Pope Francis's remarkable video message to Bogota: Wow!
by Michael Sean Winters | Aug. 29, 2016
Pope Francis delivered a video message to the Jubilee of Mercy meeting in Bogota this weekend. It is another one of his small encyclicals, encapsulating themes that are at the heart of his ministry and his magisterium. As his speech to the world meeting of social movements in Bolivia last summer was a distillation of the themes in Evangelii Gaudium, his video message this weekend captured the quintessence of Amoris Laetitia. I am not sure if it is summertime or if it is the Latin American audience, but either way, two years in a row now we have these powerful statements that reveal the profound depth of Pope Francis’ Gospel readings in a shorter, more pithy form.
This video message also reveals what Pope Francis wants from the Church in the Americas. The framing is that articulated at Aparecida, where the Latin American bishops’ conference (CELAM) had their last big meeting in 2007 and reiterated when he spoke to the U.S. bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral one year ago. The Church can only find new life and new growth if she becomes a missionary Church, and that is only possible if the Church’s mission is defined as proclaiming God’s mercy.
The core of Pope Francis’ message is found in this passage:
We start being scandalized – and this happens to us all, it’s almost automatic, no? – we start being scandalized when spiritual Alzheimer’s sets in: when we forget how the Lord has treated us, when we begin to judge and divide people up. We take on a separatist mindset that, without our realizing it, leads us to fragment our social and communal reality all the more. We fragment the present by creating “groups”. Groups of good and bad, saints and sinners. This memory loss gradually makes us forget the richest reality we possess and the clearest teaching we have to defend. The richest reality and the clearest teaching. Though we are all sinners, the Lord has unfailingly treated us with mercy. Paul never forgot that he was on the other side, that he was chosen last, as one born out of time. Mercy is not a “theory to brandish”: “Ah! Now it is fashionable to talk about mercy for this Jubilee, so let’s follow the fashion”. No, it is not a theory to brandish so that our condescension can be applauded, but rather a history of sin to be remembered. Which sin? Ours, mine and yours. And a love to be praised. Which love? The love of God, who has shown me mercy.
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/pope-franciss-remarkable-video-message-bogota-wow