The Beauty of Authority

We live in a world where the word authority has become a taboo word. There is great mistrust of authority and as a society, we have become cynical to some extent about the word. Conspiracy theories abound and have only been exacerbated during the pandemic. Leadership is questioned everywhere I go and sometimes it is saddening. It brought me to think about the authority we have in the Church which I quite enjoy. One time, someone asked me why I went to mass regularly. The comment, “Why go and listen to someone who only tells you that what you do is wrong?” It left me bewildered. I knew I did not go to mass for that reason, but I wondered what would make someone think in this way.

Being Struck

I went to mass on the feast of St. Leo the Great (Pope Leo I). Before mass, I try to read about the saint of the day, and something struck me about him. He sat in Peter’s Chair for 21 years and was declared a doctor of the Church. How great it must be to trust this authority. In my parish, during Lent one year, we showed a movie each week of the last six popes from Pius XII to Benedict at the time.

I stopped by the Catholic bookstore and found the videos for my pastor. It was a great idea, but watching the movies, we saw how the popes were connected as they moved up the ranks of the Church Hierarchy. The world outside the Church can be cynical about the authority in the Church but I look at it as a beauty. Every Tuesday we would meet and watch these movies, some dubbed in English from Italian, but they were so beautiful. I have had the opportunity to see only two popes in person – John Paul II and Pope Francis at his Sunday Angelus. An intriguing part of the papacy is its longevity. It symbolizes unity in a Church by being a lighthouse in a broken world. I really do look at each at of them as a Father.

Reading Helps

Lately, I have been reading a lot despite not being a reader as much in my youth. It grew on me after high school. There is more to authority than being bossed around. It corresponds to your heart when you are searching for more in life. I have visited many monasteries and convents in my travels. They are such beautiful places but there is always a central authority. There is not someone who is a command but someone to look at or to follow. In this way, there is more freedom. I always enjoy reading about the history of the Papacy. It makes for fascinating reading. The early popes who were mostly martyred, the popes who struggled with monarchs and governments, and those whose papacy was so brief, it makes you wonder how they would have made an impact on the Church at all.

I recall reading about so many of the popes, but a couple jumps to my mind for the purpose of this article. Pope Leo I, whom I mentioned before stayed with the people even after the city was sacked by the Vandals, despite thwarting Attila the Hun just before this. This truly remarkable man helped us understand the true nature of Christ. “Peter has spoken thus through Leo.” This was the cry at the Council of Chalcedon which clarified the nature of Christ. His interventions helped confirm the primacy of Peter. Even in the early Church and through the ages, the importance of the primacy of Papacy continued.

Saint Peter Chrysologus, Father and Doctor of the Church (Letters 25:2 [A.D. 449]:

We exhort you in every respect, honorable brother, to heed obediently what has been written by the most blessed pope of the city of Rome, for blessed Peter, who lives and presides in his own see, provides the truth of faith to those who seek it. For we, by reason of our pursuit of peace and faith, cannot try cases on the faith without the consent of the bishop of Rome.

Another Example

Another Leo, Pope Leo XIII, is considered the pope of the workers. As the world industrialized and exploitation became rampant, Leo XIII had the forethought to instruct the faithful. A long-serving pope, he laid the groundwork for social teaching.

Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is, and at the same time to seek elsewhere…for the solace to its troubles (Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum: On the Condition of the Working Classes).

It is easy for someone to reduce authority and leadership to something cynical. I had to grow to understand this. It took time because I can be a rebel. I remember those moments watching the Pope speak on television, giving a speech, or watching Midnight Mass from the Vatican once I returned home from my mass. I remember one time I was telling a group of friends that the Pope was going to visit Toronto for World Youth Day. I was so excited, and the comment was, “Are you going to see your pope?” was the snarky attitude. I joyfully said of course, why wouldn’t I? It was a great adventure, and I was so happy afterward. I still remember the words spoken by John Paul II after he arrived via helicopter during the rain and the sun came out once he arrived.

The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility (Pope John Paul II -during his homily at mass (Toronto 2002).

Some Thoughts

I read the book, Radiance in your Eyes by Julian Carron who quotes the Servant of God, Father Luigi Giussani:

So then, let’s ask ourselves now, with Giussani, “What is the most important factor in the reality of people to which we are called, in the reality of the companionship in which we participate?” In answer, he said, “The most important factor in the reality of a people is called authority.”1 Authority is the most important factor in the reality of people because, without it, people is not generated. Authority is the place where it becomes evident that Christ is victor, where Christ persuasively shows that He corresponds to the needs of the heart. “Authority is a person who, when you see him or her, you see that what Christ says corresponds to your heart. By this a people is guided.”2

We must look beyond what is told to us from the mass media and social media. There is still much joy in the world. This last century and a half have been challenging for the world, but we have been blessed with great Popes to help us. The Carmelite nuns remind me of this often. For my part, I want to follow a group of friends who can lead me to the greater joy that awaits us all. This is no small task when there are so many obstacles that surround us. However, faith in Christ and looking at an authority – not the one that wants to control – but the one that wants to love is my road. I want to faithfully follow.

1 Luigi Giussani, “La gioia, la letizia e l’audacia: Nessuno genera, se non è generato” [Joy, gladness and audacity: No one generates unless he is generated], Tracce-Litterae communionis, no. 6 (June 1997): II.

2 From a conversation between Luigi Giussani and a group of Memores Domini, Milan, September 29, 1991, in “Chi è costui? [Who is this man?], suppl. to Tracce-Litterae communionis 22 no. 9 (October 2019): 10.