«2001 SPACE ODYSSEY », Ie: THE FANTATEOLOGIA SOME JOURNALISTS

 

[…] some, perhaps with titles, are forced to make trades lower for the fact of not finding work, and these are excusable, if not from pitying. But it happens that do their duty well, also because who knows how to make the most, knows how to make even the least. A medical graduate can do the mailman. But a postman can not cure pneumonia or liver cirrhosis. Those that are reprehensible and they do greater damage, are ambitious and presumptuous, which give to intend to know how to do or think beyond those who are their real abilities, often very limited.

In life it is important to take the right career, conform to its capacity, based on sound criteria of discernment, without ambition and without hesitation. It happens that there are those who instead, for different reasons, embarks on a road that is not his, confusing her with another authentic, that is what we chose, but that he had better not choose, because so, although it may have some success, actually does damage to himself and to others. Of course, some — maybe with titles — are forced to make trades less for not finding work, and these are excusable, if not from pitying. But it happens that do their duty well, also because who knows how to make the most, knows how to make even the least. A medical graduate can do the mailman. But a postman can not cure pneumonia or liver cirrhosis. Those that are reprehensible and they do greater damage, are ambitious and presumptuous, which give to intend to know how to do or think beyond those who are their real abilities, often very limited. But unfortunately it happens that those who aspire to be judges or other guides, use, as a criterion to evaluate themselves and others, not wisdom, but envy and presumption.

The examples that could be done are many and touch every kind of choice, of vocation, by profession, by trade, career. I want to stop here on a widespread phenomenon today, which have spoken on this our online magazine also my friends and fellow priests Ariel S. Levi Gualdo and Antonio Livi: the claim of some journalists to discuss or sentencing categorically, without appeal and without the proper preparation and expertise, and therefore without due criterion of judgment, of theology, of matters of faith, ministries and ecclesial tasks - for example that of the Pope - or affairs of the Church. Certainly not bad that mainstream media do so much attention to the Pope, to the Church, to issues of doctrine and morals, the question of the progressives and conservatives, names of famous theologians or Cardinals, the fate of Christianity in relation to other religions, the ratio of the Second Vatican Council with the Magisterium previous. But the question is how preparation, objectivity and competence and with what accuracy of information taken from sources which they form their judgments, give their views, they know, refer and interpret facts. How Much, for instance, especially those who say they are or are considered Catholics, know the true nature of the Church as well as the Catholic Church understands it? How can distinguish, in business or in the thought of the Pope Master of faith from the pastoral guidance of the Church from the private doctor, according to those principles and criteria that recently three of us have exposed several times on this site through our writings? How can distinguish the doctrine of the faith by the various and contradictory opinions of theologians? How can distinguish what is authentically Catholic by what it is not? Know how to distinguish what is theology in the scientific sense of what is only a religious discourse more or less literary or mythological?

Broad example is the talk of the events, initiatives, of works or undertakings of the Church believing to have the last word by considering the Church from a purely sociological terrain or just, and ignoring its essence and its aims supernatural, how can one speak of a multinational company, or as if it had to do with a simple philanthropic society or humanitarian, type Amnesty International O Green Peacee, or a political party immersed in the affairs of this world.

It is urgent to clarify once and for all what should be the relationship of the Catholic journalist theologian in dealing with the affairs of the faith and the Church in a convenient way in order to communicate with the largest possible number of people. First of all it is necessary that the journalist himself is theologian, given the material that has to deal, albeit not in scientific terms, but understood by the general public. The first thing that the Catholic journalist has to do then is to figure out exactly what it is, draw with care to safe and reliable, operate a discernment in the light of the Magisterium of the Church, give this light and in this guide an objective evaluation, intelligent, dispassionate and impartial events, explain in simple terms and popular doctrines, the news, threads, lines of conduct, pastoral activities, and the problems attached to them, without excluding constructive criticism and prudent, distinguishing the questionable by some, in order to carry out a work information and training at a time, an educational and cultural stimulus, that can help readers live better their faith and their membership in the Church, constructively, a spirit of cooperation, healthy optimism, well defended dall'insidia error, in the exercise of civic virtues and Christian, desirous of evangelical perfection.

If there are journalists who improvising theologians are beyond their competence and invade sometimes arrogant and vain complacency field theologian, This can also happen because unfortunately there are theologians who do not have sufficient estimate of loftiness of their discipline, but reduce or solve the level of simple pastoral, moreover with colorings sociopolitical, sometimes extremely partial and subjective, to deprive the theological discourse of its independence, freedom and universality and to transform, humiliate and snap it like a Procrustean bed, almost to the extent of a thesis or party program. Not that a theology can not be born a political party. Just look at the work of some great men like Ozanam, Acquaderni, Don Sturzo, Mounier, De Gasperi and Aldo Moro. However, they first, in the nobility of their ideas, refused to reduce the theological principle transcendent and immutable to the contingency of a simple political opinion, as founded upon it. Not that it is an unlawful and of course also normal for the theologian to express opinions, preferences or personal assumptions or choose a current or trend or theological school rather than another or a master rather than another. And on the other hand it is clear that the moral theology, for effectiveness, must be reflected in pastoral theology and dogmatic theology itself or speculative can be effectively taught only if the teacher takes into account the pastoral teaching of that discipline. Only speculative theology is an end in itself and must be sought for itself as a high enjoyment of the spirit. Moral theology and the pastoral are ordered to speculative theology. Good practical to do is ordained to the Good God to love and contemplate. Who has not speculative interests can make the bully possessing power and wealth, enjoying prestige and establishing itself on others; but it really is an unfortunate. It can also gain the world, Christ would say, but loses his soul made to God and not to assert itself.

The happiness of man is not in the search for a God who saves the human ego in the manner of Luther, a God functional and subordinate to man. In this Luther was unwitting victim of that’ anthropocentrism egocentric Renaissance, he also refused to consciousness, but rather in seeking God for God, as said St. Catherine of Siena. The folding Lutheran man on itself under the pretext of the need for salvation and humility in letting God work, is a self-centeredness more subtle but no less real than the one rejected by Luther which is to boast of their works before God. However it is wrong, as does Rahner, pretext that theological research and the teaching of theology require practice, reduce all theology to pastoral theology, suppressing the characteristic, transcendence and autonomy of speculative theology, that distinguish it from pastoral theology. Such a view underlies the conception of knowledge Rahner, which is at once practice, second module idealist Fichte, di origine Cartesian, for which the spirit produces or puts (“sets“) the very being who knows, identifying the being with the idea immanent to thought and produced by thought. In reality, if moral theology must have an outlet in practice, as it is logical that you must put into practice the good foreknew from theory, one must also remember the primacy of theorising on practice, or speculation on action in relation to the ultimate end of man, which is the contemplation of the supreme Truth. Whereby, if it is true that we know what should be done to put it into practice and you have to, as they say, “move from words to deeds”, it is equally true that human action is aimed ultimately, to divine contemplation. In this sense, speculative theology is irreducible to the pastoral. A human life busybody oriented only to do, missing his yearning fundamental and supreme, that is the interest for the ultimate goal and the conquest of the highest Good, which is precisely the vision of God.

From a politicized theology and secular as it is modernist or liberationist no wonder if takes out a journalism that is theology like a gossip corridor or a maneuver of the party or a plot reactionary or revolutionary movement or a coalition of careerists or expression of power or a fashion show or the outburst of a grudge or a publicity shot of crazy round: seems, in these cases unfortunate, that the important thing is not, as it must be, enlighten, raise awareness, ask questions and research ideas, inform about new achievements, ribadir traditional values, help understand the Magisterium, deepen, provoke debate, encourage, consular, comfort, educate the critical sense, open the heart to hope, to love the Church and the truth of faith, Food charity and virtue, promote dialogue and harmony, resolve conflicts.

