Two new saints: Archbishop Oscar Romero and Pope Paul VI

I am delighted with the news of the forthcoming canonisations of Archbishop Romero and Pope Paul VI, which emerged this last week.  Bishop Campbell has posted accounts of both the future saints at his weekly blog: Two new Saints for the Church.

As far as Archbishop Romero is concerned, I think it is important to go to original sources to learn about him as a person and about his work as a Bishop. I am unconvinced by the narrative of "sudden conversion" that is a feature of some accounts of his life.  I have always sensed an absolute continuity of faith, but a faith that responded to his changing mission in the Church. I recall, for example, a number of years ago attending a Paul VI lecture organised by CAFOD at which Maria Lopez Vigil spoke about Archbishop Romero. She was asked a question after her talk (by Peter Hebblethwaite, if I recall correctly - corrections via the comments if I have this wrong) which framed Archbishop Romero within the narrative of "sudden conversion". I remember chuckling to myself as Ms Lopez Vigil's answer to the question declined to take up such a view. Soon after Archbishop Romero's death, I placed him alongside Fr Jerzy Popieluszko in a talk, identifying both of them as martyrs for the truth about the human person (cf now the provisions of Maiorem Hac Dilectionem)

I remain convinced that, in recent decades, we have had Popes who have quite immediately been the most appropriate for their particular times. I include in that Pope Paul VI, who I consider to be very much underestimated, and Pope Francis. The denigration that both receive from certain quarters is, in my view, greatly to the discredit of those responsible for that denigration. There are a number of aspects of Christian life that I take for granted, and which have their modern day roots in the pontificate of Pope Paul VI: a vivid sense of the Christian life as an ecclesial life (witness for, example, Paul VI's Year of Faith and the Credo of the People of God), a vivid sense of the Marian dimension to ecclesial life (witness his proposal of the title Mother of the Church when the Council fathers had not taken it up, a proposal now taken up by Pope Francis in establishing a memoria in the universal calendar with precisely that dedication); and a deep responsiveness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit (it may never be possible to verify it historically, but I like to speculate that, at least in a general sense, that Humanae Vitae was written at a prompting of the Holy Spirit). All of these themes are recognisable in the exercise of his office by Pope Francis.

Pope Paul VI Memorial Lecture 2010 (2): more analysis

I promised some time ago that I would post a more analytical commment on the 2010 Pope Paul VI Memorial Lecture, when a full text was  available. The text has been published on the Tablet website, and I have been prompted to keep my promise by the reference to Haiti in Pope Benedict XVI's Urbi et Orbi address:

May the comforting message of the coming of Emmanuel ease the pain and bring consolation amid their trials to the beloved Christian communities in Iraq and throughout the Middle East; may it bring them comfort and hope for the future and bring the leaders of nations to show them effective solidarity. May it also be so for those in Haiti who still suffer in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and the recent cholera epidemic.

The first point that can be made about Claudette Werleigh's lecture is what one might call a methodological point. She presents an account of the situation in Haiti, and then applies to that account by way of comment the thought of the magisterium of the Church through citation, for example, of Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio or Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate.

A second key point in the lecture is the idea of "human flourishing", and the application of this idea in evaluating engagement with the disasters of earthquake and cholera in Haiti. Claudette Werleigh refers in particular to a paper by Celia Deane-Drummond to express this idea, but I have not been able to find the text of this paper. I believe that it was one of a number of background papers written to support the publication of the Theos/CAFOD/Tearfund document Wholly Living: a new perspective on international development. Chapter 3 of this publication develops something of the idea of "human flourishing", recognising its religious roots in an idea of man being made in the "image and likeness of God" but also indicating that it is an idea that is not restricted to Christians. I find the philosophical development of this idea in Wholly Living rather weak, though it can I believe be developed much more strongly within the context of a philosophy of the human person. In the context of Wholly Living and of the Paul VI Lecture, it is the application of this idea in the context of international development that is the primary interest, but I think it is nevertheless useful, even in this context, to develop the concept more fully. The application of the idea to just climate change and economic matters, whilst it might be politically attractive to an agency like CAFOD, is a restricted application. A fuller development of the idea of "human flourishing" would allow its application to a much wider range of questions, less directly relevant politically, but nevertheless relevant to international development in its full sense.

