Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ: The Jesuit Hermeneutic of Pope Francis

the main point that I want to make this morning is some some thoughts about both form and content on Pope Francis's method and I'll refer to him as Francis throughout the talk as you probably know my original title was the Jesuitical hermeneutic of Pope Francis and right now I'm going to sort of change it to the Jesuit the Herrmann hermeneutic of Pope Francis but I meant Jesuitical in that clever way because I don't think that Jesuitical means only pertaining to or of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits though I certainly mean it in that way Pope Francis does belong to the Society and he is very much a man of the Society of Jesus I also mean you know meaning in that way that you know the Jesuits were very fond of using case studies and sometimes that evolved into casuistry and just pulling right up to the bloody edge I mean right to the line and of course that gave them that reputation for being sort of clever now I don't mean Jesuitical in the pejorative sense but I do mean that Pope Francis does have a little bit of that kind of pushing it right up to the line in him but he has a reason for it and the reason he has for it I hope to elucidate is grounded in four areas of the Society of Jesus more on that in a moment before I begin though I think it's really important to to talk about the form as well as the content of Pope Francis's encyclical letters and the reason is is because a Pope Francis encyclical is not like a Pope Benedict or a st. John Paul the second encyclical a very different kind of writing this is not logical procession of principles this is not a clear elucidation of a moral doctrine Pope Francis's encyclicals as I will try to make clear those encyclicals are really what I'm going to call in a four fold format very close to what I might call a Jesus hermeneutic much closer to maybe a John the Baptist hermeneutic an Isaiah hermeneutic a prophetic hermeneutic in many ways but but it's oh with a Jesuit overtone and undertone for sure that the point though is Pope Francis kind of has a four fold method in these encyclical letter and I'm including an encyclical letters right like posts a nodal instructions like amoris Laetitia and in doctrine and letters like that so what we want to take a look at though is to recognize how he works he starts with edification building up moving into the glory of God kind of hooking people in you know to God's glory manifest in people in history in nature wherever it may be the second phase is all trying to make clear in a second is a challenge a prophetic challenge almost a stinging challenge to try and get people to think the third part of just about every encyclical letter is an invitation it's an invitation to have people who are not generally part of what I'm going to call the that the Catholic convinced to have them come in these would be people who are aliens who's we alienated from the church people who may have in some sense written the church off you know and we know there are plenty of academics at least I've been in the academic business for a long time and might have written off the the churches and oh this anachronistic institution and doesn't care about social theory doesn't care about the environment doesn't care about science we know this is completely false but they don't know that and so he's trying to get people to take a look at us in a different way before they set up the straw man before they write us off to try and extend an invitation so it moves then from edification to challenge to invitation and then finally to call and resolution and I would submit that this is a very different kind of encyclical method than anything right that previous popes have done I mean I myself see a lot of this in st. john paul ii and certainly in his encyclical is about the family and and other encyclicals but you know it's it's a different form and it's manifest a different form so maybe I just start off with a few kind of rhetorical questions and then we can kind of address you know what's going on there and and then in terms of form the form of Benedict's encyclicals and then we can get into the content why did he choose the encyclical letters that he chose why these particular contents why address it to these particular groups that he's inviting into as it were a dialogue with the church that they may have previously written off first of all some questions when for example in amoris Laetitia when Pope Francis is just pushing the whole element of pastoral discretion personal conscience is really pushing it to the line of doctrine right pushing it to the line of the discipline of the church for nearly 2,000 years when he's pushing it right there almost to the point where you think is he going to say that people you know have who have been divorced and remarried can actually you know fully participate in holy communion is are we going to such an extent of the internal form that were almost de-facto while allowing it what's he doing is he doing that or is he doing something else or is he doing something more what's he doing just a question again when we see in laudato si we see that Pope Francis is quoting scientists that like some of them are over today theists and some of them are certainly over ting agnostics and and you sort of look at this and you go my gosh you know why is he quoting those experts how about a few of our experts or you might say to yourself you know well wait a minute why are we getting down into the weeds of practical judgments I mean I mean these are Prudential judgments practical judgments on every level I mean how much you use your air conditioner and and so forth why why is he doing this is he doing it just straight on prima Fauci eight on the face of it is this what he's really concerned about or is there something more or something else obviously I'm going to say there's something more and there's something else but I mean the the key point them you know master the rhetorical question is the Jesuits arts but the third area that's you know really I think important is he's made some incisive critiques I mean I don't have to tell anybody but in