The Transfigured Tradition, Leonardo Boff's Francis of Assisi

Abstract

This is an analysis of the image of Francis of Assisi constructed by the Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff (b. 1938) at a very tense juncture. It is a matter of discussing how, in the mid-1980s, the still Franciscan friar Boff responded to the disciplinary sanctions imposed on him by the Holy See, a reaction expressed in the book Francis of Assisi: Longing for Paradise. The work was written and published in 1985, during the so-called "obsequious silence" to which Friar Boff was subjected by Rome, due to alleged doctrinal deviations contained in the work Church, Charism and Power, launched years before and a milestone of Latin American Liberation Theology.
Thus, in a context characterized by adversity, Leonardo Boff - not only prevented from making public statements, but also deposed from his university professorship and removed from the directorship of the largest Catholic publishing house in the country - wrote and had published the aforementioned Francis of Assisi: Longing for Paradise. At first sight, the book only revisits the well-known biography of one of the most admired saints of the Latin Church, both in Brazil and in the world, a positive reception among believers and non-believers alike. However, the exposition proposed by Boff goes beyond the mere celebration of the centuries-old legend associated with Francis of Assisi. Inspired by the earliest Franciscan sources, the Brazilian friar presents the medieval saint as an icon of Liberation Theology, a paradigmatic Christian for our time and a patron of popular causes. In other words: Friar Leonardo Boff, in the book at hand, made use of episodes recorded in the Franciscan canon - the miraculous divine revelation in the chapel of San Damiano; Francis' radical option for poverty and his assistential work with lepers; the mystical relationship with Clare di Offreduccio, from a noble family and desirous of living in simplicity; the "Sermon to the Birds"; the creation of the nativity scene in Greccio; the reception of the stigmata on Mount La Verna - to give to the Assisiense and to the movement he originated, meanings different from the pious and romantic readings so commonly associated with Francis.
It follows that by interpreting the Poverello through Christian liberationist ideals, Boff contested his opponents, and also confirmed his militant theology. Finally, in Francis of Assisi: Longing for Paradise, Leonardo Boff proclaimed a project of opposition to the established order in Brazil and criticism of the hierarchical organization of the Catholic Church.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)