323682020-03-03T15:35:59Z2020-03-03T15:35:59ZWill Catholics and Protestants ever heal their rift over Communion?<p>On February 29, for the first time in nearly 500 years, a <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/protestants-to-take-catholic-communion-at-calvins-cathedral-in-geneva-on-leap-year-day.html">Catholic mass was held</a> in the main church in Geneva – the Protestant theologian John Calvin’s adopted home town.</p>
<p>It’s still not clear from news coverage whether Protestant worshippers were invited to receive communion. One report said that Protestants and Catholics alike would be invited to take communion while <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/first-mass-since-reformation-to-be-held-in-swiss-cathedral-75707">another denied this</a>, insisting that: “people of a faith other than Catholic will not be formally invited to Eucharist, the sharing of bread and wine.” </p>
<p>The event, and the confusion around it, highlights the problem of some Christians excluding other Christians from this central sacrament of the faith – one that, rather than dividing Christians, ought to reconcile and unite. So, should – and can – Catholic doctrine change?</p>
<p>An illusion in most religions is that their beliefs and rituals are unchanging – and this is the same for most Christians. Instead of seeing the faith as dynamic, most Christians slip into thinking their particular focus of attention is not only immune to change but somehow perfect – the last word to be said on a topic.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318093/original/file-20200302-18299-xorla0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318093/original/file-20200302-18299-xorla0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318093/original/file-20200302-18299-xorla0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318093/original/file-20200302-18299-xorla0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318093/original/file-20200302-18299-xorla0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318093/original/file-20200302-18299-xorla0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318093/original/file-20200302-18299-xorla0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Last Supper: on which Christianity’s ritual ‘meal’ of Communion is based.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leonardo da Vinci</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One item of doctrine that has got stuck in this way by being repeated rather than reflected upon is the Catholic Church’s statement that only those they consider in doctrinal agreement about the Eucharist (otherwise labelled as, variously, “Holy Communion”, “the Mass” or “the Lord’s Supper”) can participate fully at its celebration. This is a ritual whose symbolic focus is that of people gathered around a common table, eating portions of a broken loaf and drinking from a common cup filled with wine. </p>
<p>What each ritual element is taken to mean has been controversial for centuries – but the basic set of symbols seen as linked to the Last Supper of Jesus is common to all the churches. The various meanings given to this meal make it more a moment of visible tension between churches rather than the moment of coming together they all claim they want it to be.</p>
<p>Put crudely, this means that if you are a Protestant you are not invited to eat at a Catholic service. It also means that a Catholic, even if welcome at a Protestant Eucharist, should refuse to share fully in the meal by eating and drinking.</p>
<p>This practice of keeping denominations separate was standard policy for centuries – but, with the rise of the ecumenical movement in the 20th century, it began to seem out of place. Nonetheless, the Catholic Church – <a href="https://www.anglicancommunion.org/ecumenism/ecumenical-dialogues/roman-catholic/arcic.aspx">while willing to talk about unity</a> – saw this step as impossible “until there was unity of faith”. By this the Catholics meant doctrinal uniformity: tantamount to a reversal of the Reformation – and there is no chance that will happen.</p>
<p>This no-go attitude on the Catholic side not only creates deep hurt in relations between church leaders, but it creates tensions in households every Sunday where partners want to worship together but one feels excluded if they are from differing churches.</p>
<h2>Things could be different</h2>
<p>This problem appeared to be easing after the Catholic Church’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important">Second Vatican Council</a> (1962-5) which opened dialogues with the Reformed Churches to overcome inherited differences. But in recent decades, under two conservative papacies, the situation deteriorated again. In 1998 the Catholic bishops in Britain and Ireland issued (<a href="https://cbcew.org.uk/plain/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/11/one-bread-one-body-1998.pdf">One Bread One Body</a>) which effectively forbade any sharing of communion. Moreover, in a conservative climate it became clear there was serious resistance to discussion or research.</p>
<p>This negative climate was changed suddenly in November 2015. To mark the beginning of 500th anniversary celebrations of Martin Luther’s challenge to the papacy, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/10/28/499587801/pope-francis-reaches-out-to-honor-the-man-who-splintered-christianity?t=1583161179749">visited Rome’s Lutheran Church </a>. Afterwards, he took questions and this issue of intercommunion was, not surprisingly, raised. Rather than closing down the question, he opened up several new avenues of thinking which could lead to a change in Catholic law and practice.</p>
<p>Francis used his familiar approach that the church is more a <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-tells-lutheran-to-talk-to-the-lord-about-receiving-eucharist">field-hospital for suffering humanity</a> than an oracular lawgiver. What, he wondered, if communion was food for a journey needed by people, rather than a reward for being a good Christian? This new openness will not be welcomed by conservatives, but many see it as a new way forward in relations between the churches. </p>
<p>Francis also called on theologians to explore this difficulty afresh. Here is the <a href="https://zenit.org/articles/pope-s-visit-to-lutheran-community-in-rome/">key statement</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Instead on the journey, I wonder – and I don’t know how to answer, but I make your question my own – I wonder: is the sharing of the Lord’s Supper the end of a journey or the viaticum [travellers’ food] to journey together? I leave the question to the theologians, to those who understand. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What would Jesus do?</h2>
<p>So can one create a theological rationale for change? Here is just one such argument. We humans need food – but only through teamwork can we eat. We do not simply eat together, we share meals. Meal sharing is distinctively human – and this sharing has an inherent structure. </p>
<p>This has implications for the eucharist because its form is a meal – commemorating Jesus’s last supper. Can you be present and I refuse to share the food with you? Can I say that it is a meal of welcome and then not share with someone I call a “sister” or a “brother” because of Christian baptism, who asks for a share? Family meals must promote reconciliation by sharing or they are dishonest – and so unworthy of worship.</p>
<p>I have tried to take up Pope Francis’s call to theologians and advanced nine different arguments for a change in Catholic practice in my book Eating Together, Becoming One. They have only one common element: fixing this ulcer of division means re-imagining the meal Jesus bids his followers to share in his memory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas O’Loughlin’s book Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Francis’s Call to Theologians is published by Liturgical Press.</span></em></p>This centuries-old argument over doctrine needs to change and we have a pope who wants that to happen.Thomas O'Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology, Faculty of Arts, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155212019-04-17T15:20:43Z2019-04-17T15:20:43ZEaster: what the Catholic Church teaches about bread and wine and Christ’s flesh and blood<p>On the Thursday before Easter, more than two billion Christians worldwide observe the Eucharist, a special ritual that commemorates the Last Supper – a meal hosted by Jesus Christ for his friends 2,000 years ago, the night before he was arrested and crucified. During the meal, according to the Gospels, Christ said to his gathered disciples, that – like the bread broken and wine poured out – his body would be broken and his blood poured out for the sake of his people. Jesus invited his followers to enact this meal whenever they gathered to remember his sacrifice. </p>
<p>This early Christian practice assumed importance and has come to symbolise the core message of Christianity – that Christ sacrificed himself for the sake of humanity. </p>
<p>As a theological dogma, the Roman Catholic Church affirms that when the priest consecrates the bread broken and wine shared during the Eucharist ceases to be bread and wine and becomes the real presence of Christ. This is known as “Transubstantiation” within the Roman Catholic Church – affirmed by <a href="https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct13.html">the following statement</a> from the Council of Trent in the 1560s</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By the consecration of the bread and of the wine, a conversion is made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood; which conversion is, by the holy Catholic Church, suitably and properly called Transubstantiation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But over 2,000 years of church history, this doctrine has been at the centre of several schisms. Most of the Protestant churches reject the doctrine of Transubstantiation but retain some understanding of the Eucharist as an occasion where Christ’s presence becomes real and tangible along with the bread and wine – but not actual flesh and blood. Meanwhile, most Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians consider the Eucharist simply as memorial meal or an opportunity to experience spiritual communion with Christ. </p>
<p>The official line of the Roman Catholic Church is that majority of Catholics, subscribe – in principle at least – to the view of Transubstantiation as a core doctrinal teaching. But, most recently, <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey-who-knows-what-about-religion/#Christianity">PEW research findings</a> published in 2010 suggested that about 52% of all respondents thought that bread and wine used for Communion are symbols. This raises doubts as to whether even Catholics really believe in the bread and wine really becoming the body and blood of Jesus – let alone understand the doctrine. Transubstantiation as a philosophical concept has also been under close scrutiny for many centuries.</p>
<p>On the back of these observations let me offer two thoughts. Firstly, due to the significant <a href="https://cara.georgetown.edu/sacramentsreport.pdf%20and%20https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/why-arent-more-millennials-in-the-pews-lets-ask-them/32413">decline in religious adherence</a> among millennials, the grasp and relevance of this central Catholic teaching is becoming seemingly less relevant. Even among those who attend the church either regularly or less frequently, there is lack of clear understanding on the teaching of the church regarding Transubstantiation. </p>
<p>This could be partly to do with the general change in social worldview and the shift towards a greater understanding of science and embrace of technological innovation. Much of the Western world, particularly Europe and America, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/benedict-eucharist">has become far more secular</a> – something that is reflected in falling religious adherence.</p>
<p>But with the shifting of global Christian populations – and the <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/">rise of South America, Asia and Africa as centres of Roman Catholicism</a> – issues about belief and practice are addressed from a deep-rooted pre-Christian religious and cultural perspective. From my ongoing anthropological research in these contexts, it seems clear that the way belief is conceived among Christian communities is not based on discussion around essence and substance (as in philosophical or theological) rather on a more personal encounter with the divine through rituals performed within a community of believers. So, congregations give importance to the communal dimension of the Eucharist as a memorial ritual where one can encounter Christ.</p>
<h2>Ecumenical move</h2>
<p>Pope Francis I – unlike his predecessors – has <a href="https://adoremus.org/2014/04/15/Pope-Francis-on-the-Eucharist/">not directly advocated the doctrine of Transubstantiation</a>. Keeping to his South American theological roots, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/holy-communion-unites-us-to-christ-francis-says-62873">has called</a> for Catholics to consider the Eucharist as an encounter with Christ – an occasion where Christ makes himself available to the community through an act of remembrance. Its an opportunity to <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-let-yourself-be-transformed-by-the-eucharist-61965">be transformed</a> to carry out the work of Christ. The focus here is not on dogma but the action that flows from it. This is very different from the <a href="https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/01/10/in-the-pope-francis-era-the-eucharist-defines-doctrinal-tussles/">hard-core theological dogma</a> of the Roman Catholic Church. </p>
<p>This is very much in line with Pope Francis’s ecumenical and inter-religious initiatives over the past five years. He has <a href="https://adoremus.org/2014/04/15/Pope-Francis-on-the-Eucharist/">consistently spoken</a> about Holy Communion as a “sacrament” – emphasising the communal element rather than the mystery.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Eucharist is the summit of God’s saving action: the Lord Jesus, by becoming bread broken for us, pours upon us all of His mercy and His love, so as to renew our hearts, our lives, and our way of relating with Him and with the brethren.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Through this teaching in the 2014 Encyclical, Pope Francis has departed from the traditional line of who can receive or participate in Eucharist and <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdf">called for</a> a more inclusive openness to our understanding and practice of Eucharist (including non-Catholics to be able to take communion), and not to make it into an exclusive practice.</p>
<p>This approach has been popular among Catholics however upsetting the traditionalist Catholics, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/benedict-eucharist">including the previous pope</a>, Benedict.</p>
<p>The debate around Transubstantiation within the Roman Catholic Church will no doubt continue – but by signalling that he is willing to welcome anyone and share the Eucharist with others, Pope Francis may have charted a different path by opening up the Eucharist to non-Catholics and those who have been traditionally excluded. He is clearly moving away from the idea of the Eucharist as a directly “supernatural” experience and more towards a unifying sacrament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anderson Jeremiah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis is gradually moving the Catholic Church away from the traditional idea of bread and wine turning into flash and blood.Anderson Jeremiah, Lecturer in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/647432016-09-02T01:36:07Z2016-09-02T01:36:07ZQuestioning the ‘miracles’ of Saint Teresa<p>In 2002, the Vatican officially recognised as a miracle the healing of an Indian woman’s cancer of the abdomen. This occurred as the result of the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa’s picture. The woman, Monica Besra, said a beam of light had emanated from the picture, curing her cancerous tumour. </p>
<p>This one miracle was sufficient for Mother Teresa to be beatified in 2003. This meant that she had the title “Blessed” bestowed on her and that she was, from then on, able to intercede with God on behalf of individuals who prayed in her name. The late Christopher Hitchens (who had written a pretty scathing book about her) had been called upon by the Vatican to act as “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/devils-advocate">the Devil’s advocate</a>” and to give evidence against her character. Hitchen’s <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2003/10/mommie_dearest.html">criticisms</a> made no difference (which was not really a surprise to anyone). </p>
<p>On 17 December 2015, Pope Francis recognised a second miracle attributable to Mother Teresa. This was the healing in 2008 of a 42-year-old Brazilian man with a number of brain tumours – moments before he was due to undergo surgery. This healing cleared the way for her canonisation as Saint Teresa. </p>
<p>On Sunday, Mother Teresa will be recognised as a saint within the Roman Catholic Church. It is a decision made by Pope Francis on the recommendation of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints – made on the basis of a thorough investigation of the holiness of the candidate’s life. </p>
<p>But it is crucially dependent on the recognition by the Congregation that two miracles, usually of healing, have been performed by God as a direct result of the intercession with God by the candidate.</p>
<p>These cures are only accepted as “miracles”, that is, as the result of the direct intervention of God, on the basis of strict medical evidence to the effect that the illness was medically incurable, that the cures were decisive, and that they were clearly the result of appeal to the candidate. </p>
<p>Thus, on this account, miracles do happen to people diagnosed with incurable diseases and these are the result of the direct action of God at the behest of deceased persons like Saint Teresa. Apparently, she and other saints, have a lot of influence in heavenly places over what happens down here. So, on the face of it, we’ve taken off our modern thinking caps and gone all medieval.</p>
<p>Let’s not argue over whether scientifically inexplicable events occur. They do. And let’s allow that, in the case of the two cures put forward as proof of Mother Teresa’s saintly status, the medical evidence stacks up in favour of something medically inexplicable having occurred. </p>
<p>Even so, there are any number of reasons why the absence of a scientific explanation should not propel us to uncritically endorse divine intervention as the cause of these events. </p>
<p>The first of these goes to what is known as the problem of “the God of the Gaps”. It’s always a theologically risky procedure to plug God in as an explanation where science fails. This is for the simple reason that, if a scientific explanation were to come about tomorrow, the miracle would then be shown not to have occurred. The arena of God’s activity has significantly shrunk over the last 300 as a consequence of this theory. </p>
<p>The second reason to be sceptical has to do with God’s apparent disinclination to intervene more often. If God can heal the sick on one occasion, why is he not more active on other occasions of incurable illness? And if he can act on occasion to cure illnesses, why can’t he intervene to stop earthquakes and other natural disasters?</p>
<p>God’s apparent disinclination to act as often as he might, and probably should, raises awkward questions about whether he is unwilling to act or whether he is incapable of doing so. </p>
<p>Thirdly, at least since the Reformation, miracles have been an important part of Roman Catholicism’s claims to religious truth, particularly against Protestantism. Miracles were then, and remain now, key features of Catholicism’s evangelical outreach. Miracles, Saints, and conversions all go together. So miracles come trailing clouds of Catholic doctrines, exclusive claims to religious truth, invitations to join up, and encouragements for the faithful to keep coming back. </p>
<p>For its part, Protestantism countered, not by attempting to score more miracles, but by taking its bat and ball home. It denied the doctrine that the Saints intercede to God on our behalf (because there were no Saints to do so). And it argued that the age of miracles had ceased at the end of New Testament times. It also declared that all Christians (or at least all Protestants) were Saints. As a counter-claim, this always looked a bit soft. Neither most Protestants nor most Catholics, nor for that matter most of us, are conspicuous for outstanding goodness and holiness. </p>
<p>Alternatively, in more Fundamentalist branches of Protestantism, miracles continued but as the direct intervention of God. The saintly middle men and women had been made redundant. </p>
<p>All this is not to deny Mother Teresa’s particular claims to goodness and holiness. Nor is it to question the sincerity of those who believe that her intercession can result in the cure of the incurable. </p>
<p>But it is to remind us that we should be wary of uncritical endorsement of claims to the miraculous. Religious belief of any sort can be a motivation to perfect goodness, as it is in many religions. As we are unfortunately all too currently aware, it can just as easily inspire appalling acts of evil.</p>
