Reformation After the Abuse Crisis (Part 2)
Interview With Authors Gregory Erlandson and Matthew Bunson
By Karna Swanson
HUNGTINGTON, Indiana, JULY 7, 2010 (Zenit.org).- As the Church continues to address the sexual abuse crisis, Catholics must be confident that there is a way forward for the Church, and that Benedict XVI is the one to lead it, say the authors of a book on the Pope's response to the current wave of sex abuse cases.
Matthew Bunson and Gregory Erlandson are co-authors of the recently published book "Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal" (Our Sunday Visitor, 2010). Erlandson is the president and publisher of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, and Bunson is the editor of The Catholic Almanac and The Catholic Answer magazine (both published by Our Sunday Visitor), as well as a media consultant on Catholic issues.
In part 2 of their interview with ZENIT, the authors reflect on the consequences of the sexual abuse crisis, and what Benedict XVI has done to lead the Church forward.
Part 1 of this interview appeared Wednesday.
ZENIT: In the book you mention that the Church gets all the blame for not responding to the sexual abuse crisis earlier, but that in many instances civil authorities were also slow to respond. Has there been a change in the last 20-30 years in how law enforcement looks on these types of crimes?
Bunson and Erlandson: While there were laws about sexual abuse, there was a tendency in past decades for civil authorities to have the same lack of full understanding of the sexual abuse of minors as everyone else. They lacked both a proper awareness of the deviance and a comprehension of its impact on the children who were abused. As we discuss in the book, many bishops relied on mental health experts to provide guidance in how to deal with abusive priests and accepted the recommendations that a priest in therapy could be given a new assignment. We know now that was a catastrophic mistake.
Similarly, there was reluctance at times on the part of civil authorities to press charges over what they saw as a problem similar to alcoholism or drug abuse. Some civil authorities, in places like Ireland and the United States, did not prosecute sexual abuse of minors out of an excessive deference to priests or a desire to avoid scandal for a religious institution. Pope Benedict XVI pointed to this in his Letter to the Catholic of Ireland.
ZENIT: The Church has been around for more than 2,000 years, and has shown its resiliency by surviving the many crises that have threatened it. Having said that, what have been the consequences for the Church of the sexual abuse crisis? Even more importantly, what have been the consequences for the faith of individual believers, be they victims, the abusers themselves, or the faithful in the pews?
Bunson and Erlandson: The Church has suffered a grievous wound in this sexual abuse crisis. Not only is it a humiliation and a blow to its reputation, but it has had to recognize that those who bore the greatest responsibility for the souls of others -- priests, deacons, bishops, Church employees -- had failed terribly. The victims of abuse have had their lives shattered and their faith terribly shaken, even destroyed. Worse still, crimes like sexual abuse have a ripple effect, traumatizing and alienating families and friends, and undermining the Church’s witness in the larger society.
The vast majority of priests are dedicated and faithful to their vows, yet they too have seen their reputations maligned and felt the distrust of strangers. In those parishes where children were abused by clergy, there is often distrust and woundedness on the part of the people even when the cases are addressed forthrightly. The priests’ relationship with their bishops has also been damaged. It is not unusual for priests to feel that while they are only one allegation away from having their reputations destroyed, their bishops are not as accountable and their bishops have made them scapegoats for larger institutional problems. Many, including the late Avery Cardinal Dulles, have warned of the rift that can occur between priests and their bishops as a result of this scandal.
The bishops -- most of whom inherited cases of abuse from decades ago and lawsuits that deal with those terrible events -- have seen a loss of their reputation and moral authority at a time when their voices are most needed in the complex issues of modern times.
For the faithful in the pews who get most of their news from the secular media, the reports have continued to erode faith in the institution of the Church and its leaders. This corrosion of trust has long-term implications that go beyond those who stop attending Mass. Those Catholics who were already alienated from the faith may use the occasion of scandals to formally break with the Church, but even those who stay do not understand the full context or see all that the Church is doing to correct past errors and prevent future ones. It is particularly for these people that we wrote our book, our fellow Catholics who may be getting only half the story.