evangelii gaudium right the critique of capitalism has disturbed a lot of people you know and I mean it's it's like are you kidding you know capitalism in the United States really isn't like this I mean I I don't know what your experience of capitalism is like but that's not my experience of capitalism why are you saying is that that this way do you really mean the critique in this incisive a form in this way or is there something more or something else and what I'm going to contend as I said is something more and something else there's something else going I think yes Prima flashy a you can sort of on the face of it you can say right that the he means what he says but I would adore you not to view his writing as a jurist writing not to view his writing as a theologian who is writing not to view his writing as a kind of scientific theologian or even you know a philosophically scientific theologian but to view it more as a prophetic call a prophetic challenge that is you know up to the work of Jesus Christ I'll have to explain that in great detail in a moment but for the time being there's a different interpretive key a different hermeneutic that we have to use in reading a Pope Francis encyclical than when reading a Pope Benedict or a pope st. John Paul encyclical etc what do is the general interpretation that we can use with respect to the critiques like the critique of capitalism and with respect to going right to the edge of doctrine where you just think what more little teeny stepping you're over the line baby you know I mean you're just you're just right there right when you get right down to that you know why is he pushing to the edge what about these critiques I would just say here are some things that he's going after prophetically number one what is broken that very few people are paying attention to I'm telling you or there's an incisive critique or there's pushing it to the edge he's pointing out prophetically something's broken and people aren't paying attention to it I'm going to sting you and you're going to pay attention to it you can't help it second question who is broken and nobody is paying attention to them or what group is broken that very few people are paying attention to third question what is being ignored that Jesus Christ would not ignore the third question what is ignored that Jesus Christ would not ignore and finally fourth question who is ignored that Jesus Christ would not ignore so these are four questions and I think these four questions remember Pope Francis has a pastoral mind he's not operating out of what I'm going to call that a theologian mminton a full of philosophical mentation a scientific mminton a moral development a moral doctrinal development a ssin he's working out of a very pastoral mendacious which i think you know that that's kind of a mental attitude of Elton's young that he's kind of utilizing to to to bring his particular brand of the papacy of papal leadership to the world so that's with respect to the critiques and going to the edge what about the strange get into the weeds things like we see in laudato si what's that about what's he doing there and I think what you're going to find is when he's going down and quoting scientists and that I would never quote oh thank you in an apologetics volume or going into for example thank you you know people or issues that are very very thank you issues that are very very young you know in the weeds you know how often we use our air conditioners I'm going to suggest that those are invitations so one thing is about challenges right those are the critiques and those are going to the edge the other things our invitations when you quote a scientist that of course we may not quote a scientist who might be an atheist I think this is a pure and simple outreach to a group of people who are saying he's quoting one of our people maybe the church really does care about this issue from our perspective maybe the church is listening to this perspective and of course they're quoting one of ours I mean that's a huge deal to a person who feels like well they don't care about us that they're an anachronistic institution they don't care about the environment of course none of these things are true none of them but they think it's true because they've already set up the straw man in their mind and they're already going to shoot the straw man down until you quote somebody from their camp at which point it's really hard to mow down their own guy as a straw man I'm telling you there's a genius to what Pope Francis does you talk about the air conditioner issue and you go what I mean this is a doctrinal statement and your air conditioning are you kidding me but this is of concerns and some people are going to look at that and go these cares about the air conditioner issue that's one of our issues that's the carbon bloop of a blueprint this is something we care about and what he is doing is a very simple course of rhetoric we find and Aristotle you want to appeal to somebody can quote their guy quote their issue bring them in because it's really hard to just write off a group that's already acknowledged that your person be it an agnostic or an atheist be it air conditioning that matters it's in the encyclical you can't do it anymore it's an open-ended invitation the Jesuits call it going in going in their door so that they will come out hours it's called informal language inculturation by invitation inculturation by invitation so the form that I'm trying to suggest is that this is a pastoral form it's an inventory form and it's invites people into itself it's a challenging prophetic form that is trying to bring up questions things that we might not have a comfort level with or frankly may very probably not be on our radar screen certainly not on my radar screen most of the time and also that in it all there is a call and a resolution so look for this kind of format as you're kind of reading the the form of the encyclicals started off with edification that means reveling in the glory of God manifest in the church Memphis and history manifests in nature manifest in people manifest in the poor right the glory of God meant edification and building up the church and in