<p>And granted that God does have the capacity to act in the world, it does often look as if he is not paying the sort of attention to what’s going on that he should be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mother Teresa will become a saint on Sunday, on the basis of two miracles of healing. But let’s not remove our thinking caps and go all medieval: we should be wary of uncritical endorsement of claims to the miraculous.Philip C. Almond, Professorial Research Fellow in the History of Religious Thought, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/543562016-02-08T16:13:05Z2016-02-08T16:13:05ZWhat will happen when the Pope meets the Patriarch?<p>The latest diplomatic coup for Pope Francis I – whose papacy has been marked by an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/04/15/how-pope-francis-became-such-a-force-in-foreign-policy/">ever-more expansive foreign policy</a> – is the announcement of an interesting development in relations between the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox churches, relations that have been more-or-less non-existent for more than 1000 years. </p>
<p>On February 12, Pope Francis – who will be on his way to visit Mexico – <a href="http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/02/05/pope_francis_to_meet_patriarch_kirill_of_moscow_/1206182">will meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill</a> at Havana Airport in Cuba. Kirill is not the formal head of the world’s estimated 200m Orthodox Christians – that is his All-Holiness Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch, whose seat is in Istanbul, not Moscow. </p>
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<p>But the Orthodox churches are effectively independent, national units with Bartholomew enjoying only a sort of “primacy of honour” over them – rather like the archbishop of Canterbury over the world-wide Anglican Communion. The Russian Church is easily the largest of the Orthodox churches with more than 80-100m members. Consequently, the Russian Church and its Patriarch have enormous influence in the Orthodox world, arguably even more than Bartholomew himself.</p>
<p>The Vatican’s relations with Russian Orthodoxy have historically been poor. The papacy was at loggerheads with the Tsars over their treatment of Polish Catholics when Poland was ruled by them. And during World War I, the Vatican feared a possible Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire, leading to a reinvigorated Orthodoxy and the creation of a sort of “Vatican on the Bosphorus”. </p>
<p>In 1917 it thought Catholicism could profit from the collapse of Tsardom and the subsequent <a href="http://classroom.synonym.com/happened-religion-during-communist-rule-russia-8352.html">disestablishment of the Orthodox Church</a> but those hopes were quickly dashed by the Soviets’ “Godless campaigns” which were aimed at all religious groups, not just the Orthodox. The end of the Soviet Union in 1991 did not improve relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches – on the contrary, the Russian Orthodox Church has consistently <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-vatican-communism-idUSKCN0J123C20141117">accused the Vatican of proselytism</a>, of trying to poach its own faithful, a not entirely unjustified accusation.</p>
<h2>Bones of contention</h2>
<p>So what will Francis and Kirill talk about? They will seek détente, a general improvement in their relations, but this will be difficult given the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulcoyer/2015/05/21/unholy-alliance-vladimir-putin-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/#5a747da68817">highly nationalistic mood</a> of Russian Orthodoxy at the moment. As in previous centuries, many Russian Orthodox prelates are deeply suspicious of Western Europe – Catholic, Protestant and secular – which they see as an area of religious and moral decadence. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-split-that-created-roman-catholics-and-eastern.html">schism between eastern and western Christianity</a>, which originated in the 7th and 8th centuries and centres around the dispute over the nature of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, but also in the Orthodox rejection of the Bishop of Rome’s claims to universal primacy over Christians, is still unresolved despite ecumenical gestures on the part of Rome.</p>
<p>Another issue between Rome and Moscow is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/ukraine">question of Ukraine</a>. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/pope-francis-putin-sincere-peace-effort-ukraine-russia-vatican">Rome is unhappy</a> about Putin’s annexation of the Crimea and his assistance for the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine which sections of the Orthodox Church have supported with jingoistic fervour. In the western Ukraine, the Greek Catholic Church, which – like the Orthodox – has a married clergy and shares similar liturgical practices, is nevertheless in communion with Rome. No love is lost between the Greek Catholics and the Ukrainian Orthodox. </p>
<p>Will Francis and Kirill talk about this thorny problem? One issue which they will certainly discuss and on which they may reach a measure of agreement is the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, though even here the situation is complicated by Putin’s foreign policy objectives in Syria.</p>
<h2>“Old man in a hurry”</h2>
<p>Pope Francis is 80 this December and has only one lung. He was elected on a reform ticket and so far has succeeded in <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-05/pope-francis-reforms-a-vatican-bank-steeped-in-dan-brown-intrigue">sorting out the scandal-ridden Vatican Bank</a> – and Vatican finances in general. He has started the process of <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/roman-observer/can-pope-francis-succeed-reforming-curia">reforming the Roman curia</a> (the central government of the Catholic Church in the Vatican) and devolving power to local bishops.</p>
<p>He has other objectives, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/28/pope-francis-wants-to-be-the-first-pontiff-to-visit-mainland-china-but-it-wont-be-easy/">re-establishing diplomatic relations with China</a> and thereby achieving some sort of re-unification of the state-controlled <a href="http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/organizations/china-patriotic-catholic-association">Catholic Patriotic Association</a> and those Chinese Catholics who lie outside the CPA and are therefore subject to occasional governmental repression. Vatican diplomacy also played an important role in bringing about the restoration of diplomatic relations <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/11873213/How-the-Pope-played-a-crucial-role-in-US-Cuba-deal.html">between the USA and Cuba</a> last year. </p>
<p>He probably also nurtures hopes of an historic compromise between the Catholic and the Orthodox churches – and his meeting with Kirill may prove to be a step in that direction. It is, however, unlikely to lead to any radical change in the relationship in Francis’ lifetime. This schism runs deep.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Pollard receives funding from the British Academy and the Scouloudi Foundation.</span></em></p>After more than a millenium, Pope Francis I will meet the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. They will have plenty to talk about.John Pollard, Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Trinity Hall, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/428742015-06-17T15:40:52Z2015-06-17T15:40:52ZThe moral – and political – force of Pope Francis on climate<p>When popes make pronouncements on religious matters, one billion Catholics listen. When popes talk about social issues, there is the potential to bring a larger audience into international debate. When a current pope, like Francis, however, attempts to bring together both religious and social issues into a moral discussion about public policy, there is bound to be controversy.</p>
<p>This is the uncomfortable place in which Pope Francis finds himself after tackling climate change. His encyclical “Laudato Si’” (<a href="http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1502331.htm">Praised Be</a>) on ecology has no religious binding force on anyone, but it has the potential to raise geopolitical awareness of the developing crisis and to put forward solutions to stem what some believe is the coming, inevitable destruction of the Earth. In this, he’s building on his predecessors’ actions on environment. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84942/original/image-20150614-1481-dh368j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Building on the legacy of former popes and his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/113018453@N05/14056932543/in/photostream/">Jeffrey Bruno/Aleteia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>When environmental issues began to move beyond acute local problems to a growing international crisis, Pope John Paul II began to preach about the need to protect the Earth. </p>
<p>Already in 1979 (one year into his papacy), he began to mention such issues philosophically and broadly in his <a href="http://catholicexchange.com/john-paul-ii-and-the-environment">writings</a>. But it was at the World Day of Peace in 1990 that he singled out the depletion of the ozone layer as more than a scientific finding. Indeed, he called “the ecological crisis…<em>a moral</em> issue.” (emphasis in the original) He saw the emerging crisis as a just reason to invoke the moral consciences of local, state and international bodies to accept their part in creating environmental damage and to reverse it.</p>
<p>Pope Benedict XVI, known as the “<a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/3087/the_green_pope_and_a_human_ecology.aspx">Green Pope</a>” went even further. Benedict approached environmental concerns from a moral perspective as well, but broadened his distress to include the “degradation” of the Earth by demanding “responsible stewardship.”</p>
<p>He decried inadequate public policies and the unbridled pursuit of money, which he believed threatened creation. On a number of occasions, Benedict, who was pope from 2005 to 2013, preached that the environment must be protected in the present by wealthy states acting in solidarity with poorer areas of the world. Doing this, he said, would save those who will inhabit the Earth in the future.</p>
<p>Throughout his papacy, Benedict called on individuals to care for creation. He urged society to repair its relationship with nature and to provide food for all. He preached that peace is predicated on the protection of the environment: the need for governments to develop joint and sustainable strategies for energy and its redistribution. </p>
<p>Benedict supported research for solar energy, the management of forests, more equal access to natural resources and a focus on how to deal with climate change. </p>
<p>To do less, <a href="http://www.catholicclimatecovenant.org/Default.aspx?PageID=16481827&A=SearchResult&SearchID=758063&ObjectID=16481827&ObjectType=1">Benedict claimed</a>, was to harm human coexistence, to betray human dignity and to violate the rights of citizens to live in a safe environment.</p>
<h2>Transcending debates</h2>
<p>Francis has built on the legacy of his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi, who preached about the responsibility of people to care for God’s creation. He is also following the teaching of former popes who have viewed the environmental crisis through a moral lens.</p>
<p>This pope, however, has gone beyond raising awareness, making speeches and emphasizing the coming climate change crisis. </p>
<p>By issuing an encyclical that deals strictly with the environment, Francis has used his religious position to call on everyone to be the protectors of God’s gifts. And, as a geopolitical actor who rules the sovereign state of the Vatican, he has added a new, urgent reason to stave off the degradation of the Earth for political reasons as well.</p>
<p>He has framed environmental issues in a new way – by looking at their economic consequences in a social justice context.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84940/original/image-20150614-1486-10f3qkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Known as the Green Pope, Benedict argued for protecting creation on moral grounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/8496427813/in/photolist-9ePpZF-9eSGKw-9ePzkV-9ePzxp-9ePzjD-9eSGT1-9ePzmR-9ePztR-9eSGLh-9eSGJw-9eSGRY-9ePzpa-9eSGHL-9ePzoB-9ePzhV-9eSGDY-9eSGQG-9eSGNW-9ePzzr-9eSGNh-9eSGG5-9eSGBb-9eSGQ3-9eSGM9-9eSGSC-9eSGK7-9ePzvF-9ePznt-dWNpYH-iKXf5T-c44baL-gEyLn-e2XZ78-56QBtD">paullew/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>The pope’s environmental interests transcend the international controversy between scientists, economists and politicians over claims that climate change will bring about quality-of-life problems for those who have no options to cope with its potential effects. </p>
<p>Francis has preached that “the human family has received a common gift from God — it is nature. And he has <a href="http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-homily-for-inaugural-mass-of-petrine-ministry">said</a> that the protection of creation serves as a "horizon of hope” against greed, arrogance, domination, manipulation and the exploitation of the Earth as well as the rights of people, their dignity and human rights.</p>
<p>In making this point, Pope Francis equates the protection of nature with the protection of human rights and claims that governments and societies secure both by safeguarding the gift of creation for all, especially the most vulnerable.</p>
<p>It should come as no surprise, then, that he would take a social justice approach to climate change. </p>
<p>Pope Francis spent most of his time in ministry in Argentina working among liberation theologians who believed that the Church should play an active, or even a violent, political role in removing and replacing the “structures of sin” that harm society.</p>
<p>Although he has rejected the methods of liberation theologians to make social change, the current pope has been influenced by the movement’s concern for the elimination of poverty as a basis for <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/12/the-popes-true-agenda?gclid=CILatpzkjMYCFcURHwodISkAOw">social justice</a> and human rights.</p>
<h2>Social justice</h2>
<p>Even before release of the encyclical letter, controversy has already begun to appear.</p>
<p>In the United States, Rick Santorum, the Catholic former senator from Pennsylvania, said that the pope should “<a href="http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/06/01/rick-santorum-on-pope-francis-letter-on-climate-change-leave-the-science-to-the-scientist/">leave science to the scientists</a>” and not get involved in the climate change debate. Prolife supporters were concerned that the pope would give fodder to those who might advocate for population control.</p>
<p>And yet, the pope’s encyclical appears to transcend such fears and instead serves as an attempt to reconcile science and religion through the moral imperative to pursue social justice for all people. </p>
<p>His views are not political, or ideological, but will inevitably be interpreted by liberal and conservative public officials alike who wish to legitimize their specific approaches to public policy. Francis’ encyclical, instead, is meant to be a moral exhortation to save the earth for rich and poor; young and old, and everyone who inhabits this planet.</p>
<p>Taken in this context, then, “Laudato Sii” can serve as a starting point and a way to move the climate control debate beyond national borders and private interests into international discourse for the common good. </p>
<p>Francis will also use his moral leadership position to augment his writings by preaching, travels and media relations, just as his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI did in the past. This new pope, however, will use social media too! He has embraced cyber resources and can be expected to reach a worldwide audience on environmental problems by publicizing his views on both Facebook and Twitter.</p>
<p>Francis expects government and society to accept the responsibility to protect the Earth for those who cannot do it by themselves. He believes that such public policies are a step toward peaceful coexistence and the common good. </p>
<p>Just this past week, the leaders of seven large industrialized democracies (G-7) seemed to move in that direction as well. They issued a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/06/08/g-7-leaders-declaration">joint political statement</a> calling for a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a critical point of discussion that will also be taken up at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris in the fall of 2015.</p>
<p>It is most likely, therefore, that the pope’s encyclical will serve to give the G-7 agreement moral credibility and heightened publicity now and, in the not-too-distant future, serve as the basis for a moral conversation about the role of climate change, its impact on the poor, and the need for social justice in the global environmental debate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo-Renee Formicola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By equating human rights to the protection of nature, the pope’s encyclical opens up an international debate with broad political implications.Jo-Renee Formicola, Professor of Political Science, Seton Hall UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/428712015-06-16T01:21:31Z2015-06-16T01:21:31ZWith encyclical, Pope Francis elevates environmental justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84944/original/image-20150614-1481-xcajc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Showing his stripes: visiting a favela in Brazil in 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Francis_at_Vargihna.jpg">Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose Francis as his papal name, he signaled to the world a dual commitment to sustainability and the global poor. His namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi, was a man of poverty and peace who loved nature and animals, and is said to have <a href="http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Francis/stories.asp">preached his sermons to birds</a>. </p>
<p>Ostentatious only in displays of humility, Francis implores Catholic priests and nuns to choose “humble” automobiles and consider foregoing the latest smartphone. Tempted to buy the fancy model? Francis suggests you “<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/06/pope-cars-idUSL5N0FC0IR20130706">think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world</a>.” His day-to-day vehicle is a modest Ford Focus, his wristwatch a plastic Swatch. </p>
<p>The pope’s attention to climate change, a likely focal point of his long-awaited encyclical on the environment due to appear June 18, highlights the plight of the poor and the moral dimensions of environmental issues. It also comes as a welcome counterbalance to the fixation on global-scale human influence on the environment that, for better and for worse, has come to define the Anthropocene – the name attached to the age of human dominance over the planet. </p>
<p>Can we, perhaps guided by the moral authority of the pope, align the global ethos of the Anthropocene with claims of justice for the poor? </p>
<h2>Justice for the poor</h2>
<p>The pope’s priorities – social justice and care for the Earth – are what we might expect from a Jesuit pope who opts for a Franciscan name. </p>
<p>His discerning intellect and missionary zeal – both products of the intensive, almost military style of spiritual formation characteristic of the <a href="http://www.jesuits.org/worldwide">Society of Jesus</a> – are tempered by lighthearted simplicity and impatience with rigidity of doctrine or custom. </p>
<p>Francis has quickly become one of the more quotable popes. In interviews, he often exudes modesty and good humor. (He doesn’t “mind” being pope, he <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/pope-francis-says-he-doesnt-mind-being-pope-but-wishes-he-could-go-out-for-a-pizza-unrecognised-10106093.html">says</a>, but wishes he could duck out for a pizza without being recognized.) </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84945/original/image-20150614-1478-1q1ruyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Francis was known for taking the subway in Argentina before becoming pope and has encouraged clergy to live modestly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicofoxfiles/8555197385/in/photostream/">nicofoxfiles/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>With his usual unassuming style, Francis has also shaken things up by disclaiming any <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/23/who-am-i-to-judge">right to judge</a> the sinfulness of homosexuality, while pronouncing acts of deforestation a grave modern sin. </p>
<p>The media has at times distorted these disarming pronouncements: Francis has since <a href="http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/16/pope-francis-criticizes-gay-marriage-backs-contraception-ban/">affirmed</a> the Catholic catechism’s teachings on marriage and homosexuality, though he believes the Church is too preoccupied with matters of sex and reproduction. And, sorry to say, it is not quite true that he proclaimed a <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/12/sorry-fido-pope-francis-not-say-pets-going-heaven/">heaven for dogs</a>. But on the subject of environmental sins, he appears, for the most part, serious and unwavering.</p>
<p>Climate change is the anticipated focus of Francis’ long-awaited papal encyclical on ecology because it merges his vocal concern for the poor and marginalized with condemnation of environmental exploitation. The world’s poor, who contribute the least to climate change, are disproportionately impacted by worsening droughts, rising seas, mega storms and famine, and they are least able to evade its destructive reach. </p>
<p>Jesuits have a long tradition of outreach to global refugees and other forcibly displaced people. Now a new, desperate class of migrants is emerging: <a href="http://www.rappler.com/specials/pope-francis-ph/79824-pope-francis-climate-change-encyclical">climate refugees</a>, people who are forced to leave their homes because of the effects of climate change. </p>
<h2>Global disparity and climate concern</h2>