Undoubtedly, someone will tell me: but this is the task of the bishop! We're not expecting too much from a poor journalist? Of course; but I'm not saying that everything should be his bag of flour or spring from his mind like Minerva from the head of Jupiter. It would be enough that the journalist is held systematically in contact with good environments hierarchy, theologians or of the Holy See, without collecting gossip, low insinuations, revelation of secrets, unverified allegations, small talk, malignancy, murmurings, which unfortunately can also come from prelates and Cardinals. Should have the prudence and flair to draw on water sources healthy, welling up to eternal life, leaving aside the marshes, marshes, quicksand, the mud, sources poisoned, even if it means giving up possibly to some good consideration or some favor.

A serious defect frequently in journalism, effect and at the same time stimulating a widespread distrust in the truth, is the fact to bring matters of doctrine and morals not to categories of true and false, in which you do not believe and are relativized, why do not you try to clarify where the truth and where the error, the light of reason or science or history or the Holy Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. Everything seems rather run to two categories drawn from politics: “Progressives” e “Conservatives”, where “progress” is approved, delighted, glorified, exalted and magnified with praise and esteem, proposed as a model to be imitated; while the “to preserve” Apparently object of contempt, revulsion, sentencing, disapproving, derision and rejection. It is evident that these appellations shall replace the notions of true and false, of good and evil. But this means constantly navigate the uncertain, in doubt, equivocation, in ambiguity, in the fog, nell'opinabile, in the subjective, in appearances, In the “if he says”, in the relative, in questionable, in the arbitrary, in troubled waters, in precarious, the ephemeral, in the changing, without ever coming up with nothing. There is no doubt that the questionable, the seeming, the it seems, the appearance, the phenomenon, the relative, the changeable have a dignity. There has already taught Plato. But the same great sage also taught us the supreme dignity of the true, of the eternal and of the immutable, values ​​that have been fully assumed by the Christian concept of knowledge, as the evidence appears for example in the realism of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The relentlessly modernist and evolutionist against the store is a great folly. Probably it is those same modernists who carefully preserve their capital in the bank, rich mobile home or pictures of noble ancestors. So what? Why should not be laudable and necessary to preserve the deposit of credit? How foolish is accused Cardinal Raymond Burke to be Leonard “Tory” for the simple fact that she wishes to retain the truths of faith? This is one of many examples of a certain theology journalistic hacks. The names of “progressive” e “Tory” is itself totally innocent and normal, since in the Church anyone, within the limits of orthodoxy and ecclesiastical discipline, is free to prefer a conservative tendency or a progressive. But disloyalty, not to mention the perfidy of the modernists is to give “Tory” a negative sense, while reserving to themselves the honorary title of overblown “progressive”.

It is therefore necessary that journalists theologians give a regulated, precisely in order to better carry out their invaluable profession, which is a real mission. It would be good, therefore, that the journalist who comes to theology in the Catholic press and Catholic, of affairs of the Church, doctrines of faith and morals, the ministry of the Pope, the Holy See and the bishops, the works of theologians and ecclesiastical writers, the relations of the Church with politics and with other religions, synods and councils, of sacraments or liturgy, hagiography and history of the Church and Canon Law, they possess some degree in theology, maybe diocesan, and therefore subject to the authorization and control of ecclesiastical authority. Thus journalists theologians, no more batsmen free, which for now can invent something new every day, but deeply conscious of their grave responsibility, truly free under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, can better perform their useful service for the people of God and to all people of good will, as true members of the Church, in collaboration with the hierarchy and the Holy Father, with good theologians and all the faithful committed to the new evangelization called by the Supreme Pontiff. In this battle for the Kingdom must stop with the armed Brancaleone and finally decided to be united and agreed under the guidance of the Vicar of Christ for the expansion of the Kingdom of God and the triumph of Christ over the powers of evil.

Fontanellato, 2 January 2015