3345 "The charism is not a bottle of distilled water"
austraLasia #3345

 
"The charism is not a bottle of distilled water"
ROME: 7 January 2013 --  Beware when Pope Francis, in his now typical off-the-cuff style, says 'Non so come dirlo' (I don't quote know how to put it). He is either admitting his Italian might not be up to scratch, or about to come out with a stunner or two.  Up to you to decide which, when you read Antony Spadaro's account of what the Pope really said to 120 male Religious Heads (the USG). Thanks to a reader who drew austraLasia's attention to this.

The text is available in its Italian original, English and Spanish. If you can read it in Italian, do. The English translation is quite poor and makes all the typical errors, including getting it wrong! At one point the Pope is talking about a little girl in a complex family scene where the little girl says "my mother's fiancé doesn't like me," except that the Italian says 'fidanzata', and if the Pope said that, then the girl's partner was probably female, so a little more complex than the English suggests! That aside, and reference to the 'major Rector of the Salesians' (!), there's still value in reading the English version.

Wake up the world!
The Religious wanted to know how to live the Gospel sine glossa. The Pope's response was that we religious (he reminded them that he too was a religious) have to wake the world up, but by being attractive: "Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, acting, living". Then he threw in a comment on 'radicalità evangelica' (recall that term?). "No, I don't want to say 'radical'. The evangelical nature of the Gospel is not only for religious, it is demanded of all. But religious follow the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way."

Living on the edge
Already in Evangelii gaudium, Pope Francis has told us that the sphere is not the best model for evangelisation, rather the polyhedron, which reflects the convergence of all its parts, each of which preserves its distinctiveness. Now he tells religious to live on the edge, get out to the peripheries and see things as they are there. Then he exemplifies this in terms of youth ministry and the fact that you can't give kids a treatise - it misses the mark entirely. "We need a new language, a new way of saying things" for them.

Prophecy creates a racket - 'non so come dire ... fa ... 'casino'
Well, if we were wondering if it is permissible to use that word 'casino' in genteel company, we now have an answer! The Pope said it! It's just that he didn't say it at that meeting but on another occasion, in more restricted company, which Spadaro chooses to include here! Anyway, the Pope does says this to the religious: "The emphasis should fall on being prophets and not just at playing at being prophets".

The charism is not a bottle of distilled water
There follows a lengthy discussion on vocations during which Pope Francis really stirs things up... by telling us initially that "the Lord ... is free to store up more vocations in one part of the world than another" - in reference to the youngest Churches. But he suggests we ask what the Lord is saying in doing this. And the charism is not a bottle of distilled water, "it needs to be lived energetically as well as re-interpreted culturally". He has a few comments to make about "the novice trade" out of Africa or the Philippines or some such place and into Europe; he talks about his own experience of cultural differences, and that "if we make cultures uniform we kill the charism".

Asked about the tricky question of Brothers as superiors in clerical orders, he neatly pushed that off to canoncial experts to work out, but added some comments, instead, about clericalism: "To avoid problems, in some houses of formation young people grit their teeth, try not to make mistakes, follow the rules smiling a lot and just wait for the day when the are told, 'Good, you have finished formation'. This is hypocrisy, the result of clericalism."

These little monsters then mould the People of God!
Warming to his subject, the Pope then points to another side of formation - it is not all about personal growth but about the people to whom these 'formandi' will ultimately be sent. "We must always think of the faithul,  the faithful people of God ...", "Formation is a work of art, not a police action ...", "Just think of religious that have hearts as sour as vinegar ...", "We must form their hearts, otherwise we are creating little monsters."

Something is missing from communities where there is no conflict
There is a whole discussion of fraternal life, with an interesting point of view on conflict and how to manage it, "Covering it over creates a pressure-cooker that will eventually explode. A life without conflicts is not life ... but never, never should we act like managers when dealing with conflicts in fraternal life. We should involve the heart." "We need to caress conflicts".  He calls this 'Eucharistic tenderness'.

Mutuae relationes? 
"Out of date".  Needs revision.

Going to the frontiers  - Patagonia - education a key, key, key mission!
Salesians will be especially interest in Pope Francis' comments here.  He cites the example of how the Rector Major would be well aware of how an initial dream of Don Bosco's was also a "dream at the frontier that thrust his Salesians to the geographical peripheries of Patagonia." And then goes on to insist that "education is a key, key, key mission. This is where he cites the case of the little girl and her mother's girlfriend, and then asks the educator-pastor's question: "How can we proclaim Christ to these boys and girls? How can we proclaim Christ to a generation that is changing?"


Read it all yourself in Italian, English or Spanish. You will not be disappointed.