Jacob Parappally MSFS

QUESTION: Paul Ricoeur says “The more the system flourishes, the more its victims are marginalized. The success of  the system is its failure. Suffering, as what is expressed by the voices of lamentation, is what the system excludes.” Pope Francis takes a stand in the margin which is a methodological stand even in writing Encyclicals. How do you evaluate his methodology? – Fr. Roy Joseph

ANSWER:
One of the ways Jesus deconstructed the religion of His time was by calling into question what it was standing for. Does religion exist for humans and for their well-being or does it exist for itself at the expense of humans? Jesus categorically states: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Religion which claims liberate humans to fulfil the innate need of humans to relate to God or the Absolute can become enslaving and oppressive when it devices strategies and means for its own survival as well as for its own security. Such tendency for self-preservation is not only found in all religions but also in all organizations and structures whether social, political, cultural and economic.
All systems are willing to sacrifice and do sacrifice even their most ardent supporters for the survival of the systems and to preserve their power over others. Therefore, both the religion and the society need prophets who challenge the systems to re-capture their original purposes for which they are created. No organization or a system would tolerate any prophet who challenges it because he or she would be considered a threat to the powers that control the system for their private interests. The preservation of any system is the serious concern of those who want its continuance in existence, its preservation of power to control the lives of others who belong to it and above all to secure their own benefits from it. Those who control the system would manipulate it for their advantage and this minority would have even scant regard for the majority of the victims who seek solace from the system seeking meaning for their existence in this valley of tears! Though the religious systems emerge and develop as an answer to the existential questions humans ask about the meaning of their existence and the experience of suffering in this world, the religious systems become eventually independent of the victims of misery and misfortune.

Systems Flourish and Victims Suffer
The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) while reflecting on “Evil, a challenge to Philosophy and Theology” in his book Figuring the Sacred: Religious Narrative and Imagination makes this statement, “The more the system flourishes, the more its victims are marginalized. The success of the system is its failure. Suffering, as what is expressed by the voices of lamentation, is what the system excludes.” After making a critical assessment of the answers to the problem of evil especially the moral evil or the question of human suffering by St Augustine and the philosophers like Leibniz, Hegel, Kant and others Paul Ricoeur is of opinion that their answers only justify the system whether religious or philosophical but do not adequately respond to the cruelty of suffering. St Augustine’s answer is that the moral evil and the consequent human suffering have their source in the original sin of the first parents. He neatly explains that God is not responsible for evil and suffering but the humans’ misuse and abuse of their freedom. Evil and suffering are caused by individual and collective sin. Suffering is a retribution for sin. Such an explanation may justify an entire religious system that emphasizes sin, guilt, punishment and forgiveness etc. but does not answer convincingly why millions of humans do experience the cruelty of exploitation, oppression, dehumanization, discrimination, poverty and so on. The theodicy of Leibniz explains that there is sufficient reason to balance good and evil in this world which is ‘the best of all the possible worlds’ where any evil exists is necessary for greater good. In the philosophy of Hegel it is said that “Hegel’s ‘cunning of reason’ silences the scandal of suffering by subsuming the tragic into a triumphant logic where all that is real is rational.” Precisely, such neat explanations make the system flourish but the system does not hear the cry of the victims of suffering!
The victims of suffering cry out, ‘why me?” From Job to Gethsemane and till today this cry of the victims can be heard all over the world. Yet all the systems whether religious or secular continue to strategize ways and means to maintain, develop and expand the systems! But the victims of evil cannot be silenced by any rational explanation given by philosophers or an irrational submission to any spirituality that justifies suffering. If there is any meaning for suffering it can be found only in the Cross of Jesus which reveals a God who suffers for and with humanity because God is love. This God continues to suffer when humans suffer. Therefore, those who believe in God who is revealed through Jesus Christ need to do justice to the victims of suffering rather than fortifying the structures of the Church. Systems are to be preserved only to the extent that they become means to stand for the victims of suffering and struggle with them to overcome the evil that is hostile to both to God and humans.
There is still hope when men and women arise to look at the world from the side of the victims and sacrifice themselves to transform the world. It is the way of Jesus. In our times Pope Francis is the best example of those who look at everything through the eyes of the excluded, the marginalized or those at the periphery of the society. He is trying to get the Church back to its original mission of looking at the world through the eyes of Jesus and to transform it through the power of the Spirit. But for centuries, except for some saints both known and unknown, the Church authorities focussed their attention mostly to nourish and to flourish the system of the Church. The victims of suffering were given a theology of retribution by a punishing God for their sins or for the sins of their ancestors. It consoled them with a future reward in heaven as well as with some charitable activities. The social teachings of the Church that challenged the socio-political and economic systems of oppression and injustice are relatively new in the twenty centuries of Church’s existence. Even these are ‘the most kept secret of the Church’, it is said, meaning that they were not followed with much commitment to the cause they claimed to be the Church’s own.

