To understand the social and political thought of Pope Francis, one must appreciate him as a Jesuit, an Argentine, and a pragmatist. These aspects of his life explain how, and why, and where, he believes that religion and politics intersect.
Francis's Ignatian background guides his approach to understanding the relationship between the civil and the sacred. It is a methodology based on his Jesuit spiritual formation, that is, intense introspection, leading to “discernment.” It impels those training for the priesthood to pursue a continual, personal, spiritual journey to align themselves and their decisions with God's will. Thus, one way Francis pursues politics is from the perspective of discernment; specifically he recognizes the importance of the financially and theologically “poor,” the need to incorporate their history and culture into the civic sphere, and their need to serve the Church by carrying out missionary evangelization.
Francis was a priest during the political and religious movement advanced by Catholic theologians known as liberation theology during the 1970s and 1980s. He was not a supporter of liberation theologians’ Marxist analysis of poverty or its catechesis of Jesus, but he agreed with their calls for economic and political preferences for the poor. In fact, he believed that this priority should be the center of the Church's concerns.
In 1973, he became the Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina. Politically, the period of the “Dirty War” began at the same time. He tried to maneuver his priests through the political mine field of autocratic regimes, and later he attempted to reconcile the former actions of those governments with the more democratic ones that followed.
Francis rose to become the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and eventually he was elected as head of the Latin American Bishops Conference (CELAM). His activism in these positions helped to make the concerns of the Southern Hemisphere known to a Eurocentric Vatican. They were the training grounds where Francis also learned to practice diplomatic and pragmatic ways to ensure the freedom of the Church in response to antagonistic regimes. This was also where he began to agitate positively for preferential options for the poor. He was elevated to the rank of Cardinal by Pope John Paul in 2001 and elected Pope in 2013.
Francis was nothing like his predecessors. Considered more progressive, Francis brought a significant theological transformation, doctrinal approach, and policy changes to the Vatican. Rourke does an exceptional job explaining these many shifts, particularly by clarifying the nuances of Francis's thought. He delves into the Pope's mind-set by exploring the philosophical background that impacted Francis's understanding of, and approach to, the crucial inter-play between religious and social topics that affect civic engagement. By defining the complex, historical, philosophical, and theological notions of “inculturation,” the “theology of the people,” and “transcendence,” to current politics, economics, and the environment, Rourke makes it possible to get an insight into the Pope's new emphasis on a Vatican agenda committed to social, cultural, and political advancement.
It is the elucidation of these themes that makes Rourke's book most important and helpful to those involved in the field of religion and politics. For example, through his well-written research and clear presentation, Rourke shows how the European ideological and religious colonization of Latin American can become “inculturated” into politics. He shows how Francis uses history and culture to inform current Church evangelization and, in turn, transform the entire life of people, change oppressive structures, and bring about justice for the poor.
Using his extensive knowledge of the magisterium and the influence of Vatican II, Rourke also spends significant time explaining how Francis has built positively on the notion of “the people of God,” as promulgated at the general council. Rourke masterfully shows how Francis has unified the Latin American concept of the “theology of the people” with the magisterium from Vatican II to create an authentic answer to liberation theology. The Pope's ideas, basically promulgated by CELAM in the Aparecida Document, are anti-ideology. They support neither the left nor the right but the principles of Jesus. They recognize the centrality of people in politics and economics, and support the belief in the magisterium and missionary evangelization by all—including the poor.
Further, Rourke ties together Francis's thoughts on politics and religion by using the framework of a pragmatic political anthropology. He is able, again, to explain the complexity of the Pope's understanding and unification of concepts such as the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, and the need to pursue a higher level of politics (transcendence). What he is also able to do is make clear Francis's logical and realistic argument that politics can only approximate the common good due to the forces of liberalism, special interest, technology, and the impersonal.
Finally, Rourke maintains that Francis sees theology and politics from the prism of Vatican II and the activism of the clergy in its aftermath (i.e. liberation theology). While this conclusion gives readers a framework to consider the Pope's mind-set, it can still leave them wondering what it all means in the real world of global politics. How can these ideas impact globalization, the economy, or the environment, as well as church–state relations or the crisis of clerical sexual abuse? Rourke has articulated Francis's thinking in depth, creating a profound synthesis of his social and political thought. However, an investigation of how these ideas become Vatican public policy could have added a significant and needed layer of political analysis to this study.
Notwithstanding this criticism, however, Rourke's book is a critical resource for anyone doing research on Pope Francis or interested in learning more about this modern Pope. Rourke, nonetheless, might consider writing a follow-up about Francis's social and political impact from his special vantage point, particularly as the Pope's papacy progresses. The academic world can only be enriched by another volume from this author.
