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Pope Francis’ Letter regarding the role of literature in priestly formation
– the same could be said about the formation of all pastoral workers, as well as of every Christian
1. Initially, I wrote a title referring to priestly formation.
However, I realized that the same could be said about the formation of all pastoral workers and every Christian.
I am referring to the value of reading novels and poetry in the process of personal maturation.
2. During the boredom of the holidays, the heat and loneliness of some abandoned neighborhoods can make finding a good book an oasis that distances us from other unhealthy choices.
There are also moments of tiredness, anger, disappointment, and failure.
When we fail to find peace of mind in prayer, at least a good book helps us weather the storm until we can find a little more peace.
Perhaps this reading opens new interior spaces that help us avoid becoming fixated on a few obsessive ideas that ensnare us.
Before the ubiquity of mass and social media and mobile phones, this was a common experience.
Those who have experienced it know what I am referring to. It is not outdated.
3. Unlike with audiovisual media, where the product is more complete and there is usually limited time and margin to “enrich” or interpret the narrative, the reader is much more active when reading a book.
In a sense, the reader rewrites the work by enhancing it with their imagination.
They create a world using their skills, memory, dreams, and their own dramatic and symbolic story. In this way, a work is created that is completely different from what the author intended.
Therefore, a literary work is a living, prolific text capable of speaking in many ways and creating an original synthesis with every reader.
Reading enriches the reader with what he receives from the author. At the same time, it allows him to flourish in the richness of his own person. Each new work he reads renews and expands his personal universe.
4. This leads me to appreciate the fact that, in some seminaries at least, we are overcoming our obsession with screens and poisonous, superficial, and violent fake news.
We are dedicating time to literature, moments of calm and free reading, and talking about books—new or old—that still tell us so much.
However, it is unfortunate that, in the education of those on the path to priestly ordination, literature does not currently receive appropriate attention.
Literature is often considered a form of entertainment, a minor aspect of culture that is not part of the preparation process or the practical pastoral experience of future priests.
With a few exceptions, attention to literature is considered irrelevant.
Therefore, I would like to say that this approach is inadequate.
Literature is a source of serious intellectual and spiritual impoverishment for future priests, who have been thus deprived of privileged access to the heart of human culture and, more specifically, to the heart of mankind through literature.
5. In this text, I would like to propose a radical change in approach to the significant attention that should be given to literature in the context of forming candidates for the priesthood (and others).
In this regard, I find the following words of a theologian to be very effective:
“Literature […] grows out of the person in what that person has most irreducibly, in his mystery […] . It is a life that becomes aware of itself when it reaches the fullness of expression, appealing to all the resources of language.”
6. Therefore, literature has to do, in one way or another, with what each of us desires from life because it enters into an intimate relationship with our concrete existence and its essential tensions, desires, and meanings.
7. I learned this as a young man from my students.
From 1964 to 1965, when I was 28 years old, I was a literature professor at a Jesuit school in Santa Fe.
I taught the last two years of high school, and I had to make sure my students were studying Cid. But the children did not like it.
They wanted to read García Lorca.
So I decided that they would learn Cid at home, and in the lessons I would take care of the authors that the boys liked the most.
Of course, they wanted to read contemporary literary works.
But when they read the things that attracted them at that moment, they got a more general taste for literature, for poetry, and then they moved on to other authors.
After all, everyone finds their own way in literature because the heart is looking for something more.
I love tragic authors because their works feel like our own, an expression of our dramas.
When we cry over the fate of the characters, we are really crying about ourselves, our emptiness, our shortcomings, and our loneliness.
Of course, I don’t expect you to read the same things I do.
Everyone will find books that speak to their life and become true companions on their journey.
There’s nothing worse than reading out of obligation, making a significant effort just because others say it’s necessary.
Instead, we should choose our reading material with an open mind, allowing ourselves to be surprised and flexible.
We should also read with sincerity, trying to find what we need in each moment of our lives.
Faith and culture
8. Moreover, for the believer who sincerely desires to engage with the culture of his time or simply with the lives of specific people, literature is indispensable.
The Second Vatican Council states that literature and art “seek to know thoroughly the proper nature of man” and “present misery and joys, needs and possibilities” for good reason.
Indeed, literature draws from everyday life, its passions, and real events, such as “action, work, love, death, and all the things that fill life.”
9. How can we understand ancient and new cultures if we ignore, reject, or silence their symbols, messages, creations, and narratives?
Through these, they captured, revealed, and evoked their actions, ideals, violence, fears, and passions.
