Politics in the Evangelii Gaudium of Pope Francis Immagine 2 Les comparto este texto, publicado por el Obsevatorio Internacional Cardenal Van Thuan Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, Bishop of Trieste Basilica of St. John Lateran 10 April 2014 When the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of Pope Francis was promulgated (24 November 2013), many were those who sustained that this document would not have the characteristics proper to the social Magisterium, and the Holy Father says this explicitly in n°184: “This Exhortation is not a social document”. And yet chapter IV of the Exhortation, entitled “The Social Dimension of Evangelisation” may be considered a small social encyclical. As I will point out in greater detail later on, to be found therein are true and specific innovative contributions for the selfsame Social Doctrine of the Church. In much the same fashion, chapter II, entitled “Amid the Crisis of Communal Commitment” and dedicated to an attentive assessment of the signs of the times, abounds with indications that may be readily ascribed to the ambit of the social Magisterium. Moreover, taking a look back to the recent past, the Deus caritas est of Benedict XVI was not a social encyclical in formal terms, and yet it did contain one lengthy part – n°28 – that we may also consider a miniature social encyclical. Going even farther back in time, I would venture to recall the three ‘Trinitarian’ encyclicals of John Paul II – Redemptor hominis (4 March 1979), Dives in misericordia (30 November 1980) and Dominum et vivificantem (18 May 1986). Even though not social encyclicals in the strict sense of the term, they did contain a considerable treasure lode of teachings in that regard. Therefore, even if the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium states it is not a social document, there is a reason why it also speaks about the life of men in society. Moreover, this reason is what renders plausible my considerations relative to the subject of politics in Evangelii gaudium. Basically speaking, what I will be saying would have no grounds whatsoever if the Holy Father’s Exhortation did not also concern the life of the community of men. Now, what is this reason? In order to answer this question I would like to point out that one of the texts most often cited by Pope Francis in Evangelii gaudium is the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi (8 December 1975) of Paul VI. Another oft cited text is the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, edited by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace as willed by John Paul II under the guidance of Cardinal Van Thuân, and published in 2004 at the outset of the III millennium. Worthy of due attention is the fact that Pope Francis refers to the Compendium, inviting people to avail themselves of it, right after having said Evangelii gaudium is not a social document. This strikes me as an eloquent statement regarding the importance of the Compendium. The numerous references to and citations from these two texts in the Exhortation Evangelii gaudium are by no means bereft of significance. Evangelii nuntiandi, in keeping with the letter and the spirit of Vatican Council II, as well as in harmony with tradition at large, considered the collaboration of men for the construction of earthly realities to be in a sort of organic relationship with evangelization. I would like to recall what is perhaps the most well-known excerpt, which is also cited in Evangelii gaudium: “evangelisation would not be complete if it did not take account of the unceasing interplay of the Gospel and of man’s concrete life, both personal and social” (EN 29, EG 181). Therefore, how is it possible to speak of evangelisation without speaking as well about the edification of human togetherness in society founded on the transcendent dignity of the person? Caritas in veritate of Benedict XVI, referring to the social Magisterium of Paul VI and speaking explicitly about Evangelii nuntiandi, stated: “Testimony to Christs charity, through works of justice, peace and development, is part and parcel of evangelisation, because Jesus Christ, who loves us, is concerned with the whole person” (n°15). One and the same reason, therefore, links all these statements by the Magisterium: the oneness of the vocation to salvation in Jesus Christ, the motive why the Social Doctrine of the Church found its due position and place in the Catechism of the Catholic Church willed by John Paul II. It is the same discourse that continues: the Social Doctrine of the Church “announces God and the mystery of salvation in Christ to each man (CA 55), and is hence part and parcel of the Church’s evangelising mission (SRS 41). This is why it is not surprising that Evangelii gaudium tackles these problems even while taking pains to state it is not a social document. This is also confirmed by frequent recourse to the Compendium. Since the Social Doctrine of the Church is also a “doctrinal corpus” (SRS 1) wherein present is the entire tradition of the Church, evangelization capitalizes on it, or, as Pope Francis writes in Evangelii gaudium, “always arises from grateful remembrance of it” (n. 13). The Church evangelizes herself at large and her selfsame being. In so doing She looks ahead while looking backwards, and vice versa. And since Her being and her living always depend on God’s initiative (n°13), when She embraces said initiative