Benedict XVI has also tied very closely the reform of the Church in the area of sexual abuse to a wider program of spiritual renewal. The crisis has thus provided the Church with the opportunity to bring needed reforms institutionally and a process of spiritual renewal. As you allude, both of these are well in keeping with the wider history of the Church's aspirations to be in a constant state of reform and renewal, as Pope Gregory I the Great memorably declared.
ZENIT: You talk about how Benedict XVI has been a leader in this crisis, and that his pontificate will be defined by how he is responding to sexual abuse in the Church. What do you see as the main elements of his response?
Bunson and Erlandson: The heart of our book is documenting the authentic record of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI in dealing with the sexual abuse crisis, from his time as archbishop of Munich-Freising, to his tenure as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to his leadership since his election as Pope in 2005.
As we have discussed, the Pope has been engaged with this issue for years. As head of the CDF, he assumed control over all of the world’s cases in 2001 after the decree was issued by Pope John Paul II centralizing the oversight of cases on the Vatican side. In that position, he became arguably the most well-informed leader in the entire Church about the extent and severity of the problem. He was a supporter of the norms and program of reform in the United States. He has accepted the resignations of bishop all over the world for their failures to provide leadership in handling cases. He has spoken extensively about the problem in his travels, such as his clear words to the United States in 2008 and his letter to the Catholics of Ireland. He has met with the victims of abuse, in the United States, in Australia, in Malta and at the Vatican; he has said that he is eager to meet with victims from Ireland. It is clear also that he plans to continue speaking about this issue, and he is expected to implement universal norms for the Church in this important area.
As we have stressed, the Pope has united these crucial institutional reforms with a wider program of spiritual renewal. As he taught a few weeks ago [during his apostolic trip to Cyprus], the Church can survive persecutions from external forces, but the greatest threat to the Church is from within, from the sins and the failings of her members. Without question, the sexual abuse crisis represents a catastrophe for the whole Catholic world, but following the lead from Pope Benedict, Catholics must not fear the truth, and we can know that a way forward is before us. The Holy Father is our leader in that long and difficult journey.
HUNGTINGTON, Indiana, JULY 7, 2010 (Zenit.org).- As the Church continues to address the sexual abuse crisis, Catholics must be confident that there is a way forward for the Church, and that Benedict XVI is the one to lead it, say the authors of a book on the Pope's response to the current wave of sex abuse cases.
Matthew Bunson and Gregory Erlandson are co-authors of the recently published book "Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal" (Our Sunday Visitor, 2010). Erlandson is the president and publisher of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, and Bunson is the editor of The Catholic Almanac and The Catholic Answer magazine (both published by Our Sunday Visitor), as well as a media consultant on Catholic issues.
In part 2 of their interview with ZENIT, the authors reflect on the consequences of the sexual abuse crisis, and what Benedict XVI has done to lead the Church forward.
Part 1 of this interview appeared Wednesday.
ZENIT: In the book you mention that the Church gets all the blame for not responding to the sexual abuse crisis earlier, but that in many instances civil authorities were also slow to respond. Has there been a change in the last 20-30 years in how law enforcement looks on these types of crimes?
Bunson and Erlandson: While there were laws about sexual abuse, there was a tendency in past decades for civil authorities to have the same lack of full understanding of the sexual abuse of minors as everyone else. They lacked both a proper awareness of the deviance and a comprehension of its impact on the children who were abused. As we discuss in the book, many bishops relied on mental health experts to provide guidance in how to deal with abusive priests and accepted the recommendations that a priest in therapy could be given a new assignment. We know now that was a catastrophic mistake.
Similarly, there was reluctance at times on the part of civil authorities to press charges over what they saw as a problem similar to alcoholism or drug abuse. Some civil authorities, in places like Ireland and the United States, did not prosecute sexual abuse of minors out of an excessive deference to priests or a desire to avoid scandal for a religious institution. Pope Benedict XVI pointed to this in his Letter to the Catholic of Ireland.
