THE FUNDAMENTAL GAME OF THE FUTURE AND THE NEW POPE IS PLAYED ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH

Significantly, the historian Lucetta Scaraffia notes the impossibility, after 12 years of pontificate, to grasp a legacy of Pope Francis, that is not that of mere confusion.

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The info-entertainment of mass-media, after the predictions of the entire papal nomination, now focuses on determining the characteristics of the winning personality: Leone XIV.

He will continue the reforms of his predecessor? He will confirm his openings? How the synodal path will be completed? It's moderate? It's progressive? It's a bit of one and a bit of the other? He is merciful to migrants? He will get along well with Donald Trump? Such questions are mostly followed by statements that sound like slogans, functional to mark a sense of belonging rather than a substantial vision, spiritually significant.

In particular, you lose sight of it, in my opinion, the fundamental match who presents himself to the Pope: the unity of the Church. The exact question is: which unit? That is to say, how this unity should be conceived? How it should be interpreted? How it should be declined?

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, in the homily of Mass for the election of the Roman Pontiff the 7 May, he had declared:

«The unity of the Church is wanted by Christ; a unity that does not mean uniformity, but firm and profound communion in diversity, as long as we remain in full fidelity to the Gospel".

Communion in diversity: but when diversity threatens communion? And when, instead, it is an undue uniformity that threatens the richness of legitimate diversity? Re refers to "full fidelity to the Gospel": this is the decisive criterion. Ma, in truth, the question, more than resolved, it seems to move: how to determine, indeed, "full fidelity to the Gospel"?

It's the same theme who had addressed Cardinal Ratzinger in the homily of the Mass for the election of the Roman Pontiff the 18 April 2005. In this homily, which will mark the program of Benedict XVI's pontificate, Ratzinger had precisely determined the criterion of unity: the truth, whose ultimate dimension is the Son of God himself, measure of true humanism. And he had courageously placed the meaning of such a criterion in the ideological context of dominant relativism. Without evasion and pretence. With intellectual honesty.

With the pontificate of Francis, instead, a different paradigm of ecclesial unity has imposed itself: a Jesuit paradigm.

I found a significant illustration of this paradigm in a conversation between journalist Ross Douthat and Jesuit Father James Martin S.J. about the legacy of the recently concluded papacy (see video interview of 26.04.2025 WHO). Douthat highlights how the dramatic character of Francis' pontificate was determined by the drive to change the Church's teaching and practice on a series of difficult and controversial issues, such as the possibility for divorced and remarried Catholics to access Eucharistic communion, the possibility for women to become deacons or even priests, the possibility of blessing same-sex couples. How far has Francis gone on these issues?? Martin, in the first instance, states that this type of "hot" issue had a secondary character for the Pope compared to the proclamation of the Gospel. Secondly, states that Francis "went as far as he could". In this regard he tells how the Pope, in a personal meeting of his 23 October 2024 as delegate of the synod, was concerned about the "unity of the Church" due to the "resistance" coming from sub-Saharan Africa, from Eastern Europe and even the United States. «And he repeated several times that unity is more important than these conflicts. So I think he tried to open the door to discussion about some of these issues without breaking the church.".

Upon closer inspection, this is what characterizes Martin's account what concerns Francis is the particular relationship between ecclesial unity and truth. Apparently in his speech he does not seem to operate a binding concept of truth. But in reality a truth is asserted. A truth that does not seem binding, but which gives direction. An implicit truth, given as a presupposition, which takes a position for an indefinite openness regarding the controversial issues proposed. A critically unthematized truth, theologically emancipated, that is, it lacks a serious comparison with biblical data, reduced at most to a generic reference to mercy. It is a non-binding truth? Not exactly. It is a critically disengaged but politically binding truth, that, not by chance, tackle different positions (and logically incompatible) as «resistances».

In such a dimension there is no room for authentic dialogue, but if anything for mediation, for an accommodation. As if there were forces and interests at play. Ecclesial unity, so, it is not based on truth. It doesn't blend, to quote Ratzinger's words, on the «Son of God, measure of true humanism". Unity is a composition of forces, Lastly, founded on the supreme power of the Pope, whose vicarial role is diluted, to make his personality stand out instead.

In light of this Jesuit paradigm of ecclesial unity the authoritarian and contradictory character of the Jesuit papacy is explained, often detected by the most sensitive observers. In the perspective of a similar conception of ecclesial unity, indeed, contradictions are no problem: they can coexist. Even if the contradictions come from the Pope himself: it is not the truth that creates unity, but his supreme power. The price of this setup was, however, very salty. Significantly, the historian Lucetta Scaraffia notes the impossibility, after 12 years of pontificate, to grasp a legacy of Pope Francis, that is not that of mere confusion. O, at most, the promotion of certain policies, very much, too detailed, on the subject of mass immigration and political economy which, instead, they would have required the recognition of a healthy pluralism of positions.

Definitely, the new course of Leo XIV's papacy it will be determined by how he interprets, in light of the lessons of the latter 12 year old, ecclesial unity and its relationship with the truth. His episcopal motto "In Illo uno unum" and his Augustinian training give rise to hope. May God send her well.

Trieste, 12 May 2025

 

 

 

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