Discovering Pope Francis

Brian Y. Lee, PhD, is assistant professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received a PhD in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2017. Dr. Lee’s academic research situates early Christian literature within the creative and competitive dynamics of the formation of early Jewish identities in the Greco-Roman world, in order to better understand the development of early Christian theology. Beyond the walls of academia he seeks new ways of promoting the development of theological understanding in the public discourse of the Church. He has been a member of the Community of Sant'Egidio since 1999Fr. Thomas L. Knoebel has been a priest of the archdiocese of Milwaukee since 1969.  He earned his doctorate in systematic theology from Fordham University. For the past 30 years, beginning in 1981, Fr. Knoebel has served at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as professor of systematic theology; director of spiritual formation, 1988-1994; academic dean, 1994-2005; twice interim rector, 1992-1993, 2007; and most recently as vice rector and vice president for external affairs. After retiring in 2013, he returned as President-Rector in 2017. He published the first English translations of De Ecclesiasticis Officiis by St. Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, in 2008; and of St. Isidore’s Sententiae, published this year; both part of Paulist Press’s important patristics series Ancient Christian Writers.  Fr. Knoebel was appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board for the Ancient Christian Writers series in 2009.Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 until his election as pope in 2013. As pope, he has proclaimed a gospel of joy, peace, and care for the poor, while leading reforms within the Vatican and beyond. His spiritual and moral leadership has become widely respected well beyond the confines of the Catholic Church.

• Contents  Papal Blessing Papal Foreword Translation of Papal ForewordForeword by Archbishop Christophe Pierre  CHAPTER 1The Story of a Symposium: Why We Need a Theological Understanding of Pope Francis’s Thought Brian Y. Lee and Fr. Thomas L. Knoebel  PART ONE: Latin American RootsCHAPTER 2Close and Concrete: Bergoglio’s Life Evangelizing a World in Flux Austen IvereighCHAPTER 3The “Theology of the People” in the Pastoral Theology of Jorge Mario Bergoglio Guzmán Carriquiry LecourCHAPTER 4Globalization, Baroque, and the Latin American Pope Rocco Buttiglione  PART TWO: European TheologyCHAPTER 5The Polarity Model: The Influences of Gaston Fessard and Romano Guardini on Jorge Mario Bergoglio Massimo BorghesiCHAPTER 6Gaston Fessard and Pope Francis Bishop Robert BarronCHAPTER 7Pope Francis and the Ecclesiology of Henri de Lubac Susan K. Wood, SCLCHAPTER 8An Encounter That Becomes Method: The Influence of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Luigi Giussani in the Theology of the Post–Vatican II Popes Rodrigo Guerra López  PART THREE: A North American Theology of the PeopleCHAPTER 9Pope Francis, Theology of the People, and the Church in the United States Peter J. Casarella  Contributors Bibliography Index

"Pope Francis has said that ours is not an age of change, but a change of age. In this important collection, we see how the Holy Father is drawing creatively from a range of thinkers and movements—European and Latin American—to bring the people of this age to a new encounter with Jesus Christ and the mercy of God. May these fine essays inspire deeper reflection on the Church's evangelical imperative and the urgency of our calling to be missionary disciples in these times."Most Reverend José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles