The Witness of Family, Card. Antonelli, part 3

Witness of Family: Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin

The Christian family is the subject of evangelization in its own irreplaceable way, through its being and acting, as an “intimate community of life and love.”  

Blessed John Paul II.

Cardinal Antonelli concluded his remarks about Blessed John Paul II and the family with a discussion of the role of the family in the new evangelization. The text follows (Thanks again to Joe Trabbic)

If every authentic marriage is a primordial sacrament of creation, Christian marriage is still more perfect insofar as it is lifted up to a “real representation of the relationship itself of Christ and the Church.” Familiaris Consortio §13. The Lord Jesus, bridegroom of the Church, communicates to Christian couples his spousal love, which ripened to the point of the supreme sacrifice of the cross. With a special gift of the Holy Spirit he support their communion of life and love so that it might become, if they freely cooperate, the ever more brilliant image of the divine Trinity. “[The Christian couple] not only receive the love of Christ and become a saved community, but they are also called upon to communicate Christ’s love to their brethren, thus becoming a saving community.” Familiaris Consortio §49  Like the Church it is a saved and saving community, an evangelized and evangelizing. The Christian family is the domestic Church, a real and specific actualization of the Church, mystery, communion, and mission. The spouses are called to re-live the love of Christ in their mutual love and to manifest it to their children and to the world.

The Christian family is the subject of evangelization in its own irreplaceable way, through its being and acting, as an “intimate community of life and love.” Familiaris Consortio §50 Evangelizing means transmitting, with our life and our words, the Gospel, the glad tidings that Christ has died and risen to save us, is living, loves us, accompanies us, leads us to eternal life with the Father. So “the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God's love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church His bride. Every particular task of the family is an expressive and concrete actuation of that fundamental mission.” Familiaris Consortio §17.

The fundamental mission, then, is to live, the radiate and manifest love and the presence of Christ and the Trinity within and beyond the family. The tasks that stem from this are: mutual service, generous and responsible procreation, care and education of children, commitment to work, attention to the poor and needy, participation in ecclesial activities, social relations, and civil engagement. The Christian family has always been the first resource for evangelization. Today above all it is the sign of the Gospel’s credibility, more eloquent and persuasive than volunteer work and charitable organizations.

We are not talking about a beautiful but impractical ideal here. We are talking about a vocation, that is, a gift, a real possibility that has been given. If it is welcomed with faith and commitment, it will become reality. This is witnessed to, in every part of the world to some extent, by the minorities of exemplary Christian families, who are assiduous in prayer, united and generously open, courageous and joyful.

Unfortunately the voice of God in the intimacy of many hearts remains stifled by instinctive pressures and by the weight of the dominant culture’s conditioning with its media, financial and political power. It proposes an exercise of sex without rules, without self-control, without limits, apart from the prohibition of violence and precautions against disease and pregnancy; it degrades the sexual relationship to a way of relieving pressure, using the other person solely as an instrument for one’s own pleasure. This logic is opposed to true love, which is a synthesis of eros and agape, desire and gift, commitment to the true good of the other. It tends to make the sexual relationship and the couple’s life together into a mere coincidence, more or less precarious, of two egoisms; it ends up multiplying human solitude and human poverty.

The Church is very prudent and comprehensive in discerning the subjective responsibility, which is proper to each individual person; she helps persons to climb the mountain themselves, inviting all to humility, to prayer, to seeking the truth, to confidence in God’s mercy, to doing the good that they are able to do. Nevertheless, she cannot neglect to point out the mountain, which is beautiful and a proposal everyone. On the contrary, she feels the duty to emphasize that the ideal can become reality through divine grace, which must be assiduously asked for in prayer and which must be accepted with commitment and personal cooperation.