<p>Francis is not the first pope to take up defense of the environment. </p>
<p>Benedict XVI was hailed as the “Green Pope” for sustainability initiatives which included a carbon-neutral Vatican City gleaming with solar panels. John Paul II urged responsible stewardship for creation. </p>
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<span class="caption">Pope Francis visits the Typhoon Yolanda victims in one of the areas in the Philippines earlier this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Francis_Palo_1.jpg#/media/File:Pope_Francis_Palo_1.jpg">Benhur Arcayan - Malacanang Photo Bureau</a></span>
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<p>But no previous pope has issued an entire encyclical – an official papal letter – on environmental concerns, nor has any pope so closely represented the interests of the Global South as the Argentine Bergoglio does. </p>
<p>When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013, killing over 6,000 people and leaving four million homeless, Francis used the language of the Anthropocene, lamenting that humans have “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/man-has-gone-too-far-pope-francis-says-we-are-primarily-responsible-for-climate-change-20150115-12rcwm.html">in a sense taken over nature</a>” with devastating effects. And yet, his reluctance to judge notwithstanding, Francis remains aware that different countries are <a href="http://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/countries-contributions-to-climate-change">not equally culpable</a> for climate change. </p>
<p>Francis’ encyclical is timely for many reasons. A recent survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the American Academy of Religion examined Americans’ concerns about climate change and the impact of religious beliefs. It <a href="https://www.aarweb.org/annual-meeting/prriaar-national-survey-on-religion-values-and-climate-change">found</a> that only 23% of white Americans are very concerned about climate change, while 46% of Hispanic Americans express the same concern. White Catholics are also less likely than Hispanic Catholics to say that climate change is caused by humans, and far more Hispanic Catholics than whites report that their church leaders address climate change. </p>
<p>Francis, more than any previous pope, may be able to align church teaching on the environment with the actual experiences of poorer Catholics around the world. If so, environmental justice could become the centerpiece, and lasting legacy, of his papacy. </p>
<h2>Thinking as a species?</h2>
<p>An irony of the Anthropocene is that claims for environmental justice may actually be muted by contemporary discussions of climate change. </p>
<p>The Anthropocene is the name for a new epoch where humans are dominating and disrupting grand cycles of biology, chemistry and geology. Humans are acting as a geophysical force on the planet, transforming it in dramatic ways previously seen only in tectonic shifts or dinosaur-decimating asteroids. </p>
<p>The Anthropocene requires a shift in thinking, a dramatic scaling up of our imaginations. To appreciate our planetary impact, it is necessary to think in terms of <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/09/28/351692717/embracing-deep-time-thinking">deep geological time</a> and re-conceive of ourselves as a species, a collective agency or force that is initiating change in the earth system itself. </p>
<p>A species-level perspective on humans is fruitful for envisioning global thinking and unified responses to global environmental problems. </p>
<p>The Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program takes this approach to what it means to be human in the Age of the Human: the “<a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/research/evolutionary-perspectives-anthropocene">narrative of our collective humanity</a>” and our status as single species united by common evolutionary origin can inspire a sense of “communal purpose” in responding to the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. </p>
<p>But this species-eye view of humanity as a geological agent can work against the cause of climate justice. A dramatically scaled-up vision of human agency as a geological force may suggest an undifferentiated, homogenized humanity. These lenses can make it more difficult to discern very real differences between the global rich and poor, disparities made worse by climate disruption that disproportionately harms those least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<p>Hopes are high that the pope’s encyclical creates momentum and will for the enactment of a United Nations climate change accord in <a href="http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/fr">Paris</a> this December. </p>
<p>The accord, if successful, would commit every nation to tougher restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, with the goal of limiting increases in global temperatures. </p>
<p>Francis’ attunement to the differential claims of the poor and the disproportionate impacts of climate disruption may help ensure that the response to climate change, whatever form it takes, is not only global but truly just.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa H. Sideris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pope’s encyclical turns climate change into a moral discussion by focusing on the disproportionate impact of climate change on poor countries and regions.Lisa H. Sideris, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Director IU Consortium for the Study of Religion, Ethics, and Society, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/399722015-04-10T09:48:14Z2015-04-10T09:48:14ZThe pope as messenger: making climate change a moral issue<p>This summer, Pope Francis plans to release an encyclical letter in which he will address environmental issues, and very likely climate change. </p>
<p>His statement will have a profound impact on the public debate. For one, it will elevate the spiritual, moral and religious dimensions of the issue. Calling on people to <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pope-franciss-new-climate-change-encyclical-sneak-preview-2015-04-09">protect the global climate</a> because it is sacred, both for its own God-given value and for the life and dignity of all humankind, not just the affluent few, will create far more personal commitment than a government call for action on economic grounds or an activist’s call on environmental grounds.</p>
<p>Making a case on theological grounds builds on long-standing arguments in the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a7.htm">Catholic catechism</a> that environmental degradation is a violation of the seventh commandment (Thou shalt not steal) as it involves theft from future generations and the poor. Against such a moral backdrop, the very call to “make the business case to protect the global climate” – a common tactic to argue for action on climate change – seems rather absurd. The pope’s statement will shift the tenor of the public and political conversation in needed ways.</p>
<h2>Transcending political tribes</h2>
<p>But perhaps even more important than the content of the message is the messenger: the pope. </p>
<p>The public debate over climate change today has been caught up in the so-called “culture wars.” The debate is less about carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas models than it is about opposing <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-sciences-are-best-hope-for-ending-debates-over-climate-change-39671">values and worldviews</a>. In the United States, those opposing cultural worldviews map onto our <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/02/climate-change-rabe-borick">partisan political system</a> – the majority of liberal Democrats believe in climate change, the majority of conservative Republicans do not. People of either party give greater weight to evidence and arguments that support pre-existing beliefs and expend disproportionate energy trying to refute views or arguments that are contrary to those beliefs. </p>
<p>Further, <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25621">research</a> shows that we have begun to identify members of our political tribes based on their position on climate change. We openly consider evidence when it is accepted or ideally presented by sources that represent our cultural community, and we dismiss information that is advocated by sources that represent groups whose values we reject. </p>
<h2>Beyond Catholics</h2>
<p>The pope, by contrast, can reach segments that the three primary messengers on climate change – environmentalists, Democratic politicians and scientists – cannot.</p>
<p>First, the pope can reach the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics with an unmatched power to convince and motivate. Religion, unlike any other institutional force in society, has the power to directly influence our values and beliefs. </p>
<p>Government regulations can influence behavior, but often without changing underlying values and motivations. But by connecting climate change to spiritual and religious values, and introducing notions of sin, people will have new and more powerful motivations to act. The pope can make the issue as personal as Sunday School. Once the pope’s message is out, Catholics will hear that message reinforced in homilies in their home parish. </p>
<p>And it would appear that Catholics are a receptive audience. According to a <a href="http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/article/american-catholics-worry-about-global-warming-and-support-u.s.-action/">survey</a> by the Yale Project on Climate Communication, a solid majority of Catholics (70%) think that global warming is happening and 48% think it is caused by humans, compared with only 57% and 35% of non-Catholic Christians respectively.</p>
<p>But the pope’s reach extends far beyond his Catholic followers. A <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/12/11/pope-francis-image-positive-in-much-of-world/">survey</a> by the Pew Research Center found that the pope is extremely popular with both Catholics and non-Catholics. Americans are particularly fond of Pope Francis, with more than three-quarters (78%) giving him positive marks. In Europe, Catholics and non-Catholics view the pope with very similar acclaim. </p>
<p>His message will undoubtedly reach beyond the Catholics of the world, and has the potential to draw attention to the ongoing efforts of leaders in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Religions-Responding-Climate-Change/dp/0415640342/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1428586963&sr=8-4&keywords=andrew+szasz">other denominations</a>, including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Orthodox Church, nicknamed the “<a href="https://www.patriarchate.org/the-green-patriarch">Green Patriarch</a>”). With the pope taking a stand on climate change, it could compel other religious leaders to make more public calls for action. </p>
<p>If the message of climate change is delivered more from the church, synagogue, mosque or temple, people will internalize it as a moral issue that compels them to act regardless of the “business case.” A change in the tenor of the public debate in America will set the stage for leaders of all faiths to step forward.</p>
<h2>Political influence</h2>
<p>This all leads to potential change within our political system. The 114th Congress has 138 <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2015/01/05/faith-on-the-hill/">Catholic Congressman</a> (70 of whom are Republican) and 26 Catholic Senators (11 of whom are Republicans). Those 81 Republicans have followed the party lead in rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change, not because of the scientific evidence, but rather by yielding to party politics. </p>
<p>But this may be <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/01/23/hope-for-republicans-on-climate-change/">changing</a>. This past January, 50 Senators, including 15 Republicans, voted on an amendment that affirmed that humans contribute to global warming. Other Republicans have begun to chip away at what former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman called, the party’s “anti-science” position that flies in the face of the assessments of over <a href="http://opr.ca.gov/s_listoforganizations.php">200 scientific agencies</a> around the world, including the <a href="http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf">scientific agencies of every one of the G8 countries</a>. </p>
<p>The pope’s message could give political cover for emerging Republicans to upend the notion that you can’t be a conservative and believe in climate change. They could undertake this conversion as a personal reexamination of their beliefs or as an answer to a reenergized base. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/politics/most-americans-support-government-action-on-climate-change-poll-finds.html?_r=1">recent poll</a> found that two-thirds of Americans said they were more likely to vote for political candidates who campaigned on fighting climate change (including 48% of Republicans) and less likely to vote for candidates who denied the science that determined that humans caused global warming.</p>
<p>A newly non-partisan dialogue in Congress can lead to action on multiple fronts. It could hinder repeated threats by the GOP, and most recently by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to defund the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It might also influence the Supreme Court as it considers the case against the EPA (six of nine Justices are Roman Catholic). It may shift the US position on climate change in advance of the upcoming <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing">United Nations Framework Convention on climate change in Paris</a>. Finally, it may help shift the views of presidential candidates, such as Marco Rubio, and elevate climate change on the list of election issues for both parties. </p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/178133/economy-government-top-election-issues-parties.aspx">Gallup poll</a>, 61% of Democrats view climate change as important, compared with only 19% of Republicans, ranking it dead last on the list of GOP priorities.</p>
<p>In the end, the best possible outcome of the pope’s message for Americans is a breakdown of the partisan divide over climate change and a reestablishment of societal trust in our scientific institutions. On the one side, Democrats may learn a powerful lesson about the need to go beyond the scientific arguments on the issue and begin to connect it to people’s underlying values, which could help motivate action across the political spectrum. </p>
<p>And Republicans may reexamine their party position on, not only climate change, but environmental issues in general. To that point, this past March Republican <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-24/lindsey-graham-blames-republicans-and-al-gore-for-climate-change-inaction">Senator Lindsey Graham</a> from South Carolina blamed his party (and Al Gore) for the stalemate over climate change and concluded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You know, when it comes to climate change being real, people of my party are all over the board… I think the Republican Party has to do some soul searching. Before we can be bipartisan, we’ve got to figure out where we are as a party… What is the environmental platform of the Republican Party? I don’t know, either. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let’s hope that the pope, in concert with other religious leaders around the world, can help them figure that out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The upcoming encyclical from Pope Francis can transform the climate change culture wars in America.Andrew J. Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and Director of the Erb Institute, University of MichiganJenna White, MBA/MS candidate , University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/390852015-03-26T06:33:43Z2015-03-26T06:33:43ZApocalypse now: what Islamic State and Pope Francis have in common<p>As the Middle East descends ever further into chaos, Rome suddenly finds itself <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/opinion/thomas-friedman-isis-heads-to-rome.html?_r=0">in the crosshairs of Islamic State</a> (IS). Doubtless with an eye on its own security, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31893351">Vatican has legitimised the use of military force</a> against IS – but given the apocalyptic thinking of the enigmatic Pope Francis, there may well be more than pragmatism at work here.</p>
<p>Hailed for his apparently progressive social views, even as many of his admirers remain mystified by his <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/13/pope-francis-mexico-devil-punishing-violence">repeated references to supernatural conflict</a>, the Holy Father has given his critics and adherents a big clue to understanding his worldview: on several occasions, he has informed journalists that the best way they can understand his priorities and concerns is to <a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/02/03/the-popes-dystopian-reading-material/">read a 1907 science fiction novel by R. H. Benson</a> (1871-1914), an English convert to Catholicism.</p>
<p>Benson was a trophy convert, a son of the archbishop of Canterbury who had taken Anglican orders before his conversion in 1903. His novel, Lord of the World, imagines the condition of England after the collapse of the established church and the disappearance of the House of Lords under suffocating socialism, as a Freemason conspiracy established Communist dominance in Europe. </p>
<p>The atmosphere is one of civilisational conflict, as a mysterious eastern army driven by “religious fanaticism” prepares for war with the West in an attempt to “proselytise by the modern equivalents of fire and sword those who had laid aside for the most part all religious beliefs except that in Humanity.”</p>
<p>The book expresses a new convert’s sense of a crisis in English Christianity, as protestant denominations were eviscerated by theological modernism and left with a religion of sentiment totally insufficient for the complex ethical and technical challenges of the new century. </p>
<p>Lord of the World has attracted very little scholarly analysis, but it <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/writing-the-rapture-9780195326604?cc=gb&lang=en&">demands more attention</a>. As a key text in the formation of Francis’ mind, the novel can help us illuminate the weakness which he identifies in the West, and the dangerous forces which are trying to exploit them. </p>
<p>It might even reflect something of a personal sense of crisis. But what if Lord of the World is a guide to how the Holy Father sees the future of the West?</p>
<h2>Living in the end times</h2>
<p>Of course, apocalyptic themes of the kind outlined in the Pope’s novel of choice are only one way to interpret today’s conflict in the Middle East. Indeed, too much media analysis of the conflict has focused on <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/08/evangelicals-isis-feel-fine-about-the-end-of-the-world.html">the apocalyptic expectations of American evangelical Christians</a>, whose <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/election-2012-marks-the-end-of-evangelical-dominance-in-politics/265139/">influence on a series of presidents</a> from the 1980s onwards has now been chronicled in formidable detail. </p>
<p>While the US’s foreign policy has sometimes matched the Judgement Day vision shared by a large section of its protestant population, it has not generally been announced or defended with explicit reference to those ideas. </p>
<p>But on the other hand, the ideologues who pose the most serious threats to Middle Eastern security make no bones about referring to their sacred tradition to justify their activity.</p>
<p>And the crusading values that have most obviously been developed in apocalyptic terms are those propelling the military strategy of Islamic State. </p>
<p>These ideas support the identification of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the end-times military leader who will secure the final destruction of the West – the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/anne-speckhard/isis-iraq_b_5541693.html?">madhi</a>. Islamic State supporters display black flags not merely for the purposes of identification, <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-flags-and-balaclavas-how-jihadists-dress-for-imaginary-war-36152">but to allude to prophecies in the hadith</a> which specify that these banners will identify the end-times army. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75972/original/image-20150325-14488-707t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75972/original/image-20150325-14488-707t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75972/original/image-20150325-14488-707t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75972/original/image-20150325-14488-707t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75972/original/image-20150325-14488-707t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75972/original/image-20150325-14488-707t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75972/original/image-20150325-14488-707t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is the end: the IS flag.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/121483302@N02/14690988398/">Global Panorama via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This apocalyptic script explains the IS summer 2014 push to secure the otherwise strategically irrelevant town of <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2014/10/03-isis-apocalyptic-showdown-syria-mccants">Dabiq</a>, which certain hadith predict will be the site of the final battle between Muslims and the West. It also explains why IS transported the American hostage <a href="http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/November/Graphic-ISIS-Video-Claims-US-Aid-Worker-Beheaded/">Peter Kassig</a> to that town for execution, as first fruits of the massacre to come. </p>
