At the present time, Pope Francis is visiting the United States. However, in a recent article in the NEW YORK TIMES, Jim Yardley quote an Argentine professor of the sociology of religion as claiming that Pope Francis does not represent an empowering force, but a paternalistic force. So does Pope Francis represent an empowering force, as Jean Houston does, or does he represent a paternalistic force?

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) September 22, 2015: At the present time, Pope Francis (who is of Italian descent), the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from Latin America (Argentina), and the first pope to take the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi (who was Italian).

In the article "A Humble Pope, Challenging the World" in the NEW YORK TIMES dated September 18, 2015, Jim Yardley quotes Ruben Rufino Dri, professor of the sociology of religion at the University of Buenos Aires, as saying, among other things, "His [the pope's] repositioning of the church is paternalistic. It is not a strategy for empowering it followers. This is by no means a revolution."

Perhaps Professor Dri is prepared to set forth his operational definitions of the terms "paternalistic" and "empowering." But Yardley's article does not happen to include Dri's operation definitions of those two key terms. I am not going to be so bold as to try to put words in Dri's mouth, so to speak, by setting forth my own operational definitions of those two key terms.

But what exactly does "empowering" mean?

Was not St. Francis of Assisi "empowered"?

Was not St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, "empowered"?

Is not Pope Francis "empowered"?

Is not Pope Francis trying to help Americans experience "empowering" on their own by visiting the United States?

Or is Pope Francis just visiting the United States to try to get non-Catholics to convert to Roman Catholicism and then contribute their money to the Roman Catholic Church?

No doubt the priest sex-abuse scandal and cover-up has contributed to the reduction of the number of practicing Catholics in the U.S. and depletion of the coffers of the American Catholic bishops.

Now, as a former Jesuit (1979-1987), I am prepared to discuss Jesuit spirituality. Disclosure: for many years now, I have not been a practicing Catholic. Today I describe myself as a theistic humanist, as distinct from a secular humanist.

In Jesuit spirituality, Jesuits, and others who may practice Jesuit spirituality, are trained to find God in all things.

For an accessible introduction to Jesuit spirituality, see Fr. James Martin's book THE JESUIT GUIDE TO (ALMOST) EVERYTHING (New York: HarperOne, 2010).

Arguably St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) learned how to find God in all things centuries before St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) founded the Jesuit order.

Arguably finding God in all things involves the kind of human participation that the French Catholic philosopher Louis Lavelle wrote about at length.

In his short book translated as THE MEANING OF HOLINESS, translated by Dorothea O'Sullivan, with an introduction Dom Illtyd Trethowan (London: The Catholic Book Club, 1954), Lavelle devotes a chapter to discussing St. Francis of Assisi (pages 28-48). But Lavelle does not discuss St. Ignatius Loyola or Jesuit spirituality.

I also recommend Lavelle's conceptually accessible but not easy to read essay Those Who Are Separated and United" in his book EVIL AND SUFFERING, translated by Bernard Murchland (New York: Macmillan, 1963, pages 93-152).

So far as I know, the only other book by Lavelle translated into English is THE DILEMMA OF NARCISSUS, translated with an introduction and notes by W. T. Gairdner (London: George Allen & Unwin; and New York: Humanities Press, 1973). This was published as part of the book series known as the Muirhead Library of Philosophy.

For an accessible introductory survey of Lavelle's thought, see James Collins' article "Louis Lavelle on Human Participation" in the PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW, volume 56, number 2 (March 1947): pages 156-183).

Concerning St. Francis of Assisi, also see Eloi Leclerc's book THE CANTICLE OF CREATURES: SYMBOLS OF UNION: AN ANALYSIS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, translated by Matthew J. O'Connell (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1977; orig. French ed., 1970).

Arguably finding God in all things involves the participation mystique that the French philosopher Lucien Levy-Bruhl writes about in his famous book HOW NATIVES THINK, authorized translation by Lilian A. Clark, with a new introduction by C. Scott Littleton (Princeton University Press, 1985).

Arguably finding God in all things involves encountering and engaging the life-force that Jean Houston writes about in her book LIFEFORCE: THE PSYCHO-HISTORICAL RECOVERY OF THE SELF (New York: Delacorte Press, 1980).

Now, in his recent eco-encyclical, Pope Francis has criticized the technocratic paradigm in global capitalism and called for a change. But he stopped well short of calling for an alternative economic model (e.g., a socialistic economic model or a communistic economic model) to replace the capitalistic model of the economy.

Thus Pope Francis is, in effect, calling for a paradigm shift away from the technocratic paradigm. But he does not happen to use the expression "paradigm shift" (associated with Thomas Kuhn). Nor does Pope Francis spell out in detail exactly what a shift away from the technocratic paradigm might involve.

Now, just as I said above that I did not want to try to put words into Dri's mouth, so too I do not want to try to put words into Pope Francis' mouth.

Nevertheless, I do want to say that Jean Houston of the Human Potential Movement, which is devoted to empowering people, has been working diligently for years to encourage people to cultivate a paradigm shift in their lives that involves a shift away from the technocratic paradigm. She is a past president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology.

Now, in the book LIVING HISTORY (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003, pages 264-265), former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (born in 1947) recounts her famous consultation with Jean Houston (born in 1937) in the White House.

Jean put Hillary up to carrying on both sides of an imaginary conversation with the long-deceased First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

But when the journalist Bob Woodward heard about this, he turned it into a sensationalistic account that was excerpted in NEWSWEEK magazine for his then-forthcoming book.

However, unbeknownst to Bob Woodard, in the cookbook-like instructions in the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, St. Ignatius Loyola repeatedly includes instructions for Jesuits and other making retreats following his guidebook to carry on both sides of an imaginary conversation with a biblical figure such as Jesus or Mary.

Therefore, it is probably safe to say that Bob Woodward never made a retreat following the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. But Jean Houston had.

So Kenneth L. Woodward (no relation), the religion editor at NEWSWEEK, had to write a follow up story about Houston to correct Bob Woodward's mischievous story in NEWSWEEK.

Jean Houston's autobiography is aptly titled A MYTHIS LIFE (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996). One chapter is titled "Buddy, Can You Paradigm?" (pages 139-167). Believe it or not, Jean Houston's father was a comedy writer.

Authors Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

Authors Bio:

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.

On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview

Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview