Blaise Pascal is often quoted to remind us that “the heart has its reasons which the reason cannot understand”. This famous French philosopher-mathematician of the 17th century defended Jansenism of the Augustinian inspiration and the Calvinist economy of faith, he wrote harshly against the casuistry of the Jesuit defence of the free-will. Pascal was contemporary of Espinosa, who saw no need to postulate God and his pantheism distinguished between “natura naturans” and “natura naturata”. The former represented the nature that was not yet dominated by humans through science, and lesser humans sought explanations in God and supernatural forces. This is the western modern concept of nature without God which this Pope is trying to undo.
On the Christmas day of 1913 my Herald column was about “Waiting for Pope John the Baptist” [http://bit.ly/1GqMpn9]. I had said that Christianity came to most non-European continents as a gift of capitalism through Iberian discoveries. In India too the so-called St Thomas Christians are believed to have arrived with the help of the Jewish trading contacts. I had also stated that for the Catholic faithful God chose to have his son born amidst the Jews, anticipating their place in the world capitalism and thereby ensuring the spread of Christianity worldwide, but also as a permanent voice to restrain the growing capitalist abuses, an ever modern “malleus maleficarum” (the hammer of witches). The divine logic baffles me, and we can find some solace in St. Augustine who wrote: “who can fathom God’s mysteries”?
Soon after being elected, Pope Francis warned against the “killer economy” referring to the abuses of capitalism. He followed up by taking bold steps to put some order into the Vatican banking operations. He seems to have taken yet another step that has irritated the neo-liberals through his latest encyclical “Laudatosi”, questioning the submission of political order to financial order which promoted “throw-away” culture. Earlier during a visit to Argentina he had praised the “cartoneros”, literally “cardboard people”, the poor rag-pickers who helped cleaning the industrial trash. The Pope continues his harangue against the waste economy that is destroying the eco-system.
What Pope Francis is calling for in his “green” encyclical is a change from market oriented thinking to thinking hearts. He continues to live up to the ideals of St Francis Assisi whose name he assumed as the program of his pontificate. St Francis of Assisi had emerged as a charismatic response at the dawn of the European modernity to remind the Church of its call to be present among the urban poor. The Pope has also been conscious of the message of St John Baptist [https://youtube/ 1XeSNBAnA] who had the mission to point the way to Jesus, and not get carried by the enthusiasm of those who followed him. I must admit today that my call for Pope John the Baptist in the above mentioned column is likely to be fulfilled.
However, for the Church depending upon institutional structures that depend upon financial doles on a big scale, it may have still a long way to go before liberating itself from the shackles of its capitalist umbilical cord. The Church may need to wait for more kicks of History to reach the required purification, like the take-over of the Papal provinces by the Italian nationalists who deprived the Church of its centuries-old past of temporal power during the pontificate of Pope Pius IX, who declared himself a “prisoner of the Vatican” and issued “Syllabus errorum” condemning modernity as a heretical movement to be rejected by Christians. We know today that despite Pope’s reaction the kick of History helped the Church and God’s vicar on earth to wake up to their spiritual mission.
The calls of Pope Francis for a radical change in the profit oriented market mentality need to be backed with more radical changes in the mode of thinking and operating of the Church to be truly convincing. The Catholic Church seems to take it for granted that its structures shaped on the model of the Roman empire are God’s working. It is strange also that the western politics saw nothing wrong in recognizing Vatican as a sovereign state with a seat in the community of nations.
To conclude, no powers are known in History to give up willingly their privileges. The Catholic Church which claims divine mandate is even less likely to do so until fresh kicks of History help her to trust in the power of God to carry on its mission along the lines of Jesus who chose death to a kingdom on earth. The Catholic Church may need to die to many of its acquired privileges and styles of functioning before it can rise and emerge freer to witness to the freedom of the children of God.
(Teotonio R. de Souza is the founder-
director, Xavier Centre of Historical
Research, Goa (1979-1994).