 In view of the Great Jubilee of 2000, John Paul II, in the apostolic letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, underscored the importance of the official recognition of Christian saints, especially married saints. “The greatest homage which all the Churches can give to Christ on the threshold of the third millennium will be to manifest the Redeemer's all-powerful presence through the fruits of faith, hope and charity present in men and women of many different tongues and races who have followed Christ in the various forms of the Christian vocation. It will be the task of the Apostolic See, in preparation for the Year 2000, to update the martyrologies for the universal Church, paying careful attention to the holiness of those who in our own time lived fully by the truth of Christ. In particular, there is a need to foster the recognition of the heroic virtues of men and women who have lived their Christian vocation in marriage. Precisely because we are convinced of the abundant fruits of holiness in the married state, we need to find the most appropriate means for discerning them and proposing them to the whole Church as a model and encouragement for other Christian spouses.” §37

 Priority attention must be paid to married saints, not just as individuals but also as couples, to highlight that holiness is achievable precisely through marriage, living according to the Gospel. In this regard we must remember that the holiness of two married couples (Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi; Louis and Zélie Martin) has already been recognized through beatification and other causes for beatification of married couples are well underway.

To evangelize it is not enough to proclaim the Gospel [with words]; the lived and witnessed Gospel are also and above all imperative. The organic pastoral care of families proposed by John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio (cf. §§65-69) can be realized at the diocesan and parish level only as pastoral care for families by families, obviously under the guidance of the bishop and priests. The first objective of every bishop and priest must be that of forming in a parish a nucleus of exemplary families as a hub of ecclesial life and among these to choose certain couples as suitable to be hubs of concrete parish activities.

 The spiritual cultivation of exemplary families and the pastoral stress on families who take leadership roles is a service and a gift for all families and for the entire population. It is not a self-referential elite but a few who are for all, so that through the Christ the Savior might encounter all, drawing them to him or at least bringing them closer and orienting them to eternal life. “The messianic people,” Vatican II teaches, “although it does not effectively include all men, and at times appearing as a small flock, nonetheless constitutes the most powerful seed of unity, hope, and salvation.” Lumen Gentium, 9. The Church, even when it contains only a small number of believers, continues to carry out her universal mission and to cooperate with Christ for human growth and the eternal salvation of all men, Christians and non-Christians, Christians in full spiritual and visible communion and Christians in partial communion. Authenticity counts more than numbers.

THIS CONCLUDES THE ADDRESS OF CARDINAL ANTONELLI TO THE PONTIFICAL ACADMY OF ST THOMAS ON JUNE 30 2012, VATICAN CITY

The Family, Cardinal Antonelli, part 2

Ennio Cardinal Antonelli
President Pontifical Council of the Family 2008-2012

The presentation by Cardinal Antonelli on Blessed John Paul II given at the Papal Academy of St Thomas (June 30, 2012) continued as follows:

From the vast teaching of John Paul II on the family I have chosen and briefly present a single theme, which is nevertheless important from a theological, anthropological, spiritual, and consequently, also a pastoral perspective: “the human family as the image of the divine Trinity.” Here are some relevant quotes:

• "God created man in His own image and likeness: calling him to existence through love, He called him at the same time for love. God is love and in Himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion." (Familiaris Consortio, §11)
• "The divine image develops not only in the individual but also in that unique communion of persons formed by a man and a woman so united in love that they become “one flesh” (Gen 2:24). It is written: 'in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them' (Gen 1:27)." (John Paul II, Message for the World Day of Peace, 1994; cf. Mulieris Dignitatem, §7; Gravissimam Sane, §6)
• [With the creation of man and woman] a primordial sacrament is constituted, understood as a sign that transmits effectively in the visible world the invisible mystery hidden in God from time immemorial. This is the mystery of truth and love, the mystery of divine life, in which man really participates. John Paul II, Wednesday Audience, February 20, 1980 (Catechesis on the Book of Genesis).

According to the teaching of John Paul II, every marriage, even before and outside of Christianity, has a certain sacred quality; it is a primordial sacrament, and participates in the story of the communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is true to the measure in which the spouses live authentic love together.

Authentic conjugal love, as Benedict XVI later specified, is a synthesis of eros and agape, of desire, directed toward one’s own happiness, and of gift of self, directed toward the happiness of the other. (cf. Deus Caritas est, 7, 8) It is precisely this love, in which desire for happiness, sexual attraction, and the gift of self to the other are integrated and harmonized, thereby constituting a participation in God one and three, even if the spouses do not know it and do not realize it.

