From the bulletin of July 11, 2021
After a long hiatus, I’d like to return to our journey through the writings of various popes. You may remember that we last looked at Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) and his encyclical on preaching the Word of God. Today, we’ll take a look at a timely letter of his on the famous poet Dante Aligheri.
Dante was an Italian poet who lived 1265-1321. He is most famous for a long epic poem called The Divine Comedy. It consisted of three parts: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. It is a fictional story about himself as he travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Widely considered one of the greatest literary works in the world, The Divine Comedy is an excellent display of poetic skill and theological knowledge. For this reason, Pope Benedict XV wrote a letter praising this work on the 600th anniversary of the poet’s death. This year marks the 700th anniversary and Pope Francis also recommended that we rediscover this great work.
In particular, Pope Benedict praised him because he showed that “Christians should pay highest reverence to the Sacred Scripture and accept what it contains with perfect docility.” He also commended the poet’s “great reverence for the authority of the Catholic Church.” He says this even though the Divine Comedy does portray several prominent Church leaders as ending up in Hell. This is because we know it to be a work of fiction and not a literal claim to know the eternal fate of the historical figures he mentions. The point is that Dante showed a solid grasp of Catholic Philosophy and Theology and used that knowledge to provide important lessons to his readers. Although it takes a little work and the help of a guide, when you read The Divine Comedy, you can learn quite a bit about the Catholic faith and also be moved by it’s beauty to seek a life of greater holiness.
What’s more is that we have an interesting local connection. Our own University of Louisiana in Lafayette was home to a notable translator of the Divine Comedy. Burton Raffel lived from 1928-2015 and ended his career as the chair of Humanities at ULL. In fact, to honor both the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death and the memory of Burton Raffell, ULL and the Diocese of Lafayette are putting on a small Colloqium on Dante September 17 & 18. If all goes well, I should be participating in this event, presenting a little on the Purgatorio and Monasticism. Please pray for the event to be an enriching experience for all involved.
– In Christ,
Fr. Albert