Hiding Jesus
Early in his papacy Francis was keen on equipping the Catholic Church to face the modern reality that the Church is no longer the principal producer of culture in the world, nor is it the most influential or the most listened to. In order to stem the rapidly changing tide, the local parishes of the world’s major urban centers were challenged by the Pope to think in terms of a new pastorate. In a 2014 address, and in light of the diminishing influence of the Church on culture, Francis said:
“We therefore need a change in pastoral mentality, but not to “relativistic pastoral care” — no, not this — which, for wanting to be present in the “cultural laboratory”, loses the evangelical horizon, leaving man in his own hands and emancipated from the hand of God. No, not this. This is the relativistic path, the most convenient. This cannot be called pastoral care! Those who do this have no genuine concern for man, but leave him at the mercy of two equally grave dangers: they hide Jesus from him and the truth about man himself. Hiding Jesus and the truth about man are grave dangers!”
In his landmark apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, Francis underscored the same challenge: “New cultures are constantly being born in these vast new expanses where Christians are no longer the customary interpreters or generators of meaning…This challenges us to imagine innovative spaces and possibilities for prayer and communion which are more attractive and meaningful for city dwellers” (EG, 73).
A new, innovative pastorate that creates new spaces and new possibilities for encounter; but not a pastorate that is relativistic in the evangelism and care it offers and provides the Catholic Church, the city and its inhabitants, that as a result “hides Jesus” from the community. Indeed, hiding Jesus and the truth are “grave dangers.” Since the beginning of his papacy Francis has been slowly revealing what he has in mind concerning such innovation and encounter. His most recent revelation is his enthusiastic endorsement of a new ecumenical and interreligious theme park recently inaugurated in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. It is called El Parque del Encuentro (The Park of Encounter).
The park promotes the major world religions as equally valid pathways to an encounter with the divine. It hosts a Catholic church, a Protestant chapel, a Buddhist temple, a Jewish synagogue and an Islamic mosque. They have been arranged around a Pachamama amphitheater and are ordered in such a way as to symbolize fraternal embrace. Pachamama is revered by the people of the Andes, and in Incan mythology is the goddess of fertility. She is also the mother of the sun god Inti and the moon goddess Mama Killa. A key structure of the park is an obelisk with five sides that represent the five churches mentioned above and symbolizes the fraternity between them.
On October 19th the Pope sent a handwritten note to the Argentinian political scientist Federico Wals, who had sought Francis’s advice on the park. Francis responded, saying that “in the midst of so many disagreements, a community has the courage to do something like this supposes courage, bravery and, above all, the desire to walk together." The Pope’s enthusiasm for the Park of Encounter is perfectly consistent with his papal agenda that has been unfolding throughout his papacy and reflected most recently in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers). It is also consistent with Vatican II theology. For example, Fratelli Tutti (which quotes Nostra aetate) states that “The Church esteems the ways in which God works in other religions, and “rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for their manner of life and conduct, their precepts and doctrines which… often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men and women” (n. 277). It also affirms that God’s love is the same for everyone, regardless of whether they profess faith in Christ or are atheist (n. 281). El Parque del Encuentro, then, is in perfect alignment with Francis’s aspirations for the Catholic Church and his ideas for a Church that innovates and encounters.
Before moving forward, it ought to be noted that it is absolutely true that the church of Jesus Christ must be a church that is constantly innovating and constantly encountering. The Gospel and the Word of God are immutable, but the way in which they speak to the heart of man are not, and so the church must understand culture and engage it in a way that makes the Gospel relevant and real. In order to do so it must go outside the walls of the church to encounter those who do not know Christ as Savior on their own turf. So yes, the church must innovate, and it must encounter.
That said, the innovation and encounter that Pope Francis has envisioned for the Catholic Church cannot accomplish the objectives mentioned, and indeed are counterproductive. The Christological implications of Fratelli Tutti and the Pope’s endorsement of El Parque del Encuentro are helpful in demonstrating why this is true. Reflecting on Fratelli Tutti, the Evangelical scholar Leonardo De Chirico makes this point clear:
“Even though Jesus Christ is referred to here and there, his exclusive and ‘offensive’ claims are kept silent. Francis carefully presents Jesus Christ not as the ‘cornerstone’ on which the whole building of life stands or collapses, but as a rock only for those who recognize him. Above Jesus Christ, according to the encyclical, there is a ‘God’ who is the father of all. We are the children of this ‘God’ even without recognizing Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Jesus is thus reduced to the rank of the champion of Christians alone, while the other ‘brothers’ are still children of the same ‘God’ regardless of faith in Jesus Christ” (Same Words, Different Worlds, p. 67).
Back in 2014 Francis warned against innovation in pastoral care that gives birth to relativism. This is a grave danger in that it hides Jesus and truth from man. That is indeed true, but it is difficult to see how what has transpired since 2014 in the Pope’s papacy has not promoted relativism. If we are all brothers and God’s love is the same for everyone regardless of their beliefs, and if all religions are to be valued for the truth they contain, what room is left for the exclusive truth claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12; John 14:6)? If “The Church esteems the ways in which God works in other religions, and ‘rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions (FT n. 277),’” then Christ is not edified and glorified as the unique Savior of the world, but is diminished and relegated to being just one of to the many religious claims of the world. Christ is not the shining light that glorifies the Father (Matthew 5:16), but is hidden in the milieu of world religions, and this is a grave danger indeed!