I was asked to speak at the world
meeting of families in Dublin 2018 so I
know I'm kind of dating this this video
but I just finished a paper on chapters
7 8 & 9 of a more Setia which they asked
me to talk about and as anyone in the
Catholic space knows everyone and his
brother has talked about chapter 8 of a
more so TV
awful lot and I must say I was really
struck by a chapter 7 which is on moral
and spiritual education you know there's
so much netletter that is very rich the
trouble was a it was quite long so a lot
of people didn't read it and then there
was so much attention focused on chapter
8 I think it's good to to look seriously
at this letter and I was very taken by
chapter 7 I wanted to say three simple
things about it
the Pope there talks about moral
formation formation and virtue he talks
about communication technology today and
he talks about sex education so just
something simple about each one of those
what really struck me about his views on
virtue formation if the Pope has been
clearly influenced by the virtue
efficient now I'm talking about a group
of philosophers and theologians the last
about 25 30 years who put a great stress
on Aristotle's idea that the way to come
to moral rectitude is not primarily
through rules now our rules that are
gonna play a role in it in any kind of
discipline but primarily it's a question
Aristotle said long ago of habituation
of repeated action that gets certain
forms of life not just into your mind
like like rules but it really gets it
into your body and it's through this
habituation that we come to moral
goodness Thomas Aquinas very much
follows Aristotle here and and he is
very much of a virtue efficient I would
say and allowed me to see more clearly
why Pope Francis maybe sometimes in a in
a exaggerated way will be down on
rules are good rules are fine but
they're only part of a much bigger
process of habituation you know comes to
mind here is Stanley Howard was the
American Methodist theologian very much
in this school Howard was his dad was a
bricklayer and so as a young kid however
Weiss learned the art of laying bricks
he said the moral life is like that
so their rules I'm sure his dad a
certain point said no no never do that
or no no that's not the right way to do
it and I know here's how but most of
learning bricklaying is a header of
laying bricks of trial and error of
doing it again and again of being
corrected by masters watching great
bricklayers do their work and that's how
we tend to grow in moral virtue very
much in line with one of my favorite
thinkers namely Sarah pink hares the
Pope says that habituation and virtue
actually leads to freedom even though it
sounds the opposite it sounds as though
oh gosh the more you do all this you
know rules and habituation you're
becoming less and less free no only on a
very modern reading of freedom is that
true but classically no you become free
now to be a great bricklayer just you
become a free piano player a free player
or baseb the more you internalize
through habituation the the life of
baseball the moves of violin playing etc
right so habituation in virtue actually
leads to authentic freedom here's
something else also very Aristotelian
Aristotle said that the best way to
learn the moral life find the good man
watch him and then imitate him say so
there's habituation grounded in the
watching of a great master now see the
comparison to apprenticeship someone
learns to paint
that's a by just reading the rulebook of
painting but by watching a great painter
moving in sharing the life of the great
painter as the apprentices in the
Renaissance did watching him in action
and then imitating him so the Pope
following John Paul here very much says
the Saints the Saints are the Masters in
the moral and the spiritual life we
watch them
we imitate them we become habituated now
here's a little alcohol at Franciscan
twist yes the Saints these great moral
exemplars but Francis says typical of
him sometimes it's even those who are a
bit you know compromised maybe they're
not pure Saints but I can still learn
something from the way that maybe in a
halting way they've embodied that life
of virtue what came right to my mind was
graham greene's famous whiskey priest
you know from the power and the glory
that wonderful novel where the hero he
really is a hero but he's not a pure
saint I mean he's not a flawless figure
he's deeply compromised but yet he does
exemplify something in the moral life of
great power or think of you know one of
my favorite novels
Brideshead Revisited sebastian who's
deeply compromised figure you know
morally spiritually otherwise but he
emerges by the end of that novel as
indeed an exemplary figure that struck
me as very Franciscan as he lays out
this this image okay the second thing I
found in Chapter 7 that was really
interesting was reflections on our
present-day communication technology now
Pope Francis what he's 82 years old it's
not someone that really uses this
technology a lot but he is sensitive to
its prevalence today certainly and and
some of the dangers associated with it
here's the first observations he makes I
think is interesting he said we have to
in the face of communication technology
