Vatican City, Nov 4, 2017 / 12:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).-
Last weekend, Pope Francis delivered a keynote speech to a major conference on the future of the European Union. Although the Pope is often characterized as a staunch progressive, his Oct. 28 speech was a reminder that his views on life, marriage, and sexuality go beyond the stereotypes with which he is often characterized.
During the speech, the Pope spoke out against abortion, and said the Christian understanding of the family can serve as a model on which the European continent can base its identity as it faces a changing and uncertain future.
Speaking to participants in the Oct. 27-29 conference “(Re)Thinking Europe: A Christian Contribution to the Future of the European Project,” Pope Francis stressed that the family, “as the primordial community,” is fundamental to understanding Europe’s increasingly multicultural and multiethnic identity.
In the family, “diversity is valued and at the same time brought into unity,” Francis said, explaining that the family “is the harmonious union of the differences between man and woman, which becomes stronger and more authentic to the extent that it is fruitful, capable of opening itself to life and to others.”
Likewise, he said secular communities are also “alive” when they are capable “of openness, embracing the differences and gifts of each person while at the same time generating new life, development, labor, innovation and culture.”
He also pointed to the low birth rate in Europe, lamenting the fact that there are so few children because “all too many were denied the right to be born.”
These comments, which echo the critiques of European secularism often proffered by Benedict XVI, might surprise those who have, since the beginning of his pontificate, painted Francis as being untethered by Catholic doctrine.
Yet while the Pope has often seemed to take a progressive approach to liturgy and has been outspoken on environmental issues, he has also been equally loud when defending Catholic doctrine on moral issues like abortion and homosexuality in the public square.
Of course, there is still significant internal debate surrounding the interpretation of Chapter 8 of his 2015 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which addresses the Church’s response to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
In fact, this week the debate flared up again when news came out that Father Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap., a member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, resigned from his position as a consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine after publishing a 5-page letter he had written to Pope Francis calling for a correction to the “chronic confusion” of his pontificate, which the priest said “fosters within the faithful a growing unease.”
The letter, which charged that Pope Francis has downplayed the importance of doctrine, created confusion, and appointed questionable bishops, made waves throughout the Catholic world, especially given Fr. Weinandy’s prominent role within the USCCB and the Pope’s theological commission.
But while Francis seems to invite debate on this and other points, he demonstrated last Saturday that he does so while calling for respect for the Catholic worldview in secular culture, especially regarding the family.
Who am I to judge?
It was early in his pontificate, on a return flight from World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, that Pope Francis famously responded to a question about homosexuality in the priesthood with “who am I to judge?”
In some ways, the question became a lens through which his pontificate is often viewed, especially in the media.
Since 2013, the “who-am-I-to-judge Pope” has spoken out frequently on the need to be more welcoming of people with homosexual orientation, and has insisted on the need to use language reflecting welcome, rather than a closed door.
During his September 2015 visit to the United States, images of Pope Francis hugging a gay man circulated on the internet after he met with the man and his partner in Washington D.C. The man was a former student who had written to ask for a meeting, and the Pope accepted.
And while Pope Francis’ approach to homosexuality has been depicted by some as a deviation from the Church’s doctrine, and hailed by others as a step in the right direction, his speech to E.U. leaders is a reminder that he aims to promote a worldview guided by Catholic doctrine, rather than contradicting it.
A Catholic Worldview
Looking back throughout Francis’ pontificate, his speech on Saturday was the latest among dozens of times he has spoken on behalf of the role of the traditional family, the sacredness of human life, or the Church’s teaching on sexuality in the public square.
Some of these occasions, just to name a few, are as follows:
1. In a 2014 audience with members of the German-born, international Schoenstatt movement marking the 100th anniversary of their founding, Pope Francis said the family, in the Christian understanding, was being attacked.
“The family is being hit, the family is being struck and the family is being bastardized,” he said, noting that in the modern context, “you can call everything family, right?”
He said contemporary society has “devalued” the sacrament of marriage by turning it into a social rite and removing the most essential element, which is union with God. “So many families are divided, so many marriages broken,” he said, adding that frequently, there is “such relativism in the concept of the sacrament of marriage.”
2. On the flight back from his trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan a year ago, in October 2016, the Pope was asked about the possibility of biological roots to homosexuality and transgender identities.
Pope Francis said that those who struggle with sexuality and gender identity must be “accompanied as Jesus accompanies them,” and Jesus “surely doesn’t tell them ‘go away because you are homosexual,’” he said.
But Francis also pointed to the “wickedness which today is done in the indoctrination of gender theory” that is now frequently being taught in schools, and which he said “is against the (nature of) things.”
Pastoral accompaniment “is what Jesus would do today,” he said, but asked journalists to “please don’t say: ‘the Pope sanctifies transgenders.’…Because I see the covers of the papers.” Gender theory, he said, is “a moral problem. It’s a human problem and it must be resolved…with the mercy of God, with the truth.”
