October 15: One shade of gray

What did Pope Francis mean to do, when he used that quote from the French novelist Georges Bernanos, about “the most precious of the devil’s potions”? He wanted to refer to the kind of spiritual sloth and selfishness that represents “the biggest threat” to the Christian’s missionary role.

He quotes another clear-sighted writer to make his point: “And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes shape: ‘the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all appears to proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and degenerating into small-mindedness.’” The writer he is quoting this time? Pope Benedict XVI, from an influential 1996 speech, when he was still known as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.

It is possible that Cardinal Ratzinger had a different idea of small-mindedness in mind when he said those words in Guadalajara, Mexico, but the phrase is vivid precisely for its colourlessness: gray pragmatism. Perhaps Pope Francis used it because it captures, in its single shade, the dilemma of lukewarm Catholics.

He draws us a sketch: “Called to radiate light and communicate life, in the end they are caught up in things that generate only darkness and inner weariness, and slowly consume all zeal for the apostolate.”