Although it is true that every form of communion among persons is in some way a reflection of God to the extent that love is lived in it, nevertheless marriage is the most complete image of God insofar as the mutual gift of self on the part of the spouses is total. They do not give some thing or some activity, but their entire life, including their body and soul, thought, will, affectivity, sexuality. They give themselves to each other and together they give themselves to their children through procreation, care, and education. Thus they become one flesh in common life, in the sexual relationship, and in the person of their children, who constitute their permanent unity, which no divorce can separate. “[T]he couple, while giving themselves to one another, give not just themselves but also the reality of children, who are a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of conjugal unity and a living and inseparable synthesis of their being a father and a mother.” Familiaris Consortio, §14

Marriage draws them into the powerful relationships between persons. Every person is an individual subject, self-conscious and free, but also constitutionally oriented to develop his own humanity; the person becomes happy only in building good relationships with others and with God. Relational goods are more necessary than material goods. Poverty of relationships is more damaging and more painful than poverty of things; without relationships a person's life is deprived of meaning and progressively falls into solitude and desperation. The normal family founded on marriage is a stable community of life and reciprocal belonging; the other forms of cohabitation that some now live draw us into the logic of the individual who belongs only to himself and only has contractual relationships of exchange with others.

A significant confirmation has come from the sociological research newly published in the book La famiglia risorsa della società [The Family: A Resource for Society],P. Donati, ed. (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2012). which was recently presented at the 7th World Meeting of Families in Milan. The situation of families that are poorest in interpersonal relationships (single adult, single parent, couple without children, couple with one child) is less satisfying in terms of the happiness of those involved and less advantageous for society (social virtues, etc.). But the situation represented by the couple united in marriage with two or more children, is richer in respect to relationships even if it is on average poorer economically, and this is why it is more satisfying for persons and more advantageous for society.

 It is not only seeking my own good that brings joy but working for the good of the other, even when it requires sacrifice, according to Jesus’ words: “It is better to given than to receive” (Acts 20:35). The right balance of eros and agape causes the truest and greatest joy, “not just fleeting pleasure, but a certain foretaste of the pinnacle of our existence, of that beatitude for which our whole being yearns,” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas est, §4) that is, for the union with God in eternity. The Church is not the enemy of the joy of life; she does not disdain sexuality but, integrating it in the gift of love, exalts it, to the point of making it an anticipation of the eternal wedding. Her fundamental attitude is that of John Paul II, who, referring to the beginning of the his priestly ministry among young people, spoke of the importance of learning to love human love. (Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Knopf, 1994), p. 123)

Translated from the Italian by Dr Joe Trabbic, Ave Maria University

Cardinal Antonelli on John Paul II and the Family

Cardinal Antonelli with Frank Zammit

As the family goes, so the Church goes, and so goes human society in its totality.

--  BLESSED JOHN PAUL II 

At the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas numerous cardinals spoke about the profound influence on the Church of John Paul II the Great. Cardinal Antonelli gave a very informative talk on the family in the thought of Blessed John Paul II. Cadinal Antonelli was President of the Pontifical Council for the Family from 2008-2012. Professor Joseph Trabbic kindly provided the translation from the Italian. I will provide excerpts in some blog posts this week.


"Greetings with sentiments of respect, friendship, and joy to all of you who participate in this 12th plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, in which intends to honor the memory of Blessed John Paul II.


This extraordinary man with his long and intense pontificate, left a deep mark on many spheres of the life of persons, the Church, and society. He was rightly given many titles: the pope of the family, the pope of the youth, the pope of the new evangelization, the pope of human rights, the pope of the fall of communism, the pope of divine mercy. It is my task today to remember him as the pope of the family. His apostolic exhortation, Familaris Consortio, still in all the world constitutes the principal source of inspiration and orientation both for theological reflection and pastoral practice in regard to the family. It is justly recognized as the magna charta of the many-sided ecclesial and civil commitment of Catholics in service of the family.


John Paul II recognizes that the family plays an essential role both in society and in the Church. 'The family constitutes the native place and most effective instrument of the humanization and personalization of society.' Familiaris Consortio, §43 'The future evangelization depends in great part on the domestic church [i.e., the family].' §65 The family is called to undertake its own original and irreplaceable mission, 'placing itself in its being and acting as an intimate community of love at the service of the Church and society.' §50 'As the family goes, so the Church goes, and so goes human society in its totality.' (Angelus, October 5, 1997, found here)


These are powerful words that should ever again be listened to and meditated upon. Both in the Church (bishops, priests, lay faithful) and society (cultural, economic, and social subjects) to reinforce and spread awareness about the meaning and value of the family founded on matrimony. Today it is necessary more than ever because of the current crisis: fewer people getting married or marrying later in life, increase in divorces, cohabitation, singles by choice, homosexual relationships; decrease in births; increase in children born outside of wedlock; single parent families by choice; educational emergency; recreational sex; gender ideology. 