During the same trip, the Pope gave a lengthy, off-the-cuff speech to priests, seminarians and pastoral workers in which he said “the whole world is at war trying to destroy marriage,” not so much with weapons, “but with ideas…(there are) certain ideologies that destroy marriage. So we need to defend ourselves from ideological colonization.”
3. In his environmental encyclical Laudato Si, published in June 2015, Pope Francis condemned abortion, population control and transgenderism.
Regarding gender, the Pope said that, like creation, “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will. ”
Further, he said that “valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment.”
He also said that to protect nature is “incompatible with the justification of abortion,” and that it is “clearly inconsistent” to combat human trafficking or protect endangered species while being indifferent to the choice of many people “to destroy another human being deemed unwanted.”
Francis also lamented that “instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate.”
“Demographic growth is fully compatible with an integral and shared development,” he said, adding that to blame a growing population for poverty and an unequal distribution of resources rather than the “extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues.”
4. In February 2015, the Pope praised Slovakia, which had voted against a referendum to legalize same-sex “marriage,” voicing his appreciation “to the entire Slovak Church, encouraging everyone to continue their efforts in defense of the family, the vital cell of society.”
Defying stereotypes
The Pope has made more statements along the same lines over the past few years in general audiences, as well as in homilies, speeches and letters, advocating for public respect for the Church’s position on life, marriage, and family.
When the Pope spelled out his vision for the Christian contribution to the continent of Europe on Saturday, he made it clear that his moral and political vision is one based on the Church’s longstanding teaching on the family.
Pope Francis can be hard to pin down at times, and the resulting “gray area” often leads to stereotype – which is why he is so frequently the subject of caricature, rather than serious study. But caricatures of Francis inevitably miss the mark.
On Saturday, Pope Francis proved this by again reminding Europe of its roots, and of the importance of the family and of Christianity to those roots, showing himself to be a leader who, instead of falling into stereotypes, defies them.
[…]
We read: “It was in Nicaea that the Church’s unity and mission were first expressed emblematically at a universal level (and from here, it draws its designation as an ecumenical council) through the synodal form of that ‘walking together’ which is proper to the Church…”
“Walking together” as successors of the Apostles, so also and therefore excluding (!) Arianism.
The faith expressed at Nicaea is the opening revelation to the world depicting Christ as God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God. A truth that remains indelible and resistible to modification.
“The faith expressed at Nicaea is the opening revelation to the world depicting Christ as God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God. A truth that remains indelible and resistible to modification.”
As does the Filioque, which in affirming The Unity of The Holy Ghost, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Eternal Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, affirms the fact that there is only One Divine Son Of God, thus The Spirit Of Perfect Love Between The Father And His Only Son, Must Proceed From Both The Father And The Son, for both The Father And The Son, Exist, In Essence,
As A Communion Of Eternal Divine Love.
Well done for this magnificent and well-worded reminder!
But did you notice that the document from the International Theological Commission only mentioned the Filioque once, in order to repudiate it very bluntly?
Everything suggests that it should be sacrificed on the altar of ecumenism, and this seems to me to be an offense to the good Catholic people, an incredible regression, and I fear even worse, since it is written in paragraph 12 “The Father also gives everything to the Spirit,” which is a radical novelty in Catholic tradition, and I wonder if this might not be heresy because of the confusion it creates between the two persons, the Son and the Spirit, since they are supposed to be distinguished by their mode of procession from the Father.
What do you think?
“…repudiate it bluntly”?
As you report, the term filioque does appear only once (n.4, in connection with accurately noted “misunderstandings”), but it is hardly repudiated. For the meaning but not the term, see n. 13 “[….] he is the Spirit of the Father and Spirit of the Son (Gal 4:6; Rom 8:9) [….]”. Here’s the link: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_doc_20250403_1700-nicea_en.html
Possibly more troublesome might be the initial wording about “synods” [of bishops!], but this term (appearing 51 times), too, as it is used, and as it is explicitly clarified especially in n. 113 which recalls “Apostolic Tradition” (in contrast with today’s unmentioned and mixed town hall meetings).
Also, about the filioque inserted into the Creed, here’s a history:
The filioque (the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father “and from the Son”) was present in the ancient texts and put forth by the Synod of Aachen in 809 (I think I’ve read, by Charlemagne in response to rekindled Arianism in Iberia), and introduced universally in Rome only in 1014. It was adopted by the Greeks and the Latins at the Councils of Lyon (II, 1274), and Florence (1438-1445) where it was initially agreed that the Greek “through the Son” did not differ essentially from “from the Son.” But the Greeks back home quickly disagreed—likely inflamed in part by the long memory of the earlier destruction of Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders in 1204? (Following the loss of a weakened Constantinople to Islam in 1453, the Eastern Church has disintegrated into local national Churches.)
