Pope Names Matteo Ricci and Pedro Arrupe as His Models

Workshopping the Destruction of the Church?

(Rome) The 15 page summary between Pope Francis and the Superiors of a Catholic male religious was developed by Father Antonio Spadaro on November 29th,  the editor  of the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica   published in the new issue of the magazine on Friday.Pope Francis offers two Jesuits  as role models: the Jesuit Matteo Ricci of the first generation and the controversial Father General Pedro Arrupe (1965-1983).

Hardly anything has been leaked so far about the content of the conversation so far. The Union of Superiors General had announced  soon  that a summary by Father Spadaro will follow soon after.  Pope Francis seems to have asked the Superiors for restraint to prevent uncontrolled reproduction of his statements by indiscretions.

Presented to the Pope Before printing

Each issue of Civilta Cattolica is checked prior to publication by the Vatican and provided with a printing license. Father Spadaro, who is not a Superior General, however, had been expressly  called by the Pope to the conversation. In a pontifical mandate, he created the summary, it was sent before printing to the Pope personally for examination and received permission to publish this.

"When the Pope speaks freely and enters into dialogue, his remarks have a wave-like rhythm, which one must follow with care, because it feeds on the living interaction with his interlocutors," as Father Spadaro outlines. Unfortunately, the extensive summary of the Pope's words are not yet available in the German [Or English] version.

Religious Life is Prophetic Discipleship

In addition to the Pope lamenting the "novice trade" in the young churches with many vocations,  in forming of "little monsters", which gave the Pope  "the creeps", the pontiff spoke of the priority of religious life: "It is the prophecy the kingdom, which is not negotiable. The emphasis must be on to prophesy, and do not care to do only going through the motions Of course, the devil shows us his temptations and this is one of them: to act as if you prophets to be without it. But such things can not play. I myself have seen many sad things in this regard. "

The Pope exhorted the Superior Generals: "The Church must be attractive. Wake up the world. Be witness of a different kind of action, of action and of life."  He continued: "It is possible to live differently in this world. We speak of an eschatological view, which has become the meat of values ​​of the Kingdom here on this earth. It's about giving up everything to follow the Lord. No, I do not say radical '. The radical nature of the Gospel concerns not only the religious: it is demanded of all. The religious only follow the Lord in a special way, a prophetic way. I expect this testimony from you. "

Sin Yes, No Corrupt

The pope repeated a formulation that he already mentioned several times, the content is still difficult to understand. The Pope urged the superiors to take the sinner in the seminaries, but not "corrupt": "I'm not talking about the people who recognize themselves as sinners: we are all sinners, but we are not all corrupt. Accept the sinner, but not the corrupt ".

Charism is Always Fit to the Circumstances of Time, Place and People

Regarding the charism of the Founder of each Order, the Pope said: "The charism is always one thing, but as Saint Ignatius said, it must be lived according to place, time and people. The charism is not a bottle of distilled water. One must live powerfully, by reading it culturally anew. "In this context, the Pope called religious to action. It would be better to "make mistakes" than to do  nothing. "We always have to ask for forgiveness and are ashamed of the apostolic failures caused by discouragement. Consider, for example, of the pioneering intuitions of Matteo Ricci which were dropped in his time. " The Pope was referring to the previous failed attempts at the Christianization of China. The Jesuit Matteo Ricci model was distinguished by special adaptability to the Chinese culture and mentality. For this reason it was controversial and was eventually discarded.

Two Jesuits as role models: Matteo Ricci and Superior General Pedro Arrupe

Pope Francis also came to speak about the "periphery", the "edges", a cipher priority of his pontificate: "I am convinced of one thing: the big change in history occurred when the reality came to be considered not from the center but from the edges. "In this context, the Pope mentioned yet another Jesuit, whose activity he cited as an example, the earlier, controversial Superior General, Father Pedro Arrupe, whom John Paul II urged to a premature resignation. Father Arrupe is considered one of the most colorful figures in recent history. Some worship him as a shining example, in the other he is regarded as one of the gravediggers of the Jesuit Order.

Two new documents: about the brothers and the relationship between bishops and religious

In his address the Pope announced that he had two documents in preparation: one on the appeal of the "brothers", that is the religious who are not priests, and the other on the relations between the bishops and religious, with which the document Mutuae relationis  is to be replaced by the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes and Congregation for Bishops of 1978, which Pope Francis describes as "out of date".

2015 Year of Consecrated Life

The Pope also announced that he will proclaim 2015 the Year of Consecrated Life.  An announcement that was greeted with "a long applause," said Father Spadaro. The Pope had then looked and said toJoão Cardinal Bráz de Aviz and Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo with a smile to the Prefect and the Secretary of the Congregation of Religious: "It's their fault, the proposal comes from them, when the two meet, they are dangerous" which brought the General Assembly of the Superiors General to general hilarity, said Father Spadaro. The Brazilian Cardinal Braz de Aviz is a member of the Focolare Movement, Archbishop Carballo is Franciscan.

If the Vatican medicine is worse than the dreaded disease

The Vatican expert Sandro Magister recalls that both recently got into the headlines along with Pope Francis because of the severity with which they placed the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, one of the most flourishing orders of the Catholic Church under provisional administration and banned the Order from celebrating in the Old Rite.

"This matter was not discussed in the talk of 29 November, except perhaps implicitly where Pope Francis said that conflicts in the community are unavoidable: in some ways it must happen if the community is really honest and loyal to relationships. But if the destructive approach of the provisional administration of the Franciscans of the Immaculate is seen - as it transpired from both parties to the conflict - one gets the distinct impression that the Vatican medicine is worse than the dreaded disease," said Master.

Sad State of Attire Among the Superiors General

The Catholic religious tradition is characterized by the diversity of religious charisms, which finds its visible expression in each particular religious robes. The dress code of the Assembly of Superiors General of Catholic Male Religious before Pope Francis, however, offers the dreary sight of utter monotony. Several superiors general seem to regard the habit only as an occasional option.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Don Orione

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Will revise as needed.

AMGD