“The world has hated them because they are not of the world”
For the first time in twelve years, the Roman Catholic Church is facing a conclave. Thanks to Berger’s recent film, the concept of the conclave is fresh on the mind in popular culture. But the Catholic reception of the film proves one point very clearly: The Church and the world do not, and should not, have the same hope for the conclave’s outcome.
In the world’s view—and here I mean “the world” as St. Paul uses it—the pope ought to be the marriage between the world’s wisdom and the Catholics who still find comfort in religious sentiment. It would ask for a pope who sympathizes with its own causes and can help to reform the Church, keeping it modern and with the times. In the world’s mind, the best thing to hope for is a pope who will help coax one’s stubbornly religious grandmother to be a little more open-minded. The world’s pope has no more function than the peanut butter hiding a pill for a dog—to gently teach the behind-the-times religious what the rest of the world has already learned.
But the world’s wisdom, apart from Christ, is worthless. St. Augustine says that the thinkers of the world “‘held down the truth in iniquity’ because they philosophized without the Mediator, the man Christ.” And as Chesterton said, the teachings of the world apart from the Church can only be “half-truths,” which “will only harden into heresy.”
On the one hand, it is incumbent upon the pope as the earthly head of the Church to do this kind of theological synthesis. If the world is preaching messages of mercy, acceptance, love, peace, or environmental stewardship, then it falls to him to sift through what the world is saying, find what is good, and situate it properly.
But the world’s doctrines are too simple on their own, crumbling into nonsense before long. There is an irreconcilable chasm between the Church’s environmentalism (man’s God-given obligation to steward the Creator’s creation) and the world’s (the life of a dog or a tree is of equal dignity to a human being); between the Church’s message of acceptance (count yourself as the first among sinners and know that God alone knows the hearts of men) and the world’s (no one can condemn another’s deeds without hating the other); between the Church’s love (that man should love with Christ’s own love, to the point of death) and the world’s (any sexual relationship is licit).
Theological mediation is assuredly part of the pope’s ministry. Good evangelization means actual engagement with the world. If one wants to administer medicine, he must diagnose the illness. And someone will reject medicine from a doctor he doesn’t trust—the good evangelist endears himself to his audience to the best of his ability.
But this mediating synthesis is not the pope’s only, or even primary, task. Neither is direct evangelization. More properly, his job is to govern and teach and form those doing evangelization on the ground. Your work-friend is far more likely to attend Mass because of a holy and orthodox co-worker than because of an especially nice statement from the Vatican.
As the faithful anticipate the coming conclave, what should we be praying for? What does the Catholic Church need from her earthly head, especially today?
We might speak flippantly about the Catholic “both-and,” but it is essential to theology. The Trinity is three and one, Christ is God and man. So, if the world is preaching mercy, then who will preach justice? If the world is telling us not to judge rashly, who will tell us how to judge well? If the world is championing free-will, who will remind us that free-will is only given to us so that we might freely give ourselves back to the one who made free-will?
The world’s half-truths need to be balanced, and this is one of the Church’s main tasks. She has been given the very Word of God and millennia of tradition—there is no good principle or teaching that the world offers which the Church does not already have. Her job is to speak up for the principles, dogmas, and truths which the world is overlooking at any given moment. The whole truth needs to be represented. The Church is called not to echo the world, but to correct it.
This may—even should—make one unpopular. Especially given the public-facing nature of the pope’s office, any given statement of his is bound to displease someone, even on a good day. It is then essential that the pope have the fortitude to speak the truth with no heed for the world’s loud yet fleeting opinions. Christ is the truth, and the truth needs to be known in full.
With that said, the Catholic “both-and” returns. The whole Church, and the pope especially, must strive to defend truth while preserving unity; to stand firm against the enemy while making every possible concession that charity and prudence allow; to seek the world’s friendship but to accept its rejection with peace of mind. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
But as I do not expect members of the conclave to be reading this piece, it suffices to tell the faithful: Pray for the repose of the soul Pope Francis, pray for the conclave, and no matter the outcome, rest in the hope which Christ gave his Church, that even “the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”
James Whitaker is a graduate student in the theology department. He is a convert from Anglicanism, and it is thanks to good papal ecclesiology that he swam the Tiber. He can be reached at jwhitak5@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Matthew Rice
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