ZENIT: The Church has been around for more than 2,000 years, and has shown its resiliency by surviving the many crises that have threatened it. Having said that, what have been the consequences for the Church of the sexual abuse crisis? Even more importantly, what have been the consequences for the faith of individual believers, be they victims, the abusers themselves, or the faithful in the pews?
Bunson and Erlandson: The Church has suffered a grievous wound in this sexual abuse crisis. Not only is it a humiliation and a blow to its reputation, but it has had to recognize that those who bore the greatest responsibility for the souls of others -- priests, deacons, bishops, Church employees -- had failed terribly. The victims of abuse have had their lives shattered and their faith terribly shaken, even destroyed. Worse still, crimes like sexual abuse have a ripple effect, traumatizing and alienating families and friends, and undermining the Church’s witness in the larger society.
The vast majority of priests are dedicated and faithful to their vows, yet they too have seen their reputations maligned and felt the distrust of strangers. In those parishes where children were abused by clergy, there is often distrust and woundedness on the part of the people even when the cases are addressed forthrightly. The priests’ relationship with their bishops has also been damaged. It is not unusual for priests to feel that while they are only one allegation away from having their reputations destroyed, their bishops are not as accountable and their bishops have made them scapegoats for larger institutional problems. Many, including the late Avery Cardinal Dulles, have warned of the rift that can occur between priests and their bishops as a result of this scandal.
The bishops -- most of whom inherited cases of abuse from decades ago and lawsuits that deal with those terrible events -- have seen a loss of their reputation and moral authority at a time when their voices are most needed in the complex issues of modern times.
For the faithful in the pews who get most of their news from the secular media, the reports have continued to erode faith in the institution of the Church and its leaders. This corrosion of trust has long-term implications that go beyond those who stop attending Mass. Those Catholics who were already alienated from the faith may use the occasion of scandals to formally break with the Church, but even those who stay do not understand the full context or see all that the Church is doing to correct past errors and prevent future ones. It is particularly for these people that we wrote our book, our fellow Catholics who may be getting only half the story.
Benedict XVI has also tied very closely the reform of the Church in the area of sexual abuse to a wider program of spiritual renewal. The crisis has thus provided the Church with the opportunity to bring needed reforms institutionally and a process of spiritual renewal. As you allude, both of these are well in keeping with the wider history of the Church's aspirations to be in a constant state of reform and renewal, as Pope Gregory I the Great memorably declared.
ZENIT: You talk about how Benedict XVI has been a leader in this crisis, and that his pontificate will be defined by how he is responding to sexual abuse in the Church. What do you see as the main elements of his response?
Bunson and Erlandson: The heart of our book is documenting the authentic record of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI in dealing with the sexual abuse crisis, from his time as archbishop of Munich-Freising, to his tenure as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to his leadership since his election as Pope in 2005.
As we have discussed, the Pope has been engaged with this issue for years. As head of the CDF, he assumed control over all of the world’s cases in 2001 after the decree was issued by Pope John Paul II centralizing the oversight of cases on the Vatican side. In that position, he became arguably the most well-informed leader in the entire Church about the extent and severity of the problem. He was a supporter of the norms and program of reform in the United States. He has accepted the resignations of bishop all over the world for their failures to provide leadership in handling cases. He has spoken extensively about the problem in his travels, such as his clear words to the United States in 2008 and his letter to the Catholics of Ireland. He has met with the victims of abuse, in the United States, in Australia, in Malta and at the Vatican; he has said that he is eager to meet with victims from Ireland. It is clear also that he plans to continue speaking about this issue, and he is expected to implement universal norms for the Church in this important area.
