Murilo Jambeiro de Oliveira
Brazil, May 13, 2025.
Writing in general does me a lot of good. And during the period in which Pope Francis’ death was confirmed and Leo XIV’s election took place, which dominated part of the news and only in his most recent interview was he able to thank for asking for freedom of the press in the world, I remembered several academic articles and conversations I had with religious people. At the beginning of all my considerations, one of the new Pope Leo XIV should be remembered, the motto he chose: “In the one Christ, we are one”. Which is part of the sermon I proposed, ending a curious period between the resignation of Benedict XVI and Francis, where much was said about two popes, and more than that, the most central sermon I gave here, about unity between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Catholics, as well as Protestant and Evangelical Christians in Brazil. It is very important for everyone.
Going a little further, the choice of the name Leo XIV surprises me a little, in a sense that is quite interesting. Perhaps it is from Leo XIII, his predecessor, that much of what needs to be updated in the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, such as its Social Doctrine, is due. This is a central point, and much is said, for example, about his predecessor having worked during his Papacy during a period of great change in the ways of work throughout the world, notably the Industrial Revolution. I had already asked myself about another encyclical for a religious close to the Catholic Church, of great erudition, an encyclical called “HUMANUM GENUS” that I highlight below, perhaps its only passage that is humanly understandable to this day, which is:
“4. Our predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs, in their incessant vigilance for the safety of the Christian people, were quick to detect the presence and purpose of this capital enemy as soon as it sprang into the light instead of hiding itself as a dark conspiracy; and, moreover, they took advantage and took measures, since it was their responsibility, and did not allow themselves to be taken in by the stratagems and traps set to deceive them.”
What is the issue, this priest I consulted told me? The issue of confession and secrecy exists for everyone, including the Catholic Church. It turns out that this encyclical was written during a period of great territorial conflict between the Catholic Church and the secular world, which is why it is so virulent in some parts. And it is perhaps only useful in a human sense, that is, when something comes to light, perhaps the fact itself does not bother us as much as the stratagems used. This is something I have already tried to explain about Machiavelli, when he wrote The Prince of Italy, to advise him on the reunification of Italy. Unlike the popular knowledge of this work, which many people have misappropriated, Machiavelli says that only certain means will lead to a certain end, which in his case was the reunification of Italy. It is the very human question of which stratagem was adopted and not of the fact itself that was omitted, causing the discomfort that almost every human being still experiences today, and in my opinion, only this is useful to this day. Moving forward, to gather all my reflections, I always remember Uriel the Archangel, Flame of God, or the one who holds the fire, as well as Leo XIV’s call to be “a lantern for the dark nights”. As I said above, it is clear that perhaps it is not so bothersome to illuminate some facts, as in reality some stratagems used to hide them are. The two things diverge, and as the Italian philosopher Machiavelli says, the means must match the end. Only a certain means will lead you to a certain end. It is human that a lie or an omission does not bother us as much as the way used to do it. And here, to talk about illumination, I remember the one who was a professor at the founding of the University of São Paulo, in its French mission, and this Angel called Uriel the Archangel, or Flame of God, or He who Holds the Fire, who is essentially someone who illuminates knowledge, as is in fact worshipped by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Claude Levi-Strauss, the first professor of the French mission at the University of São Paulo, has a very interesting work called “The Raw and the Cooked”, which consists of the following: for many centuries, the ancestor of the human being as we know it today, ran from one side of the forest to the other in despair, every time lightning struck the forest. Then, at a certain point, this ancestor of the human being as we know it today managed to harness fire, to make a small bonfire to light up his caves. At first, this lit up the dark nights and scared away other animals, but soon the greater value of harnessing fire was discovered: cooking the meat that he hunted. Anthropology, through the study of the period, will show that by eating cooked meat, the human being had, through the ingestion of broken down protein, a huge gain in the size of his brain. Something like saying, things well explained in detail, make the other human being more intelligent.
@CoexistenceLaw
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