The Pope's Chat With an Atheist

The Pope's Chat With an Atheist | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Catholic World Report

The recent "La Repubblica" interview with Francis touches on many topics, not always with clarity or precision

“St. Paul is the one who
laid down the cornerstone of our religion and our creed. You cannot
be a conscious Christian without St. Paul. He translated the
teachings of Christ into a doctrinal structure that, even with the
addition of a vast number of thinkers, theologians and pastors has
resisted (change?) and still exists after two thousand years. Then
there are Augustine, Benedict, and Thomas, and Ignatius. Naturally
Francis. Do I need to explain why?”

— Pope Francis, Interview
with Eugenio Scalfari, La Repubblica, Rome, October 1, 2013.

I.

Pope Francis seems to be churning out interviews, phone calls,
letters, audiences, homilies, and encyclicals—along with official
business—faster than most of us can keep track of. Hardly had the
dust settled from discussions on his interview with La Civilta
Cattolica than a second interview appeared in the Italian
newspaper La Repubblica. This second interview was with the
founder of the newspaper, Eugenio
Scalfari, a well-known philosopher
and figure in Rome, one who tells us that he is not a believer,
though he was once baptized, made his first communion, and even went
on an Ignatian long retreat under the Jesuits.

By now,
we have seen, read, or listened to the new Pope enough to have gained
some perspective on what he is saying. Everyone acknowledges that he
has a knack for drawing attention to himself. His criticism of
Vatican “clericalism” falls into the “man bites dog” category
of newspaper headlines. His style of life and ways of getting around
are by now well known—the bus, the inexpensive automobile, the bare
room, the dislike of ceremony. We see him constantly reaching out to
people; he wants to touch them, talk to them. He seems impatient with
the limits of the human condition. We know his economics on poverty,
his politics of no war is good, and his unwillingness to judge. He
wants everyone to be a missionary and worries that the children in
Buenos Aires do not know how to make the Sign of the Cross.

This
second interview is a chatty one. It resulted from the Pope
responding to a letter from Scalfari. In fact, Francis just called up
Scalfari's office and made an appointment for the journalist to
visit him in his quarters in the Casa Santa Marta. While the two were
not old friends, their conversation was relaxed and frank. In words
that have reverberated around the world, the Pope told Scalfari that
the two most “serious” problems in the world are youth
unemployment and loneliness of the old. Scalfari tells the Pope that
these are really “political, and economic problems for states,
governments, political parties, and trade unions.” The social
doctrine of the Church has long stressed that it has no competence in
these matters. The Pope admits this but says that we must be
concerned with such problems. He adds that there are other problems
but such are the “most urgent” ones. But exactly what the Pope’s
economic and political theory would be to solve the problems of youth
unemployment and old age is never really addressed.

The
conversation begins with a jocular exchange about who is “converting”
whom. Scalfari suggests he is not convertible.

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