As we have stressed, the Pope has united these crucial institutional reforms with a wider program of spiritual renewal. As he taught a few weeks ago [during his apostolic trip to Cyprus], the Church can survive persecutions from external forces, but the greatest threat to the Church is from within, from the sins and the failings of her members. Without question, the sexual abuse crisis represents a catastrophe for the whole Catholic world, but following the lead from Pope Benedict, Catholics must not fear the truth, and we can know that a way forward is before us. The Holy Father is our leader in that long and difficult journey.
On Duns Scotus
"Defender of the Immaculate Conception"
VATICAN CITY, JULY 7, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters,
This morning -- after a few catecheses on several great theologians -- I wish to present to you another important figure in the history of theology: John Duns Scotus, who lived at the end of the 13th century. An ancient inscription on his tomb summarizes the geographical coordinates of his biography: "England received him; France instructed him; Cologne, in Germany, keeps his remains, he was born in Scotland." We cannot overlook this information, because we have very little information on the life of Duns Scotus.
He was born probably in 1266 in a village, which in fact is called Duns, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Attracted by the charism of St. Francis of Assisi, he entered the Family of the Friars Minor and was ordained a priest in 1291. Gifted with a brilliant intelligence geared to speculation -- an intelligence that merited him by tradition the title of doctor subtilis, "subtle doctor" -- Duns Scotus was directed to the study of philosophy and theology at the famous Universities of Oxford and Paris. Having concluded his formation successfully, he undertook the teaching of theology at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and then Paris, beginning his commentary, as all teachers of the time, on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. The main works of Duns Scotus represent, in fact, the mature fruit of these lessons, and take the title of the places in which he taught: Opus Oxoniense (Oxford), Reportatio Cambrigensis (Cambridge), Reportata Parisiensia (Paris).
Duns Scotus left Paris when a serious conflict broke out between King Philip IV the Fair and Pope Boniface VIII, preferring voluntary exile rather than signing a document hostile to the Supreme Pontiff, as the king had imposed on all religious. Thus -- out of love for the See of Peter -- he left the country together with his Franciscan Brothers.
Dear brothers and sisters, this fact invites us to recall how many times in the history of the Church believers have met with hostility and even with persecutions because of their fidelity and their devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Pope. We all look with admiration to these Christians, who teach us to guard faith in Christ and communion with the Successor of Peter, and thus with the universal Church, as a precious good.
However, relations between the king of France and Boniface VIII's successor soon became friendly again and in 1305 Duns Scotus was able to return to Paris to teach theology with the title of magister regens, today we would say ordinary professor. Subsequently, his superiors sent him to Cologne as professor of the Franciscan Theological Studium, but he died on Nov. 8, 1308, when only 43 years of age, leaving, however, an important number of works.
Because of his fame for holiness, devotion to him soon spread in the Franciscan Order and Venerable Pope John Paul II wished to confirm him solemnly blessed on March 20, 1993, describing him as "singer of the Incarnate Word and defender of the Immaculate Conception." Synthesized in this expression is the great contribution Duns Scotus made to the history of theology.
First of all, he meditated on the mystery of the incarnation and, as opposed to many Christian thinkers of the time, he maintained that the Son of God would have become man even if humanity had not sinned. In the Reportata Parisiensia he affirms: "To think that God would have given up such work if Adam had not sinned would be altogether irrational! I say, therefore, that the fall was not the cause of the predestination of Christ, and that -- even if no one had fallen, not angels or man -- in this hypothesis Christ would still have been predestined in the same way" (in III Sent., d. 7, 4).
This, perhaps, rather surprising thought is born because for Duns Scotus the incarnation of the Son of God, projected from all eternity by God the Father in his plan of love, is the fulfillment of creation, and makes it possible for every creature, in Christ and through him, to be filled with grace and give praise and glory to God in eternity. Duns Scotus, though aware that, in reality, because of original sin, Christ has redeemed us with his passion, death and resurrection, confirms that the incarnation is the greatest and most beautiful work of the whole history of salvation, and that it is not conditioned by any contingent fact, but is the original idea of God to finally unite the whole of creation with himself in the person and flesh of the Son.
