Cardinal Pelagius warned the itinerant friar from Assisi
against his attempt to meet Sultan Malik al-Kamil in Egypt 796 years ago about
nowish. During the summer battles in the
heat and humidity of the Nile delta, thousands of Crusaders and Muslims had
been killed and the notion that two unarmed pious men would make it to the
Sultan's camp alive was beyond the pale.
According to most accounts, the fact that Francis of Assisi and his
companion Illuminatio survived their capture before being brought through the
conflict into Sultan al-Kamil's compound was miracle enough. The hospitality and dialogue that ensued over
the subsequent week represents unimaginable kindness on the part of both great
and pious men. And the fact that Francis
returned to Europe with a muezzin's ivory horn which he used to call faithful
Catholics to prayer as he'd heard Muslims similarly called indicates that the
fraternity of this heretical visit transcended the sanctified, murderous
zealotry of the 13th century.
I listened intently to Pope Francis' September 25, 2015 address
to the United Nations and, together with millions of others, reflected on the
humanity that his words and actions represent in a time when zealotry and
conflict are grabbing headlines across the globe. And to be sure, Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato
si' have fallen about as far from Pope Innocent III's murderous crusades
and tyrannical usury as could be imagined.
The historical irony - a 21st century pontiff bearing the name of a
saint who's Order was recognized by Pope Innocent III (yes, the same pope that
nullified the Magna Carta) - of
overturning principles codified 800 years earlier is one that bears note. But as I listened to several speakers at the Climate Investing: Transition to a
Low-Carbon World conference at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend,
Indiana over the past two days reference Pope Francis' many notable quotes
about morality and justice, I found myself flooded with heretical thoughts
worthy of the Inquisitor's wrack or pyre.
As with hundreds of conferences before, the conversation at
this conference recited the tired apocalyptic catechism of degrees centigrade,
meters of sea level, tons of carbon emissions, etc. Somber specters of human extinction were
benignly accommodated punctuated by flashes of hope against the soot-blackened
outlook on a humanity that is addicted to consumption, hypnotized under the
60Hz spell, and reflexively immune from pathos
by presenting gargantuan scale obstacles to intimidate the most intrepid. In South Bend, we had our Cardinal Pelagius
telling us of certain doom, our Innocent III praising the infallible utility
gods, and a couple would be Francis and Illuminatios. But, missing from this conversation - as with
so many other similar gatherings - was the recognition that we will not clear
the skies or clean the waters until we kneel to humbly repent of a much blacker
stain than any carbon could muster. We
still hold onto the abusive notion that we are lords over the earth and we
reinforce that illusion by our relentless fear that to contemplate a heresy
that threatens the monetary malignancy that demands perpetual growth beyond all
natural order is to step too far into the unknown.
So, while I know that the Vatican bank and the $150 billion
a year juggernaut called the Catholic Church will turn to advisors like former
Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig at Promontory Financial Group (the
firm that was paid reportedly around $2 billion to help bail out their banking
clients during the GFC) for their advice and strategic direction, I thought
that it might behoove us to consider excerpts of a note I drafted for Pope
Francis when I was put on stand-by to comment on his then-up-coming visit to
the United States.
Dear Pope Francis,
Your words and actions
since becoming the Bishop of Rome have been a fragrant nectar in a desert of
moral decay. Together with millions of
others, I deeply honor the courage you've exemplified in challenging the iconic
expectations of your office. Were you
and I able to meet one day, I would lean into my Anabaptist heritage and engage
in the one lost sacrament that I believe we would both share: the washing of
feet in service and humility. As a young
boy, I spent my birthdays traveling through the missions of California and
found myself constantly drawn to St. Francis as a model of the human
ideal. So with your accession, I
celebrated the reinvigoration of his memory and service.
However, across the
years, I've found myself increasingly concerned with what can only be described
as hypocrisy plaguing the very catholic and universal impulse that you
steward. For while I can read your
encyclicals and find in them profound coherence with my understanding of truth,
I am blinded by the simultaneous objective insincerity that they represent when
it comes to the ultimate seduction: monetary idolatry….
And let me be
abundantly clear on where this idolatry is most poignant. In Laudato
si' you correctly speak of our common home and our stewardship
thereof. And while it is beyond the
scope of this message, I would respectfully point out the vast land holdings
your Church stole from Communities of Persistence (then labeled as
"indigenous" or "heathen") across the globe in the name of
Christ. These lands which include coastal
plantations in the Pacific, mining concessions in the Americas and the source
of energy reserves throughout the world are now at risk of sea level rise,
toxic waste and degradation, and ruin and yet as Chief Steward, you've done
nothing to repatriate and heal the very lands the Church took in its darkest
hours. The gilded altars glisten with
the gold and silver that came at the cost of the lives of millions in slavery
and no reconciliation is proffered….
So, while we can
recount the abuses of times past, allow me to offer a modest suggestion
inspired by your regnal namesake. During
the height of the Crusades, St. Francis traveled to North Africa in an effort
to convince a Muslim Sultan of the merits of ending a war that his Pope
sponsored. The fruits of his efforts
were not realized in his life but they could be in yours. Then, as now, massive human dislocation is
taking place in Syria, Jordan, Babylon, and North Africa. Then, as now, much of this dislocation is fueled
by inequitable access to water and means of basic alimentation. Then, as now, most of the responses from the
world's elite is to rain down warfare on the "infidel" regardless of
the direction he or she bends the knee.
Let's do something
different. We know that Syria's
conflagration is caused, in large part, by the failure of rains that have made
scarce water insufficient to support small farmers. This problem, expanded to scale, has inflamed
old hatreds and has led to unimaginable horrors. We know that bombings have not worked any
better than swords and pikes 796 years ago.
So how about this. Why don't you
place a tithe - one tenth of your bank's balance sheet - into the St. Francis Sultan Malik al-Kamil Fund for
Humanity. Far from a
"development bank", this fund would immediately offer a sukuk for
water infrastructure development specifically owned by Syrian and Jordanian
landowner / farmer cooperatives. The Vatican's obligation would merely be to
stand as surety or collateral against the performance of the sharia compliant
bond. The bond service would be paid
from the agriculture produced by the arable land. And, at long last, the words of the Prophet
Isaiah will come to fruition: "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as a
rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and
rejoice even with joy and singing."
Truly Laudato si'
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Bravo
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