cultivate especially the virtue of hope
and when I first heard that I thought
what in the world was he mean by that
well he said communication technology
think of all the stuff we have
encourages immediate gratification
immediate information immediate
entertainment you know I I want to know
something just google it you'll find out
I want to entertainment press the button
there it is III want stimulus of some
kind oh there it is just press the
button when in fact he says quite
correctly it seems to me that the
greatest things in life
right the best things in life
intellectually morally spiritually are
things that don't come that way they
don't come by way of instant
gratification they come through a long
steady
process think of reading a great author
a great novelist or a great philosopher
think of growing in virtue think of
appreciating a great work of art right
that doesn't happen like that
it happens through patience and
therefore through something like hope so
I thought that was a very wise bit of
advice he gives to to young people
cultivate the virtue of hope the second
thing he says and this is more commonly
sure I'd say among commentators is the
virtue of socialization the master image
here for the Pope he said is the family
all sitting around the dining room table
but they're all on their individual
mobile devices you know so they're not
relating they're not socializing not
speaking to each other they're all in
their inner world that's an image in his
mind of what's wrong with a lot of our
setup today and I couldn't help but
think here of Jean Twenge whom I've
commented upon her book ijen right about
the rising generation so shaped by this
technology that that's what she sees a
generation now increasingly incapable of
engaging in in socialization much more
content to stay in that inner world a
little incapable of reading social cues
etc all those observations she makes I
think you're reiterated by by Pope
Francis here the third thing I noticed
the third major category in this chapter
7 of a more thought ETA has to do with
education in the area of sexuality the
Pope is is very aware of the prevalence
of pornography very aware of how sexual
images and and and a certain ideology
around sex that it's mattered simply a
freedom you know that I should do
whatever I want to do in the area how
prevalent how dangerously prevalent all
of that is here's his basic point and
it's very john paul ii sexuality like
everything else has got to be brought
under the aegis of love which means self
gift so it's not primarily despite the
culture here it's not primarily a
question of a free self-expression I
should be able to do and say what what I
want sexually no no its sexuality as of
vehicle of of love of other orientation
sex is beautiful the body is wonderful
but they should be brought under the
discipline and aegis of the virtue of
love and so where's this happen he's
dead right about this it happens
primarily in the family if the family
isn't giving this kind of instruction
and virtue what will happen the culture
will hijack young minds and hearts is
that happening well it answers itself
that question so families have got to be
in the front lines of shaping people in
the virtue of love and sex as a self
gift
I like his language again reminiscent of
john paul ii of learning the language of
the body now it means partially
physiology and biology and all that but
but more broadly here the language of
the body means our capacity through the
body to express love and to learn that
language and all of its complexity and
density is a is a first responsibility
of the family really important stuff
here's just a last reflection i'll close
with those christian smith who's the
greatest sociologists of religion at
notre dame has done all these studies of
young people and why they stay why they
leave the faith and he says this the
number one indicator that that a young
person will stay within the faith is
that the faith is vibrantly practiced
within the family it's very important
now i know it sounds simple but the the
danger is either there's no faith lived
at all or that it's simply out sourced
so send the kids to this school or send
them to this program that's not enough
it's the faith vibrantly lived witness
to talked about modeled within the
family is the clearest indicator that a
young person is going to stay in the
faith well as he closes this chapter
pope francis makes exactly that same
observation about the passing on of the
faith being a function of the family so
look formation and virtue absolutely it
happens first in the family through the
the exemplary of the parents
cetera training in regard to this new
technology where's that going to happen
but in the family where you learn
socialization sex education where's it
going to happen primarily in the family
the vibrantly lived faith and witness
there is what conduces most to a young
person staying in the faith so I might
recommend as I close a crack open the
Moors to teach you again maybe you read
add it when it first came out maybe you
were just caught up in all the debates
about a section of chapter 8 maybe
reread the thing and I might recommend
begin with chapter 7
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