Before heading back to Rome after a wildly successful WYD, the Holy Father met with the bishops of the CELAM (the South American equivalent of the USCCB).
In his address, the Holy Father commented on the CELAM's Aparecida Document issued in 2007.
Taking up the theme of "Temptations against missionary discipleship," Pope Francis outlined several contemporary obstacles to preaching the Good News:
[. . .]
I will
mention only a few attitudes which are evidence of a Church which is
“tempted”. It has to do with recognizing certain contemporary proposals
which can parody the process of missionary discipleship and hold back,
even bring to a halt, the process of Pastoral Conversion.
1. Making the Gospel message an ideology.
1. Making the Gospel message an ideology.
An example:
Aparecida, at one particular moment, felt this temptation. It employed,
and rightly so, the method of “see, judge and act” (cf. No. 19). The
temptation, though, was to opt for a way of “seeing” which was
completely “antiseptic”, detached and unengaged, which is impossible. . . The question
was, rather: How are we going to look at reality in order to see it?
Aparecida replied: With the eyes of discipleship.
a)
Sociological reductionism. This is the most readily available means of
making the message an ideology. . .It involves an interpretative claim based on a
hermeneutics drawn from the social sciences. It extends to the most
varied fields, from market liberalism to Marxist categorization. [This critique hits everyone from Neo-Cons to America Magazine]
b)
Psychologizing. Here we have to do with an elitist hermeneutics which
ultimately reduces the “encounter with Jesus Christ” and its development
to a process of growing self- awareness. It is ordinarily to be found
in spirituality courses, spiritual retreats, etc. It ends up being an
immanent, self-centred approach. It has nothing to do with transcendence
and consequently, with missionary spirit. [This hits LCWR-types, various New Age perversions, extreme social-justice advocates]
c) The
Gnostic solution. Closely linked to the previous temptation, it is
ordinarily found in elite groups offering a higher spirituality,
generally disembodied, which ends up in a preoccupation with certain
pastoral “quaestiones disputatae”. . .Generally its adherents are known as
“enlightened Catholics” (since they are in fact rooted in the culture of
the Enlightenment). [Another hit for LCWR-types, elitist academic theologians, those preoccupied with continental-style philosophical theology, Roger Haight's Christology comes to mind]
d) The
Pelagian solution. This basically appears as a form of restorationism.
In dealing with the Church’s problems, a purely disciplinary solution is
sought, through the restoration of outdated manners and forms which,
even on the cultural level, are no longer meaningful. In Latin America
it is usually to be found in small groups, in some new religious
congregations, in tendencies to doctrinal or disciplinary “safety”.
Basically it is static, although it is capable of inversion, in a
process of regression. It seeks to “recover” the lost past. [Obviously, a hit at Traditionalists, certain Neo-Con tendencies, those preoccupied with Form over Substance, "law & order" Catholics]
2.
Functionalism.
Its effect on the Church is paralyzing. More than being
interested in the road itself, it is concerned with fixing holes in the
road. A functionalist approach has no room for mystery; it aims at
efficiency. It reduces the reality of the Church to the structure of an
NGO. What counts are quantifiable results and statistics. The Church
ends up being run like any other business organization. It applies a
sort of “theology of prosperity” to the organization of pastoral work. [This is pretty much a hit against most of the Spirit of Vatican Two interpretation of the Council. Think: bare modernist liturgy, stripped altars/churches, a focus on organizational problems/solutions, the bishop as CEO, the priesthood as a job, diocesan bureaucracy, commissions/committees/study groups, process-process-process, and my favorite functionalist bit of nonsense: referring to diocesan clergy as "personnel"]
3.
Clericalism
. . .is also a temptation very present in Latin America.
Curiously, in the majority of cases, it has to do with a sinful
complicity: the priest clericalizes the lay person and the lay person
kindly asks to be clericalized, because deep down it is easier. The
phenomenon of clericalism explains, in great part, the lack of maturity
and Christian freedom in a good part of the Latin American laity. [Notice that his critique hits at the modernist version of clericalism not the pre-modernist version (Fr. Mack the tyrannical pastor of St. Bubba's). Clericalism, in its modernist version, relieves the laity of its specific baptismal responsibilities by granting it clerical status; thus, leaving lay folks to believe that only by being clericalized can they be truly Catholic. In this section the Holy Father also commends popular piety, another victim of functionalism and modernist attempts to eliminate transcendental elements from the faith]
[. . .]
Read the whole thing.
This talk effectively puts to an end any talk of the Holy Father being an advocate of Liberation Theology. He embraces certain elements of that approach (base communities, focus on the poor) but absolutely rejects its Marxist analytical tools, esp its reliance on the fiction of historical materialism. It also puts Traditionalist elements of the Church on notice that mere "restorationism" is not a viable means in pursuing our missionary work.
There's something in this talk to offend/energize just about everyone. This Pope is quite the dynamo!
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