When I was growing up my dad would often end family debates by calling for the Oxford Dictionary to be brought forth from its prominent place on the bookshelf. The precise definition of a word was almost always at the root of the disagreement. It became a bit of a family joke, but in the decades that have passed since those kitchen-table tribunals have elapsed, the wisdom of this approach has grown in my mind.
George Orwell, in a 1954 essay on Politics and the English language, makes the same point. The lack of clarity, particularly the use of words that either have no meaning (they are phrases) or they are being misused, is one of the major problems with not only communication, but ultimately, and relatedly, politics.
The word ideology is used a lot these days. It's well-worn part of my own vocabulary and, if I'm being honest, I sometimes misuse it- out of laziness in speech or, worse, as an insult. But what has caught my eye of late is this word being used a lot by the Holy Pontiff, Pope Francis. The following comments from Pope Francis were made in response to a question posed by the press regarding concerns on the synod: flight home from Mongolia in September of the year:
A few months ago, I called a Carmelite. “How are the nuns doing, Mother Superior?” She was a non-Italian Carmelite. And the prioress answered me. And she finally said to me: “Your Holiness, we are afraid with this Synod.” "Now what’s going on?” I said jokingly. “Do you want to send a sister to the Synod?” “No, we are afraid you are going to change doctrine.” And this is what she was saying, she had this idea…
But if you go to the root of these ideas, you will find ideologies. Always, when one wants to detach from the path of communion in the Church, what always pulls it apart is ideology. And they accuse the Church of this or that, but they never make an accusation of what is true: (it is made up of) sinners. They never speak of sin ... They defend a “doctrine”, a doctrine like distilled water that has no taste and is not true Catholic doctrine, that is, in the Creed. And that very often scandalizes. How scandalous is the idea that God became flesh, that God became Man, that Our Lady kept her virginity? This scandalizes.
The implication is that not wanting doctrine to change- what would qualify as tradition- has, at its root, ideologies. Hmm. Well, at this point my dad, God rest his soul, would definitely be reaching for the Oxford Dictionary, and flipping to this page:
Ideology / 1 A system of ideas or way of thinking, usu. relating to politics or society, or to the conduct of a class or group, and regarded as justifying actions, esp. one that is held implicitly or adopted as a whole and maintained regardless of the course of events.
This would not clear up the argument as it did in the good days round the kitchen table, but it might shed some light on the way the word is being used. The operative part of the definition, in this case, seems to be, 'regardless of the course of events'. If people cling to doctrine, regardless of the course of events, then it becomes an ideology.
One of the best characteristics of the Catholic Church is that she has stood firm - One, Holy, Apostolic - regardless of the course of events. Empires have risen and fallen, political theories have come and gone, schools of economic and social theories have faded from the minds of men and through it all, alone stands Holy Mother Church, built upon the Chief Cornerstone.
+Vivat Christus Rex!
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