How often I have witnessed this strategy employed in conferences and meetings at which I have been forced to listen endlessly to some self-espoused expert spouting gibberish under the guise of sharing the wisdom of the ages.
The plain fact is that, most of the time, what should be a simple communication of facts and conclusions is obfuscated in a mountain of verbiage (either oral or written) that no one understands.
I have further discovered that there is a direct proportion between the amount of pretentious vocabulary and the vagueness or meaninglessness of what is being said. The longer the talk, the more pages of presentation, the more nonsense it contains.
On an opposite wall in my office is an equally unpretentious plague which reads: “Be brief. Be concise. Be seated.” In other words, make your point simply and clearly and then be quiet so your listener or audience can reflect upon what you have said.
I say this as a preamble to the following personal thoughts after extensive reading and study of the recent post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love).
Dated 19 March 2016, it was released on 8 April 2016. It follows the two Synods on the Family held in 2014 and 2015.
The text of Amoris Laetitia (AL) runs about 250 pages with nearly 400 footnotes. Its Introduction and 9 Chapters comprise 325 numbered paragraphs. Quotations are drawn from the writings of earlier Popes, documents of the Second Vatican Council and regional episcopal conferences, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
It includes what is thought to be the first reference to a film in a Papal document, namely Babette's Feast. There are also references to works by Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, Antonin Sertillanges, Gabriel Marcel, and Mario Benedetti.
On this evidence alone, it is probably safe to presume that the document contains a lot of gibberish. A careful reading of its contents proves that this is indeed the case.
This is not to say that AL is not without merit or significance. I only wish Pope Francis and the Synod Fathers could have reduced the teaching into several easily understood paragraphs which would have captivated the imagination of Catholics about the beauty and wonder of marital love as well as the joys and challenges of family life.
The average Catholic in the pew will never read AL precisely because it is too long and too complicated. And so, the very object of the Synod, that is, to offer an inspiring message about regarding marriage and the family is thwarted by the document the Synod produced. What a shame!
I would have preferred that those who wished for the Church to say something inspiring about marriage and family would have done just that, simply and clearly.
Instead, tucked between the pages and footnotes of esoteric theological blathering and psychological jargon, one finds some vague footnote or two purporting to provide a pastoral solution for the readmission of sexually active divorced and remarried Catholics to the Sacraments.
And so, a few footnotes have become the major story surrounding the Exhortation. A few footnotes which have set off a firestorm of controversy and criticism. What a pity!
Nor are the reams of raucous negative reactions to AL without their share of confusing and contentious language. Late last year, in a shocking display of insubordination toward Papal authority, a handful of Cardinals published a scathing attack against AL in the form of five narrowly constructed questions or dubia.
Prepared by four Cardinals who make the Pharisees’ questioning of Jesus look meek and tame, the dubia are little else than a trap laid by ultra-conservative factions within the Curia to embarrass and ensnare Francis in a panoply of contradictions and errors.
And, of course, the usual voices of self-proclaimed defenders of the Faith likewise have found it advantageous and opportune to come forward, joined in a lockstep effort to protect the Church from the pitfalls and errors being perpetrated against it by a Modernist Pope and his cronies.
Cleverly, the Pope has decided to imitate the example of Christ when challenged by the Scribes and Pharisees of His time: Francis has simply ignored them.
Unfortunately, however, the Church finds itself immersed in a mess of moral chaos and pastoral confusion.
It certainly seems that clarity and simplicity of teaching was not the foremost motive or virtue to have inspired the work of the Synod.
But what can we expect when those entrusted with the sacred teaching authority of the Church in matters of Faith and Morals resort to the likes of Marcel and Benedetti, or search for wisdom within the cinematic frames of Babette’s Feast? Has this gibberish replaced the consistent truth contained and derived from the Church's Deposit of Faith: the Scriptures and constant teaching of the Magisterium on matters of Faith and Morals?
Likewise, those who have attacked the document and publicly challenged the dignity of Papal teaching authority are not without their share of fault as well.
They would have us believe that the Gospel of Christ is reducible to a list of moral and canonical absolutes with vile consequences if violated. They place burden upon burden on the shoulders of God's People without lifting a finger to help them....something Biblical about that for sure!
Is there anything redeemable about AL or even in the questions raised about the document?
More about this in Part Two tomorrow.
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