Michael Amaladoss

Pope Francis is fast emerging as a model of dialogue both in word and deed. One of his early gestures was a letter to the Italian daily La Republica. A former Editor, Eugenio Scalfari, had written two articles commenting on the Pope’s encyclical Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), prepared by Benedict the XVI and completed by Francis and raising some questions. Pope Francis surprised the whole world by writing a public response to the letter. This led to a personal dialogue with Scalfari, who reported on it. Scalfari is a self-confessed atheist. So the dialogue was significant. The Pope is reported to have told Scalfari: “I believe in God. Not in a Catholic God, there does not exist a Catholic God, there exists God.” Another gesture was his washing the feet of young convicts in a Roman prison on Holy Thursday. One of the convicts was a Muslim and a woman. If we know how such events are carefully planned and orchestrated, this could not have been simply an accident, since the usual practice is to wash the feet of Catholic males. A third event was the common prayer that was organized by the Pope to pray for peace in Syria and to oppose any possible military intervention by outside powers. This was more spontaneous than the organized events in Assisi and Rome by Bl. John Paul II. Both in Rome and in Syria Muslims too were in the group, praying, besides perhaps members of other churches and religions, even if they may not have prayed together. Before he became Pope, in Argentina he had excellent relations with the Jewish community. He had published a book of conversations with his friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka: On Heaven and Earth. He also had good relations with the Orthodox church. I would therefore like to explore further this image of Pope Francis as a person of dialogue. I shall do so in two stages. In a first part, I shall briefly indicate the basic attitudes that seem to be in the background of this character of Pope Francis. In the second I shall explore the texts, after he became Pope, where he speaks about dialogue. This will give us an idea about how the Pope thinks, feels and speaks about it.

His Basic Attitudes
What are the attitudes that make Pope Francis a dialogical person? I shall mention just a few so that there is no overlapping with the following section. First of all, Pope Francis has a deep respect for the dignity and freedom of the human person. Everyone knows by now what he said about homosexuals on the plane journey to Rome from Brazil: “Who am I to judge?” He could have said that homosexuality is a disorder and is wrong. But he does not talk in the abstract. He thinks of the humans who are living a difficult personal experience. He recognizes their struggle and refuses to judge. Another day, in his homily, he is commenting on the story in the gospel of Mark, where the disciples are complaining about someone who is baptizing people in his name. (Mk 9:38-41) They want to stop him. Jesus tells them to leave him alone and says: “He who is not against us is for us”. The Pope speaks of the culture of encounter:

1. Cf. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/letters/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130911_eugenio-scalfari_en.html
2. Cf. http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2013/10/01/news/pope_s_conversation_with_scalfari_english-67643118/
3. New York: Random House, 2013.

The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ ‘But do good: we will meet one another there.’

Of course, the Church says that whoever follows his/her conscience will be saved, whatever his/her beliefs. But the Pope certainly puts it dramatically and makes it possible for an atheist like Scalfari to dialogue with him. The divorced and remarried persons may be in an irregular marital situation. But they are human persons in difficult personal situations and God’s mercy will reach out to them too. Such an attitude to persons also indicates a subtle shift from a one-sided emphasis on orthodoxy to orthopraxis.

This leads us to the second attitude that characterizes Francis. How often has he proclaimed God’s boundless mercy and the need for us too to convey this loving mercy of God, whatever be the circumstances and the sin committed. In the past, the figure of hell and the image of God as judge have figured prominently in our preaching. The other religions were presented as ways to hell or at least as unable to lead people to God. Francis insists that God’s love and mercy reaches out to everyone. We have, therefore, to stress God’s forgiveness rather than judgment.

