Glad to see the bounty of responses to this letter! I was pleasantly delighted with the content, and am heartened to see its call being taken up/anticipated by so many centres of formation.
More of them should read the constitutions and documents of Vatican II. As should many more lay people. Everyone blames the church for poor catechesis but the lay apostolate doesn’t take much initiative to become better catechized and informed.
My reaction to the letter was "spoken like a true Jesuit." The Jesuits have a formation period of around 11 years, about 50% longer than that which most secular priests get.
You can see how pressured the formation period is in some countries by reading the Charter on Priestly Formation produced by the Bishops of England and Wales (available on line if you have a life of leisure).
This Charter contains a list of desirable/essential achievements for each of the four aspects of priestly formation - Human, Spiritual, Pastoral and Intellectual. Each of the four lists would kill an elephant, especially the Intellectual. How seriously anyone takes it, I don't know. One thing is certain. If you are cramming a Great Books course in there, a lot of the existing topics will be pruned or completely axed.
Before the six years in major seminary, future English priests are supposed to have a propaedeutic year at Valladolid in Spain. You can tell how deep in the doodoo we are when the Bishops explain two of the justifications for the time and expense of this preparatory year. One, some candidates have no regular prayer life. Two, some candidates lack confidence in their knowledge of basic Catholic teachings. The candidates may well be lacking in literary education also, but Their Graces do not mention that.
How about gaining human sympathy for flesh and blood fellow humans by pursuing longer pastoral assignments? Poor areas, prisons, hospitals, military bases, seamans' missions, schools, at least one foreign country.... I guess it is less messy to read books.
I was received into the Catholic church at Easter 1979. In the two preceeding years l read most of Dostoevsky's major novels and several not so major ones. The Brothers Karamazov had a great influence on my faith. Since then so has Pushkin's poetry. And how can a Catholic live without the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins? (And l must add l cannot bear Tolstoy.) Try reading Anna Akhmatova. My next adventure is reading Dante.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. To promote particular ideologies, different groups have always tried to suppress literature that was prized by others—banning and burning when they felt a particular threat to their own worldview. But great books always survived, because they contained some truth that was enduring, and needed to be told. The image of Montag memorizing Ecclesiastes in Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 (itself a “cancelled” great book) comes to mind.
I love this. There are many wonderful reading lists available online to direct one’s choices. Ascension also does a spiritual classics read along podcast, which I just discovered. They just started “Story of a Soul”.
For parents, I highly recommend “A Mother’s List or Books” by Teresa Fagan. Read alouds are time well spent, and many libraries still keep a nice selection of audiobooks, whether in CD format or through streaming platforms like Hoopla.
Perhaps I misread the document a month ago...does the Pope promote the "Great Books?" I seem to recall our pontiff saying something at the end about reading any kind of literature because if you read enough of the mundane (at best) you'll try edifying stuff later. I'm paraphrasing. In the letter, Pope Francis even gave an example of teaching a class of teenagers with a comtemporary novel (that wasn't good literature, but held their interest in reading) as an idea of what he's advocating for. ...if I understood correctly. Now this bibliophile's got to re-read it. I'm heartened to hear about the efforts of the people mentioned in the article.
The Pope doesn’t mention the term Great Books but nearly all the authors and examples he gives are, I think, within what could be considered Great Books. In his example he mentions his students not wanting to read El Cid, the first epic poem written in Castilian but wanting to read García Lorca instead. García Lorca was killed in the Spanish civil war in the 30s and is perhaps the greatest contemporary Spanish playwright. So I wouldn’t say he’s bad literature, just not so old as El Cid :-)
Glad to see the bounty of responses to this letter! I was pleasantly delighted with the content, and am heartened to see its call being taken up/anticipated by so many centres of formation.
More of them should read the constitutions and documents of Vatican II. As should many more lay people. Everyone blames the church for poor catechesis but the lay apostolate doesn’t take much initiative to become better catechized and informed.
My reaction to the letter was "spoken like a true Jesuit." The Jesuits have a formation period of around 11 years, about 50% longer than that which most secular priests get.
https://www.jesuitscentralsouthern.org/become-a-jesuit/jesuit-formation/#:~:text=The%20various%20elements%20of%20Jesuit,background%20and%20course%20of%20studies.
You can see how pressured the formation period is in some countries by reading the Charter on Priestly Formation produced by the Bishops of England and Wales (available on line if you have a life of leisure).
This Charter contains a list of desirable/essential achievements for each of the four aspects of priestly formation - Human, Spiritual, Pastoral and Intellectual. Each of the four lists would kill an elephant, especially the Intellectual. How seriously anyone takes it, I don't know. One thing is certain. If you are cramming a Great Books course in there, a lot of the existing topics will be pruned or completely axed.
Before the six years in major seminary, future English priests are supposed to have a propaedeutic year at Valladolid in Spain. You can tell how deep in the doodoo we are when the Bishops explain two of the justifications for the time and expense of this preparatory year. One, some candidates have no regular prayer life. Two, some candidates lack confidence in their knowledge of basic Catholic teachings. The candidates may well be lacking in literary education also, but Their Graces do not mention that.
How about gaining human sympathy for flesh and blood fellow humans by pursuing longer pastoral assignments? Poor areas, prisons, hospitals, military bases, seamans' missions, schools, at least one foreign country.... I guess it is less messy to read books.
Raskolnikov does not become a saint through murder.
.....although he undoubtedly undergoes a spiritual rebirth.
I was received into the Catholic church at Easter 1979. In the two preceeding years l read most of Dostoevsky's major novels and several not so major ones. The Brothers Karamazov had a great influence on my faith. Since then so has Pushkin's poetry. And how can a Catholic live without the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins? (And l must add l cannot bear Tolstoy.) Try reading Anna Akhmatova. My next adventure is reading Dante.
What about the problem of cancellation of all the great books by the woke culture?
Check your local library or Thriftbooks online.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. To promote particular ideologies, different groups have always tried to suppress literature that was prized by others—banning and burning when they felt a particular threat to their own worldview. But great books always survived, because they contained some truth that was enduring, and needed to be told. The image of Montag memorizing Ecclesiastes in Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 (itself a “cancelled” great book) comes to mind.
Great reference to a fantastic novel.
I love this. There are many wonderful reading lists available online to direct one’s choices. Ascension also does a spiritual classics read along podcast, which I just discovered. They just started “Story of a Soul”.
For parents, I highly recommend “A Mother’s List or Books” by Teresa Fagan. Read alouds are time well spent, and many libraries still keep a nice selection of audiobooks, whether in CD format or through streaming platforms like Hoopla.
Perhaps I misread the document a month ago...does the Pope promote the "Great Books?" I seem to recall our pontiff saying something at the end about reading any kind of literature because if you read enough of the mundane (at best) you'll try edifying stuff later. I'm paraphrasing. In the letter, Pope Francis even gave an example of teaching a class of teenagers with a comtemporary novel (that wasn't good literature, but held their interest in reading) as an idea of what he's advocating for. ...if I understood correctly. Now this bibliophile's got to re-read it. I'm heartened to hear about the efforts of the people mentioned in the article.
The Pope doesn’t mention the term Great Books but nearly all the authors and examples he gives are, I think, within what could be considered Great Books. In his example he mentions his students not wanting to read El Cid, the first epic poem written in Castilian but wanting to read García Lorca instead. García Lorca was killed in the Spanish civil war in the 30s and is perhaps the greatest contemporary Spanish playwright. So I wouldn’t say he’s bad literature, just not so old as El Cid :-)
Thanks for the clarification!
Truthfully, with all the financial issues... Can someone in Rome take some accounting courses?