Fr. Llano, whose weekly column Un alto en el camino (“A stop along the road”) had appeared in the major Colombian newspaper El Tiempo for 30 years, has been told that his writing career has come to an end.
In a message to the editorial board of the newspaper, Fr. Llano wrote that “Father Adolfo Nicolás, the superior general of the Jesuits, has ordered Father Alfonso Llano to consider his apostolic vocation as a writer to be over, has deprived him of his freedom of speech, and is demanding that he not even say goodbye and that he keep absolute silence.”
The priest columnist earned his silencing for a November 24th column in which he offered his views on Pope Benedict XVI’s new book, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, and specifically on the doctrine of the virginity of Mary.
The column focuses on internal debate about the subject within the theological community and is worth translating in its entirety:
The Infancy of Jesus. That’s the
title of the third volume of the trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth by
theologian Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI. It has been published in
nine languages, including Spanish, and will be published in a first
global edition of one million copies. With a series of articles in the
press and interviews on radio and television, I would like to guide
readers of this book by the Pope, which offers a special difficulty —
the virginity of Mary — which will give theologians and the media a lot
to talk about.
To begin with, the latter are wondering
why the Pope is going back to a point that seems now passé, namely,
Mary’s virginity. Answer: for three reasons, one of which is obvious,
and that is that theologian Ratzinger set out to write a trilogy on
Jesus of Nazareth. He had already taken care of Jesus’ public life and
his Passion, death, and Resurrection. He lacked this third volume,
already announced, about Jesus’ infancy. And now he does it, a subject
that necessarily leads him to talk about Mary’s virginity. Second,
because Jesus is the central figure in the Catholic faith, and it’s the
Pope’s duty to preach Jesus whether it’s convenient or inconvenient, in
good times and bad, as Saint Paul advises Timothy (2 Tim 4:2). Third,
because the subject of Mary’s virginity is being revisited by some
Catholic theologians and requires clarification.
Talking about Jesus isn’t easy, because
he’s a mystery, the central mystery of the Catholic faith, which
confesses that Jesus is true (son of) man and true (son of) God. This
double reality implies a double birth. Saint Paul, in the letter to the
Philippians tells us that Jesus was a common man (Phil 2:6-7). Saint
Matthew, the same one who tells us about Jesus’ divine conception
(1:26), presents Jesus as the son of Mary and Joseph (13:53 ff.) and
with several brothers and sisters. It’s appropriate to clarify that, in
the judgment of North American Catholic biblical scholar John Meier, who
has studied the problem in depth, in the four Gospels it’s about real
blood brothers of Jesus (A Marginal Jew, I, 341). It’s time to leave
behind the fairy tale that they’re Jesus’ cousins. This assumption is
argued to safeguard Mary’s corporal virginity. The Pope cites the work
of this great biblical scholar several times in his trilogy, without
contradicting his interpretation of the corporal non-virginity of Mary.
So that the Pope’s position in this third
volume can be understood, it’s useful to take into account that in
theology there are two complementary ways to get to Jesus: a descending
way, which is the one the Pope follows, and that the first four councils
followed, which leans on John 1:14: “The Word became man”, a way that
emphasizes Jesus’ divinity, as the Pope does; and the other way is
ascending, which was the historical way, that starts with the man Jesus
and ends with his exaltation as Son of God, according to which Mary had a
big family.
In sum: the reader of this work by
Ratzinger will find the affirmation of Mary’s virginity. Given that the
Pope follows the descending path in this work, he emphasizes his
divinity, which gives rise to the theological virginity of Mary (Mt
1:26) and silences his humanity, whose origin isn’t virginal (Mt 13:53
ff). In other words: Mary conceived the Son of God virginally, in the
theological sense, without the intervention of Joseph, as is narrated in
Matthew 1:26, by the work of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, as
mother of Jesus the man, just like us, she conceived him through an act
of love with her legal spouse, Joseph, with whom she had four sons and
several daughters (Mt 13:53 ff).
Let’s wait for the book and talk more knowledgeably.
This final column consists of a series of quotes from Lumen Gentium about Mary and a couple from the Pope’s book, which the priest says he hopes will “bring peace of mind and restore the trust of the people of God in the teachings of the Church.”
It’s as notable for what it leaves unsaid as what it says.
And now a great silence descends…