The Pope and the Pandemic

Pope Francis in conversation with Austen Ivereigh, Let us Dream: The Path to a Better Future (Simon and Schuster, 2020)

Written ‘in conversation’ with his biographer Austin Ivereigh (a writer, journalist, and Fellow in Contemporary Church History at Campion Hall, University of Oxford), this book is the Pope’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.  Its title comes from God’s words to Isaiah: ‘Come, let us talk this over.  Let us dare to dream.’  It laments the tremendous suffering caused by the coronavirus, but also sees it as an opportunity for a fundamental reset of society.  It strongly challenges efforts to ‘return to normal’ after the pandemic and sees an opportunity of creating a better world. 

The book proposes a three-fold process of responding to the pandemic – contemplate, discern, proposal –  and its structure reflects this: Part One: ‘A Time to See’; Part Two: ‘A Time to Choose’: Part Three: ‘A Time to Act’.  In Austin Ivereigh’s postscript, he suggests that this comes from the Latin American Church’s see-judge-act method.  To start with there needs to be an honest appraisal of the current situation.  Here Pope Francis suggests that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed major inequalities and injustices in society.  Secondly, the book proposes a a synodal approach to discernment, based on the great syn-odos ‘walking together’.  An example of this comes from his recent special synod on Amazonia.  In the final section, A Time to Act, the Pope starts to put toward some concrete actions that might start to make the world a better place, more in line with what God intended us to be. 

There are some things I disagree with in the book.  As would be expected, the discussion of abortion is presented in binary terms with very little space for the synodal approach outlined in the overall process that is put forward.  The gendered praising of ‘feminine’ characteristics based on the Spanish/Argentine concept of Ama de Casa seems to me to be highly problematic, and a reflection of the knots that a church with an all-male clergy can tie itself in.  But these disagreements are to be expected, and are actually a healthy expression of the process for ‘dreaming’ set out by this book.  Walking together does not imply everyone thinks the same way, or that people who think differently should be excluded from the conversation.  Rather, it calls for a profounds appreciation for difference, and a willingness to learn. 

In relation to Land, the Pope reinforces the social dimensions of environmentalism, enshrined in Laudato Si and writes (with some potentially problematic gendered language):

We are earthly beings, who belong to Mother Earth, and we cannot simply live at her expsense; our relationship with her is reciprocal.  We need now a Jubilee, a time when those who have more than enough should consume less to allow the earth to heal, and a time for the excluded to find their place in our socieites.  The pandemic and the economic crisis offer a change to examine our lifestyles, to change destructive habits, and to find more sustainable ways to produce, trade, and transport goods. 

He as has some interesting things to say about labour: 

…Work is the capacity that the Lord gifted us with lets us contribute to His creative action.  In working, we shape creation.

            That is why, as a society, we have to ensure that labor [sic] be a means not just of earning money but of self-expression, of taking part in society, and of contributing to the common good.  Prioritizing access to work must become a core goal of national public policies (130 of 149 ebook). 

This is a really powerful book, and one that connects strongly to much of my thinking about religion, environment, and history.