She also grows, or, as Pope Francis says, “attracts” (“It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but by attraction” n. 14). The Church evangelizes and never ceases to let Herself be evangelized. These aspects of a more general order which I have thus far underscored are by no means alien to the specific subject we are discussing, the subject of politics. How does politics fall within the realm of evangelization? Doesn’t politics attend to justice and the common good? Pope Francis is of the opinion that applicable to politics as well is the principle discussed above; in other words, politics is able to expedite its own humanizing task if it lets itself be challenged by something greater than itself. Since I consider this to be an important interpretative element for a cogent reading of the apostolic exhortation in general, I will delve into some specific references to the text itself. In the Introduction to Evangelii gaudium (n°9) the Holy Father says: “We become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being. Here we find the source and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelisation”. Each reality that closes itself within its own confines sooner or later becomes less than itself. For this reason, “when the Church summons Christians to take up the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic personal fulfillment (n°10) This does not consist in remaining what and how we are, but in being “more”, as Paul VI wrote in Populorum progressio, and this is not something we can do on our own; we must be led there. This same idea of “more” is expressed by Pope Francis towards the end of the Exhortation in one of its most beautiful passages: “it is not the same thing to have known Jesus as not to have known him, not the same thing to walk with him as to walk blindly, not the same thing to hear his word as not to know it, and not the same thing to contemplate him, to worship him, to find our peace in him, as not to. It is not the same thing to try to build the world with his Gospel as to try to do so by our own lights. We know well that with Jesus life becomes richer and that with him it is easier to find meaning in everything. This is why we evangelise “(n°266). This is where the “more” I have been speaking about becomes “a richer life”, “the meaning in everything” is enlightened by this “more”, and in this ‘uplifting’ each reality discovers itself anew in greater fullness. Lastly, this same concept is expressed with regard to politics, and with the next excerpt we enter into the very heart of our considerations. Let’s read this excerpt together: “I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor! It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare. Why not turn to God and ask him to inspire their plans? I am firmly convinced that openness to the transcendent can bring about a new political and economic mindset which would help to break down the wall of separation between the economy and the common good of society” (n° 205). In this case the “more” calls on politicians “to take heed”, “to broaden their horizons”. But we will not succeed in bringing this about if God does not inspire our planned endeavors. Note well that when things transpire like this, the sphere proper to politics, that is to say the efforts deployed to bring the economy and the common good back together again, acquire anew the fullness of their own meaning and become possible, not in and as of themselves, but by virtue of that “more” given to politics. I have read three of the most eloquent excerpts from this Apostolic Exhortation for you. Therefore understandable is what is meant about politics being a “vocation”, as Pope Francis says in the lines immediately before the excerpt we just considered. It is not a matter of becoming a politician rather than an engineer or a pilot. Certainly, this too, because we are in the realm of personal vocations. Regarding politics, however, the word ‘vocation’ assumes a much more intense meaning, which concerns the person of politicians as well as politics itself. “Politics”, writes the Holy Father, “remains a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity”. These words evoke other similar definitions given by previous pontiffs. If it is a vocation, politics is not self-foundational, but rather issues forth from a response to a “more” in which it is rendered participant. True politics lives on other-than-self, and only under this condition does it succeed in being itself. I believe this to be the key factor for understanding the two ambits linked the most to politics by Pope Francis, two ambits of particular responsibility for a politician. The first of these is undoubtedly the situation of poverty. Evangelii gaudium is literally imbued with concern for the poor, a theme never absent in social encyclicals, but which assumes high profile centrality in this document. The Social Doctrine of the Church has always kept an attentive eye focused on the poor, beginning from Rerum novarum, for which the poor were the blue collar workers in modern industry, and all the way lo Evangelium vitae, for which the poor were the infants not permitted to be born. Readily perceptible in Evangelii gaudium, however, is a special passion for the poor. The Holy Father summons us to let ourselves be evangelised by them and voices his desire for “a poor Church for the poor” (n. ). This perspective concerns evangelisation as such, but