Francis’ special devotion to St. Peter Faber points to his third attitude. Peter Faber was one of the first companions of St. Ignatius Loyola and a co-founder with him of the Society of Jesus. While his first companions and room-mates in Paris, St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier, were well known and admired, Peter Faber was not much known outside the Society of Jesus. He was made a Blessed in 1872 and almost forgotten. Soon after he became Pope, Francis expressed a desire to make him a Saint, which he did on his own 77th birthday, December 17, 2013. When a Jesuit interviewer, Antonio Spadoro, asked him why he was so impressed by Peter Faber, Francis answered:

His dialogue with all, even the most remote and even with his opponents; his simple piety, a certain naïveté perhaps, his being available straightaway, his careful interior discernment, the fact that he was a man capable of great and strong decisions but also capable of being so gentle and loving… Ignatius was a mystic, not an ascetic… and Faber was a mystic. The short list of people for whom Peter Faber prayed every day included his Protestant opponents. He was a person of conversation and dialogue with Catholics and others. I feel that Pope Francis is inspired by this quality of Peter Faber.

4. Cf. http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-mass-culture-of-encounter-is-the-foundation, May 22, 2013
5. See this interview in A Big Heart Open to God. (New York: Harper Collins, 2013)

The final attitude that I would like to refer to is his insistence on the joy of the Gospel that we have to live and proclaim. We have to resist any attempt at force or compulsion. The fragrance and joy of Truth and Love will spread itself. In his encyclical “The Joy of the Gospel”, Francis says:
Evangelization is first and foremost about preaching the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ or who have always rejected him. Many of these are quietly seeking God, led by a yearning to see his face, even in countries of ancient Christian tradition. All of them have a right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. Instead of seeming to impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but “by attraction”. (15) Can we not characterize this as a dialogical way of proclaiming the Gospel? Let us now look at some of the texts of the Pope, referring to dialogue, in the very first year of his pontificate.

The Context of Evangelizing Dialogue
In his encyclical The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis speaks about “Social dialogue as a contribution to peace” in section IV of chapter IV. Before we focus on this text it may be helpful to look at its context and goal. The centrality of evangelization in dialogue is highlighted when Francis affirms that its goal is “to make the kingdom of God present in our world” (176) and this involves “life in community and engagement with others”. (177) The work of Christ and the Spirit in the world has communitarian dimensions which involve being merciful and loving towards everyone. The Gospel, therefore, has a social purpose. Francis focuses on two elements of this as more relevant today: the inclusion of the poor in society and peace and social dialogue. (cf. 184)

Francis starts with a general statement: “Our faith in Christ, who became poor, and was always close to the poor and the outcast, is the basis of our concern for the integral development of society’s most neglected members.” (186) Helping the poor means many things: meeting their basic material needs, reforming the structures that make and keep them poor, and helping the poor to grow and develop as human persons in an integral way. “This means education, access to health care, and above all employment, for it is through free, creative, participatory and mutually supportive labour that human beings express and enhance the dignity of their lives.” (192) Development is for all humans since the planet belongs to all. Sometimes we may tend to defend orthodoxy while neglecting orthopraxis. “God’s heart has a special place for the poor, so much so that he himself ‘became poor’” (2 Cor 8:9) (197) Following God we too are called to opt for the poor preferentially. It is not merely a socio-political option, but a theological one and leads us to dialogue with the poor and to care for them, not only economically and socially, but also pastorally.

They have much to teach us. Not only do they share in the sensus fidei, but in their difficulties they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the centre of the Church’s pilgrim way. We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them. (198). The economy should focus, not only on production and profit, but also on equitable distribution, which cannot be justify to the market forces. It has to be politically managed for the good of all. (202-208)

We have to be particularly concerned about the vulnerable people. We can make a long list: the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly, the migrants, victims of human trafficking, the exploited and mistreated women, the unborn children and finally creation as a whole. (209-215)

