News Item: : Turbulence
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Wednesday 20 April 2016 - 20:21:22

Non-Verbal Communication: Pope Francis explains to Wall Street Journal correspondent Francis X Rocca how reading Cardinal Schonborn's 3,000-word analysis of the 260-page Amoris Laetitia will help Rocca to answer his own straightforward question for himself.

Updated

Please Note: Our website programme will not allow us to do umlauts, so we have to render Cardinal Schonborn's name without one. As he eschews rigorism, we are sure he will forgive us...

Round and Round We Go!

In 1994, about a year after converting to the Faith, I picked up a red booklet about St. Paul of the Cross and the congregation of the Passionists. Near to the back page was a dotted-line coupon for interested readers to cut out and send away for more information about Passionist vocations.

Duly inspired, I carefully cut out and posted off my coupon in the next post and awaited a response with all the bright-eyed keeness of the newly converted.

A couple of weeks later, a brown envelope arrived in the post. I eagerly tore it open, only to find that it contained another copy of the same red booklet, complete with another cut-out coupon near to the back page...

Realizing that this could be the start of a postage-consuming loop, I decided to look elsewhere in my vocational discernment. 

Hey, maybe that's one of the reasons why there is a convent-closing vocations shortage today?!!!

The Never-Ending Story...

I was reminded of this potentially never-ending convolution when viewing a video of Pope Francis' in-flight answer to Francis X. Rocca, over at the 1 Peter 5 blog.

Before considering that, it is worth mentioning something else, for reasons of overall context, which first struck me during the initial Amoris Laetitia press conference from Rome on 8th April, 2016.

Towards the end of that conference, a journalist asked Cardinal Christoph Schonborn a straightforward question about Holy Communion in relation to the divorced and ''re-married'' and the ambiguous Footnote 351 (there must surely be some witty caption linking that to Ray Bradbury's dystopian Fahrenheit 451, but I'm finding myself to be not so much apostolically exhorted right now as apostolically exhausted...).

Anyway, in a deft move, the Austrian prelate suggested that the best way to answer these kind of questions was to take time to carefully read through the whole document.

I remarked to Angie that this rhetorical device reminded me of those decoy flares which military aircraft fire out as counter-measures to heat-seeking missiles.

It certainly seemed a sure-fire way to silence any awkward questions and keep everyone running on the wild goose chase which began in earnest during Kasper's Pope Francis-sponsored presentation in February 2014...

Oh, for sure, this has all been a real ''linguistic event''...

Now, so ambiguous is the content of the actual exhortation document that a variety of interpretations, and many fissures of disunity, have subsequently broken out, or at least deepened, throughout the Church and wider society.

Here we come to Francis X Rocca's straightforward question during Pope Francis' return flight from the isle of Lesbos on Saturday.

Regarding the massive issue of Holy Communion and the divorced/''re-married'' - an impermissable matter which Cardinal Kasper, with Pope Francis' hearty backing, let loose on the Church a couple of years ago - Rocca asked: ''For a Catholic who wants to know: are there new, concrete possibilities that didn't exist before the publication of the exhortation or not?''

Had he wanted to do so, here was another perfect opportunity for Pope Francis, as Vicar of Christ, to publicly affirm the 2,000 year Tradition of the Church - which is anyway rooted in the clear teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles - once and for all.

In the event, this is what he said: ''I can say yes. Period. But that would be too small an answer.'' Adding greatly to the ambiguity, confusion and further disunity, Pope Francis then recommended, to Rocca and all the other journalists present, to go and read Schonborn's press-release presentation from 8th April, 2016. He concluded: ''In that presentation, your question will have the answer.''

So, to summarize: During his presentation, Cardinal Schonborn tells journalists to go away and read Pope Francis' exhortation for an answer. When they do, and subsequently ask Pope Francis for clarification over the ongoing ambiguity, he tells them to go away and read Cardinal Schonborn's similarly ambiguous presentation...

As the old song has it: ''England swings like a pendulum do''! 

Body-Language

We have watched the video at 1 Peter 5 several times and the above image is a freeze-frame from Pope Francis' answer in that exchange with Rocca.

Aside from Pope Francis' expression, I want to mention just one other thing in the realm of non-verbal communication.

At the very moment when Pope Francis tells Rocca et al to consult Schonborn's presentation, he animatedly raises his hand and slices it down in front of his face between the journalist and himself.

This gives off a dual impression: together with the look on his face, it makes it very clear that he is closing the in-flight discussion of this matter; and it appears to reveal something deeper about the use of that presentation.

Let me explain: When a person with nothing to hide tries to convince someone else to consult something which clearly and openly supports a given position, it is most natural for them to have a peaceful countenance and very open body-language.

Such an attitude is frequently and most normally conveyed with an unobstructed face, friendly and relaxed eyes, a genuine smile, open arms and, perhaps, even open hands.

In the video sequence shown at 1 Peter 5, Pope Francis seems to be agitated.

With the audio playing on the video, his description of Cardinal Schonborn as a ''great theologian'' sounds to have a slightly condescending tone.

At this point, he performs the hand-slice gesture which rapidly pulls down an imaginary guillotine on the whole discussion.

At the point when Pope Francis says the words In that presentation, his hand rises up and crashes down dramatically between his face and that of the questioner. This instinctive obstruction of his face seems to convey something opposite to his words: If Schonborn's presentation contains a clear answer, then why does Pope Francis' body language seem not to support that?

Indeed, why must we consult Schonborn at all, considering that Pope Francis signed Amoris Laetitia? Does the answer to these questions have anything to do with his other remarkable answer, when he stated that he did not remember the content of Footnote 351?!!!

Just to be clear, we are not judging the interior disposition of Pope Francis here. However, at every moment of every day, all people make subliminal interpretations - even judgments - of other people's non-verbal communication. It is just part of human interaction. All we have done here is tried to make sense of the fact that Pope Francis has still not openly affirmed 2,000 years of Catholic Truth, but has rather sent us all off on a further disunifying search for answers, in another ambiguous and lengthy ''linguistic event''.

Conclusion

If those leading the Church desisted from ambiguous rhetoric which makes them sound like Neo-Gnostics, then the faithful could more easily rely on what they clearly said, without resorting to analysis of their non-verbal communication.

A clear restatement of the Church's perennial teaching is needed as a matter of profound urgency for the unity of the Church and the salvation of souls.

 

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1291 )