Pope Francis today published his carta “on the role of literature in formation”, which, although especially designed for the formation of priests, the Holy Father considers that it includes things that “can be said about the formation of all pastoral agents, as well as of any Christian.” ”.
Among other Catholic authors, the text includes references and quotes from saints such as Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Popes John Paul II and Paul VI, as well as mentions of the Pastoral Constitution The joy and hope, from the Second Vatican Council. In addition, phrases from writers as diverse as the British CS Lewis, the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, the Frenchman Marcel Proust and the American TS Eliot are also included.
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Here we share 14 of the many reasons to delve into the literature that Pope Francis gives to Catholics in his new letter:
1. A good book can be “like an oasis that takes us away from other activities that are not good for us” and that even in “moments of fatigue, anger, disappointment, failure” can help “to weather the storm, until we manage to have a little more serenity.”
2. In books, the reader “in a certain way rewrites the work, expands it with his imagination, creates his world, uses his skills, his memory, his dreams, his own story full of drama and symbolism, and in this way What results is a work very different from what the author intended to write.”
3. Literature is “indispensable” for a believer who wishes to “sincerely enter into dialogue with the culture of his time, or simply with the lives of specific people,” because “how can we penetrate into the heart of cultures, the ancient and the new ones, if we ignore, discard and/or silence their symbols, messages, creations and narratives with which they captured and wanted to reveal and evoke their most beautiful feats and the most beautiful ideals, as well as their most violent acts, fears and passions. deep?”
4. “Contact with different literary and grammatical styles will always allow us to delve deeper into the polyphony of Revelation, without reducing it or impoverishing it to our own historical needs or our own mental structures.” This, he highlights, was expressed by saints such as Basil of Caesarea and Paul the Apostle and their appreciation for classical literature.
5. “An assiduous frequency of literature can make future priests and all pastoral agents even more sensitive to the full humanity of the Lord Jesus, in which his divinity fully expands, and announce the Gospel in such a way that everyone, truly everyone, can experience how true is what the Second Vatican Council says: ‘In reality, the mystery of man is only clarified in the mystery of the incarnate Word.’”
6. Remembering Borges, Pope Francis highlights that “a definition of literature that I really like” is that it allows us to “listen to someone’s voice”: “let us not forget how dangerous it is to stop listening to the voice of another who tells us.” he questions. We quickly fall into isolation, we enter a kind of ‘spiritual’ deafness, which also negatively affects our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with God, regardless of how much theology or psychology we have been able to study.”
7. “By following this path, which makes us sensitive to the mystery of others, literature helps us learn to touch their hearts,” something important, because “the task of believers, and in particular of priests, is precisely to ‘touch ‘the heart of the contemporary human being so that it is moved and opened before the announcement of the Lord Jesus and, in this effort, the contribution that literature and poetry can offer is of unparalleled value.’
8. Faced with the danger of “falling into an efficiencyism that trivializes discernment, impoverishes sensitivity and reduces complexity,” Pope Francis highlights as “necessary and urgent” to “counteract this inevitable acceleration and simplification of our daily lives, learning to take distance from the immediate, slow down, contemplate and listen. This is possible when a person stops to read a book for the pleasure of doing so.”
9. With literature “the empathetic power of imagination is activated in us, which is a fundamental vehicle for that ability to identify with the point of view, condition and feelings of others, without which there is no solidarity or It is shared, there is no compassion or mercy.”
10. “As we identify traces of our inner world in the midst of these stories, we become more sensitive to the experiences of others, we leave ourselves to enter the depths of their interior, we can understand their struggles a little more. and desires, we see reality with their eyes and finally we become their companions on the road. In this way, we immerse ourselves in the concrete and interior existence of the greengrocer, the prostitute, the child who grows up without parents, the bricklayer’s wife, the little old lady who still believes she will find her Prince Charming. And we can do this with empathy and, sometimes, with tolerance and understanding.”
11. “By opening the reader to a broad vision of the richness and misery of human experience, literature educates the reader to the slowness of understanding, the humility of non-simplification and the meekness of not trying to control reality.” and the human condition through judgment.”
12. “The gaze of literature trains the reader in decentralization, in the sense of limit, in the renunciation of cognitive and critical dominance, in experience, teaching him a poverty that is a source of extraordinary wealth.”
13. Literature can help educate “the heart and mind of the pastor or future pastor in the direction of a free and humble exercise of one’s own rationality, of a fruitful recognition of the pluralism of human languages, of an extension of own human sensitivity and, in conclusion, a great spiritual openness to listen to the Voice through so many voices.”
14. “Literature helps the reader to destroy the idols of self-referential, falsely self-sufficient, statically conventional languages, which sometimes run the risk of also contaminating ecclesial discourse, imprisoning the freedom of the Word.”
David Ramos
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working at ACI Prensa, I have been based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.