Today the strongest protest against the Church has to do with sexual ethics. The Church appears to many as the enemy of freedom and of the joie de vivre, incapable of understanding the sexual revolution and the anthropological question, just as in the past it was late to understand the industrial revolution and the labor question.


The Church, for her part, continues to propose the family based on the marriage of a man and woman open to procreation and the education of children as natural and normative (Familiaris Consortio 3, 11, 19-20, 46); she never tires of reminding public opinion that 'civilization and the cohesiveness of peoples depend above all on the human quality of their families.' (Christifideles Laici, 40) Her pedagogy, according to a suggestive expression of John Paul II, (cf. Homily, May 3, 1980, Kinshasa, Zaire, Present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) does not aim at leveling the mountain but in helping persons to climb it themselves: she teaches the objective truth about the good without compromises and at the same time, with regard to subjective responsibility, takes account of human weakness, of the so-called the law of gradualism, according to which man 'he knows, loves and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth.' (familiaris Consortio §34) Indicating the right direction, she proposes a path of perseverance in conversion, humility, prayer, seeking, commitment, and confidence in God’s mercy." TO BE CONTINUED


For an interview with Cardinal Antonelli please see this site.

John Paul II's "Geography of Prayer" (Cardinal Re, part 2)

Cardinal Re

Cardinal Re continued his account of prayer and action in Blessed John Paul II as follows (see yesterday's post for part 1):

"Prayer was something spontaneous in him and, at the same time, it was linked to the practices of traditional piety, among which was the hour of adoration every Thursday, the Way of the Cross, which he did every Friday, the daily Rosary. The Eucharist, the crucifix, and Our Lady were the three centers of his piety.

 

            For John Paul II the Mass was the most exalted and most sacred reality; it was the heart of each of his days. In a meeting with priests in 1995 he said: 'the Mass is, in an absolute way, the center of my life and each of my days.'

            I have been told that when he was home and the schedule permitted him to be alone in church, he even loved to pray prostrate, stretched out on the floor, as on the day of priestly and episcopal ordination, as an expression of profound adoration and supplication before the infinite grandeur of God.

            Cardinal Innocenti related the following story to me about the Pope’s weekly Friday Via Crucis. The Cardinal was the nuncio in Madrid when John Paul II made his first trip to Spain. The Pope had had a very intense Thursday, having dinner at 9:00 p.m. The next day’s program had a small breakfast slated for 6:30 and then a departure for Seville at 7:00. The nuncio woke up early, partly because he was preoccupied about the Pope’s pastoral visit and partly because he had given up his bed and room to the Pope and was sleeping in a small bed in the attic. And so he was already up at 5:00. He went down to the second floor, thinking that the Pope would not be up until 6:30. He saw however that the light was on in little church of the nunciature. He thought that they had forgotten to shut it off the night before. He went to open the church door and was surprised to see the Pope on his knees on the floor before one of the stations of the Via Crucis. Since the day was full of pastoral duties in Seville and Granada the Pope was in church at 5:30 to do the Via Crucis.

            I accompanied the Pope to the Holy Land in 2000. On Friday of that week, in the helicopter from Jerusalem to the Lake of Tiberias, the Pope was seated with a Via Crucis book in his hand, praying it in the helicopter as this was the only opportunity he had to do it. In 2000 he did not have the health that he had before, otherwise he would have done the Via Crucis at night.

            In regard to petitionary prayer, prayer of adoration, of thanksgiving, and asking forgiveness, I found interesting the answer Pope John Paul II gave to one of André Frossard’s questions during their conversations at Castel Gandolfo in 1982. I translate literally the paragraph from the book Frossard published in November of that year, Be Not Afraid: 

There was a time in my life when I thought that it seemed proper to limit petitionary prayer with respect to prayer of adoration (that is, intercessory prayer for a person or situation, to leave more space for prayer of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving). This time has passed. The further I travel the road that Providence has shown me, the more strongly I feel in me the need to have recourse to petitionary prayer, the more expands the circle of the requests I make of God. Be no Afraid!: John Paul II Speaks Out on his Life, his Beliefs, and his Inspiring Vision for Humanity (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984).