kind of that starting off in that very positive note the prophetic stinging challenge that comes quoting people and critiquing people that are going to bring a whole new group into the conversation I'm going to call that the invitation and finally a call for to action a call for people to do something about it to make a difference and boom leaving it should you read Pope Francis's encyclicals as a doctrinal statement when he is quoting the principles of what's called the church's social teaching it is ordinary Magisterium unquestionably and we should take it as Magisterium however when he's making all kinds of suggestions about the how including the air conditioning including the critique of capitalism etc etc when you see the house these things are classified in a different category they're not Magisterium they are prudential judgments and prudential judgments are arguable Prudential judgment see we want to take seriously the Prudential judgment that the Pope has made do you have to take it as doctrine you most certainly do not can you question it you most certainly can can you get another expert in the scientific world to confute what was said in this procession a it is this perfectly legitimate theological or I should say pastoral dialogue and in in Francis's eyes yes it is what he wants though for us in the encyclical the reason for mentioning all these things is he wants for us to take the challenge seriously and he also wants people outside the church who have formerly been alienated he wants them to take the invitation seriously obviously Pope Francis cannot stand up and give the talk I'm giving of course he can't say to the people hey the reason I'm quoting your scientists is because I'd love to invite you to conversion to come out our door he's never going to do that obviously right you know and Jesuits never tell the secrets of their methods anyway but this one is doing a grandiose tattle-tale job but the most important thing though to remember is that I think this is what he's up to I think it's a huge mistake to apply a different hermeneutic I mean I love Pope Benedict's encyclicals she writes like I think you know I mean this is like me keep developing dead team logic logic logic I love it but there's a Pope Francis if I if I want that from Pope Francis I'm going to be a very frustrated man okay so let's moving then from form Nell to content because it's security a set of themes that he's picked right you know curious things you might think oh maybe it's just a really political guy that's why he picked the themes he picked that's the explains cap with his critique of capitalism he sees he's leaning left he's leaning socialist you you could say that but I don't think that's true I think there's much much deeper reason you could say well is he's interested in the environment you know he's he's kind of leaning you know soft on the on the environment you know you could say that I'd probably true but I think there's a whole different modus operandi etc so how did he come to these themes why did he pick them as the most important themes let's move then to the content who is Francis and how was he shaped you'll see some concentric circles here on the diagram and I'm just going to start from that inner circle there and I'm going to say that the foundation that Francis started from is what I'm going to call spiritual experience and the Spiritual Exercises spiritual experience and the Spiritual Exercises this is going to be such a deep foundation for Pope Francis a deep foundation that it's going to make everything that he does later exceedingly Christocentric and exceedingly mercy oriented so this foundation that he's going to have that starts really when he's 17 probably started when he was younger as a child but at 17 will talk about his spiritual experience and how its shaped through the Spiritual Exercises you will see that he cannot help himself everything is going to be about how would Jesus do it how would the one I love do it how would the one who loves me do it so we'll see in a moment we'll call this the spiritual experience and the Spiritual Exercises this is going to be a foundation based on his interpersonal love of Jesus and Jesus is love for him that makes him want to imitate Jesus and to constantly ask the question how would the Lord who loves me and whom I love do it number two the second thing that informs Pope Francis is what st. Ignatius Loyola would have called the magis with a definite article and when you know just as you know in Latin means more but when you put a definite article in front of it when you say the magis right that means that even more the going to the edge the pushing things as far as you can push it I mean to the end of the world if you have to the st. Francis Xavier kind of I'm going to you know Nisha's well go to India then Japan didn't China you know call me I'm coming yeah write a letter when you get a chance you know okay I'll do it and that's the magis right the even more the and in the best way of translating it in our language it is like the greatest universal need and in I'll just put it you know in a different sense it's very close to our motto odd majorem Dei gloriam so you know to the greater glory of God so this in a sense Pope Francis is a man of the magis and we'll explain that in just a moment but that is the end that's where he's going that's the Telos that's the objective that's where that heart of his grounded in Christ's love for him and his love for for Christ to imitate Christ it's going all the way to the even more it's going he's going to do the work of eight men and love it I mean that's what he wants that's what Ignatius wants that's what he's going to be about and we'll talk about it there's a third thing that's really pope francis has a particular emphasis we'll talk about that arises out of the poverty of Argentina which he very much experience arises out of the dirty war you know arises out of the Jesuit rhetoric you know at Medellin and and Pedro Arrupe that arises out of you know Centesimus annus right and and that he has totally embraced that arises out of gaudium and spez the pastoral constitution in the church and Francis because of his background because