Thought for the Week: The joy of the gospel
Alastair McIntosh reflects on the Evangelii Gaudium by pope Francis
Last week saw a remarkable ‘irruption of the Spirit’ in the Roman Catholic Church, one that could be instructive for Friends. The occasion was the release of pope Francis’s ‘apostolic exhortation’ – a personal epistle called Evangelii Gaudium meaning, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, variously hailed by Vatican watchers as ‘a Magna Carta for church reform’ and as the pope’s ‘I have a dream’ moment.
In all but name it reads as liberation theology – theology that liberates theology itself towards God’s ‘preferential option for the poor’ – and I was reminded that when it first emerged that the archbishop of Buenos Aires was to become pope the first words he heard were whispered by his friend, Cláudio Hummes, the cardinal of Brazil: ‘Do not forget the poor.’
