Guests look at the tiara of Pope Pius IX at a Rome press presentation for the exhibit Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Was it wise of the Vatican
to participate in the Met Gala? The debate still wages on, divided between
those who want the Church to be more engaged in the world versus those who say
it needs to show prudence when it comes to participating in potentially scandalous
events.
Being of a cautious nature, I personally would have limited the Church’s role to the museum exhibit, not the gala, putting enough conditions and restrictions on it that it resembled a social media user agreement.
Similarly, if I oversaw Vatican communications, there would be no interviews with authors who don’t take notes, no impromptu papal airplane press conferences, and a steady release of follow-up clarifications whenever the Pope made any unscripted comments.
In short, there would be no confusion, no controversy, and nobody would be talking about the Catholic Church. They’d just be ignoring it and hating it as always.
Presumably that’s why the Holy Spirit put Pope Francis in charge. As a result, many people who couldn’t care less about the Church are paying a bit more attention to it, and many of those who want nothing to do with Catholicism are willing to temper their animosity while furtively reading news stories like “Pope says it’s OK to be gay.”
As a result, we have continual discussion and disagreement about whether Francis said hell doesn’t exist, or whether non-Catholics and remarried couples are to be admitted to Communion.
For some of us rules-bound Catholics who thrive on precision and clarity, this is too much.
Which makes Pope Francis so appropriate to be Pontiff for a 21st-century post-rational world.
We have left the age of reason led by Pope John Paul II. We can no longer fathom the logic of a Pope Benedict XVI. Ours is an age that venerates emotions, feelings, desires, wishes, and aspirations, idolizing them like a golden calf.
Instead of spending his time correcting, clarifying, and expanding on the points he’s trying to make, Pope Francis focuses on witnessing Christ’s love to those around him.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen was ahead of his time decades ago when he said “The only argument the world will listen to now is the argument of personal holiness. It has heard all the rest and rejected them.”
Pope Francis is delivering the argument of personal holiness. Instead of focusing on the 99 sheep in his flock and keeping them under tight rein, he’s willing to leave them in search of the missing sheep. He knows his flock may be confused and unnerved, but he trusts they’ll be fine while he’s looking for those not of his fold.
As a shepherd, he also knows he has to find new ways of speaking. The lost sheep don’t understand the language of doctrine and theology, catechisms and encyclicals. As G.K. Chesterton observed, people have lost the ability to think, replacing “discussion” with “disturbance.”
“There are no more rules of argument, nothing to argue about,” he said. “That would require plaintiffs and defendants to appear before some tribunal and give evidence according to some tests of truth.”
The lost sheep don’t understand the language of truth. What they do understand is a Pope who speaks the language of love.
We have a Pope who is speaking the language of the world.