John Paul II, with his prayer, embraced the whole world and spoke many times of the 'geography of prayer,' confiding that many times in his prayer he traveled the world, interceding and reflecting on the most oppressed and needy nations. His intercessory prayer for persons and situations always had a universal reach.

            There is no doubt that John Paul II was a mystic. A mystic, however, who was attentive to persons and situations. A mystic who influenced the course of history; a Pope whom the world esteemed for his uncontainable dynamism, for the many gestures, the countless initiatives, the great trips, and admired for the work that he accomplished that our modern world might open its doors and hearts to Christ, man’s Redeemer. The inspired motivation behind all of Pope John Paul II’s activity was to bring the men and women of our time nearer to God and to bring God into this world of ours."

(The entire speech may be found here)

Cardinal Re on Prayer of Blessed John Paul II

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re

"Prayer gives a meaning to the whole of life, at every moment, in every circumstance." - Blessed John Paul II, 1978

At the recent meeting of the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas, I was privileged to hear Cardinal Re give a talk on Prayer and Action in Blessed John Paul II. It is a very inspiring account of the dedication to prayer by John Paul II. I asked my friend and colleague Joe Trabbic, Ave Maria University, to translate it so that I could make it available to English speaking readers. I am grateful to him for doing so. Here is the beginning of his talk:

"In the larger than life figure of Blessed John Paul II, prayer is without a doubt the dominant dimension. His long life was an admirable synthesis of prayer and action, but prayer had the priority.

            From his youth Karol Wojtyla loved prayer, which was part of his existence; indeed, we can say that prayer was the true source of his dynamism and his untiring apostolic activity and it was the root of the effectiveness of his witness.

            Working closely with Pope John Paul II, there were many things that made an impression on me. His certainty was striking: he was a man of certainties. The profundity of his thought, his ability to speak to crowds, his facility with languages, his ready wit, appropriate to this moment or that situation, were striking... but what was most astounding was the intensity of his prayer, the manifestation of a deep and lived union with God.

            This profoundly human Pope, this extraordinarily vigorous intellectual, this leader who drew the youth to him, was first of all a man of prayer.

            It was striking how he abandoned himself to prayer: one saw a transport in him that was connatural and absorbed him as if he did not have problems and duties that called him to active life. His attitude in prayer was one of recollection and, at the same time, it was natural and relaxed: this was testimony of a communion with God that was intensely rooted in his soul; the expression of a prayer that was convinced, savored, lived. Seeing him pray when he was alone, one grasped how for him union with God was the breath of his soul and the secret of his dedication.

            It was moving how easily and readily he transitioned from human contact with people to the recollection of intimate conversation with God. He had a great capacity for concentration. When he was recollected in prayer, what was happening around him did not seem to touch him or concern him, so immersed was he in the encounter with God.

            During the day, the passage from one occupation to another was always marked by a brief prayer. When he wrote out, with his minute script, the Polish text of his speeches, his homilies, or magisterial documents, he customarily placed a small invocation at the head of the page, an ejaculation, continually lifting up his thought to God in this way.

            He prepared for the various meetings of the day or the week with prayer. Sometimes he spoke of this expressly. Receiving Gorbachev in 1989, for example, the Pope began the conversation confiding to his interlocutor that he had prepared for the meeting by praying to God for Gorbachev and the meeting.

            All of his important decisions were ripened in prayer. John Paul II prayed at length before every important decision for many days and, sometimes, for many weeks. The more important the decision, the longer he prayed.

            He never made decisions of a certain weight on the spur of the moment. To those of his interlocutors who asked something of him or proposed something, he answered that he wished to reflect on it before deciding. In fact, he wanted time to listen to other opinions (he always had many contacts), but most of all he intended to pray about the matter, obtaining light from above before deciding. I remember more than one case, during the years in which I was Undersecretary of State for General Affairs, in which it seemed to me that he was clearly in favor of a particular decision and which I would ask him whether we could proceed to communicate it and publish it. The answer was: 'Let’s wait. I want to pray a little more about this before I decide definitively.'

