Posted on 12/01/2024 5:01:37 PM PST by ebb tide
The Holy Father’s Letter of November 21, 2024, on the renewal of Church history studies offers interesting insights but also raises serious concerns. Pope Francis presents methodological and purpose-driven questions that merit attention, yet his conclusions risk paving the way for dangerous misinterpretations regarding the Church’s mission in history.
The call to study primary sources such as the Didache, the Letter to Diognetus, or the Acts of the Martyrs is undoubtedly precious and important. Indeed, Catholic seminaries and universities often rely too heavily on manuals and theological summaries, neglecting to immerse students directly in the sources. This fosters a shallow and impoverished understanding of Church history, devoid of its dynamism and spiritual richness. However, there are critical points within Francis’s directives that deserve further analysis and reflection.
The study of ecclesiastical history cannot be reduced to an analysis of the Church’s “spots and wrinkles.”
Among the more controversial statements in the Letter is the reference to a supposed “penitential memory” Catholics should exercise, alongside the risk of an “ecclesiological monophysitism,” a concept attributed to a purportedly great French theologian (whose sources remain unverified—we suspect Henri de Lubac or Jean Daniélou). While acknowledging human weaknesses within the Church is essential, an excessive focus on self-criticism risks overshadowing the divine and triumphant dimension of the Church itself. Pope Francis writes: “According to an oral tradition whose written source I cannot confirm, a great French theologian used to tell his students that the study of history protects us from ‘ecclesiological monophysitism’, that is, from an overly angelic conception of the Church, presenting a Church that is unreal because she lacks spots and wrinkles”.
The study of ecclesiastical history cannot be reduced to an analysis of the Church’s “spots and wrinkles.” On the contrary, it must primarily highlight her salvific role in history, her triumph over heresies, and her mission to guide humanity. It is equally misleading to associate historical study with the denunciation of “dominant ideologies” without explicitly defining what they are. The risk is to allow interpretations to align with the spirit of the times rather than the light of Catholic truth. A Catholic historian cannot and should not be neutral: history is an interpretive, hermeneutical art influenced by a specific worldview. Those who claim to practice “objective” history without any worldview are often trapped in the very ideologies they critique. Neutrality often masks Marxist, “woke,” or psychoanalytic historiography—approaches currently fashionable in academic circles.
True Church history should not be an exercise in repentance and moral condemnation of the institution founded by Jesus Christ. Instead, it must testify to the triumph of divine truth in human history. For instance, we cannot overlook the fact that heresies have been defeated by the Church through God’s will. Removing the apologetic element from history betrays its very nature and purpose. Apologetics is not a distortion but a duty for Catholics, especially when studying Church history. In her history, the Church reveals her nature as the sole authority and source of truth and justice in the world.
Heretics were defeated not only by the Church Militant but also by history itself, which has exposed the sterility and destructiveness of their doctrines.
Catholics have a duty to underscore the Church’s triumph over heresies because these victories are not merely historical events but manifestations of divine providence in history. Heretics were defeated not only by the Church Militant but also by history itself, which has exposed the sterility and destructiveness of their doctrines. Heresy, by opposing revealed truth, introduces disorder into the soul and, consequently, into society, giving rise to divisions, conflicts, and moral decay. Even the contemporary social disorder, which Pope Francis strongly denounces, ultimately stems from the loss of Christ’s social kingship. Where Christ does not reign, ideologies that fragment society multiply, depriving it of its spiritual and moral foundation. Recognizing and proclaiming the Church’s victories is thus an act of fidelity to truth and a beacon of hope for the renewal of the world.
Francis’s assertion that “even in the history of her sufferings, herself also recognizes that she has benefited and is still benefiting from the opposition of her enemies and persecutors,” is only partially correct. While it is true that persecutions bring benefit (the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians), it is not true that those who oppose the Church bring any good. Instead, they only sow confusion and cause pain to God and man, for heretics seek to tear apart the “seamless tunic” that symbolizes the Church’s unity. Heresy must rightly remain the “great outcast” of history.
In so-called Catholic universities and seminaries, the risk of excessive triumphalism or apologetics in Church history has long ceased to exist. On the contrary, we are witnessing a systematic distortion of historical narrative, which tends to downplay the Church’s glories while magnifying her weaknesses—a product of the post-conciliar spirit still prevalent in many academic and formative settings. In this context, it is worrisome that the content of the Holy Father’s Letter may be exploited by those advocating for a “reform”—in reality, a revolution—of the Catholic Church’s structure and even her nature. These false reformers often use the rhetoric of returning to the “Church of the origins” to justify doctrinal and institutional changes that have nothing to do with fidelity to Tradition.
Church history must not become an exercise in institutional masochism but a proclamation of the Bride of Christ’s salvific role in history.
However, it must be remembered that an organism is not mature at birth but grows and develops over time. The Church of the sub-apostolic age, while identical in essence to the Church today, represented only an initial stage of her journey. Her maturity was consolidated over centuries through the authentic defense and development of the same immutable and salvific divine truth. A sole focus on origins ignores God’s plan for the Church’s growth and perfection in history.
Furthermore, the Pope’s criticism of the “ancillarity” of Church history to theology is debatable. Church history must be read in light of her divine mission and cannot be separated from theology. While Church history can contribute to ecclesiology, it must remain faithful to the deposit of faith, avoiding a purely sociological vision.
In conclusion, Pope Francis’s Letter provides valid points but suffers from an approach that seems more attuned to contemporary intellectual trends (as usual) than resistant to them. Church history must not become an exercise in institutional masochism but a proclamation of the Bride of Christ’s salvific role in history. If this goal is lost, the risk is to fall into a relativistic and self-referential vision that betrays the Church’s mission.
Ping
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