<p>And this is also what explains why Dabiq is the title of IS’s <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119203/isiss-dabiq-vs-al-qaedas-inspire-comparing-two-extremist-magazines">glossy recruitment magazine</a>, which regularly features articles on apocalyptic theology – among them an explanation of why the revival of <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-yazidis-idUSKCN0I21H620141013">enslaving the captured</a> is a proof that the end of the world is upon us. </p>
<h2>Till doomsday</h2>
<p>IS is not the only jihadist movement to be propelled by apocalyptic theology, but more than any other, it has pushed the coming apocalypse into the ideological foreground. </p>
<p>But given the extent to which this prophetic culture is sustained by the well-being of a single person (self-appointed Caliph al-Baghdadi) and by expectations of a decisive victory in a clearly identified location, Islamic State has also made itself vulnerable to shattering ideological defeat.</p>
<p>Pope Francis’ choice of fiction might indicate that he understands all this better than many Western politicians and military strategists do. Re-read today, Lord of the World is an astute and prescient commentary on the threat of eschatological radical jihadism. It’s also a searing critique of the West’s moral and religious vacuum, in which violent absolutism of the IS variety has thrived shockingly well. </p>
<p>It seems that despite all their differences, Pope Francis and IS might share some very similar assumptions about the nature of the last crusade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crawford Gribben receives funding from the Irish Research Council and the Ministerial Advisory Group on Ulster Scots (DCAL, Northern Ireland) for his work on Radical Religion. He has written about Benson's "Lord of the World" in his "Writing the rapture: Prophecy fiction in evangelical America" (Oxford University Press, 2009).</span></em></p>What does a century-old sci-fi novel have to do with the Vatican’s view of Islamic State?Crawford Gribben, Professor of early modern British history, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/356492014-12-18T15:21:32Z2014-12-18T15:21:32ZPope Francis and Cuba: replacing embargo with encounter<p>On Wednesday, the White House announced that the United States would resume diplomatic relations with Cuba in a deal that was brokered with a great deal of help from the Holy See. A <a href="http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2014/12/17/0968/02096.html#Traduzione%20in%20lingua%20inglese">statement</a> released by the Vatican Press office congratulated the two nations on entering a new phase in relations and acknowledged that delegations from Cuba and the United States had met at the Vatican. Pope Francis, it appears, has helped negotiate a fruitful dialogue between these two countries. </p>
<p>When Pope Francis claims his vision for the church and the world is modeled on dialogue and encounter, he means it.</p>
<h2>The culture of encounter</h2>
<p>Though the announcement was a surprise – incredibly there was no leak that this normalization was happening — to those of us who have been following Francis’s actions, it represents a bold instance of the “culture of encounter” that characterizes his vision of the church and the world. For those who have commented that Francis’s pontificate seemed to be more about style than substance, this intervention provides a powerful, substantive example of encounter as a path to peace.</p>
<p>In October at the opening of the Synod on the Family, he encouraged the cardinals to speak freely, from the heart. He has sat for interviews and meals with atheists, non-Christians, leaders of separated churches. He requested a <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/01/pope-francis-makes-overtures-orthodox-muslims-steep-challenges-remain/">blessing</a> from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew when they met in Istanbul. If anything, the US-Cuba negotiations indicate that the pope has been broadening his sphere of influence outside the bounds of the Catholic Church. Francis’s popularity, and his Latin-American heritage, undoubtedly lent both urgency and credibility to his vision of a new relationship between Cuba and the United States.</p>
<p>But Francis is not the first pope to advocate for a change in Cuban-American relations. John Paul II, a fierce anti-communist and very much a product of the conflicts of the Cold War, famously met with Fidel Castro in the Vatican in 1996 and visited Cuba in 1998. Both he and his successor Benedict XVI called for the lifting of the US trade embargo. John Paul’s landmark visit to the island in 1998 allowed the Catholic Church in Cuba to practice publicly, and the church has since become an important force in the creation of civil society on the island.</p>
<h2>Why now?</h2>
<p>What, then, is the difference now? First, it is clear that the geopolitical situation is vastly different than it was in the 1990’s. The Cold War is long over, and global politics looks nothing like it did at the height of that conflict. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the ecclesial landscape has changed. Unlike John Paul’s focus on the dichotomy between the “culture of life,” exemplified in the church and the Gospel, and the “culture of death,” characterized by acceptance of abortion, euthanasia, and an “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html">individualistic concept of freedom</a>” (Evangelium Vitae 19), Francis prefers the model of a “culture of encounter.” The combative tone is gone, replaced with an approach characterized by dialogue and mutual transformation. </p>
<p>Encounters generally don’t need victors, only participants —- indeed, it would be difficult to argue that today’s announcement represents a victory for either the US or the Cuban regime. </p>
<p>If the US lost face in having to acknowledge the failure of its previous approach toward the island nation, the Cuban government lost much more. The embargo has long served as a cover for that government’s own mismanagement and corruption. As Cuban dissident and blogger Yoani Sanchez <a href="http://www.14ymedio.com/blogs/generacion_y/llego-el-di-D-de-los-cambios_7_1690100974.html">noted</a>, the Cuban ideological apparatus depends entirely on its status as David to the US’s Goliath -— without the aggression of the so-called American Imperialists to blame, the abuses of the Castros’ government will only become more difficult to rationalize.</p>
<p>What Francis (along with many others, including Cardinals <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/18/kevin-cullen-finds-cambridge-beyond-conflict-played-role-cuba-geopolitics/aOKgusVggk3amONdOMLTHN/story.html">O’Malley</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/17/us-cuba-pope-franicis-key-roles">Parolin</a>) has brokered is yet another encounter between parties that seemed hopelessly at odds. </p>
<h2>A focus on the neediest</h2>
<p>His goal in facilitating this relationship seems to be a humanitarian one -— the release of prisoners, the easing of economic sanctions that have done little damage to the Castro government but great harm to the majority of the Cuban people, especially the poorest who have neither basic needs like food and shelter, nor family abroad to send remittances. These, the neediest, have consistently been Francis’s main concern.</p>
<p>Political observers will continue to debate the relative merits of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba in the coming days. The Cuban exile community has expressed some disappointment in this decision, seeing it as a capitulation on the part of the US. However, Francis has created a scenario where capitulation need not be a choice. </p>
<p>Today’s news provides more evidence that Francis sees himself as a bridge-builder (as the title “pontifex” from the latin pons or bridge), that his vision of encounter moves beyond moral absolutes toward the ultimate goal of alleviating the suffering of those most in need. Hopefully, this vision will bring to fruition the work begun in the pontificate of John Paul II, by moving beyond condemnation, beyond winners and losers, and toward genuine global transformation for the benefit of the poor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalia Imperatori-Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On Wednesday, the White House announced that the United States would resume diplomatic relations with Cuba in a deal that was brokered with a great deal of help from the Holy See. A statement released…Natalia Imperatori-Lee, Associate Professor Religious Studies , Manhattan CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/346932014-12-01T10:47:21Z2014-12-01T10:47:21ZPope Francis’s ‘American problem’<p>In late November, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis is going to visit the United States of America for the World Meeting of Families that will take place in Philadelphia at the end of September 2015. </p>
<p>This trip is the most interesting - and possibly, the most difficult – among the many trips on the pope’s schedule. Why it may be difficult says much about this pontificate and how Americans are reacting to it. </p>
<h2>The politics of travel</h2>
<p>So far the trips of Pope Francis have outlined a map of his pontificate’s priorities: the roots of Christian faith (Holy Land), the peripheries of Europe (Lampedusa, Albania, Turkey), the global south and Asia (Brazil, Korea, Sri Lanka and Philippines). </p>
<p>The trip to the United States is less representative of the Francis’s agenda. Rather, it is driven by the need to visit the entirety of the Catholic faithful. In this sense it is similar to the recent short trip to the European Parliament. </p>
<p>Geographically, the journey of the Argentine pope to the United States connects dots that on the world maps delineate a particular geo-religious region of the world: the Atlantic. </p>
<p>In the mainstream, traditional narrative, the Atlantic represents the emigration route of European Catholics. But the Atlantic is also the route of the slave trade from Africa to North and Latin America. It will be interesting to see if and how the Pope will challenge the Catholic narratives that have - so far - been core to an all-white, all-European papacy.</p>
<h2>A hard pope to pigeonhole</h2>
<p>One of the difficulties for ideologues when they try to judge Pope Francis is his relationship with Europe. </p>
<p>For some, Francis is still a very European pope, because he has rarely taken a hard stance against secularism and European secular culture – or at least, much less hard than that of American bishops and American Catholic neo-conservatives. </p>
<p>For others, Francis is a Latin American populist who is trying to disguise his distance from modern, liberal culture and especially from the late 20th-century appeasement and surrender of European Catholics to secular modernity. </p>
<p>What Pope Francis says to America is a message to the whole Catholic world, but more directly to the European Catholic churches, given the deep historical and cultural links “across the pond.”</p>
<h2>Two Americas or one?</h2>
<p>The role of the United States on the world map of Catholicism is certainly distinctive, but pope Francis is not a believer in American “exceptionalism.” </p>
<p>After two Americanophile popes like John Paul II and Benedict XVI, it will be interesting to see how the Argentine pope will phrase his understanding of the relationship between Latin America and North America. </p>
<p>John Paul II believed in the unity of the continent when he convened the Synod of Bishops for the Americas in 1997. Since then, however, the US has started to go its own way. Today the ties between Catholic churches in the United States and those in Latin America are much more tenuous than before. Fewer American missionaries are now in Latin America than in the decades before the 1980s - the decrease in the number of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in the southern part of the continent is evidence of this trend. </p>
<p>This is proof that the geopolitics of states and churches are never completely independent - and that is particularly true for the Catholic Church. But in light of changes in the religious demography of the American continent, it is still legitimate to speak of a unity between the Americas. </p>
<p>Within the United States the Latin American element is growing and is critical to the vitality of American Catholicism. On the other hand, although the majority of Hispanics in the United States are Catholic, those of Catholic origin are more secularized than Latino Protestants. </p>
<p>The Spanish-speaking roots of the new pope resonate in a particular way across the continent – north of Mexico too. But it is also Pope Francis’s own story that makes the pontiff close to a large number of American Catholics. A pope who is a migrants’ son understands the challenges of a Catholicism of emigration, as it divides families between state boundaries.</p>
<p>But there are other challenges to the American trip of Pope Francis that are typical of his pontificate. </p>
<h2>Ideological divisions</h2>
<p>Despite all the rhetoric of brotherly love between the pope and the US bishops (so appropriate for a visit to Philadelphia), it is clear that many American bishops are not comfortable with the new pontiff’s tone and message. </p>
<p>Charles Chaput, archbishop of Philadelphia since September 2011, is one of the bishops most clearly attached to the language of the previous pontificate. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://archphila.org/archbishop-chaput/statements/+CJC_Strangers%20in%20a%20Strange%20Land_Erasmus%20Lecture_10-20-2014.pdf">Erasmus Lecture</a> he gave in New York City on October 20, right after the end of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, was a clear criticism of the dynamics of the open debate that Francis wanted to have - and got - at the Synod. </p>
<p>And he is not alone on this, if we read <a href="http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/11/17/chicagos-exiting-cardinal-the-church-is-about-truefalse-not-leftright/">the exit interview</a> of cardinal Francis George of Chicago. America’s brainiest cardinal bluntly accuses the pope of not understanding the consequences of the “who am I to judge” kind of statements on the soul and culture of American Catholics. The most vocal representatives of American Catholic hierarchy are openly blaming the pope for a state of confusion in the self-understanding of Catholics. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the debate over the role of women in the Church is loud and controversial in the US. On this front, it is not clear how pope Francis will be able to address Catholic feminist theological and ecclesiastical issues.</p>
<p>Catholic theologians and clergy trained outside the English-speaking world are far less familiar with feminist theology, its literature and its language. Feminist theologians have been so far more or less tolerant of some statements made by Pope Francis about the issue of women in the Church. Some feminist theologians, however, have already pointed out the issue they have with Francis and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/aug/27/pope-francis-womens-lives-catholic-church">language he uses</a> when he talks about women. They might be less forgiving with the Pope during his visit to the United States. </p>
<p>This tension is at the core of what I call, in <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/64512-getting-to-know-francis.html">my forthcoming analysis </a>of the pontificate, the “American problem” of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. </p>
<p>Some say that the American century has ended. It is not clear yet what the Latin American pope thinks about the next American Catholic century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Massimo Faggioli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In late November, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis is going to visit the United States of America for the World Meeting of Families that will take place in Philadelphia at the end of September 2015…Massimo Faggioli, Assistant Professor of Theology , University of St. ThomasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/330662014-10-21T09:58:02Z2014-10-21T09:58:02ZThe tectonic plates of world Catholicism shift<p>An extraordinary two weeks in Rome ended Saturday with a standing ovation. Pope Francis had invited 191 bishops and clergy to the Synod on the family to speak their minds on issues such as divorce, premarital cohabitation and homosexuality and they did. </p>
<p>Pope Francis’s invitation to bishops was to “speak clearly. No one must say, ‘this can’t be done.’” This was a big gamble. But the result is a victory for him. True, the final report is markedly less open to the aforementioned “irregular” situations that many had hoped for. But it is also clear that a stable majority of the bishops in Rome is on his side if we look at the <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/18/gays-missing-final-message-vaticans-heated-debate-family/">vote tally</a> of October 18. </p>
<p>Bishops are aware of the challenges to the so-called traditional model of the Catholic family and acutely aware that these challenges are not going to disappear. In this sense, the Catholic church of 2014 seems very far from that of Francis’s predecessors. What we are witnessing is an acceleration of Church history – something similar to the <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important">Second Vatican Council</a> 50 years ago.</p>
<p>What took place over the two weeks of the Synod was a genuine debate between competing ideas of what the church’s relationship ought to be with modern culture, the sexual revolution, and gender identity. But above all what these two weeks have revealed, for the first time, is a tectonic shift – a movement in the plates that make up the map of the Catholic world. </p>
<h2>A new map of the Catholic world</h2>
<p>In this new map Europe and Latin America are at the forefront of the new openness. On the other hand, North America, Africa, and in general English-speaking Catholics are more inclined to hone to a firm countercultural line, refusing to evolve the doctrine and pastoral practice of the church with regard to marriage and family. Asia presents a more complex picture, although the Cardinal from Manila, Luis Antonio Tagle, for example, was one of the leaders of Francis’s majority. </p>
<p>These are new alliances. Until the Second Vatican Council – the most important church reform since the 16th century – it was the European churches and their theological traditions that had the leading role. The churches built by missionaries may have been important participants but they were not able to build a strong opposition to the Europeans. Not anymore.</p>
<p>This October the strongest objections to the German bishops’ proposed welcome to gay and divorced Catholics came from the representatives of English-speaking Catholics from the United States, Africa, and Australia. Their opposition was carefully planned even before the Synod as one can see from the long paper trail of interviews, op-eds and <a href="http://www.ignatius.com/Products/RTC-P/remaining-in-the-truth-of-christ.aspx">books</a> laid down by Cardinal Raymond Burke (USA) and Cardinal George Pell (Australia). Once in Rome they argued with the Europeans in a way that has created a new sense of self-awareness in their churches back home. </p>
<h2>The ‘exceptional’ American church</h2>
<p>There are different reasons for the creation of these new alliances. In Africa opposition to a post-modern understanding of sexuality is rooted in deep cultural differences with Europe. For the US in particular, marriage and family have an iconic role shaped by the history of the American frontier. </p>
<p>Until Vatican II, American Catholicism was on the progressive side of history, in a church still filled with cultural optimism. The church and Christianity were then part of mainstream culture. Then came the 60s, the new legislation on abortion, divorce, and more recently same-sex marriage. The Catholic church felt pushed to take a countercultural stance. The legacy of the Second Vatican Council became a contested narrative and captive of the “cultural wars” of these past 30 years. </p>
<p>All this is part of a much bigger change in what can be called the neo-conservative turn of a number of prominent lay leaders of English-speaking Catholicism. Taking part in the public debate through such publications as <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/">First Things</a> (founded in 1990), they have voiced growing criticism of the welfare state in domestic politics; have endorsed the 2003 war in Iraq; and have been fiercely opposed to legislation regulating abortion and same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>The election to the papacy of a Latin-American bishop like Jorge Mario Bergoglio who does not adhere to any one political ideology has set different experiences of Catholicism in different parts of the world on a collision course. </p>
<p>When the Pope speaks about economic and social justice and the international financial system, Africa and America are on opposite sides of the argument. But on the issue of family values, Africa and America have built an alliance, and there is no doubt that, in the contemporary role of churches in the social and political debate, marriage and family play a particular role. </p>
<p>Unlike their neighbors to the north, Latin American Catholics have left behind the dream of building a “Christian nation” and have become convinced, like European Catholics, that it is time to adapt to changed social conditions.</p>
<p>It is interesting to see how a deeply traditional Catholic such as Pope Francis has unsettled the culture of important sectors of Anglo-Saxon Catholicism – in the US in particular. After 35 years of pro-American popes such as John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the Vatican and the US need to rebuild a lost harmony. </p>
