Pope Francis On Rigidity

I said in yesterday's post that I wasn't sure what Pope Francis meant by "rigid" when he spole of rigid priests. This morning, looking for something else, I went to Church Militant and found an informative post, "Rigid" Seminarians. (I was originally looking to find the rad-trad take on the reported non-eucharist of President Biden from Francis, but intriguingly, Church Militant carries no mention of this.)

The post actually clarifies Francis's meaning quite helpfully:

[H]e offered [seminarians in Ancona] advice on four aspects of their seminary experience: the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral dimensions. He extended his definition of rigidity to include "ritualism," saying "prayer is not ritualism — the rigid end up in ritualism, always."

. . . Regarding the intellectual life of a seminarian, Pope Francis advised them to study hard to encounter and "proclaim [their] faith and proclaim Christ." He made no mention of proclaiming the truths that Christ passed on to His apostles. Rather, it is proclaiming one's faith, which is a nebulous idea.

But worst of all, he secularized the role of the priest, saying, "Go enthusiastically to meet the people," adding, "One is a priest to serve the People of God, to take care of the wounds of all, especially the poor."

As it happens, I saw a Bp Barron video not long ago where he said to those who oppose Vatican II that in the Catholic Church, you don't get any higher authority than an ecumenical council. A few days later, I got an e-mail. from his Word on Fire organization promoting a collection of the Vatican II constitutions edited by Bp Barron and containing reflections from post-Conciliar popes and Barron as well. So I sent for a copy. I've been working my way through Lumen Gentium.

Lumen Gentium strikes me as an extended explanation of the Church's whole function, dwelling especially on the roles of bishops. priests, deacons, and laity. Without question it gives bishops and priests a sacramental and pastoral role, but it also specifies an evangelical role. I would note that the post at Church Militant makes the point that Francis touched on the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral dimensions of the priesthood. We must assume he spoke of pastoral and sacramental roles elsewhere in his address.

But certainly intellectual abilities are key for evangelism. G K Chesterton, Fulton J Sheen, and Bp Barron were and are all smart men. As far as I can see, Francis's reasoning is that since the Church has an evangelical role, its priests must prepare themselves intellectually for that role.

And in in section 17 of Lumen Gentium, we see:

As the Son was sent by the Father, so He too sent the Apostles, saying: "Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world". The Church has received this solemn mandate of Christ to proclaim the saving truth from the apostles and must carry it out to the very ends of the earth. Wherefore she makes the words of the Apostle her own: "Woe to me, if I do not preach the Gospel", and continues unceasingly to send heralds of the Gospel until such time as the infant churches are fully established and can themselves continue the work of evangelizing.

In section 28, we see

Because the human race today is joining more and more into a civic, economic and social unity, it is that much the more necessary that priests, by combined effort and aid, under the leadership of the bishops and the Supreme Pontiff, wipe out every kind of separateness, so that the whole human race may be brought into the unity of the family of God.

My take from reading Lumen Gentium is that it characterizes the Church as an extension of heaven into this world, and to be this faithfully, it has to face outward. What Francis is telling the seminarians in Ancona strikes me as unexceptionable post-Conciliar Catholicism. When I listen to Bp Barron on the problem of pre-Conciliarism in the Church, I've got to think Church Militant's objection to Francis's remarks on "rigidity" fits Barron's characterizations.

According to Wikipedia, "This dogmatic constitution was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 21 November 1964, following approval by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,151 to 5." It appears that for whatever reason, writers at Church Militant are deeply uncomfortable with it. If so, I can't disagree with Bp Barron that there's a problem here.