Matthew Fox's open 'Letters to Pope Francis" -a review

This book is basically a series of open letters from Matthew Fox to Pope Francis. I was intrigued, so I got a copy. I have a love-annoyance relationship with Matt Fox's writing: I tend to warm to the broad kind of agenda he has, as I understand it: a celebratory spirituality which is rooted in the natural world and concerned for peace, justice and human flourishing. On the other hand, I have tended to find him overly dismissive and unnuanced in relation to those whom he demarcates as 'enemies' (though that term he never uses) of creation spirituality, particularly proponents of 'fall-redemption' theologies. I think that he is often unfair about FR proponents and cartoonises their views. My other problem with his writing is that it often comes over as a Christian vocabulary for new-age perspectives. That said, I think that starting with 'original blessing' is a right sort of thing to do and that a celebratory spirituality is important. Happily, from my point of view, these difficulties were not much on display in this series of open letters.

One of the little things I enjoyed was at the end of the letters he signs himself 'Matthew Fox oops' where 'oops' stands for 'once of the order of preachers', signalling his own history: he was a Roman Catholic priest belonging to the order of preachers (that is the Dominacans). He was inhibited from teaching by the RCC and now functions as an Episcopalian priest in California. Fox does refer to this history a little, but mostly on the oblique in referring to wider issues.

For me the letters were a bit of an insight into the RCC since Vatican II written, as it is, from an insider-outsider perspective. Fox is, overall, cautiously hopeful about Francis: he finds the reference in his taken-name to the popular saint of Assissi to be encouraging if it represents something of a manifesto or at least a statement of interest. He also, like many of us, is encouraged by the pope's choices for simplicity and humility in his public and not-so-public actions so far. Fox compliments him on these things and expresses a hope for the trajectory so far marked out to continue. He suggests where this might lead and where, in his view it should lead ending with a letter in which he offers twelve concrete actions that should be undertaken to address the concerns he has developed in the earlier letters.

I think three (or four) things stand out for me in terms of what he writes in the collection of letters as a whole. One is to do with the scale of sexual and other kinds of abuse by priests and bishops, another is the response to Vatican II and then there is the issue of gender and sexuality.

In relation to gender and sexuality, Fox is unsurprisingly in favour of the RCC taking a more fully egalitarian approach by ordaining women and giving a fuller place to lay people in decision-making. In relation to sexuality, he argues that the sensus fidelium (the sense of direction that tends to emerge from the whole people of God over time as they wrestle with issues) has already spoken and that he hierarchy needs to get with the plot: the sensus fidelium is clearly in favour of allowing birth control and of a less uptight approach to matters of sex. One of Fox's recommendations is that the RCC should declare a moratorium on public and official statements about sex and sexuality and concentrate instead of matters of justice and peace. I suspect that this would be a big ask of the Pope, even if it turned out that he was sympathetic to the radical agenda (from the point of view of the Roman hierarchy): it's a huge shift to ask for.

It seems easy to link the sexuality issue with the clerical abuse scandals, Fox on the whole does not do this and I think that this is wise. In some cases it may be linked but the two issues need to be looked at on their own merit, and on the whole Fox does so. What I learnt from the letters was just how much clerical abuse there appears to have been and just how inadequate the hierarchy's responses have been. There is a huge amount of work to be done here and the hypocrisies involved seem to point to radical root-and-branch reforms needed. Again, one wonders how such far-reaching reform can be attempted and I found myself thinking at several points that while Fox is right to highlight the need for reform, he's not giving much help in relation to the 'how' questions except in very broad terms (more of which below) and actually the realpolitk of this is going to be the make-or-break thing and probably has been for the last two generations (and more).

With regard to the legacy of the second vatican council,I thought that a very interesting point is made: a council trumps a pope, that is the directions set by a council such as Vatican II are more binding than the directions set by a pope. On this basis, Fox makes a bold claim that the last two popes have been schismatic because they have presided over a retrenchment in relation to the clear direction of travel set by Vatican II. I think he may have a point, and I'm sure that many will be uneasy or angry at the proposal, but it would at least offer some basis for a program of reforms if Francis wanted it. Perhaps we should note that if Fox is right, the reversals have taken two popes 30 or 40 years to enact and embed, we might need to consider that to reset things to a Vatican II setting might require quite a long timetable against more resistance than the conservative turn faced.

One of the few indicators of how to engage in reform was Fox's suggestion of re-education of hierarchs -and Fox offers his own services for this. I felt that self-serviing feel of this suggestion seemed ill-fitting, though I'm not sure what else could be offered so perhaps that's just my cultural bias to self-effacement at work. I was a little uneasy about the suggestion of re-education -it sounds all too like a Stalinist response. I'd love to see Fox engage more fully in the details of a renewal of perspective program for a huge enterprise like the RCC.

I finished reading feeling both more hopeful that the RCC could reform under this pope, and also more aware that the wheels could come off. Probably that's about right! One of the hopeful things was a set of excerpts  from RC laypeople telling of their disaffection for the way the RCC is  and their struggle to find a life-giving spirituality in spite of or in the face of conservative control-freakery. Hopeful because if their voices are truly heard, then surely something must happen.

I'd love to see some exploration of whether there might be ecumenical progress on eucharistic hospitality and a drawing back from the Marian dogmas, but those are perhaps bigger issues and less pressing ...

Letters to Pope Francis: Rebuilding a Church with Justice and Compassion (UK) Or if you're wanting to go straight to Amazon.com Letters to Pope Francis: Rebuilding a Church with Justice and Compassion
Some other reviews: Matthew Fox (hearts) Pope Francis…and is hoping for more - Religion News
Is Pope Francis A Fraud? - Salon 
#SpeakeasyPopeFrancis