Dr Gina Wolfe reflects on Evangelii Gaudium at inaugural ACTA conference

Dr Gina Wolfe

The spirit of Pope Francis could be felt at work when the Westminster branch of the ACTA (A Call To Action) movement held their first evening conference in London last week. The keynote speaker was Dr Gina Wolfe, Associate Professor of Catholic Theological Ethics at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Taking up themes from the Pope’s programmatic Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel) text, which seeks to make every Christian a missionary, she reflected on how the Church should be welcoming, listening and accompanying.

Welcoming meant Christian hospitality, she said, which was far more than social interaction between friends. Etiquette was not the point. Downton Abbey, as popular in the US as in the UK, was no guide here. Christian hospitality did not entail reciprocity – if I invite you, you should invite me - nor was it especially in the gift of women. Rather, it was based on reverence for the other, whoever he or she might be – immigrants, prisoners, the homeless. “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ”, St Benedict said in his Rule.

A spirituality of hospitality included gratitude for persons, including oneself, created in the image of God. Patience and the ability to keep silent were necessary here as elsewhere.

The ability to listen, not simply to hear, was closely related, she said. Christian listening depended on openness to the other. But how could Catholics listen to those outside the Church if they did not listen to those inside it? She commended the attempt of the rising generation of moral theologians to go beyond the established divide in ethical approach between traditionalists such as John Finnis and Germain Grisez, and revisionists such as Bernard Haring and Charles Curran.

Thirdly, accompanying. She began by considering the hard and increasing challenge posed by dementia sufferers and their carers. She thought the Catholic Church in England and Wales was ahead of the Americans in seeking to make parishes “dementia-friendly”. The American bishops seemed chiefly concerned that dementia sufferers should not be subject to euthanasia, whereas the bishops in England and Wales were promoting a ministry of inclusion which would meet sufferers’ and carers’ pastoral needs.

Reflecting further on the theme of accompanying, she drew on a recent image used by Bishop Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The bishop noted that helping the poor was understood by many as giving them a hand from above and pulling them up. But for Pope Francis, it meant sharing the situation of poor and marginalised people and joining hands with them there on an upward path.

Hence Pope Francis’s emphasis on mercy, Dr Wolfe said, a virtue described by the Jesuit James Keenan as “entering into the chaos of the life of another”.

For the second half of the evening, those present at the meeting divided into discussion groups facilitated by Fr Patrick McLouglin, one of the founders of ACTA. He asked every individual how they themselves welcomed, listened and accompanied. Each group chose a scribe who reported on the results.