We All Love "Freedom", But What Is It? [Freedom comes from serving others, Pope says at audience] A Teaching Moment With Pope Francis
As we fret and agonize about the ongoing crises of the day, it's easy to lose sight of the deeper truths which have guided us in the past, which are bequeathed to us through philosophy.
As my friends are aware, I have made a specific line of attack on the institutions of contemporary organized religion, especially American Fundamentalism and other varieties which feed the hatred and rage of Right Wing reaction. However, this brief article in the National Catholic Reporter, (not to be confused with the hard right National Catholic Register) is a sweet and needed reminder of the elegant and positive concept of "Freedom" which is, in my view the only one worth fighting for. By all means, go to this article and imbibe deeply.
I hope you appreciate hearing this from a non-religious Jew who has been unsparing in his withering exposes of the historic sympathies of the Church for anti-semitism and fascist political movements throughout the milennia, not to mention the abuses of its Priesthood.
Compare the spontaneous and heartwarming remarks by Pope Francis in response to a young child hopping up to sit next to him at a Papal audience regarding the concept of Freedom, to that held by religious fundamentalists, Libertarians, Gun nuts, anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, anti-seat bealt activists, so-called "Sovereign Citizens", Free Market economists, Ayn Rand cult followers, the mob of Sturgis Bikers who have now had two covid superspreader events, and certainly the overwhelming majority of today's Republican Conservatives as embodied by its leadership in the breakaway "Republic of Tex-ass" and Trumpworld.
Pope Francis quotes Jesus and Paul in doing so, but presents it not as an article of faith, but faith and works together. This is crucial in making a religious concept intelligible in order to subject it's validity to authentication. Therefore in doing so, he takes the discussion out of the realm of religion, and places it squarely in front of us as philosophy, which is the love of ideas as manifest in the real world.
The easily made and lazy response would be to rail about the hypocrisy of the Church, or this Pope, or religion in general, and declare his remarks invalid. To that I would counter, "why is it then that Francis has become the leading global target of the forces of right wing reaction, Dark Ages Fundamentalism, and the most aggrandizing power hungry and corrupt forces within his own Church, whose Papacy has faced an Insurrection led by his predecessor, not unlike the current quandary the US President is currently facing"?
And there it is. In a small event, the microcosm, we can see reflected the larger world of the macrocosm, now for a moment accessible to us.
So, I highlight this vignette, which covered here serves to address the most central political and philosophical concept of modern times, "what is Freedom, really"? Pope Francis with one incisive strategic comment, demolishes the very underpinnings of everything we identify as rotten, corrupt, and unjust in this world. To me, it is like the Sun coming out after a storm, a ray of light and hope because there are still people of influence living who think this way. He is not alone, but he is fighting on a battlefield which to most of us is incomprehensible.
This was a lovely way to start the day.
