On February 12, 2020, Pope Francis issued his new apostolic exhortation about the Amazon region. Addressed to all persons of good will, it is visionary and, at times, poetic. I will highlight certain passages and suggest relevant connections with the thought of the American Jesuit polymath Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) -- and certain other authors.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) February 14, 2020: On February 3, 2020, I published my OEN article "The Roman Catholic Doctrine of the Real Presence":

click here

At the end of my OEN article, I included a rather wide-ranging reading list of related books.

Then on February 12, 2020, Pope Francis released his new apostolic exhortation titled in Latin Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazon):

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/02/12/200212c.html

If you liked Pope Francis' 2015 eco-encyclical, which was addressed to all persons of good will, then you should also like his new 2020 apostolic exhortation, which is also addressed to all persons of good will.

If you like the poetry of the Victorian Jesuit classicist and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), then you should also like the pope's surprisingly poetic new apostolic exhortation.

For a perceptive discussion of Hopkins, see the American Jesuit polymath Walter J. Ong's book Hopkins, the Self, and God (University of Toronto Press, 1986), the published version of Ong's 1981 Alexander Lectures at the University of Toronto.

As I have just illustrated, I plan to interject associations throughout this entire review essay. For a bibliography of Ong's 400 or so publications, see Thomas M. Walsh's "Walter J. Ong, S.J.: A Bibliography 1929-2006" in the book Language, Culture, and Identity: The Legacy of Walter J. Ong, S.J., edited by Sara van den Berg and Thomas M. Walsh (New York: Hampton Press, 2011, pages 185-245).

For a survey of Ong's life and work, see my book Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication, 2nd ed. (New York: Hampton Press, 2015; 1st ed., 2000).

Of Ong's 400 or publications, the one that comes closest to capturing much of the spirit of what Pope Francis says in his new 2020 apostolic exhortation is his article "Mass in Ewondo" in the Jesuit-sponsored magazine America, volume 131, number 8 (September 28, 1974): pages 148-151; reprinted in volume four of Ong's Faith and Contexts, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999, pages 103-110).

As background information regarding Pope Francis' new 2020 apostolic exhortation, I should note here that he hosted the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon held at the Vatican from October 6 - 27, 2019. The preparatory document for the Synod to be held in October 2019 was titled Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology:

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/06/08/180608a.html

In any event, on February 13, 2020, the Roman Catholic columnist Michael Sean Winters published his op-ed commentary "'Querida Amazonia' shows how Francis is looking for deeper change" at the website of the National Catholic Reporter:

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/querida-amazonia-shows-how-francis-looking-deeper-change

Now, in Pope Francis, new apostolic exhortation, each paragraph is numbered. Because he skillfully weaves the words of certain other texts into his own text, there are 145 superscript numerals scattered throughout his text, and the specific sources of the quoted words are given in the 145 bibliographic end-notes at the end of the document.

In paragraph 5, Pope Francis says, "The Amazon region is a multinational and interconnected whole, a great biome shared by nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela, and the territory of French Guiana. Yet I am addressing the present Exhortation to the whole world. I am doing so to help awaken their affection and concern for that land which is also 'ours,' and to invite them to value it and acknowledge it as a sacred mystery."

For a vivid portrayal of Jesuit missionaries in the Amazon region during the colonial period, see the 1986 film The Mission, starring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons; written by Robert Bolt; music by Ennio Morricone.

In paragraph 48 of Pope Francis' new 2020 apostolic exhortation, he says, "Together with the biome of the Congo and Borneo, it [the Amazon region] contains a dazzling diversity of woodlands on which rain cycles, climate balance, and a great variety of living beings also depend."

Regarding the colonial period in the Congo, check out the Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness (1902).

But also see Ong's perceptive critique titled "Truth in Conrad's Darkness" in Mosaic: A Journal for the Comparative Study of Literature and Ideas (University of Manitoba Press), volume 11, number 1 (Fall 1977): pages 151-163; which is reprinted in volume three of Ong's Faith and Contexts, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995, pages 186-201).

In paragraph 29 of Pope Francis' new 2020 apostolic exhortation, he says, "The Amazon region is host to many peoples and nationalities, and over 110 indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation [from one another and from the modern world]."