<p>This now is the “American problem” of Pope Francis: the first pope after World War II with virtually no contact with the USA and its cultural empire, partly because of the difficult relationship between the US and its Latin American backyard and partly because of the personal background of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Francis has never been to the US. His English is not as fluent as that of his predecessors. This is going to be a crucial challenge for Francis and the future of Christianity. </p>
<p>America and the so-called global south are placed at the intersection of two worlds. In one corner there is the Christian West, where there has been a loss of faith in God and loss of trust in the power of human reason or what the Italian philosopher <a href="http://www.filosofico.net/giannivattimo.htm">Gianni Vattimo</a> calls “weak thought.” In the rest of the world there is a resurgence of religious belief or as French political scientist <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gilles-kepel/the-revenge-of-god/">Gilles Kepel</a> has dubbed it, “the revenge of God.” In this sense, the 2014 Synod is the dawn of a new era in the history of the Catholic church.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Massimo Faggioli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An extraordinary two weeks in Rome ended Saturday with a standing ovation. Pope Francis had invited 191 bishops and clergy to the Synod on the family to speak their minds on issues such as divorce, premarital…Massimo Faggioli, Assistant Professor of Theology , University of St. ThomasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/306852014-08-20T11:57:46Z2014-08-20T11:57:46ZAfter 65 years, is China finally ready to embrace the Pope?<p>Pope Francis flew over China on his way to South Korea late last week, where the Catholic Church has seen rapid growth in the last decade. Papal custom is to send a telegram to the leaders of nations over whose airspace he passes—thus when he flew over China, he sent the <a href="http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-sends-telegram-from-plane-to-china-an">following message</a> to President Xi Jinping: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Upon entering Chinese air space, I extend best wishes to your excellency and your fellow citizens, and I invoke the divine blessings of peace and well-being upon the nation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There was no public response from President Xi, but this was not the first time that Pope Francis had contacted him. Earlier this year, he told an Italian newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, that they had already <a href="http://www.ucanews.com/news/pope-acknowledges-first-communications-with-china/70436">exchanged letters</a>.</p>
<p>While the telegram was similar to those sent to other leaders, in the Chinese case, what was important was where it came from. This was the first time a pope had flown over the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since its establishment in 1949. When Pope John Paul II visited Seoul 40 years later, he was denied permission to travel over Chinese airspace and took a detour over Russia instead.</p>
<h2>Change in the air?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.ecns.cn/2014/08-14/129457.shtml">Discussion</a> has now turned to whether these recent contacts indicate a change in Sino-Vatican relations. If this is the case, it will be a complex path forward, fraught with long-standing disagreements. For many Chinese intellectuals of the early 20th century, Western missionary activity in China was a form of cultural imperialism. </p>
<p>During the Maoist period, it was emphasised that religion was the “opium” of the people. Not only was it a tool of oppression wielded by ruling classes – it was a false consciousness that hindered socialist construction.</p>
<p>Foreign missionaries were expelled from China after the Communists came to power. The Vatican’s representative in Beijing – Archbishop Antonio Riberi – remained in the country until 1951, but ordered Chinese Catholics to not participate in Communist activities. Beijing subsequently exiled him and since then the Vatican has maintained a diplomatic presence in Taipei, but not in the People’s Republic. Their recognition of the Republic of China (on Taiwan) continues to be a sticking-point in any discussions about Sino-Vatican relations.</p>
<p>Another issue is the naming of bishops. In the 1950s, China established the Protestant “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/world/asia/church-state-clash-in-china-coalesces-around-a-toppled-spire.html?_r=0">Three-Self Patriotic Church</a>” (standing for self-governance, self-support and self-propagation), and the “<a href="http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/organizations/chinese-catholic-patriotic-association">Catholic Patriotic Association</a>”. While the naming of bishops requires authority from the Vatican, in China, it is the association that does this. These measures were, in part, meant to ensure that Chinese Christianity remained free of foreign interference and developed in alignment with China’s new socialist path.</p>
<p>After the Cultural Revolution – when numerous religious professionals were imprisoned as counter-revolutionaries – Deng Xiaoping ushered in a new era of tolerance. Religious practice was again permitted within the context of China’s official organisations, as long as it was law-abiding, patriotic and did not conflict with the Party’s aims. </p>
<p>But many Chinese Christians continue to worship outside of the official framework, while underground Catholic and Protestant churches and networks continue to expand. In 1978, the Vatican also granted permission for Chinese bishops to independently conduct church affairs; this includes ordaining other bishops. The gap between the Vatican-approved church, and the Catholic Patriotic Association, has therefore become blurred.</p>
<h2>Long way up from here</h2>
<p>There have been numerous disagreements in more recent years, too. The party issued a <a href="http://english.people.com.cn/english/200010/01/eng20001001_51691.html">strong response</a> when Pope John Paul II canonised 120 Chinese Catholics, most of whom had had died during the anti-foreign (and anti-Christian) Boxer Rebellion in 1900. </p>
<p>The party is also acutely aware of the Church’s role in the Polish anti-communist movement during the Cold War. And priests working outside of the Catholic Patriotic Association continue to face arrest. For example, the bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/01/us-china-catholics-special-report-idUSBREA3001820140401">was arrested</a> in 2012 for renouncing the association in front of party cadres. He remains under house arrest.</p>
<p>Pope Francis’ flight over Chinese airspace does suggest another space may have opened up on the ground—for Sino-Vatican relations to improve. And while the Pope’s attention on his trip has been focused on the Korean peninsula, China is hard to ignore. </p>
<p>At a meeting of Asian bishops on Sunday, Pope Francis <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/august/documents/papa-francesco_20140817_corea-vescovi-asia.html">spoke about his hope</a> for “fraternal” dialogue with countries in the region with which the Vatican does not presently have relations, specifically seeking to allay fears about cultural imperialism. The PRC cannot have been far from his mind.</p>
<p>For now, it remains to be seen what will emerge from the Pope’s messages. After all, Pope John Paul II also <a href="http://www.hsstudyc.org.hk/en/tripod_en/en_tripod_137_02.html">wrote to Chinese leaders</a> in the 1980s, and differences remain. Indeed, the State Administration for Religious Affairs has recently <a href="http://english.people.com.cn/n/2014/0807/c90882-8766262.html">renewed its efforts</a> to create a “Chinese Christian theology”. But the global Catholic community rivals China in size, and the two sides cannot ignore each other. </p>
<p>After Pope Francis left Seoul, he sent another message – similar to his first – to President Xi as he again flew over China. Regardless of how events unfold, one thing is certain: the Church has sought engagement with China since the 13th century and it is not about to give up anytime soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Pacey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis flew over China on his way to South Korea late last week, where the Catholic Church has seen rapid growth in the last decade. Papal custom is to send a telegram to the leaders of nations over…Scott Pacey, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/290852014-07-21T04:14:41Z2014-07-21T04:14:41ZIs the Pope Catholic or communist when he speaks out on poverty?<p>A blog in The Economist recently accused Pope Francis of following the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, in adopting an “ultra-radical line” on capitalism. The <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/06/francis-capitalism-and-war">blog</a>, “Francis, capitalism and war: the Pope’s divisions”, was reacting to the Pope’s <a href="http://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20140612/54408951579/entrevista-papa-francisco.html">interview</a> on June 9 in Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, in which he linked an earlier form of capitalism with imperialism as the main causes of World War One. </p>
<p>In response, in an interview with the Italian daily Il Messaggero, the Pope <a href="http://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=55998">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The communists have stolen the flag. The flag of the poor is Christian … The poor are at the centre of the Gospel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Francis pointed to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatitudes">Beatitudes</a>, and <a href="http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/biblical_studies/parables/cr-mt25_31-46.htm">Matthew’s Last Judgment</a> scene when God will judge us on how we treated the hungry, naked, the prisoners. </p>
<p>“The communists say that all this is communist,” Francis said, yet Christians said this 20 centuries earlier. Pope Francis said one could reply to the communists: “you are Christians” in your concern for the poor.</p>
<h2>Reasserting Catholic social thinking</h2>
<p>Pope Francis’s views are arousing controversy, since many people seem unaware how strongly Catholic social thinking is opposed to the neoliberal policies of the free-marketeers. In the La Vanguardia interview, Francis was distressed that in some countries unemployment levels exceed 50% of workers. He had been told that 75 million young Europeans under 25 years of age were unemployed.</p>
<p>“That is an atrocity, discarding an entire generation to maintain an economic system” that was collapsing, and that depends on the armaments industry to survive. Francis supported the possibilities of globalisation, but deplored the discarding of the young and the elderly.</p>
<p>It was “incomprehensible” that so many people in the world are still hungry. Francis said “the world economic system is not good”, and “we have put money at the centre, the god of money”. </p>
<p>Others disputed the Pope’s critique of inequality. In the UK Telegraph, Allister Heath <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10906849/The-Popes-attack-on-capitalism-shows-he-knows-nothing-about-how-the-world-really-works.html">contested the views</a> of Francis for his attack on economic inequalities and the “new tyranny” of the “absolute autonomy of markets”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Francis’ wholesale condemnation of inequality is thus tantamount to a complete rejection of contemporary economic systems. It is not a call for reform … but a radical denunciation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Heath rejected Francis’s criticism of “trickle-down economics” as a caricature of free-market arguments. Instead, Heath regarded capitalism as “the greatest alleviator of poverty and liberator of people ever discovered”.</p>
<p>Paul B. Farrell’s <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-modest-plan-for-pope-francis-bill-gates-to-save-the-world-2014-06-25">suggestion in the Wall Street Journal</a> is for Francis to support Bill Gates’ “Giving Pledge” for the super rich to give away half their fortunes in their lifetimes. So far 122 of the super rich have agreed to do so. Alas, this would do nothing to challenge the causes of the perverse distribution of wealth in most capitalist economies.</p>
<p>As Archbishop of Buenos Aires before he became Pope, <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/biography/documents/papa-francesco-biografia-bergoglio.html">Bergoglio</a> experienced the trauma of Argentina going into the biggest financial default in history in 2002, owing nearly US$100 billion, much of it lost by mismanagement and war under earlier military regimes. </p>
<p>The percentage of Argentina’s population plunged into poverty rose to 50%, compared with 7% in the 1970s. Millions lost their savings, a quarter of workers lost their jobs and a quarter of the population was left destitute and hungry.</p>
<p>While most of the debt was restructured, so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/argentinas-debt-trail-favours-speculators-and-the-super-rich-28381">“vulture funds”</a> bought up some of the debt for a pittance and demanded that Argentina pay US$1.33 billion, making a return of 1000% to these 1.6% of original bondholders. Despite a German court striking out similar “vulture fund” claims in 2013, astonishingly the US Supreme Court in June 2014 ordered the full debt be paid.</p>
<p>Francis is speaking against the background of such predatory forms of capitalism.</p>
<h2>Francis condemns gross inequality</h2>
<p>On April 28, the Pope tweeted:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"460697074585980928"}"></div></p>
<p>Francis was quoting from his exhortation, <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html#The_economy_and_the_distribution_of_income">The Joy of the Gospel, #202</a>.</p>
<p>The message quickly drew thousands of retweets, some critical. Joe Carter, the director of the Acton Institute, an American free market think-tank that is underpinned by religious thought, tweeted:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"460821668077002752"}"></div></p>
<p>Thomas Piketty’s massive tome <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Century">Capital in the Twenty-first Century</a> had recently been published in English, arguing that the capitalist economy was inherently geared to greatly increasing inequality. Francis considers extreme “unbridled consumerism combined with inequality” outrageous. He fears that resentment by impoverished populations will fuel revolutions, as it has in the past. </p>
<p>Francis is not arguing for absolute equality, as some of his critics have claimed. The Catholic Church has never called for absolute equality. It has argued for a just distribution of goods and services that ensures everyone the possibility of a reasonable life and standard of living. Perhaps “social equity” is a better translation for what the Pope has in mind, but this implies more than the notion of equality of opportunity, since outcomes matter as well.</p>
<p>While sharply critical of the neoliberal views that exacerbated the global financial crisis, Francis strongly supports economic policies that promote material and social uplift more equitably. Speaking in Rome last month, Francis <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/june/documents/papa-francesco_20140616_convegno-justpeace.html">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is increasingly intolerable that financial markets are shaping the destiny of peoples rather than serving their needs, or that the few derive immense wealth from financial speculation while the many are deeply burdened by the consequences.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These issues are likely to figure prominently in the forthcoming document on the environment that Francis’s team of advisers have been preparing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Duncan is a Catholic priest of the Redemptorist Congregation and a member of the social advocacy organisation Social Policy Connections.</span></em></p>A blog in The Economist recently accused Pope Francis of following the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, in adopting an “ultra-radical line” on capitalism. The blog, “Francis, capitalism and…Bruce Duncan, Director of the Yarra Institute for Religion and Social Policy, University of DivinityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/269182014-05-28T20:15:16Z2014-05-28T20:15:16ZWhat is Pope Francis on about with all this talk of Satan and evil?<p>Pope Francis’ discussion of the devil (or Satan) has been <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/world/pope-francis-gets-old-school-on-the-devil-20140512-zr9sj.html">greeted with surprise</a> by many. Why would a “progressive” Pope speak about an “old-school”, passé topic like the devil? Has not the Catholic Church left behind its fear tactics and does not this pope represent its modern face?</p>
<p>The Catholic Church, along with other religious traditions, believes that human life is a drama in which human choices have eternal consequences, as they determine our character. In this regard, Francis has been formed by the Jesuits, with a long and developed spiritual tradition, especially for spiritual discernment. Francis is <a href="http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-satan-exists-in-the-21st-century-and">speaking about the devil</a> because he is concerned about the spiritual lives of people and sees the unrecognised influence of evil in them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Firstly, his (the devil’s) temptation begins gradually but grows and is always growing. Secondly, it grows and infects another person, it spreads to another and seeks to be part of the community. And in the end, in order to calm the soul, it justifies itself. It grows, it spreads and it justifies itself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before examining Francis’ teaching here, it is important to clarify: what is a spiritual life? Do all people have it? The spiritual life of a living being refers, broadly, to the non-material life of that being – that is, the conscious operations that are not motivated by material ends.</p>
<p>In other words, when a human person thinks or feels in a way that is unrelated to the material sustenance of their body they are engaged in a spiritual activity. The life of the human person is very much a spiritual affair: most of our lives are taken up with non-material activities – activities that are not primarily concerned with eating and drinking – such as listening to music, watching TV, talking with friends, learning at school or engaging in worship. </p>
<p>Even the activities that involve satisfying material ends (such as eating) can be united with spiritual activities when, for example, we commune and converse with others over a meal, or saying a thanksgiving “grace” to God. When humans converse they are engaged in a non-material operation: the sharing of meaning, through language, that builds friendship.</p>
<h2>How does evil work?</h2>
<p>Evil is essentially concerned with the distortion of our spiritual activities – the activities of meaning and desiring that allow humans to flourish together – so they are turned away from friendship and into discord and violence. In this regard, Pope Francis often uses the example of gossip. Gossip distorts the goodness of language and conversation by using them against others.</p>
<p>Language is a good – it allows us to share our lives with others through meanings. However, gossip is parasitic off this good and twists language into a weapon that discounts the whole of a person’s character and judges them in an absolute and unjust way. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49448/original/6wdr4j6f-1401087897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49448/original/6wdr4j6f-1401087897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49448/original/6wdr4j6f-1401087897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49448/original/6wdr4j6f-1401087897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49448/original/6wdr4j6f-1401087897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49448/original/6wdr4j6f-1401087897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49448/original/6wdr4j6f-1401087897.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Pope cites gossip as an example of how evil works.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MicroWorks/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gossip is ultimately motivated by distorted desire: by envy, resentment or hate in which we unite our desires with others against another. It involves scapegoating that gives a certain titillation and satisfaction, which covers over our own individual or collective problems. This is exemplified in celebrity gossip: it takes us out of our own problems, broken relationships and ordinariness into a world of projection where we can unite with others in voyeuristically judging others. </p>
<p>French philosopher <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/girard/">René Girard</a> calls the process by which we unite our desires in scapegoating others <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/girard/#SH5c">“satanic”</a>. “Satan” in Hebrew refers to the accuser; in contrast, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the “Paraclete”, that is, the defender (for example, of the victim). </p>
<p>According to Girard, human violence arises as our desires are distorted into an irrational contagion against others – in which we lose control but from which we gain great satisfaction.</p>
<p>There is a synergy in the descriptions of Girard and Francis. For example, in the case of gossip: jealousy or resentment arises in one person, through rivalry with another; words are spoken; distorted desire is spread; and verbal or physical violence is unleashed. We believe that we are doing the right thing – whereas in fact we are destroying the life of another, and ultimately harming ourselves by distorting the goodness of our relationships.</p>