Duns Scotus, faithful disciple of St. Francis, loved to contemplate and preach the mystery of the salvific passion of Christ, expression of the immense love of God, who communicates with enormous generosity outside of himself the rays of his goodness and his love (cf. Tractatus de primo principio, c. 4). And this love is not only revealed on Calvary, but also in the Most Blessed Eucharist, to which Duns Scotus was most devoted and which he saw as the sacrament of the real presence of Jesus and as the sacrament of the unity and community that induces us to love one another and to love God as the supreme common good (cf. Reportata Parisiensia, in IV Sent., d. 8, q. 1, n. 3).
Dear brothers and sisters, this theological vision, intensely "Christocentric," opens us to contemplation, to wonder and to gratitude: Christ is the center of history and of the cosmos; he it is who gives meaning, dignity and value to our life! Like Pope Paul VI in Manila, I also would like to cry out to the world today: "[Christ] reveals the invisible God, he is the firstborn of all creation, the foundation of everything created. He is the Teacher of mankind, and its Redeemer. He was born, he died and he rose again for us. He is the centre of history and of the world; he is the one who knows us and who loves us; he is the companion and the friend of our life. ... I could never finish speaking about him" (Homily, Nov. 29, 1970).
Not only the role of Christ in the history of salvation, but also Mary's [role] is the object of the reflection of the doctor subtilis. In Duns Scotus' times, the majority of theologians offered an objection that seemed insurmountable to the doctrine that Most Holy Mary was free from original sin from the first instant of her conception. In fact, the universality of the redemption wrought by Christ, at first glance, might seem compromised by such an affirmation, as if Mary had no need of Christ and of his redemption. Because of this theologians were opposed to this thesis.
To make this preservation from original sin understood, Duns Scotus then developed an argument which later would also be adopted by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854, when he defined solemnly the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. And this argument is that of the "preventive redemption," according to which the Immaculate Conception represents the masterpiece of the redemption wrought by Christ, because in fact the power of his love and of his mediation obtained that the Mother be preserved from original sin. Hence Mary is totally redeemed by Christ, but already before her conception. The Franciscans, his brethren, accepted and spread this doctrine enthusiastically, as did other theologians who -- often with a solemn oath -- committed themselves to defend and perfect it.
In this regard, I would like to highlight something, which it seems to me is important. Valuable theologians, such as Duns Scotus with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, enriched with their specific thought what the People of God already believed spontaneously about the Blessed Virgin, manifested in acts of piety, in the expressions of art and, in general, in Christian living. Thus faith in the Immaculate Conception or in the bodily assumption of the Virgin was already present in the People of God, while theology had not yet found the key to interpret it in the totality of the doctrine of the faith. Thus the People of God precede theologians and all this thanks to that supernatural sensus fidei, namely, that capacity infused by the Holy Spirit, which qualifies us to embrace the reality of the faith, with humility of heart and mind.
In this sense, the People of God is "magisterium that precedes," and that later must be deepened and intellectually accepted by theology. May theologians always be able to listen to this source of faith and have the humility and simplicity of little ones! I made this reminder a few months ago saying: "There have been great scholars, great experts, great theologians, teachers of faith who have taught us many things. They have gone into the details of Sacred Scripture, ... but have been unable to see the mystery itself, its central nucleus. ... The essential has remained hidden! On the other hand, in our time there have also been 'little ones' who have understood this mystery. Let us think of St. Bernadette Soubirous; of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, with her new interpretation of the Bible that is 'non-scientific' but goes to the heart of Sacred Scripture" (Homily. Holy Mass with the Members of the International Theological Commission, Dec. 1, 2009).
Finally, Duns Scotus developed a point to which modernity is very sensitive. It is the topic of liberty and its relation with the will and with the intellect. Our author stresses liberty as a fundamental quality of the will, initiating an approach of a voluntaristic tendency, which developed in contrast with the so-called Augustinian and Thomistic intellectualism. For St. Thomas Aquinas, who follows St. Augustine, liberty cannot be considered an innate quality of the will, but the fruit of the collaboration of the will and of the intellect.