SUMMARY: Councils [and real synods] are what the Church DOES, not what the Church IS (Benedict XVI). How always to better do communio/ecclesial assemblies remains a distinctly different work in progress.
I note that your casual rebuttal of my assertion sidesteps three major problems:
1) The Filioque is indeed set aside by the ITC text through the quotation of a very explicit ecumenical text (in note 8), whereas this document was supposed to contribute to putting Christ, and therefore the Son of God, back at the center.
2) Even though the Filioque is set aside, the statement “The Father also gives everything to the Spirit” (in n.12) is an assertion that implicitly refutes it, which is why it makes absolutely no sense in the Catholic tradition. You will find no trace of it anywhere except in Orthodox “literature.”
3) This serious doctrinal difficulty has not been noted anywhere in the Catholic media. ND’s commentary is almost unique in linking both the ITC text and the Filioque.
I think we are faced with a serious difficulty here, and I look forward to reading your response, as I have no doubt that you will recognize the surprising nature of this observation, whatever conclusions may be drawn from it.
PS: Charlemagne was indeed responsible for the spread of the Filioque in the Christian West, but precisely because he categorically rejected the “per Filium.”
Fn. 8: “Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, ‘The Greek and the Latin Traditions Regarding the Procession of the Holy Spirit’: «The Catholic Church acknowledges the conciliar, ecumenical, normative and irrevocable value, as expression of the one common faith of the Church and of all Christians, of the Symbol professed in Greek at Constantinople in 381 by the Second Ecumenical Council. No profession of faith peculiar to a particular liturgical tradition can contradict this expression of the faith taught and professed by the undivided Church» (Eng. trans. from: L’Osservatore Romano, 13 September 1995).”
I do see your point, but it is still not clear why the ITC language about the added Filioque risks contradiction—rather than remaining a non-contradictory clarification or development.
At a general audience on Nov. 7,1990, Pope John Paul II was still able to conclude with the optimism that “the formula ‘Filioque’ does not constitute an essential obstacle to the dialogue itself and to its development, which all hope for and pray for in the Holy Spirit” (“The Filioque Debate,” in The Pope Speaks, Our Sunday Visitor, 36:2, March/April 1971). In the article—about development—he cites Gospel passages (prior to ‘Orthodox literature’) and the long history of the debate, and refers to both sides (the East: Ephraim, Athanasius, Basil, Epiphanius, Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus, John Damascene; The West: Tertullian, Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas).
Recalling the high point, short-lived, when a common definition was adopted by both the Greeks and the Latins in 1439: “In the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the approval of this sacred and universal Council of Florence, we establish that this truth of faith must be believed and accepted by all Christians: and thus all must profess that the Holy Spirit IS ETERNALLY OF THE FATHER AND THE SON [caps added], that He has His existence and His subsistent being FROM THE FATHER AND THE SON together, and that He proceeds from the one and from a single principle and from a single spiration [….] We establish…that the explanation given of the expression ‘Filioque’ has been added to the Creed licitly and with reason, in order to render the through clearer and because of the incumbent needs of those times.”
My non-professional (evasive?) and overarching thought is, that within earthbound history, the culture of the West seems to need more precise and explicit clarifications, while the culture of the East remains more levitated and atmospheric. About the challenges of history in the West, the (schismatic) East remains apart from not only Florence but all of the other twenty-one ecumenical councils after the first seven.
After a thousand years, maybe there’s a place for partly cross-cultural (?) dialogue on the Filioque.
Let’s be clear: the Filioque is not “added,” it is set aside by the ITC document.
What is added is the idea, which is absolutely contradictory to the Filioque, that “the Father also gives everything to the Spirit.”
This is unprecedented in Catholic doctrine because it is incompatible with the way the Filioque has always been understood since Augustine.
Do you see the problem now?
‘ INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour
1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of
325-2025
Preliminary note
In the course of its tenth quinquennium, the International Theological Commission chose to carry out an in-depth study of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea and its dogmatic relevance today. The work was carried out by a special Sub-Commission, chaired by Fr. Philippe Vallin and composed of the following members: Mgr Antonio Luiz Catelan Ferreira, Mgr Etienne Vetö, I.C.N., Fr. Mario Ángel Flores Ramos, Fr Gaby Alfred Hachem, Fr. Karl-Heinz Menke, Prof. Marianne Schlosser, and Prof. Robin Darling Young.
General discussions on this subject took place both at the various meetings of the Sub-Commission and at the plenary sessions of the Commission itself, held in the years 2022-2024. This text was put to the vote and unanimously approved in forma specifica by the members of the International Theological Commission at the plenary session of 2024. The document was then submitted for approval to its President, His Eminence Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, who, after receiving the favourable opinion of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, authorised its publication on 16 December 2024. ‘
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_doc_20250403_1700-nicea_en.html