FATHER FRAN’S RANTS - Letter to the Pope

Rant Number 557     8 October 2013

Dear Pope Francis,

You are so human! So kind-looking and act so friendly and speak so sweetly! You are a delight. You are like the jolly benign uncle I never had. It is impossible not to love you and yet...Forgive me but why is it that I almost feel my Guardian Angel whispering to me: beware!

It is that interview. Things you have said. Like ‘the world contains many roads...what matters is that they lead to the Good.’

‘Is there a unique vision of the Good? Who is to define it?’ inquired the journalist.

You said: ‘Each one of us has a vision of Good and Evil. We must instigate people to pursue what he believes is Good...Each person has his idea of Good and Evil and must choose to follow Good and fight Evil as he conceives them. That could change the world.’

Dear Pope Francis, this is a big, big cheek of me! You see, I was born a Roman Catholic and then later, absurdly, I joined the Anglican Church and I was ordained a priest of that Church. Canon Law regards me as a naughty boy - a heretic, I daresay. Of course, I chose what I conceived as the Good, didn’t I? I sure did not regard the C of E as evil. (Not so sure now...) So, by your lights, I have just done what you say any person should do. That pleases me.

However, take someone who leaves Catholicism to embrace another religion. Say, Islam. Or Buddhism. Or the so-called religion of Wicca. There are quite a few of them around. Such individuals the Church in the past branded as renegades, apostates or worse. As having totally repudiated the Christian faith. But naturally they chose the Good as they saw it: what else? They are fine, then.

Or let us consider believers in ideologies strictly contrary to Christianity. Like Marxism-Leninism or National Socialism. Surely such persons hold that those doctrines and systems are good? Communism inspired its votaries with a strong vision of what it saw as the supreme Good: the classless society. And did not the SS have on their belts the motto ‘Gott mit Uns?’ Another vision of the Good, no?

The SS were evil, you might respond. Many would agree with you but...not the SS themselves, I should imagine. ‘We followed our vision of the Good as we conceived it. That was the Fuhrer’s will. Evil was what opposed it.’ What would you say to that?

Am I being unfair to you? A newspaper interview is not a papal encyclical. It is not carefully set out, theologically glossed and footnoted. An interview should not be too studied. It should have the marks of spontaneity, of sincerity. Still, this interviewer is not quite an ordinary bloke. It is...the Pope! What the Pope says matters - a lot.

Plato in his Republic does teach about the Good. His ideal guardians’ qualities of character are not personal foibles: they based on knowledge of the Good. A knowledge which demands training. Not any opinion can constitute that genuine knowledge. For example, those who say the Good is pleasure are deluded. The objects of the Good are intelligible realities, not sensory, transitory perceptions. The Good is like the Sun – once confronted with it you behold it and apprehend it aright. It is a long and arduous training – you are lead out of the cave, out of darkness into light.

I blush, Holy Father: you don’t need a mini-philosophy lesson from this poor, heretical priest. But Plato was right. Not just any bloke, never mind how subjectively sincere, can discern the Good. The agent must be properly instructed. Plato would say unless he has justice, courage, self-control and wisdom, he cannot know the Good, never mind how well-meaning he is. (Catholic moral theology taught no less, I seem to recall.) I agree with him. It follows that it isn’t good enough to trust in ‘each person’s vision of Good and Evil’. That is relativism. Perdition lies that way. John Paul II and Benedict XVI stressed that. Funny you don’t quote them...

Holy Scripture, the New Testament, spells out in detail what counts as Good and Evil. That is the living, eternal standard of right and wrong. You totally agree with that, sure, but you were dialoguing with an unbeliever. You could not quote to him divine texts he is too blind to accept so you tried to appeal to his reason, his humanity. Good but he got it wrong and you did not correct him.

He mentioned approvingly the ‘autonomy of conscience’, how everybody must obey his inner forum. He said it was ‘courageous’ of a Pope to say that. But the classic manuals of moral theology spoke not of any conscience but of an ‘informed conscience’. One so shaped and nourished by the teachings of the Church. Moreover, even such a conscience could still be objectively culpable. Subjective conviction is not enough.

Heinrich Himmler, Reichfuhrer SS, once fainted when witnessing a mass execution. Later he reproached himself for his weakness. He was certain his conscience told him to order the massacre and that it was right for him to suppress his ‘squeamishness’. A flagrant case of a man whose conscience is so warped that it leads him to do moral enormities. There are still many Himmlers amongst us.

Dear Pope Francis, forgive Fr Frank, a poor sinner. Much else is laudable in your ministry. Critique of unbridled capitalism, need of love of neighbour, care for the poor, the young unemployed, the neglected elderly... I am with you all the way. Jesus speaks through you there. However, out of love for you and for the Church of God I had to say what I said, because ‘Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas.’

Revd Frank J. Gelli