Ignoring the Holy Father

[Don_Ruggero]

Hanging on the pope’s every word as reported by the media is a very modern phenomenon. For most of Church history, I can’t imagine that the average Catholic had any idea what the Pope in distant Rome was saying or doing. I remain of the opinion that our spiritual life should be primarily directed by our local pastor and bishop. I am not suggesting that one should ignore the Holy Father - but we are not obliged to reflect on every single thing he says.

Well, depending upon the age and the place one occupied on the globe, it could be weeks or months before one learned that the Pope had died and that there was, in fact, a new Pope.

On the other hand, I am glad to have lived from an era to see an era in which the teachings of the Pope could receive a much broader dissemination. I have, to great result, often recommended published collections of the Wednesday audience allocutions of Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict, for example. They embrace multiple volumes at this point. They are excellent texts that can be appreciated by both theologians and non-theologians.

I think back, too, to the texts of the Blessed Paul VI, for example, that could also be studied to great profit…but it was a time when broad distribution of papal addresses were less possible or at least feasible. Hopefully, they will become better known and appreciated by new generations as we get closer to his canonisation.

The essence of what we know today as “theology of the body” derives from a series of Wednesday audience lectures of Pope Saint John Paul II that has blossomed into its own theological sub-discipline. By God’s gracious gift.

The Augustinianum is now offering a Master’s degree specializing in the opus of Joseph Ratzinger, pre- and post- 2005 conclave. Of course, he is eminently Augustinian, so it is well hosted. It is a significant body of theological work, too, especially when one is tracing the thoughts back to antecedent sources.

I would never fault a student of mine for choosing to specialise in a given pontificate anymore than I would fault them for specialising in a specific school of spirituality. Of course, they would have to be a generalist before they could become, progressively, a specialist.

You have however hit a key element. It cannot be based on what the media reports. It must be based on primary source material, faithfully and integrally transmitted. And of course an adequate theological, or minimally catechetical, knowledge if one is making any sort of serious endeavour of it.

The fact that I know, every day, the topic and elements of the Holy Father’s homily at his morning Mass, without being personally present, is quite unique.