‘Ideology kills reality and manipulates people’

Speaking at an audi-ence for participants in a two-day international conference held at the Pontifical Lateran Uni-versity on 9-10 Dec. on the future of theology, Pope Francis called for a dynamic inter-disci-plinary and inclusive theological approach that addresses the com-plexities of contempo-rary society while re-maining deeply rooted in faith.
“Simplification,” he warned “mutilates rea-lity; it gives rise to empty and unilateral thinking and it gene-rates polarization and fragmentation”, which is “precisely what ideo-logies do: they flatten reality to a single idea, which they then repeat obsessively and mani-pulate.” “Ideology is a simplification that kills reality, it kills thought, it kills community. They flatten everything to a single idea, which they then repeat obse-ssively and superfi-cially, like parrots.”