How can we speak to people’s hearts if we ignore, dismiss, or belittle the words with which they want to express and reveal the drama of their lives and feelings through novels and poetry?
10. The ecclesial mission has developed its full beauty, freshness, and newness through encounters with different cultures — often thanks to literature — without fear of exposing itself or failing to bring out the best of what it has found.
This approach has freed her from the temptation of a narrow, fundamentalist, self-referential mindset that considers a specific cultural-historical “grammar” capable of expressing the full richness and depth of the Gospel.
Many doomsday prophecies that aim to instill despair today stem from this aspect.
Exposure to various literary and grammatical styles will enable you to enrich the polyphony of Revelation without reducing or impoverishing it to suit your own historical needs or mental structures.
11. Therefore, it is no coincidence that early Christianity recognized the need for close confrontation with classical culture.
For example, one of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, Basil the Great of Caesarea, extolled the value of classical literature in his Discourse to the Young, composed between 370 and 375.
In this work, he addressed his nephews and praised the writings of pagan authors, whom he referred to as “outsiders.”
He believed that these writings were valuable for argumentation, or logic, in theology and exegesis.
Additionally, he believed that they were valuable for practical application in life, in asceticism and morality.
He concluded by encouraging young Christians to consider the classics as a “viaticum” for their education and formation, from which they could derive “the benefit of the soul.” (IV, 8-9).
The original reorganization of evangelical preaching emerged from the encounter of the Christian event with the culture of that time.
12. Through Gospel discernment of culture, one can recognize the presence of the Spirit in the diversity of human reality.
In other words, one can grasp the seeds of the Spirit’s presence already sown in events, sensibilities, desires, the deep tensions of hearts, and social, cultural, and spiritual contexts.
For example, we can recognize a similar approach in the Acts of the Apostles, which mentions Paul’s presence on the Areopagus. (Acts 17:16-34).
Paul, speaking of God, says: “For in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your poets have said: ‘For we are of his kindred’“ (Acts 17:28).
13. There are two quotations in this verse: an indirect one in the first part, where the poet Epimenides is quoted (sixth century BC), and a direct one, quoting the Phenomena of the poet Aratos of Soloi (third century BC), who sings about the constellations and signs of good and bad weather.
Here, Paul reveals himself to be a “reader” of poetry, sharing his approach to literary texts that inevitably reflect evangelical discernment of culture.
The Athenians refer to him as spermologos, meaning “crow, talker, charlatan”, but literally “seed collector”.
What seemed like an insult is, paradoxically, a profound truth.
Paul gathers the seeds of pagan poetry and, starting from his previous attitude of profound indignation (Acts 17:16 – while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols), he begins to recognize the Athenians as “very religious” and sees a true evangelical preparation in these pages of their classical literature.13. What did Paul do?
He understood that “literature discovers the abysses that inhabit man, while revelation, and then theology, undertake them to show how Christ comes, to cross them and to illuminate them.”
Towards these abysses, literature is therefore a “gate” that helps the pastor to enter into a fruitful dialogue with the culture of his time.
Never Christ without a body
14. Before discussing the specific reasons why interest in literature should be promoted among future priests, I would like to share a reflection on the current religious context.
“The return to the sacred and the spiritual search that characterize our time are ambiguous phenomena.
Today, more than the challenge of atheism, we are faced with the challenge of adequately responding to the desire for God in many people.
We must not seek to extinguish this desire with alienated proposals or a Jesus without the flesh.”
Therefore, the urgent task of proclaiming the Gospel in our time requires a commitment from believers, particularly priests, so that everyone can encounter Jesus Christ, who became flesh and entered history.
We must all be careful never to lose sight of the “body” of Jesus Christ, which is made up of passions, emotions, feelings, and concrete stories.
It is made up of hands that touch and heal, looks that liberate and give courage.
It is made up of hospitality, forgiveness, indignation, courage, and fortitude. In short, it is made up of love.
15. It is precisely at this level that a persistent engagement with literature can make future priests and all pastors more sensitive to the full humanity of Jesus Christ, in which his divinity is fully revealed, and enable them to proclaim the Gospel in a way that allows everyone to experience the truth of what the Second Vatican Council says: “In essence, the mystery of man is truly explained only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word.”
This does not refer to the abstract concept of humanity, but rather to the specific human being with all their life’s wounds, desires, memories, and hopes.
Great good
16. From a pragmatic point of view, many scientists argue that reading has many positive effects on a person’s life.
It helps one acquire a wider vocabulary and develop different aspects of one’s intelligence.
Reading also stimulates imagination and creativity.
