Excellent NCR article on the institutional context of Prevost's ministry in Peru/
Prevost's Perun: Vatican II Laboratory of Church Renewal
The pastoral framework Prevost immersed himself in Chulucanas was up and running by the time he got there as a young Augustinian in 1985, but its roots can be clearly traced back to the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council and the Latin American bishops' assemblies that followed it.
In 1962, Pope John XXIII called on the church in the United States to send 10% of its clergy on mission to Latin America.
Though that figure was never realized, several religious congregations took that message in stride. The Midwest Province of the Augustinians was one of them; in 1963 the first U.S. Augustinians arrived in Peru and the prelature of Chulucanas was formed the following year.
In 1968, Latin American bishops met in Medellín, Colombia, to discuss implementing Vatican II, which had concluded three years prior. A key outcome of this meeting was the recommendation to promote the formation of ecclesial base communities — small, locally led Christian communities — as the "first and fundamental nucleus" of the church. The meeting said the formation of leaders for these communities, which could be clerics, religious or laypeople, should be a "priority concern for parish priests and bishops."
Nine years after the Medellín meeting, McNabb attended another assembly of Latin American bishops in Puebla, Mexico, which was opened by Pope John Paul II. McNabb recounts in his memoir how the pope referred to the ecclesial base communities that were being developed throughout the continent as "a special source of hope for the church in Latin America."
"To see a priest in jeans, in a polo shirt, with a cap on, that he would walk with and meet with the young people, it was very striking," he said. "He had a spirit of great openness toward young people."
Victor Chiroque, another parishioner, said that Prevost, like the other Augustinians in the prelature, was committed to the pastoral plan implemented by McNabb.
"All of the priests were very involved in the pastoral plan, and he was one of them," Chiroque said. "He was young, so he would go out — not just here in Chulucanas, but to all of the villages to visit, which at that time was not easy."
As pope, Leo said in his biography that McNabb "was in many ways a very prophetic bishop" for instituting a pastoral plan that envisioned a parish as "the experience of the church at the local level and the building of an authentic community where people get to know each other, help each other, and support each other."
"All the things we are hearing today with the talk about synodality, we were already doing in Chulucanas in the 1980s, moving forward, so it was all very natural for me," he said, referring to the term for creating a more listening and participatory church coined by Pope Francis.
This article helps us to understand that Leo like Francis came out of an institutional context after Vatican II which was very different from our institutional context.
ReplyDeleteLeo's religious order was responding to John XXIII call to send priests to Latin America. Organizing subcommunities, "base communities" within the too large parishes was an important element even though under the influence of communism it became too political. There was innovative local clerical leadership. Prevost was very comfortable with dressing down as a priest since that was the progressive style of the time among priests and religious.
Leo like Francis is likely to stick with his ministerial experience in Latin America when making decisions in Rome.
“ Prevost was very comfortable with dressing down as a priest since that was the progressive style of the time among priests and religious.”
DeleteWe traveled with the bishop in the DR to the more easily reachable villages in the mountains. He didn’t have to hike or ride a mule. Jeeps and pickups coukd handle the dirt roads. He owned a pickup. He was pastoral to the nth degree - not a “kiss my ring and call me Your Eminence” . Bishop. I felt that the church would be a lot better off if all bushops and priests were more like him. He exuded care for the people. After arriving in a village the bishop first held a community meeting for the villagers to speak with him about any and all concerns. There was no time limit and a couple of the meetings lasted for hours. The leader of our Maryland parish group was from Chile (a professor of Philosophy at Georgetown). He and his wife translated the conversations for us. When the “business” meeting finished the bishop said mass for the villagers. He wore plain, normal vestments. No silk, no lace, nothing fancier than the vestments the parish priest wore. Then there was a meal. I confess to having a hard time with the chicken stew ( they had sacrificed a couple of valuable chickens for the bishop's visit) looking at the chicken feet floating around in it. I could eat the liquid broth and vegetables and a couple of the tiny pieces of meat, but not the feet and some suspicious looking innards. I worried about offending so made sure I dumped the remains of my food into the garbage myself instead of letting one of our village hosts do it. I suppose you get used to it after a while.
Thanks, Jack. That is an interesting article. I'm glad Pope Leo has that experience of working in missionary territory. He learned to just plow in and do it without much in the way of resources.