<h2>Why do we choose evil over good?</h2>
<p>Still, we need to ask: why do we do violence against others, rather than love them? We can point to reasons for why people commit evil – such as envy or greed – but we are still left with the question: why choose evil over good?</p>
<p>The devil is a part of answering this question, but one should be careful about jumping to definitive conclusions. Ultimately, evil is irrational and not completely understandable. Evil involves humans losing control of themselves and losing sight of their ultimate good, as their desires and thoughts become distorted. </p>
<p>We may be able to think of examples in our own lives or others’ lives when we do, think or feel evil things in ways that shock us and seem inexplicable. Where did that thought come from? Where did that desire emerge? Why did I hurt that person? One can find oneself acting or thinking irrationally, almost in a fog of rage, resentment, greed or hurt. </p>
<p>Alongside the strange manifestations of evil in our lives, Pope Francis emphasises that the descent into evil definitively involves human choice. The Catholic Church is not looking to give any support to superstition (remember Jesus died in a very human way). </p>
<p>The Catholic Church’s long experience of evil leads it to acknowledge the possibility of different sources for evil, but it does this to assist humans in their freedom to choose good. It also does this with the assurance that God is defeating evil and helping us – that evil and death have been overcome with Jesus. </p>
<p>There are other philosophical and theological arguments concerning the devil, but Francis is concerned with the practical implications of evil in people’s lives. Francis points out that evil, especially the devil, works through our normal ways of living (for example by distorting our freedom or language) and tries to ensnare us. Evil can also take on a life of its own that appears like a personal force that becomes harder and harder to resist. </p>
<p>These temptations are a constant struggle. Francis is seeking for us to recognise them and overcome them, with God’s help. Hiding from evil only feeds evil. As philosopher Edmund Burke <a href="http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [people] do
nothing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Francis wants us to be realists: there is evil in our lives; we need to face it. The Catholic Church offers ways to help, by affirming that evil is never equal to the power of good, of which God’s love is the powerful source.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Hodge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis’ discussion of the devil (or Satan) has been greeted with surprise by many. Why would a “progressive” Pope speak about an “old-school”, passé topic like the devil? Has not the Catholic Church…Joel Hodge, Lecturer in Theology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/272362014-05-28T05:21:05Z2014-05-28T05:21:05ZPope’s Holy Land trip will help heal ancient rift with Orthodoxy<p>Pope Francis’s <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/travel-in-israel/religion-relics/pope-holy-land-visit/1.592611">visit to the Middle East</a> has been hugely significant, for both religious and political reasons. Francis hopes to encourage ongoing peaceful dialogue and co-operation between both Israelis and Palestinians over the future of the Holy Land, and in particular over Jerusalem, the focus of so much tension throughout history. </p>
<p>The most obvious practical effect is that Pope Francis has called on the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, to visit the Vatican to pray for peace and to continue the peace process.</p>
<p>Another longer-term effect will be to boost the morale of Arab Christians, who feel increasingly caught between calls for a Palestinian State (which, although Arab, would be overwhelmingly Muslim) on the one hand and the state of Israel on the other. The symbolism of Francis’s trip is therefore immensely important for Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, and should not be underestimated.</p>
<p>But for the Catholic Church itself, the most striking and historically meaningful events of the Middle East visit – apart from talking to the region’s major political and religious brokers – were Francis’s meetings with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the symbolic leader of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew. But why?</p>
<p>The significance is historical. “Patriarch” is originally a Biblical term used to describe a father or elder of the Church, while the title “Ecumenical” goes back as far as the sixth century. We find its usage in the Law Code of the <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/just/hd_just.htm">Emperor Justinian</a>, who worked to re-unite the Eastern and Western Empires. </p>
<p>In later centuries, “ecumenical” was used to refer to the seat of imperial power, Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), which was referred to as the “ecumenical didaskalos” (literally teacher), in effect the “ecumenical chair”.</p>
<p>Cracks in the relationship between Eastern and Western Christianity started to widen more than 1000 years ago. In the 11th century, during the pontificate of Leo IX (1049-1054), a <a href="http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/greatschism.aspx">great schism</a> arose between the western Catholic Church and the eastern Orthodox Church. Leo and the Ecumenical Patriarch, Kerullarios, fought over the influence of their respective Latin and Orthodox rites in southern Italy, which had once belonged to the Byzantine Empire.</p>
<p>In an act of defiance, Leo’s representative Humbert of Moyenmoutier, bishop of Silva Candida and an ardent reformer, laid down a bull of excommunication against Kerullarios on the high altar of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. </p>
<p>Although Leo IX was already dead before Humbert’s reaction, the rift opened deep wounds which are still not completely healed today.</p>
<h2>Reaching out</h2>
<p>The invitation to visit the Holy Land was extended by the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew (from the Phanar, Istanbul) right at the start of Francis’s pontificate. The visit was timed to commemorate the meeting of one of the Pope’s predecessors, Paul VI (1963-1978) and then Ecumenical Patriarch, Athenagoras – the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqZKM0k40iY">first international visit made by a modern pope</a>, and directly inspired by <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important">Vatican II</a> (1962-1965). It was a breakthrough in Catholic-Orthodox relations. </p>
<p>But although that meeting saw both men pray together, they did not do so in public. On his visit, Francis sought to strengthen relations still further. He visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional place associated with Jesus’ burial and Resurrection, where he was welcomed by the superiors of no fewer than three Christian communities: the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian Church and the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. </p>
<p>And in a groundbreaking gesture, both Francis and Bartholomew presided over and offered joint prayers at a <a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/05/25/pope-francis-and-patriarch-bartholomew-pray-together-at-the-church-of-the-holy-sepulchre/">special ecumenical service</a>, intended to embrace the different Christian groups, and broadcast live by the world’s media. </p>
<p>Since the three communities usually venerate at the Holy Sepulchre at different times, this was an ecumenical milestone. The spot has seen disputes, even <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7718587.stm">brawls</a>, between different Christian churches over the celebration of major feasts such as Easter. Yet during the course of this trip, Francis and Bartholomew also signed a joint statement on Catholic-Orthodox relations.</p>
<h2>Thawing relations</h2>
<p>During the high and late Middle Ages, the Ecumenical Patriarch wielded considerable political influence by virtue of his close affiliation with the Byzantine emperors. That influence waned only in the 15th century, when the Greek world was overrun by the Ottomans. Today, the various Orthodox churches are theoretically autonomous and equal. The head of the Greek Orthodox Church is the archbishop of Athens; however, the Ecumenical Patriarch has traditionally been Greek Orthodox, and the Greek Orthodox Church supports him. </p>
<p>There is also the Russian Orthodox Church, which wields real political as well as religious power within Orthodoxy not only because the archbishop of Russia is a patriarch, but also because the Russian Orthodox Church has the largest number of Orthodox bishops. </p>
<p>While the Ecumenical Patriarch has no overriding authority today, he is nevertheless symbolic of the leadership of the Orthodox Church. And in 2016, Bartholomew will preside over a <a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/3001/the_fragile_promise_of_the_panorthodox_council.aspx">pan-Orthodox council</a>, which many both inside and outside the Orthodox Church hope will be the Orthodox equivalent of Vatican II.</p>
<p>Pope Francis is keen to improve communication between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, and Bartholemew has expressed <a href="http://www.hcef.org/publications/hcef-news/790793863-popes-trip-to-the-holy-land-interview-with-the-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew">similar sentiments</a>. Their meeting should be viewed as a seminal moment in the long and complex history of Catholic-Orthodox relations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Rist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis’s visit to the Middle East has been hugely significant, for both religious and political reasons. Francis hopes to encourage ongoing peaceful dialogue and co-operation between both Israelis…Rebecca Rist, Associate Professor of Religious History, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/261602014-05-02T02:10:06Z2014-05-02T02:10:06ZStandards for sainthood: what defines a ‘miracle’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47514/original/pbh2vg8x-1398916324.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">John XXIII and John Paul II: most recent popes to join the ranks of saints.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/76474729@N02/14071361583">Mario Fornasari/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Popes John Paul II and John XXIII were <a href="https://theconversation.com/john-paul-is-no-saint-his-canonisation-is-political-theatre-26040">declared saints</a> by Pope Francis last Sunday. So what were the “miracles” necessary for John Paul’s sainthood, and how likely was it they really occurred?</p>
<p>Almost <a href="http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?sitemapid=6817">40% of Australians</a> believe in miracles, and the Oxford Dictionary <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/miracle?q=miracles">defines</a> a miracle as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a lengthy process to sainthood. While this process has been expedited and adjusted throughout history with papal discretion, it generally follows a <a href="http://www.usccb.org/upload/making-saints.pdf">uniform course</a>. </p>
<p>The final step in canonisation requires a second miracle, which must be attributed to the candidate saint. For a case to fulfil the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-briggs/what-is-a-miracle_b_810328.html">criteria</a> for a medical miracle, the healing must be instant and long-lasting. </p>
<p>This decision is made by the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/csaints/">Congregation for the Causes of Saints</a>, and requires <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/05/after-second-approved-miracle-pope-john-paul-ii-likely-to-become-a-saint.html">scientific consultation</a> to explore and exclude alternative explanations. The process is not transparent and the <a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/ccsnotejp2.HTM">decision is final</a>.</p>
<p>Prior to 1531, canonisation was achieved largely through <a href="http://www.livescience.com/45168-science-of-saints-and-miracles.html">tradition or martyrdom</a>. This was succeeded by a period where sainthood was achieved by the performance of three miracles. </p>
<p>During his tenure as pope (1978-2005), John Paul II accelerated the process of canonisation by <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/rushing-sainthood-pope-john-paul-ii-66633">reducing the requirement</a> to just two miracles. Pope Francis waived the requirement of the performance of a second miracle when he declared John XXIII a saint after the late pope had only <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/as-two-more-popes-are-canonized-a-question-emerges-how-miraculous-should-saints-be/2014/04/25/e81f50b1-20e3-4261-8803-91988e4cad01_story.html?tid=pm_pop">one miracle</a> attributed to him.</p>
<p>It has been reported that Pope Francis may now be considering the canonisation of Pope Pius XII, in spite of there being <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/st.-pius-xii-pope-francis-mulling-it-over-says-vatican-source">no miracles</a> attributed to him.</p>
<h2>Miracles over time</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://global.oup.com/academic/product/medical-miracles-9780195336504;jsessionid=FFD831EFEF89280090E01552398CD25E?cc=au&lang=en&">review</a> of 1,400 canonisation miracles over four centuries finds many patterns. More than 95% of miracles were healings from physical illness, with medical miracles accounting for 99% of all miracles in the 20th century. </p>
<p>The diseases addressed by miracles reflect the <a href="http://global.oup.com/academic/product/medical-miracles-9780195336504;jsessionid=D8838BD392868E35662553A64B0B86D1?cc=au&lang=en&">shifts in disease prevalence</a> in society over time: smallpox and fevers early on, tuberculosis in the 19th century and malignancy, neurological and heart disease in contemporary time.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1547226/Nun-tells-of-her-miracle-cure-by-John-Paul-II.html">first attributed miracle</a> of John Paul II was a cure of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-parkinsons-disease-698">Parkinson’s disease</a> in a French nun, Marie Simon-Pierre, in 2005. Here’s part of her <a href="http://communio.stblogs.org/index.php/2011/04/sr-marie-simon-pierre-if-you-b/">account</a> of being healed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] before the Most Blessed Sacrament, I meditated on John Paul II’s Mysteries of Light. At 6 o’clock in the morning, I went out to meet with the sisters in the chapel for a time of prayer, which was followed by the Eucharistic celebration.</p>
<p>I had to walk some 50 metres and at that very moment I realised that, as I walked, my left arm was moving, it was not immobile next to my body. I also felt a physical lightness and agility that I had not felt for a long time.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47489/original/bbn5v99r-1398907658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Floribeth Mora at the canonisation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/113018453@N05/14056855973/lightbox/">Aleteia Image Department/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sister Simon-Pierre’s purported miracle is problematic in many respects. There have been media reports of her suffering a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-paul-ii-miracle-further-scrutinized/">relapse</a> of her condition and there are <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12192639">doubts</a> about the initial diagnosis. Parkinson’s disease is a clinical diagnosis, and sometimes <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10714663">diagnostic errors occur</a>.</p>
<p>The second attributed miracle involved a <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/24/uk-pope-saints-miracle-idUKBREA3N1P920140424">claimed cure</a> of a cerebral aneurysm in a Costa Rican woman, Floribeth Mora Diaz, in 2011. While her neurosurgeon <a href="http://www.reuters.com/video/2014/04/29/pope-john-paul-ii-closer-to-sainthood-af?videoId=243799433&videoChannel=2602">claimed</a> he had never read about this occurring before, there are <a href="http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/79/8/863.extract">documented cases</a> of spontaneous resolution of cerebral aneurysms in the literature.</p>
<p>Lastly, when tested, intercessory prayer appears to make <a href="http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD000368/intercessory-prayer-for-the-alleviation-of-ill-health">no difference</a> to the outcome of medical conditions.</p>
<p>We do, rarely, see <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169500206002194">spontaneous remission</a> of disease in medicine. We don’t understand what causes this spontaneous remission in most cases, but it is <a href="http://www.logicalfallacies.info/presumption/post-hoc/">not logical</a> or necessary to invoke a supernatural deity to explain this occurrence. </p>
<p>Inexplicable results are a cause to wonder, investigate further, develop hypotheses and test them – to engage with the process of scientific inquiry. This is the process that has resulted in the development of modern medicine – providing successful treatments for Parkinson’s disease and cerebral aneurysms.</p>
<h2>What are the odds?</h2>
<p>There are many secular and non-secular works examining the concept of miracles. One seminal work is Scottish philosopher David Hume’s <a href="http://18th.eserver.org/hume-enquiry.html">An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47500/original/7y5dwf96-1398910340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/newsva/14037184075">News.va Official Vatican Network/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/37/3/14.html">writes</a> that “nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happens in the common course of nature” and “no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish”.</p>
<p>The prominent English mathematician <a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/%7Ehistory/Biographies/Littlewood.html">John Littlewood</a> wrote extensively about the statistics underpinning incidents that were touted as miracles. </p>
<p>He famously suggested that any given individual could statistically expect a “miraculous”, one-in-a-million, event to occur at the rate of approximately once per month.</p>
<p>The wider principle here is that, with a sufficiently large sample size, peculiar and low probability events (including inexplicable occurrences that may be considered miracles) will <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/miracle-on-probability-st/">not be as rare</a> as one may <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LawofTrulyLargeNumbers.html">intuitively expect</a>.</p>
<p>Evidence suggests that priming one to use analytical thinking may <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6080/493.abstract?sid=6ab39953-cb0c-423d-9303-bf64d1b82040">reduce levels</a> of religious belief. </p>
<p>Perhaps a healthy dose of scepticism and analytical thinking is needed before we accept, on face value, the occurrence of another miracle from the Catholic Church.</p>
<p><br>
<strong>See also:</strong><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/john-paul-is-no-saint-his-canonisation-is-political-theatre-26040">John Paul is no saint – his canonisation is political theatre</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malcolm Forbes receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Popes John Paul II and John XXIII were declared saints by Pope Francis last Sunday. So what were the “miracles” necessary for John Paul’s sainthood, and how likely was it they really occurred? Almost 40…Malcolm Forbes, Medical Registrar, Townsville Hospital and Health Service and Adjunct Lecturer, James Cook UniversityRyan Anderson, PhD candidate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/260402014-05-01T04:06:49Z2014-05-01T04:06:49ZJohn Paul is no saint – his canonisation is political theatre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47361/original/9jw3vxht-1398833393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis embraces Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI during the canonisation mass of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Osservatore Romano Press Office</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The week after Easter, Pope Francis presided over the canonisation ceremony <a href="http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1401709.htm">which declared</a> his two most famous contemporary predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII, were now “saints”. This is an important marker in his papacy, a transparently political act which seeks to balance the canonisation of the deeply conservative John Paul II with a simultaneous nod to John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and unleashed the <a href="http://www.thetablet.co.uk/vatican2">progressive reforms of Vatican II</a>.</p>
<p>Saints are the most distinctive part of the Catholic church’s symbolic world. From the courage of martyr saints to the eccentric ecstasies of its mystics, they people catholic theology, providing both illustration and inspiration. But they are not just resources for personal piety.</p>