Francis goes on to stress the importance of building a community of peace, justice and fraternity and speaks of four principles that can guide development and build a people “where differences are harmonized within a shared pursuit.” (221) These four principles are: Time is greater than space; Unity prevails over conflict; Realities are more important than ideas; The whole is greater than the part. Let us try briefly to understand these. When we are faced with problematic situations our temptation is to seek to set everything in order. But life is evolving and we have to set up processes that will make things better. “Giving priority to time means being concerned about initiating processes rather than possessing spaces.” (223) The fullness is in the future and we have to keep moving and creating history without anxiety, but with conviction and tenacity. Conflict is inevitable in society. One can simply ignore it or one can get involved and become its prisoner; but one can also resolve it at a higher plane, building communion in difference. Avoiding syncretism, one achieves synthesis, following Christ who “has made all things one in himself: heaven and earth, God and man, time and eternity, flesh and spirit, person and society.” (229) This is peace, which is not a ‘negotiated settlement’, but ‘reconciled diversity’. “Realities simply are, whereas ideas are worked out.” So we are called “to reject the various means of masking reality: angelic forms of purity, dictatorships of relativism, empty rhetoric, objectives more ideal than real, brands of historical fundamentalism, ethical system bereft of kindness, intellectual discourse bereft of wisdom.” (231) “What calls us to action are realities illuminated by reason.” (232) This means that, in evangelization, the word has to become flesh, the Gospel has to be inculturated in the lives of the people, thought has to be translated into action. We are living in an era of tension between the global and the local. The global may tend to marginalize the local. The local may try to be imprisoned in itself. What is needed is to be rooted in the local and yet be open to the global. We have to broaden our horizons and see the greater good, but without evasion or uprooting. Community need not suppress individualism but make it grow further.

Here our model is not the sphere, which is no greater than its parts, where every point is equidistant from the centre, and there are no differences between them. Instead, it is the polyhedron, which reflects the convergence of all its parts, each of which preserves its distinctiveness. Pastoral and political activity alike seek to gather in this polyhedron the best of each. (236)
Francis had a similar suggestion when he spoke to the male general superiors. He said: “The great changes in history were realized when reality was seen not from the centre but rather from the periphery… Being at the periphery helps… to analyze reality more concretely, to shun centralism and ideological approaches.” Speaking to a representative of Jesuit journalists, he insists on creativity and suggests that it has three characteristics: dialogue, discernment and frontier. Developing the idea of the ‘frontier’, he says that we have to be with the people, not in a laboratory. Then he explains: “Ours is not a ‘lab faith’, but a ‘journey faith,’ a historical faith. God has revealed himself as history, not as a compendium of abstract truths.” While a laboratory isolates the problems out of their context and tames them, living on the border makes us audacious and creative.

The Gospel is proclaimed to everyone. “The genius of each people receives in its own way the entire Gospel and embodies it in expressions of prayer, fraternity, justice, struggle and celebration.” (237) This is the birth and growth of a local church. After explaining these four principles, the Pope goes on to speak about social dialogue as a contribution to peace.

Social Dialogue
Three areas of dialogue are covered in this section of The Joy of the Gospel: dialogue with states, with society, including cultures and the sciences, and with other believers, who include other Christians, Muslims and members of other religions. The subjects of such dialogue are the people as a whole who have to work together towards a just, responsive and inclusive society.

The State has to safeguard and promote the common good of society, based on subsidiarity and solidarity and committed to political dialogue and consensus building. The Church does not have solutions to every problem but supports programmes “which best respond to the dignity of each person and the common good.” (241) While the Church rejects the claims of positivism which pretends that empirical sciences are the only source of true knowledge and affirms other areas of knowledge like philosophy and theology, it asserts that the light of faith, like the light of reason, comes from God and they cannot contradict each other. This is the basis for a dialogue between science and faith which can be “a path to harmony and peace”. (242) Such dialogue is opposed to ideological ‘scientism’, which gives to scientific opinion the same weight as to revelation.

6. Ibid.

Francis looks on other Christians as “pilgrims journeying alongside one another.” (244) Such an attitude promotes mutual trust and common witness. The Pope suggests: “If we concentrate on the convictions we share, and if we keep in mind the principle of the hierarchy of truths, we will be able to progress decidedly towards common expressions of proclamation, service and witness.” (246) What the free and abundant work of the Spirit has sown in the other Christians “is also meant to be gift for us.” (246) For example, the Orthodox churches can teach us the meaning of episcopal collegiality and the experience of synodality. With the Jews we believe in the one God who is active in history and we accept God’s revealed word. God continues to work in them and produce treasures of wisdom with which we too can be enriched. We can certainly collaborate in the fields of justice and development, sharing many ethical convictions.