The third point of interest in the lecture lies in what Claudette Werleigh has to say about the part played by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's) in the response to events in Haiti. Her remarks about the way in which NGO's have become almost an alternative to national sovereignty in Haiti are of interest. In one sense this represents an argument in favour of the partnership working - ie the idea that international development activity should be undertaken by supporting the work of local people in situ rather than by the bringing in of outside agencies - that has become an accepted practice in the work of aid agencies. In another way, it suggests a way of working for an international ecclesial organisation such as the Catholic Church, which of its nature is already in place in a country like Haiti. It also represents a critique of the way of operating of organisations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund in their relation to NGO activity.

It is interesting to see, if the suggestions of Claudette Werleigh's citations of Paul VI and Benedict XVI are anything to go by, how prophetic Catholic social teaching is in its application to situations such as that in Haiti.

A final thought. At the beginning of her lecture, Claudette Werleigh recalled the founding charisms of both CAFOD and the organisation which she now leads, Pax Christi:

Today’s event is part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Cafod. I was very pleased to learn that CAFOD holds its roots in Family Fast Day, an event organised by women in support of a mother and child clinic in a far away country in another continent. Coincidentally, it was also a woman, Marthe Dortel-Claudot, who together with Pierre-Marie Théas, Bishop of Montauban, took the initiative to work for reconciliation between France and Germany. This initiative for peace is still being honoured and carried forward by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world as the Pax Christi movement.

Cafod and the organisation that I represent today, Pax Christi International, are determined to keep alive the legacy of Pope Paul VI. There is no doubt that we would be living now in a much better world if the recommendations given in the Encyclical letter, Populorum Progressio, had been put into practice!

Pope Paul VI Lecture 2010

A few years ago, I went to CAFOD'S Paul VI Memorial Lecture when the lecturer was a lady called Maria Lopez Vigil. She had been a collaborator with Archbishop Oscar Romero and, at the time of the lecture, had just published a book Oscar Romero: Memories in Mosaic. The book is a collection of people's memories of Archbishop Romero. I went because I was interested in meeting someone who had worked with Archbishop Romero and would be able to communicate something of the man - not that I had any intention of speaking to her individually but that, when you hear someone speaking in person, you gain a sense of them as a person as well as a sense of their thought.

Maria Lopez does recognise in the introduction to her book that Archbishop Romero experienced a "conversion" as he took up his office as Archbishop of San Salvador; but my memory of her talk is that she did not present this "conversion" as a change from being an arch-conservative (in both ecclesiological and political terms) to an arch-liberal (again in both ecclesiological and political terms), a way in which he is often presented but which, in my view, has no basis in Archbishop Romero's own writings. I found it a very interesting occasion, and was very pleased to have attended.

In a similar way, when I learnt that the 2010 Paul VI Memorial Lecture would be given by a speaker who is Secretary General of Pax Christi International and a former Prime Minister of Haiti, my interest was caught. I am looking forward to an "encounter" with someone who has held political and public office and, as she has done so, has tried to put her faith into practice. Claudette Werleigh's CV can be found on Pax Christi International's website. I am expecting that, whatever one might think of CAFOD, this will be an interesting evening.

It is interesting to explore the Pax Christi International website, perhaps particularly the page which tells the history of the movement. Pax Christi has an authentically Catholic charism, which can be seen both in its original inspiration in France in the wake of the Second World War and in its recognition within the Catholic Church. Those of a more conservative mind might not be comfortable with the charism of Pax Christi, and might feel that some of its personalities have not always been faithful to the Church's life. But this should not detract from the fact that Pax Christi does have an authentic charism in the Church.

New City Magazine: March 2008

The March issue of New City carries a report of the 2007 Pope Paul VI lecture. This was given last November, by Vera Araujo. What I did not realise at the time of the lecture was that Vera Araujo had a background in Focolare's "Abba School" (their academic think tank!) and in the "Economy of Communion", a movement for econcomic development arising from Focolare's spirituality of unity. Her lecture can be seen as a reading of Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio in the light of Focolare's spirituality of unity.