of Jesus's love for the poor right because of this compassionate right wanting to imitate his Lord in compassion Pope Francis is going to be a person who embraces what's called the preferential option for the poor this is not socialism it's not Liberation Theology as we'll see it is basically keep your eye fixed on the poor with the broad definition of the poor not just the temporarily poor though the temporarily poor not just the sick go to sick right also the spiritually poor also the alienated etc so this preferential option for the poor broadest definition of the poor that you can get the fourth and that's going to be his emphasis right finally the means what is the means that he is going to use in culturation going out going in somebody else's door to bring them out our door this is his rationale and of course as we'll see in a moment this has a huge tradition in the Society of Jesus I don't have to tell you 1 Corinthians 9 19 and following which I will quote in detail from st. Paul right very much if you saw that movie the mission the Jesuit reductions in in Paraguayan and Brazil right all these things very very influential right Latin America a very influential in the life in the life of Pope Francis and he going to push that inculturation to the edge edge edge because that's who he is he's going to push it to the edge in the topics he chooses the content he chooses to deal with and of course the way in which he chooses to deal with that content issuing an invitation as often as he can determinative of the form of the encyclical all right let's get to it let's get to that center circle that is to say that that foundational circle which I'm going to call the spiritual experience and the Spiritual Exercises that by the way on the Spiritual Exercises of st. Ignatius Loyola is very profound 30 day silent retreat it's grounded in the work of the Spiritual Exercises that the st. Ignatius wrote after his experiences at Montserrat and he really writes this not as a book to read but as a book for spiritual directors to use on a real 30 day retreat the presupposition excuse me of that work is that we're leading the existent into an experience of Christ in the silence but Pope Francis does not need to be let while he does need to be led into a deeper experience of Christ but he has already had a very profound informative experience of Christ at the age of 17 I would say almost a mystical experience which Saint Ignatius Loyola would call consolation spiritual consolation without previous clause that means literally a bolt out of the mystical blue that just nails you straight on like st. Paul you know boom who are you sir I am Christ and you are persecuting me got it now that's the kind of experience right that we're talking about so here is Pope Jorge bergoglio not Pope Francis here is Jorge bergoglio he's 17 years old he's just probably done some kind of a significant confession you know obviously he had a interesting background you know teaching in technology working in a technological area in chemistry actually being a bouncer for a while and a bar you know at 17 he comes into this confessional and after he leaves the confessional he has this profound mystical experience of Jesus the gentle offer of mercy Jesus the person of Jesus filled with love and compassion for him and he is literally completely transfixed by this experience and as he's experiencing this what happens is he feels the mercy of God the mercy of Jesus who's present to him literally healing him and transforming him the experience of Mercy the the healing power of Mercy is so profound in that moment that he makes up his mind literally at 17 years old I got to be a priest and I think I'll go to these Jesuits and so he basically decides on his vocation look literally johnny-on-the-spot later on at now you can't imagine you know I mean these kinds of experiences are riveting Lee you know a deep I mean this doesn't hit the shallow part of the bone it gets to the deep deep wells of the the unconscious mind and it's the spirit and the soul at its depth now the main thing is that when he has this experience he chooses to go he later on reached the homily a venerable bead Josephine talked about yesterday and he you know it's on the feast day of st. Matthew and of course he sees that Latin phrase right mesial and a lot Quay and just a you know le le Gendo right you know um shown mercy and called basically or chosen a tell agenda right elected chosen so you know he's shown mercy and chosen and he reads those words and goes that's me I was shown mercy uh that was healed that's me and and I was chosen right then and there I mean you know I knew I was supposed to go on be a priest and a Jesuit that's me and of course no wonder he chooses it for his motto on his coat of arms because right as a bishop and later as the Pope he can't get away from it it was such a formative experience now let me just go deeper because now Jorge enters the Society of Jesus enters the Navision and as many of you know during the novitiate of the Society of Jesus all novices a move and enter into the Spiritual Exercises of st. Ignatius when the novice master believes that they're ready he takes the novices through the Spiritual Exercises well you can imagine what this person who's had this spiritual experience entering into the Spiritual Exercises which is designed to allow the Lord to speak to the heart of the existent of the silence through the spiritual exercise as he did to Saint Ignatius Loyola right that Francis is having these little kind of moments of consolation during his own retreat it's based on this foundational spiritual consolation without previous cause right you can see what's going to happen as he begin to hit the third week of the exercises which is the Passion of Jesus Christ I mean I can tell you this right now you are going to fall more radically in love with Jesus than you had ever thought possible because as you move through each part of the passion right I mean literally saying it expands it out you know so that you're kind of playing each part of that passion you fall in love with the one who gratuitously died for you out of love you can't help it you are coming you'll be coming