Evangelize with simplicity, prayer, dialogue, service, pope tells Jesuits

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Evangelization does not have to be complicated or “sophisticated,” even in highly secularized places, Pope Francis told Jesuits living in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

“We need to be open, to dialogue and, in dialogue, to help with simplicity,” the pope said Sept. 28 during a meeting with Jesuits in Brussels. “And what makes dialogue fruitful is service.”

As is customary during his trips abroad, Pope Francis spent time with local Jesuits during his trip Sept. 26-29 to Luxembourg and nearby Belgium. He answered questions the Jesuits posed, and the transcript of the encounters was published Oct. 8 by La Civiltà Cattolica, an Italian Jesuit journal.

Many of the questions the Jesuits asked had to do with evangelization and their mission as Jesuits in increasingly secularized cultures. Belgium and Luxembourg are traditionally Catholic nations, and together with the nearby Netherlands, are still predominantly Christian. However, secularization has significantly accelerated the past few decades.

“A Jesuit should not be afraid of anything,” the pope said.

St. Paul VI explained “clearly what the church wants from the society” when he spoke with members of the Society of Jesus in 1974, saying that wherever there are difficult or complex situations, “there is always a Jesuit,” Pope Francis said.

“The main mission of the Jesuits (is) to immerse themselves in the world’s problems and to wrestle with God in prayer,” he said.

They must embrace two types of courage: “the courage to seek God in prayer and the courage to go to the frontiers. This is really ‘contemplation in action,'” he said, and it marks the “beautiful thing about our spirituality: taking risks.”

“Secularization is a complex phenomenon,” he said. Paganism has permeated everything, even “the air we breathe is a gaseous pagan god!”

However, he said, “we don’t need to think up very sophisticated things” in response. It is a matter of being with God and praying, and preaching to cultures “with witness, service and faith.”

Dialogue and service are critical, he said. “Unfortunately, I often find strong clericalism in the church which prevents this fruitful dialogue. And, above all, where there is clericalism there is no service.”

“Your strength is small Catholic communities which are by no means weak,” he said.

When asked about the future of parish communities without priests because of a lack of ordained ministers, the pope said, “The community is more important than the priest. The priest is a servant of the community.”

In some situations, he said, “people look within the community for those who can play a leadership role” or “there are also women religious who take on this commitment,” serving in many ways including preaching and baptizing until a priest is eventually assigned.

Another Jesuit asked the pope how the church members could help their relationships be more “synodal” and find reconciliation.

Synodality has to be built from the bottom up, the pope said, not “from the top to the bottom.”

“Synodality is not easy,” he said, because “sometimes there are authority figures who do not foster dialogue.” A priest or a bishop “can make decisions by himself, but he can make them with his council.”

“Synodality in the church is a grace! Authority is done in synodality. Reconciliation comes through synodality and its method. And, on the other hand, we cannot be a truly synodal church without reconciliation,” the pope said.