            When he was studying a question and was unable to find an answer, the Pope would conclude: 'We must pray more that the Lord come to our aid.' John Paul II entrusted himself to prayer to find clarity about the road to follow.

            Two weeks after his election to the Chair of Peter, he went to the shrine of Mentorella (a shrine hidden among the mountains about 70 kilometers from Rome) and spoke of prayer and stated that, among other things, the first obligation of the Pope to the Church and to the world was to pray. 'Prayer,' he said, 'is ... the first task and almost the first announcement of the Pope, just as it is the first condition of his service in the Church and in the world,' adding that prayer is the first condition of freedom of the spirit and places man in a relationship with the living God and thus 'gives a meaning to the whole of life, at every moment, in every circumstance' (Speech at the Mother of Grace at Mentorella, Italy, October 29, 1978) "


More to follow.

Let us pray to Blessed John Paul II for the gift of prayer. For what greater blessing could we ask his intervention?

Our Lady of Mt Carmel

Statue of Pope John Paul II at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel 

Catholic Church Wyandotte Michigan

Blessed John Paul II on Mary as a Model of Faith and Mother of the Church

In his retreat for the Papal Household (Sign of Contradiction) Blessed John Paul II offered to Pope Paul VI his meditations on the mysteries of the holy rosary. For the Visitation he reflected on the Polish custom of taking the icon of our Lady of Czestochowa from parish to parish. Each group would receive the icon and say "Blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus," and "Why is it granted to me that the Mother of my Lord should visit me." Thus John Paul recollected that: "We take Mary into each parish, into each community of the People of God, as the one who was the first of all believers, the one who guides the People of God on its pilgrimage of faith, in the words of Vatican II." (39) 

Mary is at the front of the pilgrimage of faith. John Paul II wrote in the Apostolic Letter, Novo millennio ineunte, "At the beginning of this new century, our steps must quicken…. On this journey we are accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom …… I entrusted the Third Millennium" (no. 58)

The scapular of Carmel is a good token to remember and practice the presence of MAry on the journey to Christ. Blessed John Paul II said to the family of Carmel:

"Generations of Carmelites, from the beginnings up to today, in their journey towards the 'holy mountain, Jesus Christ Our Lord' (Roman Missal, Collect for the Mass in honour of the BVM of Mt. Carmel, 16 July), have sought to model their lives after the example of Mary. For this reason, contemplation of the Blessed Virgin flourishes in Carmel and in every soul moved by a tender affection towards Her who is our most holy Mother. From the very beginning, she knew how to be open to the Word of God and obedient to God’s will (Lk.2,19.51). Mary, who was educated and formed by the Spirit (cf. Lk. 2,44-50), was able to read her own life experience in the light of faith (cf. Lk. 1, 46-55). She was docile to the divine promptings and 'advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and loyally persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood in keeping with the divine plan (cf. Jn. 19,25), suffering grievously with her only-begotten Son. There she united herself with a maternal heart to His sacrifice' (Lumen gentium, 58)."

From his message to the Carmelite family, 2001 (found here) 

"Mother, accept us! Mother, do not abandon us! Mother, be our guide!" Farewell Address at Jasna Gora Shrine 6 June 1979

The Vocation of the Philosopher according to JP2

Casina Pio IV, (1560) home of three Papal Academies
Conference room is dedicated to John Paul II
(see its history here)

 On June 30 I delivered a paper  on the Vocation of the Philosopher according to Blessed John Paul II to the XII Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The session  was devoted to the theme of the Thomistic legacy in Blessed John Paul II and his refounding of the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas Aquinas. In the next few entries I shall share some of this paper.

In treating the question of the vocation of the Catholic philosopher according to Blessed John Paul II we have various sources to consider. Karol Wojtyla was himself a philosophy professor and author of numerous articles as well as significant books on philosophy. Pope John Paul II spoke frequently about philosophy and faith and reason, culminating in his thirteenth and penultimate encyclical, Fides et ratio.

