Cardinal Cupich says, "By calling the church a 'field hospital,' Pope Francis calls us to radically rethink ecclesial life. He is challenging all of us [in the church] to give priority to the wounded. That means placing the needs of others before our own" (page 72).
But remember what Brooks says: "When President Donald Trump signaled it was OK to hate marginalized groups, a lot of people were bound to see that as permission [to hate marginalized groups]."
Cardinal Cupich also says, "The medicine in this field hospital has a name. It is called mercy. . . . Bringing the medicine of mercy to the world is the most effective way for the disciples of Jesus to recapture the joy of the Gospel. The field hospital heals the healer as well. Something transformative happens to them as they work together to serve the needy [and the wounded]. They gain a fresh sense of purpose, hope, and joy about life as they discover new ways of healing [the wounded and perhaps also themselves]" (pages 73-74).
For further discussion of Pope Francis' views of mercy, see Archbishop Donald Bolen's entry on "Mercy" in A Pope Francis Lexicon (pages 126-134). Archbishop Bolen leads the Archdiocese of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Cardinal Cupich says that to imagine "the Catholic Church as a 'field hospital' for the wounded [is] a profound, indeed stunning image" (page 72). Yes, it is. Subsequently, he refers to "the field of battle" (pages 73) and "To be with the wounded on the field of battle" (page 74).
Now, the man who is now known by the Latinized name St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the Spanish mystic founder of the Society of Jesus, was actually seriously wounded in battle at Pamplona in 1521. He was carried on a stretcher back to his family home to recuperate. The first Jesuit pope undoubtedly knows that story. His famous religious conversion started during his recuperation from his wound.
Moreover, in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, the imagery of the battlefield is conjured up in the imagery of the meditation of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (standardized paragraph numbers 91-99) and the meditation of the Two Standards (paragraphs 136-148). (Jesus Christ represents one standard on the battlefield of life; Satan, the other.)
Now, if we were to accept Borghesi's account of American neoconservatism as the root cause of American Catholic neoconservatives' vociferous opposition to Pope Francis and his view of the church as a field hospital, then we would have to say that we have identified what Brooks refers to as "some spiritual or moral problem at the core of this [trend of Americans "acting in fewer pro-social and relational ways and in more snit-social and self-destructive ways"]: the corrosive ripple effect of neoconservatism.
Now, I want to turn again to something else that Brooks says: "This is what it feels like to live in a society that is dissolving from the bottom up as much as from the top down."
That's colorful. However, I have repeatedly called attention to the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955).
Using the print culture that emerged in Western culture after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in Europe in the mid-1450s, Ong repeatedly suggested that our contemporary secondary oral culture, with communications media that accentuate sound, is transforming print culture. So if our contemporary American society "is dissolving from the bottom up as much as from the top down," as Brooks describes, then we may have to see that dissolving as part of the gradual transformation of print culture into something new and different in secondary oral culture. But This interpretation does not necessarily mean that we just stand and watch everything dissolve.
On the contrary, we Americans have to discern what is good and what is not good. Then we need to work together with one another to forge something new that is good.
For further discussion of Ong's work, see my lengthy OEN article "Walter J. Ong's Philosophical Thought" (dated September 20, 2020):
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
