Contemplation and Shared Influence in Pope Francis’ Preface to a Book on Paul VI

Yesterday, Vatican News announced that Libreria Editrice Vaticana would publish a new book on Pope Saint Paul VI and that Pope Francis has written the preface for it. That preface is available on the Vatican News site in full. And it’s a doozy.

The Holy Father begins with some thoughts which don’t directly touch on contemplation. Paul VI was a bit like a martyr. He had his own crown of thorns. He was looking to the mystery of the Church. But after a few paragraphs, Pope Francis does what he seems to have a habit of doing. He turns the whole thing into a question of the prevalence and centrality of Christian contemplation.

This shift begins as follows:

Saint Paul VI was the contemplator, the preacher, and the witness of the Transfigured Christ. We could say he wanted to enter that evangelical scene as a companion of the three apostles chosen by Jesus [on Mount Tabor]. What’s more, his intimate and secret desire has always been to be “cum ipso in monte” and this made his life itself transfigured.

Contemplation, transfiguration. The next step in this preface is for Pope Francis to reveal himself to be a fan of Marie-Joseph Le Guillou—who is, coincidentally, the primary influence for all the “transfiguration in Christ” stuff I have ever published and initially one of the largest influences on my notion of “beauty is somehow related to contemplation.” Lo and behold, Pope Francis, too, is a disciple of this Dominican theologian!

The title chosen for this collection [Paul VI: Doctor of the Mystery of Christ] draws from a phrase by Fr. Marie-Joseph Le Guillou, a great Dominican theologian that I also appreciate very much. He wrote it in a volume dedicated to the prophetic, spiritual, doctrinal, pastoral and missionary greatness of the Second Vatican Council. From this too, then, I would like to draw inspiration before concluding these lines of presentation. As the 2025 Jubilee event approaches, I have in fact asked everyone to prepare for it by taking up the fundamental texts of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

Now, in that book of his, Fr. Le Guillou describes Vatican II as an act of contemplation of the Face of Christ. The Magisterium of Vatican II must be reread, studied, explored, implemented also in this light. During a meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, I replied to a Jesuit who had asked me how he could help me, saying: “Historians say that it takes 100 years for a Council to be implemented. We’re halfway there. Therefore, if you want to help me, act in such a way as to carry forward the Council in the Church.”

This is a marvellous passage. But let’s not stop at the mere fact that the Holy Father and I share another main influence in common (beyond however many the official number is up to by now). Oh no. Pope Francis is going to do one even better.

Did you catch what Pope Francis actually wrote? He says the Council is not yet implemented, and the central purpose of the Council is contemplation. All these people running around saying that the Holy Father is trying to implement Vatican II still—yes. But have we really grasped what isn’t implemented or what the nugget of the Council is in Pope Francis’ view?

Contemplate the face of Christ! In Evangelii Gaudium [154] I wrote that every preacher “has to contemplate the Word, but he also has to contemplate his people.” I would like to say that this is also the case with the Synodal Church. A Church that contemplates the Word and also the holy faithful people of God.

Contemplate, says, in effect, the Pope, the whole Christ: the Divinity, the Trinitarian mystery, the sacred Humanity of Jesus, and the Body today in the members who make his faithful People. That is Vatican II. That is the task. That is the path. That is the together-path; it is synodality.

It’s only a preface to a book. But as far as showing us the consistently expressed mind and will of the Pope, I think this is a gem. Yes, the Second Vatican Council still needs implementation, but what the essential core of its vision was in the first place is contemplation of the transfigured Face of Christ—and this Christ to be contemplated is the whole Christ: Divinity, Humanity, Church. It is telling that Pope Francis ties all his signature projects, anchors each of them, from Evangelii Gaudium to synodality, to this theme. This is where his manifest will lies for the Church.