Pope Francis issued the letter “On the Role of Literature in Formation” on July 17, writing that “literature can greatly stimulate the free and humble exercise of our use of reason, a fruitful recognition of the variety of human languages, a broadening of our human sensibilities, and finally, a great spiritual openness to hearing the Voice that speaks through many voices.”
“Reading Enlightens” by Ralf Steinberger (via Flickr Creative Commons)As the title of the letter suggests, he was writing specifically to pastors and future pastors, urging them to open their hearts to the diversity of human languages in the world and to the people who express themselves in those many different forms of communication. But he opened the letter with the recognition that literature can play an important role in all our lives.
“On further reflection, … this subject also applies to the formation of all those engaged in pastoral work, indeed of all Christians. What I would like to address here is the value of reading novels and poems as part of one’s path to personal maturity,” he wrote. That maturity includes an openness to different voices.
He went on to say that the absence of literature and poetry “can lead to the serious intellectual and spiritual impoverishment of future priests, who will be deprived of that privileged access which literature grants to the very heart of human culture and, more specifically, to the heart of every individual.”
But the letter ultimately expounds on the contribution of literature to our deep understanding of the human condition with all its joys and sufferings. “A good book,” he writes, “opens the mind, stimulates the heart, and prepares us for life.”