Additionally, reading allows people to learn how to express themselves more richly. Reading improves concentration, reduces cognitive impairment, and relieves stress and anxiety.
17. Furthermore, it prepares us to understand and deal with different situations that may arise in life.
Through reading, we immerse ourselves in the lives of characters who have overcome life’s challenges.
We experience their worries, dramas, dangers, and fears. Perhaps by reading, we also receive advice that will later serve us.
18. In an attempt to encourage further reading, I will be happy to quote a few texts by well-known authors who teach us so much in just a few words:
Novels trigger in us “all possible happiness and misfortune in one hour.
In life, we would have to get to know them over the course of many years.
the strongest would never become aware of it, they manifest themselves so slowly that it takes away their feeling”.
“Through reading great works of literature, I become thousands of people,
yet I remain myself.
Like the night sky in Greek poetry, I see with countless eyes, but it is always me who sees.
As in religion, love, moral action, and knowledge, I transcend myself here.,
Yet, when I do, I am more myself than ever.”
19. However, I do not intend to focus solely on this level of personal utility.
Instead, I will reflect on the most important reasons to develop a love of reading.
Listening to someone’s voice
20. When my thoughts turn to literature, I am reminded of what the great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges used to repeat to his students: the most important thing is to read, to come into direct contact with literature, to immerse ourselves in the living text in front of us, and not to focus on ideas and critical commentary.
Borges explained this idea to his students, telling them that they might not understand much of what they were reading at first.
However, he assured them that they would hear “someone’s voice.
I really like this definition of literature: “Listening to someone’s voice”.
And let’s not forget how dangerous it is to stop listening to others who ask us questions.
We immediately fall into self-isolation and enter a kind of “spiritual” deafness.
This negatively affects our relationships with others and with God, no matter how much theology or psychology we have studied.
21. By sensitizing us to the mystery of others, literature teaches us to touch their hearts. At this point, we cannot help but recall the courageous words that Pope Paul VI addressed to artists—and, by extension, to great writers—on May 7, 1964..
He said, “ We need you! Our ministry needs your cooperation. As you know, our ministry is to make the world of the spirit—the invisible and ineffable—accessible, understandable, and moving. In this endeavor to translate the invisible world into accessible, understandable terms, you are masters.
This is the crux of the matter, which is why it is so important to consider.
The task of believers, especially priests, is to touch the hearts of modern men and women so they may be moved by the preaching of Jesus Christ. In this commitment, literature and poetry offer an invaluable contribution.
22. T. S. Eliot, a poet who contributed greatly to the literary works of the modern world with a Christian spirit, rightly described the contemporary religious crisis as a widespread “emotional incapacity.”
In light of this interpretation of reality, the problem of faith today is not primarily about believing in more or fewer doctrinal formulas.
Rather, The problem of faith today is the inability of many to be moved before God, before His creation, before other people.
Therefore, we are faced with the task of healing and enriching our sensitivity.
Therefore, When I returned from my apostolic journey to Japan, I was asked what the West could learn from the East, I replied: “I think the West lacks poetry”.
Type of discernment exercises
23. So, what does the priest gain from contact with literature?
Why is it necessary to include the reading of great novels as an important element of priestly education?
Why is it important to recover and implement Karl Rahner’s intuition of the deep spiritual kinship between priests and poets in the education of candidates for the priesthood?
24. Let us try to answer these questions by listening to the reflections of the German theologian.
Rahner writes that the poet’s words are “full of nostalgia.”
They are “a door that opens to infinity; a door that opens wide to immensity.
They evoke the unspeakable; they move toward it.”
“They evoke the unspeakable. They move toward it.”
This poetic word “looks at the infinite, but it cannot give us infinity.
Nor can it carry or conceal the infinite One within itself.”
This is in fact proper to the Word of God.
Rahner continues, “the poetic word, therefore, evokes the word of God”.
For Christians, the Word is God.
All human words bear the traces of an inner longing for God and point toward this Word.
One could argue that a truly poetic word participates in the Word of God in an analogous way, as the Letter to the Hebrews presents it to us in a radical way
(Hebrews 4:12-13 – the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.).
25. In this way, Karl Rahner draws a beautiful parallel between the priest and the poet. “Only the Word is intimately capable of freeing that which holds all unexpressed realities in captivity: the silence of their inclination towards God”.
26. Therefore, literature is concerned with questions of form and meaning.
It is a type of discernment exercise that hones the sapiential abilities of the internal and external scrutiny of the future priest.
This path to accessing one’s own truth opens up in the reader’s interior, which is directly involved in the reading process.
