Is “Listening” Overrated? (or, Are We All Second-Graders?) by Dr. Jeff Mirus

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Oct 27, 2023

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org

It is perhaps typical of the current pontificate that the Letter of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to the People of God should embrace the theme that the “Church must listen to everyone”. Unfortunately, this emphasis suggests also that the Church herself has nothing to say. And, to speak the full truth, there is something just “a little bit off”—indeed, one might more accurately describe it as “diabolically creepy”—about a Church which, through a process of endless listening, never actually comes to the point.

Moreover, the current pontificate provides a sort of inverted case study of “listening”. Francis has consistently separated both the members of the Church and the the citizens of the world into two very identifiable groups: Those to whom he is willing to listen, and those to whom he is not. In living memory at least, there has not been a pope as quick as Francis to deny a hearing to those who are in any way critical of his pontificate, whom he instantly marginalizes as “rigid”. …