I thought this was a good piece that published in an the Italian paper Corriere Della Dera the other day and has been translated here.
What the 'four-hands'
encyclical teaches us
by Vittorio Messori
Translated from
June 15, 2013
Vatican officials had sought to tone down the reality - they spoke
of a document that Benedict XVI had drafted in part and that Pope
Francis had taken up to complete, or rather, fragments that the emeritus
Pope had written that the reigning Pope has then developed to
completion.
Instead, the encyclical on faith will really be 'an encyclical by four hands' [as in a piano duet, for which the Italian term 'a quattro mani' is habitually used].-
just so, textually, as announced plainly by Papa Bergoglio on an
official occasion - his meeting with the current Executive Council and
Secretariat-General of the Bishops' Synod.
Thus, another 'first' for the Argentine Pontiff: a doctrinal
document of primary importance - on faith, no less, therefore, on the
very foundation of the Church. One that was ideated, thought through,
and in large part written by one Pope and signed by another.
A Pope who announced on the same occasion that he would not fail
to inform the addressees of his first circular letter to Christianity -
that is the meaning of the word 'encyclical' - that he "received from
Benedict XVI a great piece of work" that he fully shares-and found to be
"a powerful text".
Of course, every Pope in the documents he issues under his name
always cites his predecessors, but as citations, sources duly footnoted,
certainly never as co-author. Indeed, one thinks back, with irony, to
the resignation of Celestine V, who was imprisoned in some secret place
by his successor Boniface VIII for fear he could inspire a schism, and
whom he brought back to captivity when the old monk sought to escape.
Let us try to understand how we have come to this unprecedented
situation now. Joseph Ratzinger's primary concern - as a scholar, then
as cardinal, and finally as Pope - was always to turn back to the
fundamentals, to recover the bases of Christianity, to offer a new
apologetics appropriate to contemporary man.
And so, he planned a trilogy on the major virtues, those called
'theological' - thus, he wrote an encyclical on love and one on hope.
The one on faith was to come, and he had planned to publish it by autumn
of 2013, at the end of the special year that he decreed precisely to a
rediscovery of the reasons why we believe the Gospel.
The work was far advanced when he came to the realization that his
advancing age no longer allowed him to carry the burdens of the
Pontificate on his shoulders.
Perhaps, free from the duties of the Bishop of Rome, he would have
enough strength left to finish the text and publish it, 'de-classing'
it from a papal encyclical to just a scholarly text, as he had done with
the three volumes he wrote on the historicity of Jesus. Books that do
not have magisterial value but are open to debate by experts on the
topic.
It is possible that he consulted the new Pope about this, and that
Francis gladly offered to use the work already done, bring it to
completion, and sign it as an encyclical with his name.
This has disconcerted some eccelesial circles: The idea of a papal
document with such importance and on such a decisive topic that has
joint authorship has left many perplexed.
On the contrary, it is most welcome. The novelty seems precious
because it can help recover a perspective that many faithful appear to
have forgotten. That perspective of faith in which it is not the
persona of the Pope that matters, and all that goes with it - a
biography, a culture, a nationality, a personality.
What matters is the papacy, the institution desired by Christ
himself with a specific task: to lead the flock, as a good shepherd,
through the tempests of history, without deviating from the right
course.
To the faithful, the Pope exists to be their master in faith and
morals, not by advocating his own ideas, but by helping them to
understand the divine will, announcing the eternal life that awaits us
at the end of our earthly journey, and watching that we do not fall into
the abyss of error.
That is why Popes are assured of the assistance of the Holy Spirit
- to keep them from straying from the path. In his teachings, the Roman
Pontiff is not 'an author' whose qualities one must admire. Indeed, he
would betray his role if he said fascinating and original things that
were not along the lines indicated by Scripture and Tradition. A Pope is
not allowed to say "in my opinion", which is the hallmark of heresy.
Simplifying extremely, we can say that "one Pope is as good as
another" in that ultimately his person does not count, but only his
obedience and fidelity as an instrument of evangelical announcement.
Anecdotes about the Popes, on their daily lives, may be
interesting, but they have no bearing on their mission. What really
counts is the Papacy as a perennial institution that will endure until parousia
- to the end of history and the second coming of Christ. An institution
which, to the Catholic, is not a weight to be borne, but a gift for
which we must be grateful. It does not matter whether the Pope of the
moment is 'pleasing' as a person, whether we love his character or
style.
Joseph Ratzinger and Jorge Bergoglio are vastly different
personalities, but they cannot differ - and Heaven watches that this
does not happen - when they speak of Christ and his teaching, as
teachers of faith and morals.
As instruments - "a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of
the Lord", as Benedict XVI called himself in his first remarks as Pope -
they are in a way interchangeable. They can explain more deeply the
significance of the Gospel, help it to be understood better by the men
of their time, but always in the wake of Scripture and Tradition. They
are not allowed to be 'creative'. They are not 'authors' but leaders, in
turn led by an Other.
Precisely because of this, the idea is not at all unwelcome - but
rather, it seems a precious occasion offered to us by what Hegel would
call 'the cunning of history' - of a document by two Popes that
reannounces the faith, which is the basis of everything.
A document by an emeritus Pontiff and a reigning one shows that
Popes may be different personalities but that the perspective in which
they are called to lead the Church is the same, the direction is the
same. Just as their words are basically identical in re-proposing the
great wager on the truth of Christianity.
And so, no one should be scandalized at a 'four-handed encyclical'.
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