Credit must be given to the Italian magazine Il Regno – one of the most intelligent voices in reformist Catholicism worldwide – for having been able to unearth, in the scant repertoire of Robert Francis Prevost’s writings and remarks before his election as pope, a speech of great value for understanding his vision. On such a mine-strewn terrain as that of the defense of life.
That speech was not even available as a written text, only as a video recording. It was the Spanish-language address that Prevost, then cardinal prefect of the dicastery for bishops, delivered exactly two years ago, on October 14, 2023, in Chiclayo, Peru, at the Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Catholic University, the day he was awarded a doctorate “honoris causa” (see photo). The magazine Il Regno has now published the full text.
And it should be noted right away that the speech contains statements that Pope Leo reiterated a couple of weeks ago in almost identical words, which immediately raised criticisms from the intransigent wing of Catholic thought.
On September 30 the pope – pressed by journalists, as now happens every Tuesday evening when he returns to Rome from Castel Gandolfo – was asked about the award that Chicago cardinal Blase Cupich was preparing to confer on Democratic senator Dick Durbin, very committed to the interests of immigrants but also actively pro-choice on abortion.
Leo answered that it is important to look not only at “the overall work that a senator has done,” but also at “many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the Church.” He continued :
“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion,’ but says, ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life. […] Someone who says that, ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Well, these are precisely the statements that are found in the speech of then-cardinal Prevost at the University of Chiclayo :
“A Catholic cannot declare himself ‘in favor of life’ just because he has a position against abortion, and affirm at the same time that he is in favor of the death penalty. […] Those who defend the right to life of the most vulnerable must be equally visible in supporting the quality of life of the weakest among us : the elderly, children, the hungry, the homeless, and undocumented migrants.”
But let’s get into the structure of that whole speech, very instructive on Pope Leo’s vision.
*
From the outset, Prevost says he “shares,” regarding “a consistent ethic of life,” the reflections of two cardinal archbishops of Chicago, his hometown : Joseph Bernardin (1928 – 1996) and Blase Cupich.
From Bernardin, who for more than a decade was the beacon of the progressive wing of the United States bishops, Prevost recalls his 1983 speech at Fordham University in New York, which “marked a very important direction in his ministry and presented a new manner” of responding, on the part of the Church, to “questions relating to the value of human life.”
The vision that Bernardin presented in that speech, in Prevost’s judgment, “traces a path for the ecclesial reality that can also be of use to us today” and perhaps “now as never before.”
This vision demands full “consistency” in the ethic of life, the symbol of which is the “seamless garment,” the tunic without stitching, all of one piece, worn by Jesus. This is because “abortion, war, poverty, euthanasia, capital punishment share a common identity : they are all based on the denial of the right to life,” which instead must be protected not only at birth but in all its moments. And to these “we could add other issues, like the effects of artificial intelligence, human trafficking, the rights of migrants.”
“At the same time,” Prevost continued, “Cardinal Bernardin clearly emphasized the specificity of each problem. Any attempt to confuse the issues, without adequately understanding their relative moral importance, departs from Catholic teaching. In other words, the cardinal did not assert that all problems concerning life are morally equivalent. On the contrary, he emphasized the distinctive nature of each challenge or dilemma, each of which requires its own criteria of analysis, emphasizing at the same time the interconnection of all threats to the dignity of human life.”
Bernardin’s lesson did not fade with his passing, Prevost said. And he cited as proof a speech given a few days earlier by the current archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich, again at Fordham University in New York, in which he “developed some of the same ideas” as his predecessor.
Cupich, installed in Chicago by Pope Francis in 2014, is also in the United States a champion of Catholicism styled “liberal.” And it is curious that Prevost, in his speech in Chiclayo, should have made no mention of the other cardinal who governed the archdiocese of Chicago after Bernardin and before Cupich, Francis George (1937 – 2015), who instead was at the forefront of the much more substantial conservative wing, as well as president of the episcopal conference from 2007 to 2010.
In preference to Bernardin’s “seamless garment,” George gave pride of place in his ethics of life to the “non-negotiable principles” of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. But without rigid intransigence, as proven by the “prudential judgment” with which he made no “a priori” exclusion of pro-abortion Catholic politicians from Eucharistic communion.
The fact is that Prevost has never mentioned “non-negotiable principles,” either in his speech in Chiclayo or after his election as pope. This is because, as is now clear, his goal is to guide the Church on a path as concordant as possible, made of mutual listening and understanding that may soften and bring together the opposing intransigences.
In concluding his speech in Chiclayo, Prevost described this path as follows :
“One of the greatest challenges that we face is to identify the best way to teach and promote precisely a way of thinking that seeks to unite the efforts within the Church, politics, and all sectors of society, working in harmony to build a society in which the value of every human life may be respected and protected.”
Here too with words very similar to those he spoke to the journalists last September 30, in Castel Gandolfo :
“They’re very complex issues. I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them. But I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as as Catholics, to say we need to really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward in this Church. Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear.”
But always with “the courage to say at times, ‘no, I cannot!’ when the truth is at stake,” especially “in certain Western societies where Christ and his Church are marginalized, often ignored, and sometimes ridiculed,” and Christian politicians are subjected to “pressure,” “party directives,” and “ideological colonizations.”
A caution, this latter, addressed by Pope Leo last August 28 to Catholic politicians from the diocese of Créteil, France, received in audience.
(Translated by Matthew Sherry : traduttore@hotmail.com)
— — — —
Sandro Magister is past “vaticanista” of the Italian weekly L’Espresso.
The latest articles in English of his blog Settimo Cielo are on this page.
But the full archive of Settimo Cielo in English, from 2017 to today, is accessible.
As is the complete index of the blog www.chiesa, which preceded it.