<p>They are a powerful part of the church’s international political theatre. Canonisations are in some senses a pacifying, distracting ritual – but they are always also an important statement about the church’s key values.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47483/original/93hbvb9t-1398907043.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tapestry portraying Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica during the canonisation ceremony for Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Ettore Ferrari</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The canonisation of John Paul II seemed inevitable since the chants at his funeral in 2005: “Sancto subito” – sainthood immediately. The process started when his successor Pope Benedict, forever the loyal lieutenant, waived the standard five-year waiting period. </p>
<p>The news of the lesser-known John XXIII’s elevation comes with its own exception: Francis waived the normal requirement of a second miracle in the Italian’s case. </p>
<p>This unusual move seems to indicate that the current pope is aware that he needed to balance his message by canonising two men regarded as representing different ends of the theological spectrum.</p>
<p>As an ecumenical gesture to different factions in the church the canonisations might be seen as a strategic and welcome step in a process of reconciliation badly needed in a divided church. But can the spirit of openness and questioning propagated by John XXIII, and seen by many to be renewed by Francis, be genuinely celebrated alongside the authoritarianism of John Paul II who policed any questioning in the church with the <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-01-13/news/8701040060_1_father-curran-moral-theology-rev-charles-curran">suppression of dissident views</a>?</p>
<p>Even more significantly, John Paul didn’t merely lead his flock in a more conservative direction. </p>
<p>His pontificate is forever tainted by the priestly sex abuse crisis and it was only at the very end of his pontificate after a decade of public scandal, that John Paul <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/vatican/Pope_Laments_Abuse_Toronto.htm">spoke forthrightly</a> about the issue. At the time of his beatification in 2011 – the stage in the Catholic “sainting” process that precedes canonisation – the Boston Globe quite rightly <a href="http://www.boston.com/2013/07/05/bgcom-archive-cullen-jpii/i32eJYZvTfSzGlnXJsUtuK/story.html">described him</a> as “a flawed man who presided over a church that was guilty of one of the biggest institutional cover-ups of criminal activity in history.”</p>
<p>Canon lawyer Tom Doyle, one of the first figures to bring the depth of the scandal to light, and who wrote the earliest report to the Vatican on the crisis, <a href="http://www.boston.com/2013/07/05/bgcom-archive-cullen-jpii/i32eJYZvTfSzGlnXJsUtuK/story.html">put it this way</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of lives were ruined because this pope looked the other way, and now they are falling over themselves to make him a saint … It is self-serving, and it is counterproductive, more evidence that the people who run the church don’t understand that these very actions are driving people from the church. It mystifies me. And when I think of the survivors of sexual abuse, it saddens and angers me.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47484/original/mm4cq329-1398907134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tapestry portraying Pope John XXIII at St. Peter’s Basilica during the canonisation ceremony.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Ettore Ferrari</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since his election, Pope Francis has deftly captured the world’s attention with surprising symbolic gestures. </p>
<p>At first blush the twin canonisation announcement seems like another theological parable wrapped in a good news story. But looked at more closely it’s the very type of use of institutional power that led to the systematisation of abuse within the church.</p>
<p>John Paul’s defenders immediately began to <a>muster a defense</a>) as soon as opposition to the Polish pontiff’s canonisation began to surface: it is the man not his papacy that is being canonised.</p>
<p>But trying to divorce personal sanctity from institutional leadership is the kind of thinking at the heart of the church’s response to clerical sex abuse. It was a response which valued institutional reputation and preservation of leadership over the lives of its members.</p>
<p>Back in medieval times the cults of the saints were controlled by their church biographers; the faithful believed what they were told. They longed for the most unrealistic measures of miraculous sanctity. </p>
<p>In a mediated world hagiography is quickly exposed. John Paul II was a charismatic leader but he was not a saint. Any thinking person who has been reading the news knows it. To pretend that he was perpetuates the mindset central to the church’s sex abuse crisis: it valorises and absolves the church’s leadership class while ignoring the rights and stories of the abused.</p>
<p>The decision to canonise John Paul II is not just symbolically and politically wrong-footed, theologically it ignores the suffering Christ embodied in the church’s victims. It clearly shows the church has yet to fully accept responsibility for the scandal in its midst.</p>
<p>Disappointingly it seems to indicate that Francis is more concerned with sanctifying the past than courageously defining a new future for his troubled church.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus O'Donnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The week after Easter, Pope Francis presided over the canonisation ceremony which declared his two most famous contemporary predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII, were now “saints”. This is an important…Marcus O'Donnell, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218102014-01-22T01:28:05Z2014-01-22T01:28:05ZMaking history personal: Pope Francis’ mission of unity to the Middle East<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39373/original/qx9hr3wb-1390188691.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis’ journey to the Middle East will be a defining journey on the question of Catholic-Eastern Orthodox unity</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/L'Osservatore Romano</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis announced this month he will visit the Middle East in May this year. While it has been foreshadowed since the first weeks of his papacy, this event will place the Church’s first South American Pope in the historic homeland of Christian faith, the “Holy Land”, which has witnessed a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/christians-of-the-holy-land/">significant</a> decrease in its Christian population in <a href="http://sojo.net/magazine/2013/07/holy-land-without-christians">recent years</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond the <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20140112153912.htm">headlines</a>, the long-term significance of the visit should be interpreted in light of the hope of unity between Christians.</p>
<p>Notably, Francis has referred to the <a href="http://www.lastampa.it/2013/12/14/esteri/vatican-insider/en/never-be-afraid-of-tenderness-5BqUfVs9r7W1CJIMuHqNeI/pagina.html">“ecumenism of blood”</a> in parts of the world where Christians have lost their lives for the sake of their faith (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecumenism">ecumenism</a> refers to efforts to unite Christians). Francis has encouraged all Christians – not just Catholics – to pray for the gift of unity. In places where Christian numbers are dwindling, the Pope is urging churches to seek each other out in unity.</p>
<p>In this difficult context, His Holiness has identified one “principal goal” of his pilgrimage: to commemorate the 1964 meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Athenagoras_I_of_Constantinople">Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople</a> (the head of the Eastern Orthodox Churches). In fact, the announcement of this new anniversary tour was made on January 5, 2014, 50 years to the day since the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1169&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1169&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39366/original/66q774j3-1390185561.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1169&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/SEDAT SUNA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pope Francis will meet with the Orthodox Patriarch, Bartholomew I at the site of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians revere as the place of Jesus’ burial. The Bishop of Rome (Francis) will also visit Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, and Amman, Jordan, an important historical city for Christians, Jews and Muslims.</p>
<p>It should be remembered that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism">Great Schism</a> – the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, which became official in the year 1054 – resulted in the Western and Eastern traditions of the Church continuing to develop largely in isolation from one another.</p>
<p>Out of the meeting in 1964 came the mutual rescinding of excommunications between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Since then, neither Church has been in an official state of hostility or excommunication. For too long, the East and the West have been out of communion, and out of touch, but the new era, post 1964, has seen a renewed appreciation and attentiveness to one another.</p>
<p>By focusing his Holy Land pilgrimage on commemorating the meeting of his predecessor with the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Pope Francis is putting into effect the sentiments of a <a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/ch_orthodox_docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19671028_athenagoras-i-paul-vi_en.html">Common Declaration</a> jointly published by the Pope and the Patriarch after the latter visited Rome in 1967. There, both emphasised not only a commitment to the restoration of unity, but stated that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>an essential element in the restoration of full communion between the Roman Catholic Church on the one side and the Orthodox Church on the other, is to be found within the framework of the renewal of the Church and of Christians in fidelity to the traditions of the Fathers and to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit Who remains always with the Church.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This was no mere rhetoric. Despite serious hiccups along the way, the dialogue between East and West was pursued by a previous Pope, John Paul II, in his implementation of the Second Vatican Council and, following a sad respite from its work, was officially re-instated by Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39370/original/2rr4nnq9-1390187585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39370/original/2rr4nnq9-1390187585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39370/original/2rr4nnq9-1390187585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39370/original/2rr4nnq9-1390187585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39370/original/2rr4nnq9-1390187585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39370/original/2rr4nnq9-1390187585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39370/original/2rr4nnq9-1390187585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Benedict XVI and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I in 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/PATRICK HERTZOG /POOL</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What Pope Francis has done is focus on Christian unity as a real and personal goal that will take place through a renewal of the Church’s mission.</p>
<p>That is to say, as the Church continually returns to its roots; in Scripture, in the traditions of the first millennium, in the enactment of its proclamation of the Gospel, in its appeal to God’s mercy for every human person, so also will the Church discover the means by which the East and the West will return to full and tangible unity.</p>
<p>Since his election in March last year, Pope Francis has embarked on a reform agenda that builds on the work of his immediate predecessors. There is a sense of renewed invigoration in the Catholic world that is, paradoxically perhaps, matched by the Pope’s popularity in the secular world, such as Time Magazine’s designation of Francis as <a href="http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/pope-francis-the-choice/">Person of the Year</a>.</p>
<p>Many have struggled to comprehend what the driving force is in this appreciation for Francis, a preacher who kisses the disabled, denounces exploitation of the poor, encourages us all to give to others, and not to stop when it hurts.</p>
<p>And perhaps that is the key: Pope Francis makes the Gospel a tangible, personal, face-to-face event. He wants to shake your hand, speak to each person in the room, tell every lost soul that God loves them. History –- and theology –- for Francis, is personal.</p>
<p>The Holy Land pilgrimage will be an opportunity to extend this personal approach. In seeking out Christian unity in the midst of the troubles of the Middle East, the signs are that Francis will make this more than a dialogue.</p>
<p>He will make it a personal relationship that helps to overcome the prejudices of history. It will be a large-scale echo of Francis’ famous embrace of Bartholomew I, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, at the Papal inauguration, during which Francis exclaimed “My brother Andrew”. Andrew was the brother of Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, and so the gesture was both symbolic and fraternal.</p>
<p>However it goes, and whatever other issues are dealt with, Pope Francis’ journey to the Middle East and the Holy Land will be a defining journey on the question of Catholic-Eastern Orthodox unity. Attentive eyes will recognise this; much of the world’s media will misunderstand its historic and its personal importance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nigel Zimmermann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis announced this month he will visit the Middle East in May this year. While it has been foreshadowed since the first weeks of his papacy, this event will place the Church’s first South American…Nigel Zimmermann, Lecturer, School of Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213952013-12-12T12:18:23Z2013-12-12T12:18:23ZPerson of the year Pope Francis reminds us of our nobler side<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37587/original/dnzfkhxr-1386845014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">He didn't get Rush Limbaugh's vote, that's for sure.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Agência Brasil</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis has been named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for “pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets”. He beat nine others including NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Bashar al-Assad.</p>
<p>Time magazine chooses its person of the year on the basis of impact. The award is given to the person who has had the most impact during the year, for better or worse. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/pope-francis-the-choice/">managing editor Nancy Gibbs</a> Francis is “a new voice of conscience” who has drawn comparison to both Martin Luther King Jnr and Karl Marx. He has “placed himself at the very centre of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalisation, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power”.</p>
<p>Francis has changed the style and ethos of the papacy, in a way which has inspired many outside and inside the church. While our politicians promote a culture of corporate greed, preaching austerity to the poor and dismantling the welfare state, Francis envisions a just society based on the dignity and solidarity of every human being, with a special concern for the poor and the marginalised.</p>
<p>He is compared to Pope John XXIII (<a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829723,00.html">winner in 1962</a>), who initiated the Second Vatican Council. Pope John Paul II (<a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2019712_2019711_2019690,00.html">winner in 1994</a>) and Pope Benedict XVI attempted to halt the changes sweeping through the postconciliar church, but Francis has once again “thrown open the windows” (to use John XXIII’s expression), to let in the winds of change.</p>
<h2>Repeating tradition</h2>
<p>Many liberal Catholics are euphoric, but others are wary. As a prominent Catholic commentator told me privately, referring to Francis’s Argentinian background: “When Peronists indicate left, they usually turn right”. There have been <a href="http://conservativebyte.com/2013/11/sad-wrong-pope-francis-unless-deliberate-mistranslation-leftists/">dismayed mutterings</a> on the conservative blogosphere as to whether the Pope is really a Catholic. These are people for whom being Catholic means rigid conformity to church teachings on gender and sexual ethics. The influence they enjoyed under John Paul II and Benedict XVI is unlikely to continue under Francis, who has made clear his impatience with those who put moral absolutes before the love and mercy of God.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37588/original/hdppxmsp-1386845309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Past winners have included Hitler and Stalin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Time Magazine</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Francis’s recently-published apostolic exhortation <em><a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html">Evangelii Gaudium</a></em> (the Joy of the Gospel), has attracted widespread media coverage because of its condemnation of the “tyranny” of the financial system. In language that resonates with that of Latin American liberation theologians of the 1970s, he refers to the “deified market”, and “the new idolatry of money”. </p>
<p>However, he is largely repeating traditional church teaching about the just distribution of resources and, more recently, about the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, which are central tenets of Catholic social teaching. The difference is more in style and emphasis than in substance. To quote Gibbs, “he has not changed the words, but he’s changed the music”.</p>
<p>The main focus of <em>Evangelii Gaudium</em> is not economics. It is to remind Catholics of their vocation to evangelisation and mission, based not on conformity to rules and rituals but on the joy and hope of faith. It is pastoral in style with many touches of affection and wit, but it is has harsh words to say about clericalism and elites within the church. </p>
<h2>He’s no liberal</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, it is misleading to describe this as liberalism. Francis reiterates that the ordination of women is not open to discussion, and we must wait to see how committed he is to his expressed desire to promote women to roles of leadership in the church. While he makes no reference to homosexuality or contraception, he affirms the church’s opposition to abortion, albeit in pastoral terms which acknowledge the need to reach out to women struggling with unwanted pregnancies. Perhaps he appears liberal because his two conservative predecessors sought to exercise such a monopoly of power.</p>
<p>Yet there is a paradox here. Francis seeks to diminish the power of the papacy and to introduce a model of consultation and dialogue within the church. However, he has rapidly acquired superstar status. He risks becoming the victim of his own success, if he fuels a papal personality cult which many believe was John Paul II’s downfall. </p>
<p>Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said of the Time announcement that the Pope was not seeking fame, but: “If it attracts men and women and gives them hope, the Pope is happy.” I doubt if this dubious honour will go to Francis’s head. After all, previous recipients included Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin (twice), nearly every American president, and even “the computer”. Like The Guardian, I would have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/edward-snowden-voted-guardian-person-of-year-2013">chosen Edward Snowden</a>, as someone whose courageous action has had a far-reaching impact on all our lives. Or, if we are talking about impact in terms of devastation and destruction, Bashar al-Assad had no peers in 2013. </p>
<p>But perhaps the choice of Francis expresses something similar to the eulogies surrounding the death of Nelson Mandela. They bear witness to our deep human longing for justice and solidarity. For all our cynicism and disillusionment, they remind us that we are a noble species and we can do better than this. Such people are not idols to be worshipped, but examples to be followed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tina Beattie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis has been named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for “pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets”. He beat nine others including NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Bashar…Tina Beattie, Director of the Digby Stuart Research Centre for Religion, Society and Human Flourishing, University of RoehamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208262013-11-28T00:11:13Z2013-11-28T00:11:13ZPope Francis prioritises the poor, channels Marx in new ‘manifesto’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36340/original/vhcsrxmr-1385591121.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not since the papacy of Paul VI in the 1960s has a pope openly declared the need to rebel against unjust capitalism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Claudi Peri</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis has openly attacked capitalism in his recently released <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html#AMID_THE_CRISIS_OF_COMMUNAL_COMMITMENT">Apostolic exhortation</a>, which for all intents and purposes is the Pope’s “manifesto”.</p>