Our relation with the followers of other religions starts with a dialogue of life, being open to the others in truth and love. When we seek social peace and justice, a common ethical commitment “can become a process in which, by mutual listening, both parts can be purified and enriched.” (250) In such a dialogue between followers of different religions, both a facile syncretism which would “be a totalitarian gesture on the part of those who would ignore greater values of which they are not masters” and “a diplomatic openness which says “yes” to everything in order to avoid problems” (251) must be avoided. Migrations in recent years have made the living together of Christians and Muslims inevitable. This demands a mutual appreciation of the other and a mutual freedom for religious practice. We need to appreciate the Muslims’ commitment to God in prayer and their ethical practice, especially caring for the people most in need. We should also “avoid hateful generalizations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” (253) What Pope Francis says regarding other religions is worth quoting in full, since it concerns us in India very much.

Non-Christians, by God’s gracious initiative, when they are faithful to their own consciences, can live “justified by the grace of God”, and thus be “associated to the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ”. But due to the sacramental dimension of sanctifying grace, God’s working in them tends to produce signs and rites, sacred expressions which in turn bring others to a communitarian experience of journeying towards God. While these lack the meaning and efficacy of the sacraments instituted by Christ, they can be channels which the Holy Spirit raises up in order to liberate non-Christians from atheistic immanentism or from purely individual religious experiences. The same Spirit everywhere brings forth various forms of practical wisdom which help people to bear suffering and to live in greater peace and harmony. As Christians, we can also benefit from these treasures built up over many centuries, which can help us better to live our own beliefs. (254)
The two important points in this text are the stress on the communitarian dimension of the religions and the affirmation that we also can benefit from their treasures.

The Pope concludes this section on dialogue with an important observation on religious freedom. Religious freedom is a fundamental right. This includes “the freedom to choose the religion which one judges to be true and to manifest one’s beliefs in public.” (255) Such freedom applies also to people who claim to have no religion. But in the increasingly secularizing countries of Euro-America the ideology of religious freedom is leading to unwelcome situations. On the one hand, it leads to the privatization of religion: People can follow any religion they want privately or in strictly religious places like churches and mosques, but their belief should have no manifestation or impact in public life. On the other hand, such privatization leads to another nefarious consequence. Society claims to be free of any religion–based ethical principle. It is dominated by a non-religious, neutral reason and right based morality which is imposed on everyone in the public sphere. For instance, recently, the US government tried to force all hospitals, even Catholic ones, to facilitate abortion according to US law. The Church saw this as an attack on religious freedom. Religious freedom does not mean the imposition of freedom from all religion. However, there may be people, who are not religious believers, but who stand by basic moral principles, defending human dignity, community and freedom. The Christians can certainly collaborate with them. We can recall the remark attributed to the Pope when someone drew his attention to the report that some capitalist ideologues accused him of being a Marxist for his concern for the poor. The Pope said that he is against Marxist ideology, but he knows Marxists who are good people, concerned for the poor.

Christ and the Spirit
Pope Francis concludes his encyclical with a strong affirmation of hope. God is at work in the world. On our part we have to be faithful to our commitment to realize the kingdom of God on earth. We may not always see immediate results. But we believe and hope that God will make our commitment fruitful in ways and places unknown to us. The source of our hope is two-fold. On the one hand, “Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an irresistible force.” (276) Correspondingly, “The Holy Spirit works as he wills when he wills and where he wills.” (279) “Let us learn to rest in the tenderness of the arms of the Father amid our creative and generous commitment. Let us keep marching forward; let us give him everything, allowing him to make our efforts bear fruit in his good time.” (279) The power of the Father, Son and Spirit is on our side. We believe that the kingdom of God is already present in this world and growing and that God is with us and alive and “brings good out of evil by his power and his infinite creativity.” (278)

Dialogue and Truth

One of the questions that is often raised in the context of dialogue is that of truth. In his encyclical on Faith – Lumen Fidei – the Pope clarifies that truth is neither merely subjective nor communitarian and oppressive. Truth is born of love and disclosed in the encounter with the Other and the others. It is capable of transforming the individual and of contributing to the common good.