In paragraph 31, the pope says, "Each of the [indigenous] peoples that has survived in the Amazon region possesses its own cultural identity and unique richness in our multicultural universe, thanks to the close relationship established by the inhabitants with their surroundings in a non-deterministic symbiosis which is hard to conceive using mental categories from without [i.e., from outside the specific indigenous culture]."

In paragraph 34, the pope says, "For centuries, the Amazonian peoples passed down their cultural wisdom orally, with myths, legends, and tales."

I am not going to try to list all of Ong's many relevant publications about orally passed down thought and expression.

In paragraph 35, the pope says, "Although there is a growing risk that this cultural richness [of the indigenous peoples in the Amazon region] will be lost, thanks be to god, in recent years some peoples have taken to writing down their stories and describing the meaning of their cultures. In this way, they themselves can explicitly acknowledge that they possess something more than an ethnic identity and that they are bearers of precious personal, family, and collective memories."

I am also not going to try to list all of Ong's many relevant publications about writing and written transmission of thought and expression.

In paragraph 56, Pope Francis says, "If we enter into communion with the forest, our voices will easily blend with its own and become a prayer. . . . This interior conversion will enable us to weep for the Amazon region and to join in its cry to the Lord."

Now, without attempting to be culture-specific, the 1995 Disney animation musical movie Pocahontas attempts to portray "the close relationship established by the inhabitants [in a North American indigenous culture] with their surroundings in a non-deterministic symbiosis" so that even North American children could relate to such a symbiosis.

David Abram tries to help adults in the Western world today understand the symbiosis and close relationship established by the inhabitants in indigenous cultures in his book The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human-World (New York: Pantheon Books, 1996).

For a perceptive study of one North American indigenous culture, see David M. Smith's 1997 essay "World as Event: Aspects of Chipewyan Ontology" that is reprinted, slightly revised, in the ambitious anthology Of Ong and Media Ecology, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (New York: Hampton Press, 2012, pages 117-159).

In paragraph 71 of Pope Francis' new 2020 apostolic exhortation, he says, "In this regard, the indigenous people of the amazon region express the authentic quality of life as 'good living.' This involves personal, familial, communal, and cosmic harmony and finds expression in a communitarian approach to existence, the ability to find joy and fulfillment in an austere and simple life, and a responsible care of nature that preserves resources for future generations. The aboriginal peoples give us [in the Western world today] the example of a joyful sobriety and in this sense, 'they have much to teach us.' They know how to be content with little, they enjoy God's little gifts without accumulating great possessions; they do not destroy things needlessly; they care for ecosystems and they recognize that the earth, while serving as a generous source of support for their life, also has a maternal dimension that evokes respect and tender love. All these things should be valued and taken up in the process of evangelization."

For related reading, see Anthony de Mello's book The Way to Love (New York: Doubleday, 1992).

In paragraph 73, the pope says, "Inculturation [of the Gospel as interpreted by the Roman Catholic Church's magisterium] elevates and fulfills. Certainly, we should esteem the indigenous mysticism that sees the interconnection and the interdependence of the whole of creation, the mysticism of gratuitousness that loves life as a gift, the mysticism of a sacred wonder before nature and all its forms of life. At the same time, though, we [Roman Catholics] are called to turn this relationship with God present in the cosmos into an increasingly personal relationship with a 'Thou' who sustains our lives and wants to give them meaning, a 'Thou' who knows and loves us."

For related reading see the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's books The Divine Milieu, translated by Sion Cowell (Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2004) and The Human Phenomenon, translated by Sarah Appleton-Weber (Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 1999).

In paragraph 77 of Pope Francis' new 2020 apostolic exhortation, he says "This [inculturation of the Gospel in the Amazon region] will give rise to witnesses of holiness with an Amazonian face, not imitations of models imported from other places. A holiness born of encounter and engagement, contemplation and service, receptive solitude and life in community, cheerful sobriety and the struggle for justice. A holiness attained by 'each individual in his or her own way,' but also be peoples, where grace becomes incarnate and shines forth with distinctive features. Let us imagine a holiness with Amazonian features, called to challenge the universal church."

In paragraph 79, the pope says, "It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry. A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used to advantage and not always [be] considered a pagan error."

Long ago, an anonymous Christian missionary did just this and gave us Beowulf.

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