An idea of innate and absolute liberty placed in the will and preceding the intellect, whether in God or in man, risks, in fact, leading to the idea of a God who would not even be linked to the truth and to the good. The desire to save the absolute transcendence and diversity of God with an affirmation about his will that is so radical and impenetrable fails to take into account that the God who revealed himself in Christ is the God "logos," who acted and acts full of love toward us.
Certainly, as Duns Scotus affirms, in line with Franciscan theology, love surpasses knowledge and is increasingly capable of perceiving thought, but it is always the love of the God "Logos" (cf. Benedict XVI, Address at Regensburg, Teachings of Benedict XVI, II [2006], p. 261). Also in man the idea of absolute liberty, placed in the will, forgetting the nexus with truth, ignores that liberty itself must be freed of the limits imposed on it by sin.
Speaking to Roman seminarians last year, I reminded that "[s]ince the beginning and throughout all time but especially in the modern age freedom has been the great dream of humanity" (Address to the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary, Feb. 20, 2009). However, modern history itself, in addition to our daily experience, teaches us that liberty is authentic, and helps the construction of a truly human civilization only when it is reconciled with truth. If it is detached from truth, liberty becomes, tragically, a principle of destruction of the interior harmony of the human person, source of malversation of the strongest and the violent, and cause of suffering and mourning. Liberty, as all the faculties with which man is gifted, grows and is perfected, affirms Duns Scotus, when man opens himself to God, valuing that disposition of listening to his voice, which he calls potentia oboedientialis: When we listen to divine Revelation, to the Word of God, to accept it, then we have been reached by a message that fills our life with light and hope and we are truly free.
Dear brothers and sisters, Blessed Duns Scotus teaches us that what is essential in our life is to believe that God is close to us and that he loves us in Christ Jesus, and therefore to cultivate a profound love of him and of his Church. We are witnesses of this love on earth. May Mary Most Holy help us to receive this infinite love of God that we will enjoy fully for eternity in heaven, when our soul will finally be united for ever to God, in the communion of saints.
[Translation by ZENIT]
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters,
This morning -- after a few catecheses on several great theologians -- I wish to present to you another important figure in the history of theology: John Duns Scotus, who lived at the end of the 13th century. An ancient inscription on his tomb summarizes the geographical coordinates of his biography: "England received him; France instructed him; Cologne, in Germany, keeps his remains, he was born in Scotland." We cannot overlook this information, because we have very little information on the life of Duns Scotus.
He was born probably in 1266 in a village, which in fact is called Duns, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Attracted by the charism of St. Francis of Assisi, he entered the Family of the Friars Minor and was ordained a priest in 1291. Gifted with a brilliant intelligence geared to speculation -- an intelligence that merited him by tradition the title of doctor subtilis, "subtle doctor" -- Duns Scotus was directed to the study of philosophy and theology at the famous Universities of Oxford and Paris. Having concluded his formation successfully, he undertook the teaching of theology at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and then Paris, beginning his commentary, as all teachers of the time, on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. The main works of Duns Scotus represent, in fact, the mature fruit of these lessons, and take the title of the places in which he taught: Opus Oxoniense (Oxford), Reportatio Cambrigensis (Cambridge), Reportata Parisiensia (Paris).
Duns Scotus left Paris when a serious conflict broke out between King Philip IV the Fair and Pope Boniface VIII, preferring voluntary exile rather than signing a document hostile to the Supreme Pontiff, as the king had imposed on all religious. Thus -- out of love for the See of Peter -- he left the country together with his Franciscan Brothers.
Dear brothers and sisters, this fact invites us to recall how many times in the history of the Church believers have met with hostility and even with persecutions because of their fidelity and their devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Pope. We all look with admiration to these Christians, who teach us to guard faith in Christ and communion with the Successor of Peter, and thus with the universal Church, as a precious good.