Problems with a Vision from the Centre of a System
Any vision from the centre of a system can see only through the prism of power and control. Those who claim themselves to be the guardians of any system always would focus their attention on preserving the system. For them traditions, rules and regulations, established conventions etc. That give a form to the structure of the organization must always be kept up. They would not let anyone to dilute any of them because they are afraid that it would make system dysfunctional and collapse. They would not tolerate any dissent and they will exclude dissenters from the membership of the organization. Their primary concern is not to fulfil the purpose for which the system is made but the continued existence of the system. When it is a religious system like the Catholic Church, the dogmas and the doctrines of the Church, the Canon Law and the religious practices, the magisterial teachings and the traditional hierarchical structure are all of great importance and they are often identified as the essential elements that make up the Church.
The vision as well as the concern of those appointed guardians of this so called centre is to protect, preserve and hand over them over to the next generation. It is important that the guardians of the Church must strive to preserve and enhance the credibility of the Church that it can influence the society at large. So they use all means available to them to cover up anything that they fear would affect the credibility of the Church. So the crimes of sex-abuse, corruption, misappropriation of funds and other financial mismanagement involving the members of the hierarchy, conflicts among the members of the hierarchy etc. are covered up to avoid public scandal. The explosion of such scandals in the recent past and exposition of the misuse and abuse power in handling such crimes by those in authority which were covered up for fear of scandal have terribly affected the credibility of the Church.
Most of the lay people identify the Church with the hierarchy of the Church. But many of those pious Catholics who steadfastly adhere to the magisterial teachings and oppose same-sex marriage, abortion, allowing those divorced and re-married to receive sacraments etc. also belong to this ecclesial centre. They would strongly oppose any pastoral approach of the Church that would give some ecclesial space for the so called prodigal sons and daughters of the Church. Some of them would be happy if these were publicly excommunicated to preserve the holiness and the purity of the Church. They too would want the system of the Church flourish even if it abandons the attitude of Jesus towards the sinners, the outcastes and the marginalized.

Pope Francis’ Vision from the Periphery
It is said that Jesus came to turn the world upside down! He lived a life identifying the poor, the marginalized, the dehumanized, the discriminated, the abandoned and the excluded. He stood against religious and social system that divided and discriminated people in the name of God, laws and regulations, ritual purity and impurity etc. He established a counter-culture or a contrast community that included all humans without any discrimination and abolished all laws of exclusion. He wanted his community to have only one law, namely, self-emptying love. But this inclusive community has become an exclusive community in the course of history. In spite of reformers like Francis of Assisi who tried to bring the Church back to its original vision and mission it continued to flourish as a system that had forgotten those in the periphery of the Church and of the society. Pope Francis, who has taken the name of Francis of Assisi is trying to recapture the original vision and mission of the Church as envisioned by Jesus to be a loving home for everyone especially those in the periphery.
While addressing the fellow Cardinals in a pre-conclave meeting then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio said, “There is a tension between the centre and the periphery…. We must get out of ourselves and go toward the periphery. We must avoid the spiritual disease of the Church that can become self-absorbed: when this happens, the Church itself becomes sick. […] Between a Church that goes into the street and gets into an accident and a Church that is sick with self-referentiality, I have no doubts in preferring the first. (Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the pre-conclave General Congregation of the Cardinals, March 2013).
After his election Pope Francis continued to steer the Church to re-capture the vision from the periphery as Jesus did. In all his discourses and encyclicals and in his pastoral activities he showed that he is convinced of the mission of the Church to stand by those in the periphery of the Church and in the society. What is this periphery Pope speaks about? “Rather than a geo-political or geo-economic concept, the idea of a “periphery” seems to refer, in Pope Francis’ view, to the broader and deeper notions of exclusion, alienation, and expulsion”. Therefore, he insisted on speaking for the rights of the refugees, the migrant workers, undocumented persons, street people, gay and lesbian people (LGBT), divorced and remarried Catholics who are relegated to the periphery of the Church. He not only spoke for those in the periphery but also showed through various initiatives he has taken that he means what he says. It is a challenging witness to the entire world that he stands with those in the periphery as the leader of the Church. In his encyclical Laudato si Pope Francis understanding of inclusivism extends to the entire creation, the common home for everyone. He challenges the systems and structures of the world to take care of this common home for the survival of the entire humanity and prophetically warns those who exploit the natural resources to satisfy their greed committing a crime to all humans especially those in the periphery of the society. In the recent encyclical Fratellitutti subtitled ‘On Fraternity and Social Friendship’ in the context of Covid 19 pandemic Pope Francis brings home to all humans of good will how the world failed in working together to face the pandemic. Here again he emphasized the need for human fraternity and solidarity including everyone. He pleads to avoid wars and other conflicts that destroy human fraternity.

Church as a Home for Everyone
For Pope Francis like Francis of Assisi whose name he has taken for himself, considers everyone and everything as his brother and sister. This vision and actualization of inclusivism run through his discourses, encyclicals and pastoral activities. The need and importance of inclusivism based on human inter-relatedness and consequent inter-dependence can be understood well only by the victims of marginalization, alienation and exclusion. Those in the periphery can be brought into the centre or creating a periphery-centred Church. For this, the system of the Church needs to be relativized. It is not easy because many guardians of the Church who would like to preserve it as a system and who benefit from its being a system would oppose the initiatives of Pope Francis. In fact, they are opposing it with all their might. But idolizing the Church as a system may be a blasphemy when those in the periphery, the images of God trampled upon by cruel exclusion and discrimination. Pope Francis is trying to make the Church a true home for everyone. The Church becomes the true temple of God when all humans find in it their home!