<p>While Francis has called for the radical <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/pope-francis-calls-for-power-to-be-taken-away-from-vatican/5118636">decentralisation of the Vatican</a>, and decided that gay people are <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/pope-francis-gays_n_3669635.html">not agents of Satan</a>, it is his outcry against savage capitalism that creates the biggest interest. Much of it could have come from the <a href="http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2013/11/pope-francis-or-karl-marx.html">hand of Karl Marx</a> himself, minus the critique of ideology.</p>
<p>Since his election to the Catholic Church’s highest position in March, Francis has set an example for a more modest lifestyle, <a href="http://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/pope-of-the-people-pope-francis-to-live-in-vatican-guesthouse-not-papal-apartments/13355">living in the Vatican guesthouse</a> and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/pope-francis-suspends-bishop-bling/story?id=20655188">suspending a bishop</a> who spent millions on his luxurious residence. He also <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/16/pope-francis-st-francis-assisi">chose to be called Francis</a> after Saint Francis of Assisi, who lived a life of poverty. So, is the hierarchy of the Catholic Church finally living up to the teachings of Jesus?</p>
<p>Calling for a more equal society, chapter two of Francis’ exhortation attacks the nature of modern capitalism, stating in no uncertain terms that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is only one section of the 84-page document, but it sets out the challenges of today’s world which includes headings such as “No to an economy of exclusion”, “No to the new idolatry of money”, “No to a financial system which rules rather than serves” and “No to the inequality which spawns violence”.</p>
<p>Francis has clearly been <a href="https://theconversation.com/revitalising-the-catholic-church-is-pope-francis-proposing-a-new-way-forward-18523">shifting the direction</a> of the Catholic Church from the previous conservative slant of Pope Benedict. Not since the papacy of Paul VI in the 1960s has a pope openly declared the need to rebel against unjust capitalism.</p>
<p>Under Francis, European Church attendance is ever so slowly on <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2013/11/17/the-pope-francis-effect-everyones-loving-it-so-far/">the rise</a> for the first time in decades. <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2013/10/04/poll-catholics-agree-church-focused-issues-support-gay-marriage/">Two-thirds of Catholics</a> seem to view Francis’ overall focus on human harmony as a positive thing.</p>
<p>Francis is a Jesuit and comes from Latin America, which was the home of the radical <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2013/09/09/liberation-theology-finds-new-welcome-in-pope-francis-vatican/">“Liberation Theology” movement</a> of the 1960s and 1970s, which was feared by the conservative members of the Catholic Church. This tradition is a reading of the scripture that looks at sin in social problems, not individual ones. </p>
<p>Those adhering to this form of theology fight for an action against oppression, and as God identifies with the oppressed, this is where action by the church should be taken. Naturally, many deride this strain of Christian thought as “Marxist”.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/papabile-day-men-who-could-be-pope-13">National Catholic Reporter</a>, although Francis had opposed liberation theology <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/world/europe/pope-francis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">in Argentina</a>, this seems to have to do more with keeping Jesuits from becoming politically active or working directly in community groups – which would be a departure from the more traditional role of the order – than it does with rejecting an interpretation of Catholicism that places an emphasis on the poor.</p>
<p>It is a welcome change as capitalism stumbles from <a href="http://roarmag.org/2011/05/david-harvey-on-the-crises-of-capitalism/">crisis to crisis</a>. And with global inequality <a href="http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_58230.html">on the rise</a>, it is significant that not only popular movements worldwide are realising and rebelling against this, but that the head of one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful institutions is also doing so.</p>
<p>Francis writes that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He openly attacks the defenders of the free market, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And Francis goes on with a statement which would not be out of place in a Communist pamphlet:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36341/original/xrxd6r79-1385591590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The theories of Karl Marx are clearly present in Pope Francis’ recent exhortation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just like Marx wrote over 100 years ago, Francis understands capitalism’s manner of turning everything into a commodity, even humans.</p>
<p>Naturally, Francis has attracted the ire of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/us/conservative-us-catholics-feel-left-out-of-the-popes-embrace.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp&pagewanted=all">conservatives</a>, who see the Catholic Church’s role in line with traditionalism, and as an institution to hold off moral relativism and the growing secularisation of Western society. </p>
<p>In an Australian context, Francis’ manifesto could easily be aimed at Jesuit-educated Tony Abbott and conservative cardinal George Pell, particularly when he writes that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is of course true that the Catholic Church has huge, <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/08/wealth-of-roman-catholic-church-impossible-to-calculate/">undisclosed wealth</a> that is closely tied with the global <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/vatican-bank-earnings-report_n_4022662.html">usury system</a> of unethical loans that <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-13&version=KJV">Jesus condemned</a>.</p>
<p>But it has only been eight months since Francis stepped into his role, and in this short time he has possibly done more for updating Catholic theology than any pope has done in the 20th century. He is not the first pope to <a href="http://qz.com/151226/the-pope-has-been-striking-back-against-capitalism-for-more-than-a-century/">attack the capitalist system</a> and may be closer to <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/pope-franciss-theory-of-economics/281865/">Hungarian economic philosopher Karl Polanyi</a> than Karl Marx. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Francis’ arguments are more specific, opening naming “trickle-down economics” while practicing what he preaches and living a relatively humble lifestyle.</p>
<p>Francis is saying what many have said before, and will continue to say – that inequality is worsening, with the blame laid firmly at the feet of capitalism. But certainly, it holds more weight coming from such an influential man than it would coming from <a href="https://theconversation.com/russell-brand-political-theorist-20053">Russell Brand</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Self does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis has openly attacked capitalism in his recently released Apostolic exhortation, which for all intents and purposes is the Pope’s “manifesto”. While Francis has called for the radical decentralisation…Andrew Self, Postgraduate Associate at the Institute of Latin American Studies, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184902013-09-27T05:33:29Z2013-09-27T05:33:29ZPope Francis brings religious subtlety to Catholic dogma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32028/original/rht6ybq4-1380208676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Understated as ever.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ANSA/Osservatore Romano</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Liberals are enthusiastic, while conservative Catholics express deepening dismay. The Pope must be giving interviews again.</p>
<p>Reactions to Francis’s <a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview">sit-down</a> with Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of <em>La Civiltà Cattolica</em>, have focused on areas where the Pope seems most in tune with liberal sympathies. His comments about not judging homosexual people have been widely quoted, as has his explanation that he has deliberately avoided focusing on obsessive issues such as abortion, gay marriage and contraception. </p>
<p>Yet this long, thoughtful interview reveals a theological subtlety and a spiritual depth which cannot be communicated in selective sound bites. Not surprisingly for a Jesuit, Francis refers repeatedly to the Ignatian principle of “discernment”. He says, “The wisdom of discernment redeems the necessary ambiguity of life”.</p>
<p>He comes across as modest, a man of prayer, ready to admit to his own mistakes and ascetical in his personal life. He has a keen vision of the church as a healing presence amidst the suffering of the world, and he is willing to say where it has failed to live up to that calling. It is clear he puts human vulnerability and need before any abstract idea or moral absolute. He advocates uncertainty and doubt as a way of remaining open to God. Above all, he seeks to communicate the “simple, profound, radiant” message of the Gospel.</p>
<h2>Style and substance</h2>
<p>Theologically, Francis is in tune with the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/624014/Second-Vatican-Council">Second Vatican Council</a>. Pope Benedict XVI sought to steer the church away from the historically and culturally contextualised theological model inspired by the Council, towards a more absolutist and transcendent view of the church’s role in culture and history. In words that resonate with the spirit of Vatican II, Francis describes the church as “the people of God on the journey through history, with joys and sorrows”. He goes on to say “all the faithful, considered as a whole, are infallible in matters of belief”. It is hard to imagine a more radical challenge to the creeping infallibility that has infected the papacy in recent decades. Such observations might not immediately catch the attention of the media, but they have far-reaching implications.</p>
<p>Still, a reality check is called for. Pope Francis has changed the style of the papacy almost beyond recognition, but he has yet to make any substantial changes to church structures. It remains to be seen what, if any, changes he might make to church teaching. He said, “we always need time to lay the foundations for real, effective change”. Liberals as well as conservatives would do well to learn from his example of patience and discernment.</p>
<p>It is unlikely he will make doctrinal changes around issues such as women’s ordination and same-sex marriage – although I would not be surprised if he changes the teaching on contraception. If he means what he says about the infallibility of the faithful, then he must surely recognise that the vast majority of Catholics have rejected Pope Paul VI’s prohibition on artificial birth control in the 1968 letter, <em><a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html">Humanae Vitae</a></em>. But pastoral sensitivity will not necessarily translate into doctrinal reform. In the interview he says, “The teaching of the church … is clear and I am a son of the church”.</p>
<h2>An end to censorship?</h2>
<p>I am however hopeful that he will show greater respect for the academic freedom of Catholic theologians than his predecessor. As Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and then as Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger suppressed debate on issues such as women’s ordination, contraception, homosexuality and abortion, and this created a theological culture of fear and self-censorship. </p>
<p>Francis says he wants to avoid the risk of such “institutions of censorship” in Rome, by delegating greater authority to local bishops. Theologians need freedom to analyse the church’s teachings in the context of changing circumstances, if they are to contribute to the process of discernment. This is particularly true of women theologians, who must be invited to participate if the Pope is serious in his desire “to develop a profound theology of the woman”. The section on women is the most disappointing part of the interview. He comes across as an old-fashioned romantic who fails to engage with the questions that women are asking of the church. He uses the term “the feminine genius” – a vacuous phrase favoured by John Paul II.</p>
<p>However, I dare to hope that, if Francis remains true to the vision he set out in this interview, Catholics can look forward to a greater degree of freedom, participation and dialogue than has been the case for many years. No wonder that for many in the church this feels like the arrival of spring after a long and difficult winter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tina Beattie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Liberals are enthusiastic, while conservative Catholics express deepening dismay. The Pope must be giving interviews again. Reactions to Francis’s sit-down with Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of La Civilt…Tina Beattie, Director of the Digby Stuart Research Centre for Religion, Society and Human Flourishing, University of RoehamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185232013-09-25T02:02:06Z2013-09-25T02:02:06ZRevitalising the Catholic Church: is Pope Francis proposing a new way forward?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31811/original/r6sgcmfh-1379981562.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis' liberal approach to theology is aimed at reforming the church's attitude towards issues.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Alessandro Di Meo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis has made headlines recently with comments about abortion, gay marriage, contraception, work and capitalism. Francis <a href="http://americamagazine.org/pope-interview">has said</a> that he’s “not spoken much about these things [abortion, gay marriage, contraception]”, while <a href="http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/francis-address-to-group-of-catholic-gynecologists">also stating</a> that human life is being degraded by a “throwaway culture”. </p>
<p>Francis has <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/09/2013922231158223273.html">also criticised</a> the global economic system for its idolisation of money and inability to provide dignified work for people. How can we make sense of these comments?</p>
<p>There is an underlying consistency to Francis’ remarks, though this consistency can get lost when only sections of Francis’ comments are reported.</p>
<p>In the first place, Francis is reflecting Catholic Church teaching on life and social issues - for example, that human life is sacred and has an inherent dignity. This dignity is the basis for human rights for all, including a right to life and to dignified work. Without this basis in the absolute dignity of the human person, rights lose their foundation and meaning. Speaking to a group of Catholic gynaecologists, Francis <a href="http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/francis-address-to-group-of-catholic-gynecologists">argued</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The paradoxical situation is seen in the fact that, while new rights are attributed to the person, sometimes even presumed, life is not always protected as primary value and primordial right of every man [human].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Francis is critical of the cultures and economic system that disrespect human dignity and rights. Speaking in <a href="http://bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2013/09/pope_offers_hope_to_sardinias_poor_unemployed">Sardinia</a>, where the divide between rich and poor is stark, he was critical of systems and organisations that make money the sole focus of economic and social decisions.</p>
<p>Profits are legitimate, but excessive profiteering with little or no respect for the dignity of people to work in meaningful occupations and just conditions is highly problematic. Francis knows the results of this excessive profiteering in the experience of his own family who had to migrate from Italy to find work, and in the experience of South America.</p>
<p>Francis is highlighting how this excessive focus on profits and money - rather than people - is corrosive of the global economic system. Given the effects of the global financial crisis, are the lessons of greed and profiteering being learned, or are they becoming more ingrained in global economics? Francis is continuing and intensifying the critique of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI in this regard, particularly in Benedict’s encyclical <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html">Caritas in Veritate</a>, which addressed the GFC.</p>
<p>In making these statements, however, Francis’ primary focus is pastoral and missionary. What this means is that Francis is concerned with the church putting its words into action. That is, putting the person <a href="http://americamagazine.org/pope-interview">at the heart</a> of its actions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is why Francis contends that he has not spoken much about certain moral issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. He has done so on occasions that are appropriate, but in general he prefers to focus on the church’s mission to preach and live the Gospel of God’s love. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31812/original/25q6n2ds-1379981814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31812/original/25q6n2ds-1379981814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31812/original/25q6n2ds-1379981814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31812/original/25q6n2ds-1379981814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31812/original/25q6n2ds-1379981814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31812/original/25q6n2ds-1379981814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/31812/original/25q6n2ds-1379981814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Francis’ comments on the global economy are a continuation of the message of the previous pontiff, Benedict XVI.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Claudio Peri</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Francis’ approach is reminiscent of <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20061109_concl-swiss-bishops_en.html.">comments</a> made by Benedict XVI:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we let ourselves be drawn into these discussions, the Church is then identified with certain commandments or prohibitions; we give the impression that we are moralists with a few somewhat antiquated convictions, and not even a hint of the true greatness of the faith appears. I therefore consider it essential always to highlight the greatness of our faith.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For this reason, Francis states that rules and structures are not the church’s <a href="http://americamagazine.org/pope-interview.">priority</a>, but what:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle.“</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This approach seems to be one that Francis already had developed in Argentina. He is reported to have participated in reflections over different forms of liberation theology in Argentina, but was more focused on the <a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/2573/popes_former_professor_francis_never_supported_a_marxistbased_liberation_theology.aspx#.Uj-gjH9uX1Y.">"pastoral application”</a>, particularly in the church’s ministry to the poor.</p>
<p>Therefore, while Francis affirms church <a href="http://americamagazine.org/pope-interview.">teaching</a>, his main aim is to orientate the church in its mission. Without a basis in God’s love, Francis suggests that “the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards”. Francis is critiquing a rigidly moralistic or bureaucratic approach to people that no longer has God’s love at its heart. For Francis, the Catholic Church needs to be more <a href="http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/francis-address-to-new-bishops-on-pilgrimage-in-rome">missionary</a> in its outreach to people in love, rather than being focused on ideology, careerism, buildings and bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Thus, Francis is seeking a reformation, not of the church’s teaching, but of its <a href="http://americamagazine.org/pope-interview.">attitude</a>. Like Francis, Benedict XVI emphasised a conversion of the heart as central to changing the church and the world. Francis is defining this further by concretely stating that the church must be more focused on enabling the encounter with a merciful God.</p>
<p>This does not mean that commandments and rules are unimportant, but that they must be contextualised in love. Spiritual and moral progress takes time, with a mature church to accompany and facilitate the process. As Francis has stated, judging people - especially people of goodwill - is not helpful for people’s progress.</p>
<p>Pope Francis is desperate to save the church from an inward focus and judgmentalism, by orientating it outwards to its essential mission: to offer people the space to encounter God’s love, particularly in relationship with the poor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Hodge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis has made headlines recently with comments about abortion, gay marriage, contraception, work and capitalism. Francis has said that he’s “not spoken much about these things [abortion, gay marriage…Joel Hodge, Lecturer in Theology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.