Thus, a scenario of personal spiritual discernment develops, complete with anxieties and crises.
Indeed, many literary works can exemplify the Ignatian definition of “affliction.”
27. “I call affliction … darkness in the soul, disturbance in it, agitation to low and earthly things, anxiety due to various tossing and turning and temptations.
It inclines one to distrust, to be without hope or love.
The soul then finds itself quite lazy, lukewarm, sad and as if separated from its Creator and Lord”.
28. Feeling pain or boredom while reading certain texts is not necessarily a bad or useless experience..
Ignatius of Loyola himself noted that “in those who proceed from evil to worse”, the good spirit acts by provoking anxiety, agitation and discontent.
This would be a literal application of the first Ignatian rule of discerning spirits which are reserved for those who “pass from mortal sin to mortal sin”.
In such persons the good spirit acts “by pricking and gnawing at their consciences by the law of natural conscience” in order to lead them to goodness and beauty.
29. In this way, the reader is understood not to be the recipient of an edifying message, but rather someone who is actively encouraged to tread on unstable ground where the boundaries between salvation and perdition are not defined or separated a priori.
Therefore the act of reading is like an act of “discernment”, in which the reader is simultaneously involved the “subject” and object of reading.
When reading a novel or a poetic work, the reader experiences “being read” by the words.
In this way, the reader is like a player on the field.
He plays the game, and at the same time, the game plays him.
He is completely involved in what he is doing.
Mindfulness and digestion
30. In terms of content, literature is like a “telescope,” as Proust famously said, directed at beings and things. It is necessary to focus on the “great distance” that everyday life creates between our perception and the totality of human experience. Literature is also like a photographic laboratory where the contours and nuances of life can be revealed.
Literature evokes images of life and asks us questions about its meaning.
In short, it allows us to experience life effectively.
31. Indeed, our ordinary view of the world is “reduced” and limited because of the pressure exerted by our immediate goals.
Even service – whether religious, pastoral, charitable – can become an imperative that directs our energies and attention exclusively toward achieving goals.
However, as Jesus reminds us in the Parable of the Sower, the seed must fall into deep soil in order to bear fruit over time, without being suffocated by superficiality or thorns
(Matthew 13:18-23 – Hear then the parable of the sower.19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path.20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.[a]22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty”).
The risk is falling into a state of efficiency that trivializes discernment, impoverishes sensitivity, and reduces complexity.
Therefore, it is necessary and urgent to balance the inevitable acceleration and simplification of our daily lives.
We must learn to distance ourselves from the immediate in order to slow down, contemplate, and listen.
This can happen when a person stops to read a book, for example.
32. It is necessary to recover a way of relating to reality that is not strategic or focused on the result, in which an infinite excess of being could emerge.
Distance, slowness, and freedom are hallmarks of this approach to reality, which finds expression in literature.
This form of expression is certainly not exclusive, but privileged.
Literature then becomes a place to practice looking for and discovering the truth about people and situations as mysteries charged with excess content that can only partially manifest in categories and explanatory schemes of cause and effect.
33. Another beautiful metaphor for the role of literature comes from the physiology of the human body, particularly the process of digestion.
The 11th-century monk Guillaume de Saint-Thierry and the 17th-century Jesuit Jean-Joseph Surin used the rumination of a cow as a model here.
The latter spoke of the “stomach of the soul,” and the Jesuit Michel de Certeau identified the true “physiology of digestive reading.”
Literature helps us tell our story in the world, “digesting” and assimilating it to grasp what goes beyond the surface of experience. It is therefore used to interpret life and perceive its meanings and tensions.
Seeing through the eyes of others
34. In terms of communication, when we read a literary text, we can “see through the eyes of others,” gaining a broader perspective that expands our humanity.
Reading activates our empathetic imagination, allowing us to identify with others’ points of view, conditions, and feelings. Without this ability, there can be no solidarity, sharing, compassion, or mercy.
Through reading, we discover that our feelings are universal, so even the most isolated person does not feel alone.
35. The marvelous diversity of human beings, as well as the diachronic and synchronic multiplicity of cultures and knowledge, are configured in literature through a language that respects and expresses their diversity.
At the same time, they are translated into a symbolic grammar of meaning that makes them understandable and shared, not alien.
A literary word’s originality lies in its ability to express and convey the richness of experience.
Rather than objectifying it through descriptive presentations of analytical knowledge or normative studies of critical judgment, it conveys the content of an expressive and interpretive effort to give meaning to a given experience.