ReplyDeleteI loved it that they used to call him "Father Robertito"! Also that he moved the 6:30 am Mass time up, because he barely had his eyes open at 6:00.
Delete“…. parish as "the experience of the church at the local level and the building of an authentic community where people get to know each other, help each other, and support each other."
ReplyDeleteThis was how the enormous parish in the DR operated. The remote villages had leaders who functioned both as religious leaders and “civic” leaders. They were trained by the pastor and the religious nuns from Spain. They were no longer called base communities but essentially followed that model. There was a big push to get teachers in the villages so that the government would build a school to at least 4th grade. They were actively trying to increase literacy and teach handwriting for signatures so that the villagers could vote in the elections.
"All the things we are hearing today with the talk about synodality, we were already doing in Chulucanas in the 1980s, moving forward, so it was all very natural for me," he said, referring to the term for creating a more listening and participatory church coined by Pope Francis.”
It's interesting that Fr. Prevost dressed in a manner to meet the people where they were at when he was in Peru, yet now that he is the Bishop of Rome, he's returned to some of the more 'exalted' practices of pre-Francis popes, such as living in the palace and summering in Castel Gandolfo. He may be one of those people who doesn't see clothing in terms of personal identity, but rather tries to present himself in whatever way is suitable for his audience. (I guess I'm one of those people, too.)
ReplyDeleteTo an extent, we all dress for the job that we're doing.
DeleteAbout the papal palace, since it is there, and they have to maintain it, and it's easier to provide security for it, why not live in it?.Last I heard, he was sharing it with some other clergy, since it is quite large. I don't know if they're fellow Augustinians, but religious are used to living in community.
Francis and Leo used/use clothing and choice of residence to send messages about their priorities. Francis’s message was very clear. I’m not really sure what the messages are from Leo. Is he trying to calm the anxieties of those who really want a church that emulates secular royalty instead of Jesus?, Francis’s message was more aligned with Jesus’s teachings than any previous pope. Is it church politics? Is Leo trying to walk a tightrope to “please” both the imperial church lovers and the “poor church for the poor” lovers? Francis sought to promote the messages of St Francis of Assisi to love the poor and adopt a life of simplicity. Most ( maybe all) his predecessors embraced the symbols of worldly wealth and power, of royalty. These symbols and messages are among the aspects of Catholicism that I personally came to find repellent because they are not Jesus- like. I had hoped that Leo would follow Francis’s example. Unfortunately he is not, but so far he’s at least saying good things that are in line with Francis’s teachings.
DeleteI don't think he's gone over to the dark side just because he doesn't do things the same way Francis did.
DeleteHe’s saying a lot of good things especially wrt the relationship of El Norte to the countries in the south. He’s criticized Israel but doesn’t give it the existential condemnation it deserves. Zionists have been able to weaponize the Holocaust, especially Catholic guilt. It functions like a Klingon cloaking device and still works amazingly well despite IDF soldiers displaying their racism and atrocities on social media. Maybe the Pope has to tread lightly but I don’t.
DeleteKatherine, I don’t think Leo has gone to the dark side, but I had hoped the message of the west’s overconsumption, and excessive materialism, and the messages about the moral desirability of a more simple lifestyle would be continued. He is saying the “ right” things though with his first exhortation, which apparently was already started by Francis. Leo may be getting the attention of the anti- Francis conservatives who tuned out everything Francis said because of his “ softness” on birth control, remarriage, and LGBTQ issues. Leo might also be trying to placate the conservatives by maintaining the imperial image they love so much. I’m not deciding yet if he’s going to be as good at articulating the environmental messages and preferential option for the poor messages as Francis was. But the conservatives didn’t accept those messages from Francis, even though they had self- righteously told dissenters from B16 and JPII that they were wrong to dissent from a pope. No cafeteria Catholics until they became cafeteria Catholics. They changed their tune lickety- split after Francis started saying things that didn’t align with their narrow interpretations.
DeletePope Leo has responded quickly to areas of global misery and injustice specifically and in real time. Whether he inspires Catholics to exert political pressure on secular leaders to change remains to be seen. Priests and bishops probably have more sway, but a lot of them are MAGA themselves or scared of the MAGAs.
ReplyDeleteHow and whether Leo takes up evangelization and revival among the faithful in industrialized nations that are becoming more secular remains to be seen.