One who believes may not be presumptuous; on the contrary, truth leads to humility, since believ¬ers know that, rather than ourselves possessing truth, it is truth which embraces and possesses us. Far from making us inflexible, the security of faith sets us on a journey; it enables witness and dialogue with all. (Lumen Fidei, 34)

We also hear about the dictatorship of relativism. Everyone believes that s/he has the truth. There is therefore no absolute truth. Eugenio Scalfari had asked about it in his reaction to Lumen Fidei. Since this is a much discussed problem, often raised in the context of dialogue, since each religion has its own truth claims that are sometimes seen as incompatible, let me quote the Pope’s answer in his own letter to Scalfari.

I would not speak about “absolute” truths, even for believers, in the sense that absolute is that which is disconnected and bereft of all relationship. Truth, according to Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship. As such each one of us receives the truth and expresses it from within, that is to say, according to one’s own circumstances, culture and situation in life, etc. This does not mean that truth is variable and subjective, quite the contrary. But it does signify that it comes to us always and only as a way and a life. Did not Jesus himself say: “I am the way, the truth and the life?” In other words, truth being completely one with love, demands humility and an openness to be sought, received and expressed. Therefore, we must have a correct understanding of the terms and, perhaps, in order to overcome being bogged down by conflicting absolute positions, we need to redefine the issues in depth. I believe that this is absolutely necessary in order to initiate that peaceful and constructive dialogue which I proposed at the beginning of my letter.

I do not excuse myself for this long quotation. Dialogue between religions can become a clash between absolute claims to truth. Pope Francis’ carefully phrased reflection can nourish our own reflections in such a context. It is also interesting to note how Francis does not speak of the truth as something abstract and rational, but as a relationship that is linked to love, finding expression in a way and a life. He also sets his reflections in the context of dialogue. Need I recall that Christianity itself was known as a “Way” in its beginnings (Acts 9:2)?

Another issue that concerns dialogue is the manner in which we understand the uniqueness of Christ as the saviour. Scalfaro raises this question also. Pope Francis answers it in an interesting manner.
The uniqueness lies, I would say, in the fact that the faith makes us share, through Jesus, in the relationship he has with God who is Abba, and from this perspective, in the relationship of love which he has with all men and women, enemies included. In other words, the sonship of Jesus, as presented by the Christian faith, is not revealed so as to emphasize an insurmountable separation between Jesus and everyone else; rather, it is revealed to tell us that in him, we are all called to be children in the one Father and so brothers and sisters to one another. The uniqueness of Jesus has to do with communication, not exclusion.

Conclusion: Challenges for India
What can we Indians learn from the practice of dialogue by Pope Francis. The first thing that strikes me is that he sets interreligious dialogue in the context of social dialogue which seeks to build up the kingdom of God. In India, I think that, though we are aware of the fourfold dialogue of life, action, discussion and experience, we have focused rather narrowly, led by the ashramites, on the dialogue of (spiritual) experience. This focus has helped the development of a theology of religions, which, however, is being misunderstood by people who do not share our experience. There is nothing wrong with this. But at the same time we have neglected the dialogues of life and action. We live together with the followers of other religions in the school, in the market place and in public life. But religions and dialogue are normally kept out of these areas in the name of secularism, yielding the space to communal and fundamentalist groups. Though Indian secularism is open to all religions and we have not privatized religion, as popular religious practice in community bears witness, we tend to live in religious ghettos. In the meantime, our dialogue of spiritual experience has more or less collapsed and limited to a very small minority in the Church. I think Pope Francis is calling us to what he calls ‘social dialogue’, in which we can make our religious values relevant in projects of collaboration for building up a community of justice, peace and harmony. This dialogue should be of the people, not of a few theological or spiritual experts. It should also open out to all people, even non-believers. We also have to pay more attention to an experiential and active option for the poor. Mutuality in dialogue then becomes important.

7. For this and the following quotation see reference above in Note 1.

What Pope Francis says about the practice of dialogue has theological implications. The Pope’s views are rather close to our own, since they are not abstract and rational, but based on experience. We could learn from his manner of looking at truth and love as intimately related and of getting caught up in the dynamism of life, relationships and history rather than in abstract speculation. We need to develop a spirituality of hope of a people on the way toward the kingdom of God, built around the presence and action in our lives and in our world of the risen Christ and of the Spirit. Finally, we should be really convinced and happy that our loving and merciful God is not Catholic!

Michael Amaladoss, S.J