REFLECTION 

BUILDING GOOD BRIDGES

Michael Wolfe

This past Sunday, Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to the United States.  The whirlwind tour was full of many firsts: not only was it the first time that he had ever visited the country, but during his days in Washington DC, he addressed Congress during a joint session, the first pope ever to do so.  Recognizing the significance of Pope Francis’ visit to the Unites States as a whole, and especially the historical event of his address to Congress, I’d like to share with you some of what I consider the salient points of that address in relation to our readings from Mass this past Sunday[1] (which was the last day Pope Francis’ celebrated Mass in the U.S.).  I do so in large part because Francis himself made it very clear that he was not only addressing the legislators present, but the entire people of the United States.  And of course, his content is applicable to all people of faith.

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE CARE OF CREATION

Pope Francis has instituted September 1st as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. We thus join the Orthodox Church in prayer for the future of nature and everything that inhabits it. In line with his last encyclical Laudato Si', on “Caring for Our Common Home,” the Pope invites us to join in conscious and active protection of the Mother Earth. With the encyclical he adheres to concerns from environmental groups, researchers and various groups for our environment.

This is then opportunity to review our thinking and our actions regarding the care for Creation. Are we aware of the practices and policies harmful to the environment? Can we commit to transforming this situation? Can we change prsonal habits in order to reduce consumption of water or energy, use public transport or car pool, not waste food, recycle ... Some of our habits can be changed to be more consistent with a more sustainable environment.

REFLECTION

THINKING ABOUT POPE FRANCIS: NOTES ON FAITH, TRUTH AND MERCY

Martí Colom

Francis’ pontificate, and especially the issues that the Pope wanted to include in the agenda of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, have caused uneasiness in some sectors of the Church (no doubt that at the same time they have been received with great joy by many others). And it has become common to hear among those who look with some doubts at the direction of this papacy the opinion according to which, in their estimation, the Pope’s message will eventually force us to choose between truth and mercy, between right teaching and compassion, between doctrine and a welcoming spirit. 

Certainly, the Pope and those who are in tune with him insist in the need to make of mercy the mark that would identify Christians. Those who hesitate about this attitude accept, obviously, that compassion is desirable and rooted in the Gospel, but they listen to the call to build up a more welcoming and merciful Church (the famous “war hospital” of which Francis has spoken about) and then ask themselves: Will we have to end up giving up the truth in exchange for the pastoral and welcoming style that Francis is asking of us?

It seems to me that to frame the issue in these terms (truth or mercy) is a mistake. Perhaps we have to reach the point where we can declare that our truth, our right teaching and our doctrine are first of all mercy, compassion and hospitality.

No truth should ever weigh more for us than the respect towards the dignity of every human being and the promotion of his or her wellbeing. When we forget this and we begin to think about mercy as an aspect of our faith that is desirable but somehow secondary, then we have emptied Christianity of its very essence.

To be Christian is not to follow a collection of finished, intellectually understood religious and moral truths as much as it is an attitude in life, grounded in the example of Jesus of Nazareth, a way of being in the world and to relate to others; an attitude which has an enormous potential to transform our reality and to help us be open to God. Our faith resembles more a search for the Divine, a slow and humble approach to the Mystery, than the mandate to guard an unchanging body of truths. In fact, it is when we believe the latter that the defense of these truths ends up justifying the exclusion and even condemnation of those who do not accept them.

Therefore, it is simply false that we are moving towards a dead end where we will have to forget about truth in order to be able to practice mercy. What we will have to forget are partial understandings of the faith, easy suspicions, simplistic dichotomies and legalistic reduction-isms of the Gospel that so often disfigure the merciful and welcoming face of Christ.