more and more bonded to the Lord of love not just in an external experience of the exercise as a contemplation it is built on the foundation of the interior experience caused by Jesus himself Jesus is the one who touches the heart and of course the love of Francis for the Lord draws deeper and deeper and as it grows deeper and deeper he cannot help himself the very desired effect that Ignatius Loyola wanted occurs and what is the desired effect I want to imitate him I want to be just like him I want to do things the way he does it we're not talking about Cristo centrosome as an abstraction here we're talking about Christo centrosome of the personal heart we're talking about I so identify with you because of your love for me which incites my love for you I want to be like you I want to everything just like you would want to I want to just reach out to the people you want to reach out to what you want me to do Lord and of course right you know Ignatius he's got these two meditations kind of surrounding right the third week the first one is the kingdom meditation before the third week the call of the king who is the king okay he says first consider an earthly king but then Christ the King considered the ways he wants to do it then right we've got the two standards meditation which comes after and in the two standards meditation right there are two leaders on two different hills a standard is a flag so the underneath which the leader is standing right so it's like and one leader is the devil and he's got his standard his flag and the other leader is Jesus and he's got his standard and his flag right and now this is the young Jorge bergoglio right but he's he's in love with Christ his heart is burning Jesus is you know leading him through the spirit right and of course he's considered how the devil works and what his call is his call first and foremost is to riches aggrandize yourself enriching yourself right and then his call is to honors right that is to say a grand eyes yourself in the eyes of others and the third call is to pride think yourself better than others think yourself more worthy than others come on you are a little Messiah aren't you and of course there's the call right of the devil and of course Jesus is on the other hill with the smaller army and his call has come and worked with me come into the light and I will give you the light I'll give you the Holy Spirit and above all I will give you love and compassion but here is the method that I will use instead of riches I'm calling you to poverty that's the best way of making sure that you are not enriching yourself that's the way to love and to light and to lead to love and light and here's the other thing you I'm calling you also to simplicity instead of honors that's the way to make sure that you don't agree as your self and finally I'm calling you to humility instead of to pride so that you always remember that it is I it is the Lord who who is the Messiah not not me not you and not not to you who is the Messiah right and of course I call you to humility so that you recognize that it's not about being better it's about how much service we can do for the light and humility st. Paul recognizes it so profoundly but what's my point my point is here's the young Jorge bergoglio he's going through the novitiate he's reading about these two standards if anything like me he's gonna go you know I don't particularly like poverty I certainly don't particularly like simplicity and I certainly don't like particularly like humility but lord if that's what you're doing if that's where you are if that's your light I'm going to learn to love your light because I love you dad's what Ignatius once yeah thinks it's bigger he's probably got a bunch of guys that he's calling but probably have some intelligence some gifts and talents and they're likely to have it in a bit of the riches in the honors and the pride and what he's going to do is he's going to say for the love of Christ stop it and put on a different kind of armor and I can see this guy Jorge bergoglio by the way very talented guy this guy does not lack IQ points there's something very analytical about him something deeply intuitive about him something very very you know capable of broad conversation right and there's he's talent guy and you can see you know Ignatius has got him in the spiritual lectures he's standing under the standard of Jesus Christ and what happens he then moves into all I'm not going to go through the rest of these slides because I Marin okay I got a I got okay God got the point so the main thing the main thing though is you can see how this man is formed he's going to be what he's going to be exceedingly Christocentric but not as an abstraction as in the heart you can see he's going to be exceedingly personalistic because Christ cares about individuals much more than theories much more than abstractions he's caring about the individuals that he's meeting fully attending to those individuals Pope Francis I should say young Jorge bergoglio is going to imitate him and of course when he finally gets to the final exercise of spiritual exercise the contemplation to attain divine love he's hooked he's going to be this heartfelt Christocentric imitation of Christ in humility and poverty and simplicity he's going to be under Christ's standard and he is going to base the rest of his contemplative life on that that's what you're dealing with here he's a different kind of animal from Pope Benedict and Pope and Saint John Paul's actions Hannibal but he's a different genus and so we got to maybe even sewage haters but anyway the main thing is that's what you've got let's go to the second area of the end the magis let me do this somewhat quickly be simply because of the constraints of time the magis as I said means the even more the greatest universal need this is what right st. Ignatius is exhorting the Jesuits to not just the Jesuit novice but it's a right every Jesuit does an eight-day retreat every year throughout his his life and so this eight-day retreat is kind of a resurgence toward the magis what are the three questions that st. Ignatius exhorts every Jesuit to ask and not just ask once in his life but all the