In the latin text of Fides et ratio,  the term “vocationis” (call) is used 8 times and the term “munus” (duty) is used 22 times These terms are used to discuss the vocation and the tasks or responsibilities of philosophy, theology, and the human person as such. The vocations and tasks of philosopher, theologian, and person are interconnected in a dynamic way. The English translation uses various words to render these latin terms, sometimes interchanging them. In the first passage in which the terms are used (§6), the English translator uses the same term, vocation, to translate both vocationis and munus. In §6 Pope John Paul II links Fides et ratio and Veritatis splendor as addressing the crisis of truth. This crisis affects especially the young. Young people, he explains, have no “valid points of reference” (fundamental principles). They are unsure whether they can discover the real meaning of life. As a result they stumble through life to the edge of an abyss. John Paul II then criticizes those responsible for this confusion and exhorts philosophers to recover their original vocation:

this happens because those whose vocation [munus] it is to give cultural expression to their thinking no longer look to truth, preferring quick success to the toil of patient enquiry into what makes life worth living. With its enduring appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility of forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover its original vocation [vocationem].

Those whose task (munus) should be to give cultural expression to their thinking include philosophers as he indicates, but may also include writers, artists, and teachers. The goal of “quick success” suggests the careerism of academician and the commercial success and popularity of writers and artists. Absent is attention to truth and dedication to patient inquiry. Why has this occurred? It is more than moral disorder, although it is that too. Ideological and cultural trends are very much to blame, such as pragmatism, technicism, historicism and subjectivism. But at the root of the dereliction of duty there is the loss of vocation, the loss of calling. Self-promotion and political advocacy are more common traits of the professional philosopher today than divine calling or a Socratic way of life.

John Paul bids us to look to the “original” (pristine) vocation of philosophy, truth seeking. The love of truth provides the motivation for true philosophy. A sincere or true search is repeatedly mentioned by John Paul II in a manner worthy of Pascal. How does one generate or recover the passion for truth? This is a key question. There is a natural desire to know, a capacity for knowing truth; there is a natural desire for good, a capacity for love of what is good. But the original or pristine human capacities have been covered over, inhibited, suppressed. An abandonment of truth, a despairing or slothful attitude about truth constitutes the spiritual malaise of our time. 

Pope John Paul II explains that the crisis of our time is a “crisis of meaning,” §81. It arises from the fragmentation of knowledge (§81); specialization (§56); the “wilting” of reason under the weight of infinite tasks and mind-numbing details (§5); the constrictions of technological thinking (§15). So again we must ask, how does one generate or recover the passion for truth? How do we call forth the desire for truth, for the whole truth, to dare to rise to truth of being? How do we activate or re-activate the desire to know.

We find a variety of strategies in the work of Blessed John Paul II. These include (i) reconnecting philosophy to everyday life and common human issues; (ii) the appreciation of tradition, community, and dialogue in the exercise of intellectual inquiry; (iii) the understanding of the human person in action; (iv) exploration of the ethical challenges of modern technology and social organization; (v) the integration of faith and reason and the unity of faith and life. Throughout all of his work we find moments of dialectical confrontation with the “illusions” and “pretensions” and “idolatry” of the age in a style reminiscent of St. Augustine or Pascal.

In subsequent postings we shall explore these various strategies.

(NB: The Casina Pio IV  includes an Oval Courtyard of The Nymphaeum. This was a 16th century monument to the mythological Muses and it was used for discussion of arts and sciences. 

"Overlooking the courtyard is a loggia called "Museum", or home of the Muses, where Ligorio reinterprets the iconography of the Muses with Apollo and Bacchus portrayed on ancient sarcophagi. The left panel of the façade features Thalia (muse of comedy), Urania (astronomy), Terpsichore (the epic muse), Mnemosyne (memory), Polyhymnia (agriculture). In the centre Ligorio places Calliope, the muse of epic poetry or music. In the right panel we find Clio (muse of history), Erato (love poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), and Euterpe (lyric song). The triangular pediment is completed by a round medallion containing Aurora, surrounded by the signs of the zodiac and the four mythical horses of the Sun (Helios): Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon and Phlegon. This medallion is flanked by two female figures: Flora, the ancient Italic goddess of Spring, and Pomona, the Roman nymph. Above them is the statue of Salus, personifying health and conservation. She holds a cup with a snake wrapped around her arm drinking from it." from Vatican website