This raises an interesting point: the phenomenon of the Holy Father as a public figure is of very recent making.
Prior to, say, the time of Pius XII, it was probably unheard of for the Pope to give interviews (and certainly not “off-the-cuff” interviews) to the secular press.
Papal documents, even if available in print, were not dissected by an army of online theologians (and “theologians”, if you get my drift…
) within hours or days of their release.
Questions about how licit a particular practice (such as NFP) or interpretation (such as the “four-source” theory of the Pentateuch) were usually dealt with by short, precise responses from Church organs, such as the Pontificial Biblical Commission.
I think a lot of the angst we see these days is because, ever since the 1960s (and perhaps even a little earlier, during Pius XII’s pontificate), the Church and the Pope have become much more public and visible. They write more, and their writings or teachings are often addressed not just to bishops or priests, but to “the faithful” in general. Moreover, interviews are tricky things; even my fellow medical professionals have often gotten “into the soup” in front of an eager reporter, and some countries offer training on how to field tricky or loaded questions.
I’m not saying that it’s possible to go back to “the old days”, where the simple phrase “The Holy Father” carried with it an implication of reverent awe, and Papal teachings were not directly accessible to us at the click of a mouse, but were passed on through the filters of the hierarchy. It certainly is good to be aware of what the Holy Father writes and thinks, and to have it discussed in the appropriate forums. But I do think we’ve lost something in the transition, though I can’t quite tell what it is; perhaps a certain mystique.
… It would be nice if we could go back to authoritative two-liners, but in this age of information overload, we can’t close that particular Pandora’s box.
Am I implying that the Pope should be above criticism? Certainly not. But I think we need to guard against a certain obsessive tendency to over-analyze his every pronouncement, interpret it in the light of our own political ideology (whether “liberal” or “conservative”), and allow it to lead us into needless doubt and anxiety. We need to guard against alarmism and wild-eyed conspiracy theories about “the Pope’s sinister intentions”. And most of all, we need to guard against using our own personal interpretations of a document of limited authority (to quote the Holy Father himself, AL was written
“to gather the contributions of the two recent Synods on the family, while adding other considerations as an aid to reflection, dialogue and pastoral practice, and as a help and
encouragement to families in their daily commitments and challenges”) to justify grave sins such as adultery and sacrilege. In other words, we must not allow the greater knowledge we have been afforded in this day and age to become an occasion of sin for us. Tough, but then, did Christ Himself ever say we would have it easy?