time in his life number one what is the greatest universal need what is it outline it might be three or four or five different things but what do you think is the greatest universal need for the church for Jesus Christ one you love for the kingdom of God that was brought to us by Jesus and will end in completeness with the Father in heaven what do you think is that the greatest need for that church in that Kingdom and for Jesus himself number two can you in some way meet one or more of those needs or at least partially meet one or more of those needs so that's the second question and Jorge bergoglio is going to be asking himself this throughout his papacy not just his Jesuit life number three question is anyone else doing it is anyone else doing if so are they doing it well enough for you to let them leave it alone you let them do their thing or do you have to fill in some gaps do you have to complement it do you have to do something to make this thing go over the top right to get over the the final you know one-yard line right into the goal line into into the goal area so the key thing for for Ignatius then is you ask yourself these three questions and you can see how Pope Francis gets the particular agendas that he's getting his interpretation of the greatest universal oh by the way if you answer the first question with xxx is the greatest universal need number two question can you do something about it competently and you say yes then you say is anybody else doing it or are they doing it well and you say no not really you know people aren't doing it saving nations as advices talk to your superior immediately get off the old Duff and do something doo doo do something about it and that is what's motivating now let's go back to his interpretation of the magis once Pope Francis is greatest in I mean but this is interpretation of the greatest universal need number one take care of the alienated from the church he didn't have to read a Pew survey poll to recognize that 1% of our kids are leaving the church this is between 15 and 35 per year we have moved from 24% not just leaving the church 24% unbelief Lea ladies and gentlemen 24% unbelief to 37% unbelief in a matter of 12 years if this doesn't worry us I don't know what will but that is a bad statistic I think he recognizes that there's many reasons for this we know one of the reasons you know and that's why I started the magis Institute right one of them is yeah 49% of the respondents said yeah that rational discourse and science have thrown faith out the window we got to stop that because there's plenty of scientific evidence plenty of logical evidence for God but that's a matter of a nother story but what does Francis see Francis sees people who are classically alienated alienated maybe because they think we don't know what we're talking about there's no reason to discourse with us alienated because of divorce and now they're stuck in a situation where they have no option to receive Communion in the church they're basically caught in a divorce and remarry of their own devices maybe so but he sees them as another source of alienation he sees another source of alienation as this group of what I'm going to call that the environmentally-sensitive and you know even though we have one of our great social principles the Catholic Church the stewardship over the environment Francis sees that we don't have the reputation yet to invite that crowd in to us some of the people who think that we have not critiqued capitalism though I must say you know you know that you know under Pope Leo the 13th remnant of Ahram you know capitalism was and private property was given a very very fair shot in those encyclicals amidst you know the important and developments that were made for the labor for the worker in those times of really disastrous you know and terrible consequences for you know the workers in in the industrial revolution now all these things being what they are Pope Francis he thinks he's got a big set of alienated people out there and here's the thing that Francis sees he sees that there is another huge group of young people a huge group of young people who is alienated because those other groups are alienated so they go on you know this groups you know alienating from the church well I million aided too because out of sympathy for them oh these environmental there I'm alienated to on sympathy so there's a huge group of young people who are alienated out of sympathy for the alienated so it's like doubling and Uthoff eying if I might put it that way the effect so he wants to deal with it I mean you may agree or disagree with his view of the magis but dad's his view of the magis and he is going to do everything he can within the bounds of enculturation to bring that group back in to offer them invitations oh yes surreptitiously by quoting their scientists or quoting issues of importance to them yes but he's going to do everything that he can to bring those alienated groups in because he knows of this double effect furthermore he's going to have to contend with some internal problems in the church you know some people are just meant to deal with internal problems and some people are not anybody who has been a Jesuit superior for over ten years knows how to deal with internal problems and of course he does he does not want to turn right the internal problems of the church are causing disco fication and he is exceedingly conscious of edification building up and the dish that efficacious candles the dissertation from the Vatican being I don't have to tell you there are a lot of people who look that Vatican Bank situation I mean these are my friends and they go I just don't you know you know this Rome deal I mean you know can you believe this stuff it you know I'm sitting here appraisers trying to take care of some of that you know I mean but I know it's dissenting people and and of course I'll tell you one thing about Pope Francis right there like a puppy dog after the magis he is going to absolutely go after it including reform of the Curia now again we can disagree would you inform the carry of the same way he did maybe not but did it need some reform it did it needed you know is some you know