Evangelicals continue to make inroads in once-reliably Catholic countries in Latin America. I was very surprised that Francis was not more focused on that. Will Leo be?
The Church has a lot of medieval trappings and traditions. Some of them (the camauro, papal tiaria, red shoes, papal apartments, for ex) have become flash points of division. I suppose every papal administration struggles with the messages their use and display sends. As a convert, I am not real plugged into that stuff.
I don't pay a whole lot of attention to papal trappings, either. None of them have worn a papal tiara since Paul VI got rid of his (I am remembering that he sold it and donated the proceeds to charity). It looked heavy enough to be a vertebra crusher anyway
DeleteI think the red shoes are passe now too . They made me think of the Wizard of Oz movie, " There's no place like home".
I thought Benedict put on the tiara, but, hell, if I was pope, I'd be awful tempted to at least try it on!
DeleteI recall Benedict wearing designer shoes. Weren't they red?
DeleteI can just tell you: at least when it comes to liturgical vestments, there are a lot of points of view out there. Me, I wear whatever you hand to me. But there are guys with vestments that cost magnitudes more than my synthetic-fibers stuff, and that kind of thing is *very* important to us. Maybe part of it is an unseemly attraction to luxury goods. But that's not all it is; it's their personal expression, too. I guess I'm saying: if Benedict really liked those shoes, he was willing to pay a lot for them.
I said, "...that kind of thing is *very* important to us." Oops, meant to say, "...that kind of thing is *very* important to *them*". Just speaking for myself, as long as it's the right color for the day, I don't care if it was hand-woven by silkworms with doctorates from Harvard, or if it was bought on the sale rack.
DeleteI sort of liked one of the tiaras stolen from the Louvre. It belonged to a queen in a corrupt monarchy. That’s really not the symbolism that should be associated with Jesus.
DeleteUnfortunately for me, I see the church’s pomp and wealth as legacies of empire dating back to Constantine. For hundreds of years the church was actually more powerful than kings, and just as rich or richer. Pretty corrupt too. As Richard Rohr has said, Christianity went from the catacombs to the cathedrals and palaces in 313, adopting the values of the world while giving the almost Marxist values of the early church ( especially see Acts) far less emphasis- the early church was a church of the poor, the outcasts, the “other”.
The church in Latin America has been losing members by the millions now for years. I too was surprised that Francis didn’t focus on this. He even shut off the Latin American bishops’ interest in ordaining married men, especially deacons, as priests. The evangelical groups send many ministers and their wives and families there, especially to the more remote areas that have few Catholic priests but lots of Catholics- as was true in the parish I visited. Their services reflect the culture more - lively music and prayer, not the subdued European liturgies of the RCC. The Catholic liturgies I saw there were also much different than SOP in America - reflecting the culture there more with the types of musical instruments and including dancing. The conservative Catholics here would have heart failure. They don’t like inculturation in liturgy. The priests in these areas are spread very, very thin. The pastor of the DR parish told me that the evangelicals also provide a lot of material support to the villagers - food, medicine etc that the Catholic priests can’t afford to do. The wives of the evangelical pastors act as second ministers for Bible studies etc. l
I guess most people like the symbols of pomp and wealth. I’Ve always been out of step with most people though. St Francis of Assisi has always been my favorite saint.
DeletePossibly the Vatican could take a page from the Dutch and Danish Royal families. They gave up much of their real estate and a lot of their art and jewels to the state to maintain or to liquidate. Some of those outside the immediate family were de-titled, given severance, and their kids told to think about careers in public relations. I think the royals now earn a salary for being figureheads. They're all still pretty rich, tho.
DeleteA friend from my Old English group in the Netherlands tells me that many monasteries and convent have been turned into really nice old folks homes. These things have to be preserved on the outside, but inside they've been modernized. She was on a committee to determine historicity and approve plans for a makeover of one bldg. She said they are very nice.
Yes, the Brits are really the last of the grandiose royals. I’m so heartbroken over trump’s nighttime stealth tear down without notice of the East Wing ( nobody can stop it now) that I’m hoping the horribly inappropriate and totally out of proportion new ballroom can be turned into a homeless shelter if we can ever get rid of him and his movement. I’m sure the historical architecture review folk will file a lawsuit but he’s rushing so hard to build it fast, fast, fast ( latest estimate is $300 million) that he’ll have a fait accompli before anything can be heard in a courtroom. He claims “ donors”,will pay for it— more opportunities to bribe his administration.