However, relations between the king of France and Boniface VIII's successor soon became friendly again and in 1305 Duns Scotus was able to return to Paris to teach theology with the title of magister regens, today we would say ordinary professor. Subsequently, his superiors sent him to Cologne as professor of the Franciscan Theological Studium, but he died on Nov. 8, 1308, when only 43 years of age, leaving, however, an important number of works.
Because of his fame for holiness, devotion to him soon spread in the Franciscan Order and Venerable Pope John Paul II wished to confirm him solemnly blessed on March 20, 1993, describing him as "singer of the Incarnate Word and defender of the Immaculate Conception." Synthesized in this expression is the great contribution Duns Scotus made to the history of theology.
First of all, he meditated on the mystery of the incarnation and, as opposed to many Christian thinkers of the time, he maintained that the Son of God would have become man even if humanity had not sinned. In the Reportata Parisiensia he affirms: "To think that God would have given up such work if Adam had not sinned would be altogether irrational! I say, therefore, that the fall was not the cause of the predestination of Christ, and that -- even if no one had fallen, not angels or man -- in this hypothesis Christ would still have been predestined in the same way" (in III Sent., d. 7, 4).
This, perhaps, rather surprising thought is born because for Duns Scotus the incarnation of the Son of God, projected from all eternity by God the Father in his plan of love, is the fulfillment of creation, and makes it possible for every creature, in Christ and through him, to be filled with grace and give praise and glory to God in eternity. Duns Scotus, though aware that, in reality, because of original sin, Christ has redeemed us with his passion, death and resurrection, confirms that the incarnation is the greatest and most beautiful work of the whole history of salvation, and that it is not conditioned by any contingent fact, but is the original idea of God to finally unite the whole of creation with himself in the person and flesh of the Son.
Duns Scotus, faithful disciple of St. Francis, loved to contemplate and preach the mystery of the salvific passion of Christ, expression of the immense love of God, who communicates with enormous generosity outside of himself the rays of his goodness and his love (cf. Tractatus de primo principio, c. 4). And this love is not only revealed on Calvary, but also in the Most Blessed Eucharist, to which Duns Scotus was most devoted and which he saw as the sacrament of the real presence of Jesus and as the sacrament of the unity and community that induces us to love one another and to love God as the supreme common good (cf. Reportata Parisiensia, in IV Sent., d. 8, q. 1, n. 3).
Dear brothers and sisters, this theological vision, intensely "Christocentric," opens us to contemplation, to wonder and to gratitude: Christ is the center of history and of the cosmos; he it is who gives meaning, dignity and value to our life! Like Pope Paul VI in Manila, I also would like to cry out to the world today: "[Christ] reveals the invisible God, he is the firstborn of all creation, the foundation of everything created. He is the Teacher of mankind, and its Redeemer. He was born, he died and he rose again for us. He is the centre of history and of the world; he is the one who knows us and who loves us; he is the companion and the friend of our life. ... I could never finish speaking about him" (Homily, Nov. 29, 1970).
Not only the role of Christ in the history of salvation, but also Mary's [role] is the object of the reflection of the doctor subtilis. In Duns Scotus' times, the majority of theologians offered an objection that seemed insurmountable to the doctrine that Most Holy Mary was free from original sin from the first instant of her conception. In fact, the universality of the redemption wrought by Christ, at first glance, might seem compromised by such an affirmation, as if Mary had no need of Christ and of his redemption. Because of this theologians were opposed to this thesis.
To make this preservation from original sin understood, Duns Scotus then developed an argument which later would also be adopted by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854, when he defined solemnly the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. And this argument is that of the "preventive redemption," according to which the Immaculate Conception represents the masterpiece of the redemption wrought by Christ, because in fact the power of his love and of his mediation obtained that the Mother be preserved from original sin. Hence Mary is totally redeemed by Christ, but already before her conception. The Franciscans, his brethren, accepted and spread this doctrine enthusiastically, as did other theologians who -- often with a solemn oath -- committed themselves to defend and perfect it.