you know relooking at some of the ways in which the bureau's are oriented etc just from a formal point of view skip the personnel issues from a formal point of view it needed some reorganization and he has confronted it and he will continue to confront it and he'll do something about including renewing the clergy in poverty simplicity there's going to be a continuous call for the clergy to be humble to be a men of prayer and and and for religious to do the same okay ten minutes okay that's the magis in a nutshell let me just get to the preferential option for the poor this is his emphasis where does it come from and then we'll have some time for questions and the keep dot for the preferential option for the poor is as you know 1 Corinthians 919 there is no question that Pope Francis internalized it completely I've become all things for all people right so st. Paul I become a Jew for those who are Jews I become somebody who is under the law for somebody who's under the law I've become somebody who's not under the law Gentile for people who are not under the law Gentiles right I've become free for those who are free I become weak for those who are weak I've become all things to all men I mean this is the inspiration of st. Paul and of course you can see st. ignatius loyola hmm sounds right to me and of course st. Ignatius takes this and goes full bore absolutely full tilt with this you know and and of course I don't have to tell you about the history of the Jesuits I mean look at Matteo Ricci I mean here is a guy I'm not kidding you he's going to China right so what does he do he masters three dialects of Chinese fluently then he grows his hair into a big pig tail grows a foo Manchu mustache wears a kimono and jet and Chinese sandals and he walks right up to the Emperor and says boy I can teach you about astronomy and mathematics and things you have never even dreamt about and he's talking in perfect Chinese and go you're not Chinese he says I know but I respect you I want to be like your mandarins I want to you know speak with you what is Mateo reaches in tension none other than to get into the court of China to tutor the Emperor and all these things so to convert him and convert the whole of China ditch his ambition that's what he wants to do by the way the Christian Church has done this in a Jesuit property this is Pope I mean this is a Saint Paul this is the whole early years of Christian formation and adaptation to Roman culture it's I mean it's an old missionary spirit so much so than in gaudium its best number 44 we cut the dictate that inculturation essentially right they call it the appropriate adaptation of the Word of God to the culture is the entire seat of evangelization it's the beginning part and the context of all evangelization yeah gotta go in their door in order for them to come out your door you make no concessions Avenger not concession to doctrine of course or concessions to dogma but if you don't make concessions to things that can be considered to go in their door to show them that you care to show them that you're in dialog to show them you want to listen it's going to be really hard to make disciples the best missionaries have known it but tell ricci almost got away with it by the way he almost got away with he got right to the Emperor he was tutoring the Emperor and sort of caught up with him but never done less boy that was a nut you talk about a big hairy audacious goal you know a big B hat Greg that Jim Collins talks about I mean this was it I mean in the Jesuit reductions I mean in Paraguay in Bolivia yeah let's bring three million you know Indians you know into these big huge collective farms with aqueducts where they're building cathedrals and printing presses way before they ever happen in North America and let's just go ahead and let them compose their music and do all of these different things right and we're just going to kind of live in the midst of them sort of direct the technical aspects of this but let the Indian culture go the way the Indian culture would go and they accepted Christianity of course and I don't know if you ever saw the movie the mission but then of course the Portuguese and the Spanish government's got wind that hey these things look like they're pretty rich let's go over and enslave some Indians and of course they did break them up and but nevertheless what an incredible project I mean talk about a big hairy audacious goal again it's it's it's amazing what these guys are capable is the main thing that I want to get to is Pope Francis has embraced this view not only the preferential option for the poor but he's embraced this view of culturation and because it is so embedded into the Jesuit you know ethos it's part of him it's part of this is why he's constantly reaching out he's constantly making these comments and you go he's getting too close now I might say in some cases he's getting really too close but I'll also say I know what he's up to he's trying to get a common point in a dialogue or somebody will think that he's listening to them which means that they are invited not only into the dialogue but invited into the church particularly if they have in the past been alienated from it and this is crucial for so far for Pope Francis then what he you know you're he's going to do things that we're going to look at as being really radical and by the way there are a lot of people who hated what the Jesuits were doing in the Chinese rights controversy right I mean they absolutely did not like it they thought we pushed too darn close to the edge and there's no doubt that when you're trying to get a dialogue going with very disparate communities you probably can push too far now the danger that archbishop Chaput talked about yesterday is also really important for those of you who are there as weren't they're essentially what he said is you've got to be very careful when you make these comments that you know our inventory right they're inviting people you know into the into the church right your your your making comments that that seem like you're kind of loosening a bit you know on your doctrine that you there's a great deal of personal or pastoral consideration for this so you're