DeleteEven though Trump forbade taking pictures of the destruction of the east wing, they are all over the internet. I think that whole thing is backfiring. It is such a visual punch in the gut to see the disfigurement of a national monument and symbol like the White House. Yes I know , no one got killed, it is just a building, and doesn't equal the depredations of war. But it is seen as a giant middle finger to the sensibilities of those who care about their American heritage. From the same guy that brought us the sewage video.
DeleteOf course he is not paying for the Dollar Tree Versailles himself. Donors will write him checks, and he will stiff contractors right and left.
The East Wing is nothing compared to Trimp's tearing down due process, the federal workforce, checks and balances, and the economy.
DeleteHas anybody heard where they're dumping the construction site debris from the old structure? I have read Potomac Park, but I know nothing about the DC area. There are concerns about possible asbestos contamination.
Pretty sure Trump will try to claim ownership of the ballroom--it's his! he raised all private money for it!--and will try to rent it back to the govt as a holding of Trump Inc. If he can't hang onto it, it'll have to be maintained at taxpayer expense. Proximity to the White House and security considerations severely limits what it could be repurposed for.
My hope is that that thing will be so awful and the workmanship so shoddy that it will be one of many things that tarnishes Trumpublicans forever.
I think the destruction of the White House reverberates with people. It's a powerful symbol of what the MAGA movement is up to.
Delete"Even though Trump forbade taking pictures of the destruction of the east wing"
DeleteHis paranoia is approaching Putin level.
I don't get how the East Wing is a more "powerful symbol" than troops marching into Blue cities and ICE thugs dragging legal immigrants and citizens off to jail for "looking Hispanic." But if it gets the DAR and Junior League types riled up enough to help oust Trump, I'll be happy to fuel their outrage.
Delete"Has anybody heard where they're dumping the construction site debris from the old structure?"
DeleteThis is probably fake news, but I've read that Trump wants to sell pieces of debris for $500 for a "memento". Probably not real, but would be in character.
The debris is being taken to a scrap yard, Smith Industries, in DC. A reporter followed the trucks.
DeleteTrump did sell pieces of the suit he was wearing in his mugshot photo. So, yah, why not sell bricks from the East Wing: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/style/trump-mug-shot-suit-nfts.html
I am probably the only one in this group that experiences this as a personal loss. I love the beauty of this city, including the architecture. The WH and the Capitol building are the two most important buildings in DC and are symbols of our country known around the world. Trump incited the assault on the Capitol and is now trashing the WH. Potomac Park is a center of outdoor activities in the city. It is mostly grass - a golf course, fields where games are played, popular for picnics etc, . When I first lived in DC after college so many years ago my roommates and I went there one day to sit on a blanket, picnic and watch a polo match — something none of us had ever seen before. That perfect afternoon with friends while young and idealistic is still a lovely memory. It’s a beautiful park near the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin ( where the famous cherry trees bloom each year), right on the river. I can imagine the horror of the golfers there (public course - not a full course) watching dump trucks empty the east wing debris right next to them.
DeleteBut Jean is absolutely right about this - “ I don't get how the East Wing is a more "powerful symbol" than troops marching into Blue cities and ICE thugs dragging legal immigrants and citizens off to jail for "looking Hispanic." The WH is ( was) a symbol of the best of our country, but it is being destroyed, both literally and figuratively.
Our friend who was among the first to lose her job and career (who spent more than 25 years commuting to Africa on different USAID projects) was here for a couple of days, staying with us. They sold their house in DC and now live in Maine. They have been downtown this week and say it’s “dead”. The presence of the National Guard has apparently killed downtown restaurants and street life, and there are few tourists to be seen. We were in Georgetown a couple of weeks ago and it was as lively and busy as ever. There were no National Guards in view there, but lots of students and tourists. More people than normal actually. I’m wondering if the residents of the city have abandoned the occupied zones for the neighborhoods like Georgetown that don’t feel like they’ve been occupied by enemy forces. Lots of tourists do go to Georgetown but it is removed from the main tourist areas downtown. It seems the militarization of the city hasn’t reached that far away from the main tourist attractions. Our friend were genuinely shocked at how dead downtown is now. They lived and worked in the city, not in the suburbs.