In this regard, I would like to highlight something, which it seems to me is important. Valuable theologians, such as Duns Scotus with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, enriched with their specific thought what the People of God already believed spontaneously about the Blessed Virgin, manifested in acts of piety, in the expressions of art and, in general, in Christian living. Thus faith in the Immaculate Conception or in the bodily assumption of the Virgin was already present in the People of God, while theology had not yet found the key to interpret it in the totality of the doctrine of the faith. Thus the People of God precede theologians and all this thanks to that supernatural sensus fidei, namely, that capacity infused by the Holy Spirit, which qualifies us to embrace the reality of the faith, with humility of heart and mind.
In this sense, the People of God is "magisterium that precedes," and that later must be deepened and intellectually accepted by theology. May theologians always be able to listen to this source of faith and have the humility and simplicity of little ones! I made this reminder a few months ago saying: "There have been great scholars, great experts, great theologians, teachers of faith who have taught us many things. They have gone into the details of Sacred Scripture, ... but have been unable to see the mystery itself, its central nucleus. ... The essential has remained hidden! On the other hand, in our time there have also been 'little ones' who have understood this mystery. Let us think of St. Bernadette Soubirous; of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, with her new interpretation of the Bible that is 'non-scientific' but goes to the heart of Sacred Scripture" (Homily. Holy Mass with the Members of the International Theological Commission, Dec. 1, 2009).
Finally, Duns Scotus developed a point to which modernity is very sensitive. It is the topic of liberty and its relation with the will and with the intellect. Our author stresses liberty as a fundamental quality of the will, initiating an approach of a voluntaristic tendency, which developed in contrast with the so-called Augustinian and Thomistic intellectualism. For St. Thomas Aquinas, who follows St. Augustine, liberty cannot be considered an innate quality of the will, but the fruit of the collaboration of the will and of the intellect.
An idea of innate and absolute liberty placed in the will and preceding the intellect, whether in God or in man, risks, in fact, leading to the idea of a God who would not even be linked to the truth and to the good. The desire to save the absolute transcendence and diversity of God with an affirmation about his will that is so radical and impenetrable fails to take into account that the God who revealed himself in Christ is the God "logos," who acted and acts full of love toward us.
Certainly, as Duns Scotus affirms, in line with Franciscan theology, love surpasses knowledge and is increasingly capable of perceiving thought, but it is always the love of the God "Logos" (cf. Benedict XVI, Address at Regensburg, Teachings of Benedict XVI, II [2006], p. 261). Also in man the idea of absolute liberty, placed in the will, forgetting the nexus with truth, ignores that liberty itself must be freed of the limits imposed on it by sin.
Speaking to Roman seminarians last year, I reminded that "[s]ince the beginning and throughout all time but especially in the modern age freedom has been the great dream of humanity" (Address to the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary, Feb. 20, 2009). However, modern history itself, in addition to our daily experience, teaches us that liberty is authentic, and helps the construction of a truly human civilization only when it is reconciled with truth. If it is detached from truth, liberty becomes, tragically, a principle of destruction of the interior harmony of the human person, source of malversation of the strongest and the violent, and cause of suffering and mourning. Liberty, as all the faculties with which man is gifted, grows and is perfected, affirms Duns Scotus, when man opens himself to God, valuing that disposition of listening to his voice, which he calls potentia oboedientialis: When we listen to divine Revelation, to the Word of God, to accept it, then we have been reached by a message that fills our life with light and hope and we are truly free.
Dear brothers and sisters, Blessed Duns Scotus teaches us that what is essential in our life is to believe that God is close to us and that he loves us in Christ Jesus, and therefore to cultivate a profound love of him and of his Church. We are witnesses of this love on earth. May Mary Most Holy help us to receive this infinite love of God that we will enjoy fully for eternity in heaven, when our soul will finally be united for ever to God, in the communion of saints.
[Translation by ZENIT]