36. When reading a story, each reader imagines the cry of an abandoned girl, an old woman covering her sleeping grandson, the determination of a small businessman trying to survive despite difficulties, the humiliation of someone who feels criticized by everyone, and a boy whose dreams are his only escape from a miserable and brutal life.
When we find traces of our inner world in these stories, we become more sensitive to the experiences of others.
We go beyond ourselves to enter their depths.
We can understand their struggles and desires a little better.
We see reality through their eyes. Ultimately, we become travel companions.
In this way, we immerse ourselves in the inner, concrete existence of a fruit seller, a prostitute, a child growing up without parents, a female bricklayer, and an old woman who still believes she will find her prince charming.
We can achieve this with empathy, tolerance, and understanding.
37. Jean Cocteau wrote to Jacques Maritain: “Literature is impossible, we must get out of it, and trying to get out of it with the help of literature is pointless, because only love and faith allow us to get out of ourselves” .
Do we truly transcend ourselves if we are not moved by the suffering and joy of others?
As a Christian, I prefer to remember that nothing human is foreign to me.
38. Moreover, literature is not relativistic because it does not deprive us of criteria of value.
The symbolic representation of good and evil, truth and falsehood as dimensions that take the form of individual existences and collective historical events in literature does not neutralize moral judgment.
Rather, it prevents moral judgment from becoming blind or superficial.
“Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye and fail to see the beam in your own?”
Jesus asks us (Mt 7:3).
39. Conversely, witnessing violence, crampedness, or fragility in others allows us to reflect on our own experiences more deeply.
By offering readers a broad view of the richness and misery of human experience, literature educates them about the slowness of understanding, the humility of not simplifying, and the gentleness of not pretending to control reality and the human condition through judgment.
Certainly, there is a need for judgment, But we must never forget its limited scope. Judgment can never translate into a death sentence, erasure, or the suppression of humanity for the sake of sterile totalization of the law.
40. Literature teaches readers about decentralization and the importance of boundaries. It encourages them to relinquish cognitive and critical control over their experiences.
It also teaches them about poverty, which is a source of extraordinary wealth. Recognizing the futility of reducing the mystery of the world and of humanity to an antinomian polarity of truth/falsehood or right/wrong, the reader accepts the duty of judgment not as an instrument of domination but as an incessant desire to listen and a readiness to risk this extraordinary richness of history resulting from the presence of the Spirit.
The Spirit is also given as grace—that is, as an unpredictable and incomprehensible event that does not depend on human action but redefines humanity as having the potential for salvation.
The Spiritual Power of Literature
41. In these brief reflections, I hope I have emphasized the role literature can play in educating the hearts and minds of pastors and future pastors. Literature can encourage the free and humble exercise of rationality, the recognition of the plurality of human languages, the broadening of human sensitivity, and a spiritual openness to listening to the voice of God in many voices.
42. In this sense, literature helps readers overcome the idols of self-referential, falsely self-sufficient, and static languages that can sometimes pollute our ecclesiastical speech and restrict freedom of expression.
Literature sets language in motion, liberating and purifying it.
It opens language up to further expression and exploration. It makes language hospitable to the Word that dwells in human speech.
This occurs not when language understands itself as complete and definitive knowledge, but when it becomes a vigil of listening and waiting for God, who comes to make all things new. (Revelation 21:5 – he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”).
43. The spiritual power of literature ultimately evokes the fundamental task God entrusted to humans: naming beings and things
(Genesis 2:19-20 – So out of the ground theLordGod formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him.).
The mission of the guardian of creation, entrusted to Adam by God, is to recognize his own reality and the meaning of the existence of other beings.
Priests are also endowed with this primordial task of “naming,” of giving meaning, of facilitating communion between creation and the Word made flesh, and of illuminating every aspect of human destiny.
44. This mysterious and indissoluble sacramental unity between the word of God and the word of man reveals the kinship between the priest and the poet, giving rise to a service of listening and compassion.
This service becomes a charism that becomes a responsibility and a vision of truth and goodness that opens up as beauty.
We cannot ignore the words of the poet Paul Celan:
“He who truly learns to see approaches the invisible.”
Saint John Lateran, on 17 July 2024, in the twelfth year of my Pontificate.
POPE FRANCIS
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Footnote:
Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes (the joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties)
promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965
Paragraph 62. (extract)
Literature and the arts are, in their own way, of great importance to the life of the Church. They strive to make known the proper nature of man, his problems and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world. They have much to do with revealing man’s place in history and in the world; with illustrating the miseries and joys, the needs and strengths of man and with foreshadowing a better life for him. Thus they are able to elevate human life, expressed in multifold forms according to various times and regions.