likewise concerns politics as such. The poor remind politics and politicians that the love of God bestows upon them a dignity which no one can appropriate: “No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love” (n. 3). The poor represent the vocation of politics, the invitation to politics to emerge from its own confines and be prepared to receive a “more”. Quite singular is the fact that those who have “less” – the poor – exercise this providential task which consists in projecting a “more”. Politics serves the purpose of enabling men to live in “dignity and fullness” insofar as this is possible on the political level, but “if we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good” (n°9). Other-than-self and his good are an insistent summons for politics, and are particularly evident in the poor. The second ambit concerns the embracing of life. As we read in n°213 of Evangelii Gaudium, “Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, “every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offence against the creator of the individual”. Here we find ourselves face to face with yet another extraordinary excerpt from Evangelii gaudium, which quite simply and clearly summarizes the essence of everything the Church’s social teaching has to say about the right to life. The viewpoint is the same as above: since politics is vocation it does not ‘create’ itself in a self-sufficient and absolute manner; it is at the service of a good which it does not possess, but by which it is possessed. Any weakness calling for careful attention on the part of politics is vocation for politics. This is especially true for the weakness of all weaknesses, that being the weakness of the completely defenceless conceived. With these words I feel Pope Francis is forging ahead along the same avenue travelled by his predecessors as regards the insertion of the Gospel of life within the social Gospel: life, the family and procreation are themes of the Social Doctrine of the Church in their own right and as such represent a primary responsibility of politicians and lawmakers. At the outset I said Evangelii gaudium contains, in my opinion, new contributions to the Church’s social teaching. I am referring in particular to chapter IV where Pope Francis brings to our attention four examples of bipolar tension that concern the life of Christians today, and hence concern politics as well: a: time is greater than space, unity prevails over conflict, realities are more important than ideas, and the whole is greater than the part. All four have much to say to politics and rightly deserve a detailed analysis which I can’t do here as well as I would wish. I’ll therefore limit myself to underscoring a few points.. The first polarity (time and space) tells us that “One of the faults which we occasionally observe in socio-political activity is that spaces of power are preferred to time and processes” (n°223) . The people who have the upper hand in our dynamic and fast moving world are those who trigger processes, attitudes and forms of behavior. It is possible to occupy a seat on ‘capital hill’ without really governing, and limit political action to endorsing the conclusions of processes launched by others. The second polarity – unity and conflicts – entails not being afraid of diversity, but at the same time not pursuing it for its own sake, while never ceasing to move in the direction of a “reconciled diversity” (n° 230). The third polarity – reality and ideas – is a major lesson of evangelical and political realism. What counts is reality; the Christian religion is a reality and not an abstract idea. Politics is often the victim of “angelic forms of purity, dictatorships of relativism, empty rhetoric, objectives more ideal than real, brands of ahistorical fundamentalism, ethical systems bereft of kindness, intellectual discourse bereft of wisdom” (n° 231). The true “cost” of politics is when it detaches itself from reality. The fourth polarity – the whole and the part – tells us that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. In fact, the whole precedes the parts and bestows sense on them. Sense is always received and never produced, and hence cannot belong to the single fragment. Politics often loses the sense of the whole, of the common good in its totality, and resigns itself to being a pursuit of fragments and biased interests. I would like lo conclude my presentation by highlighting how the entire Apostolic Exhortation Envangelii gaudium is imbued with a missionary desire centred on Christ. The Joy of the Gospel propels the Holy Father to ask the Church to ‘go out’ in order to evangelise, and among the places to be evangelised he also indicates politics. But this “going out” is always a “coming back” as well. It is not a “going out” dictated by pastoral or sociological reasons, or doing something new for the sake of newness. This becomes immediately clear in the beautiful passage of the Exhortation where Pope Francis invites us “to enhance the Church’s history as a history of salvation, to be mindful of those saints who inculturated the Gospel in the life of our peoples and to reap the fruits of the Church’s rich bimillennial tradition, without pretending to come up with a system of thought detached from this treasury, as if we wanted to reinvent the Gospel” (n°233).
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 18:23:57 +0000
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