I was able to find a transcript of Vera Araujo's address on the CAFOD website, but only after "googling" for "Paul VI lecture 2007". From the transcript, I take the following question and answer. My comments in red.

Q6: Thank you for a beautiful presentation in the style of Dom Helder (Camara). Vera Araujo had favourably described something of Dom Helder Camara's pastoral approach during her lecture. She described, for example, how he used to travel around Recife on buses rather than by car, how he used to eat in cafes or bars rather than in expensive restaurants. As Dom Helder would recognise, this globalised world is marked by structures of injustice and structures of sin; poor people don’t just suffer, poor people are exploited by rich nations. Where does ‘transforming solidarity advocacy’ - to turn this world upside down - fit into the picture of building a universal cohesion between rich and poor, between exploited and those who exploit? One can perhaps see where this question was coming from!

Good and evil have always co-existed. We have always have had to take account of the situation in which we live. But the greatness of every human person lies in the possibility of being able to change the situation they find themselves in. Many times when I am with young people, the most important thing I want to get across to them, is how much they can bring about change. Institutions, structures are built by individuals. As there are structures of sin there are also structures for good, structures of solidarity, structures of love and it is always we as human beings who create these structures. So this capacity for change exists within us. It is together we can build and bring about a difference.

The situation in which we find ourselves today demands of us more than ever before that we start to build human relationships, build communities. It will be these communities which are true, made up of deep relationships which will then in turn be able to express themselves in terms of laws, in terms of new structures. It’s something that will take a long time. It will take decades, maybe even hundreds of years. But if we don’t start, it will take thousands of years. Someone has to start.

Let’s be optimistic and optimism is also realism . It means believing in our capability of being open to others, of being open to the action of God in the course of history. If we don’t have this optimism we will become depressed; we will be incapable of taking our world in hand and making it a better world for ourselves and for our children and all those who come after us. We don’t want to be marked down in history as a lost generation because I fear that our ‘modern’ times will be judged harshly by history. So we have to change the direction and turn the situation around. But the answer does not go there!

There is also an interesting interview with Professor Gerald John Pillay, Vice Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University. The interview was occasioned by the award of an honorary degree by Liverpool Hope to Chiara Lubich, founder and President of Focolare. Liverpool Hope University is a joint Anglican-Roman Catholic foundation, being formed from previously existing Anglican and Roman Catholic colleges. Two things caught my attention in this interview.

The first was Professor Pillay's view that "secularisation" of the universities had not come about at the time of the Enlightenment (many of the leading lights of the enlightenment were, in his view, people of deep faith). Professor Pillay believes this secularisation to be a largely post-world war phenomenon, citing the existence of theology departments all over the Western world in the 19th century as evidence for this view (how many of those departments are now "religious studies" departments, I wonder?).

"But I think now that a post-secular culture is emerging. We had a post-religious culture and now we have a post-secular culture. People are much more comfortable speaking about spirituality today and one senses a deep spiritual longing in people."

Whilst one can see signs that support Professor Pillay's view, I suspect that many of us engaged in public debate would be much less optimistic about the extent of the emerging post-secular culture.

The second was the strength of Professor Pillay's vision for Liverpool Hope University. According to the interview, he hopes that the University can reintroduce the study of theology as a way of humanising society and restore it to its original position as "Queen of the Sciences". One can see here echoes of Pope Benedict XVI's concern at the loss of the sense of God from society. This vision has been enriched by Professor Pillay's encounter with Focolare, an encounter which has occurred as a result of the award of an honorary degree to Chiara Lubich. He noted that Focolare is due to open its own university, with the name Sophia University, in November this year.

"Of course, our universities must be about knowledge, but they must also be about wisdom, because scientia has dominated the model of the modern university, science and technology, but sapientia, which is what the Scriptures speak about, is to do with meaning and purpose and about the humane and the deeper things in life which go beyond science and technology. This is why I was very attracted by the idea of the university with the title Sophia, wisdom".

The risk of an ecumenical institution like Liverpool Hope University is that it just adopts, in a downward moving sort of way, the "lowest common denominator" of the participating denominations. This interview suggests that the opposite may be happening - that there is instead a kind of upward moving adherence to a "highest common factor". I would expect that this can only be enriched by the engagement with Focolare.