making these comments you have to be very careful that you just don't alleviate guilt and instead of making an invitation you just get people thinking well not so bad after all I guess I don't need a church by that is the danger and so you know is is Pope Francis's strategy walking on a tightrope wire yes yes it is there's dangers on either side you don't want to fall off right but then again Pope Francis is a G K Chesterton kind of guy I mean he's the kind of guy that says look I've got this steed that's pretty much romantic idealism and another steed that's rationalism my rationalism steed is almost telling me just get on me I'll keep you steady don't worry about these emotions I deals and things of this nature kind of lobotomize your heart you'll be okay then the romantics Teeta Singh right on me you're going to be higher than I you're going to be just an emotional idealistic ideologue go with me don't worry about reason you know all those Prudential judgments you know just let it go and and just get high on the emotion but of course is Chesterton suggests no actually even though you think the steeds will rip you apart your better bet is to have a one foot in one stirrup and another foot on the stirrup of the other horse and ride between them because they won't tear you apart instead they will keep you galloping and the point I think that is really important this is the risk that Pope Francis is willing to take he is a risk taker there is no risk-averse bone in his body why because he is a man of the magis what does this mean this means that we have to very much kind of interpret benevolently but interpret what he is saying so that we make sure that people don't get Mis impressions that they don't think that divorce and remarriage is suddenly being challenged in the church that they don't think that Pope Francis is challenging the indissolubility of marriage that Pope Francis is in love with a theist interpreters of environmental movement that Pope Francis hates all capitalism and really he's just a Marxist or a socialist in disguise he has made overt attempts to distance himself from liberation theology and from Marxism on every score but he does have a critique of capitalism extending into the abuses that capitalism has had in the history of Latin America and in the history of the West during the industrial revolution and of course even though he I don't think has a good experience of American capitalism and there's a very good experience of American capitalism I think that needs to be a corrective but we can do this we can be good interpreters hermeneutic interpretation right we can be really good interpreters of the content and the form of the encyclicals of Pope Francis so that we are not undermining his message but we're not undermining the doctrine of the church we're not undermining the unity of the church but rather trying to give what Saint Ignatius Loyola called the better interpretation a better interpretation which is sophisticated a better interpretation which respects the magis and the risk but at the same time points to the dangers without saying that they are overwhelming dangers so as it were we don't have to enter into the risk in same way that Pope Francis does but I think we have to at least point to the dangers but at least say you know is it worth it to to to thread the needle and maybe it's not worth it to thread the needle but at the end of the day right I do think we can do four things that will help us to understand Pope Francis number one I think we have to understand he's got a very different style of encyclical writing than previous popes number two I think we have to understand his form that four fold form right of edification of a challenge of invitation and call very different number three I think we have to understand where he's coming from in terms of his content a selection of issues the way he addresses the issues in terms of the Spiritual Exercises and his spiritual experience of Jesus loving him that Christo centrosome and that personalism secondly I think we need to understand the magis to even more to take the risk to go to the edge I think we have to understand you know the the preferential option for the poor which is such a part of his emphasis and the compassion that he holds toward the poor in the largest definition of the word and of course the the enculturation which gaudium its path says is the foundation stone for all evangelization worth I think we have to legitimately point to the dangers that are there in pushing everything to the edge I think we need to point to the fact that maybe we wouldn't have chosen this particular person or critique capitalism in that particular way you can do that you know it's a Prudential judgment we have the right to disagree but the point is to do it benevolently to do it in a fashion that doesn't undermine his challenge or his invitation that means we're on the tightrope to the proverbial tightrope as interpret a tour as interpreters faithful interpreters of you know the teaching of this very very different Pope Pope Francis thank you so very very much [Music] you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 13,256

Rating: 4.5670104 out of 5

Keywords: Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, college, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franciscan University of Steubenville (College / University), FaithAndReason.com, Faith And Reason, Fr. Robert Spitzer SJ, Magis Institute, Society of Jesus, Pope Francis, Jesuits, Pope Francis' Vision for the Renewal of the Church

Id: kXIUTN7PPx8

Length: 62min 50sec (3770 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2017

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[u/luvintheride]

In this presentation at Franciscan University, Fr. Robert Spitzer makes a case justifying the outreach and evangelization methods of Pope Francis.

Personally, I think Fr. Spitzer makes some good points, but he does not address Francis's theological missteps, and the costs. Much of the Church is already suffering from poor catechesis, so I question the wisdom of playing fast and loose with doctrine, and building on that loose sand. Lord help us if the next generations get worse.