"Existential schizophrenia"

I've got a little list — I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!

-- Gilbert and Sullivan, "The Mikado"

Pope Francis has his list, too, but there's nothing little about it. In his efforts to reform the Curia, Francis has identified 15 specific points. All are worth discussion; one of the more intriguing ones is point #8:

8) Suffering from 'existential schizophrenia.' "It's the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill. It's a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people."

While Francis is specifically concerned with the cocooned Curia, he's offering a challenge that is universal. How many of us are limiting ourselves to bureaucratic work? You don't have to work in an established bureaucracy for this to happen -- we worry about checking off the boxes on our own little lists and lose sight of the people who surround us. In most cases the stakes aren't as high in your own life, but focusing on the task list keeps us from seeing beyond it.

Are you called to pastoral service? If you are a Christian, you are. The services you render don't necessarily have to include serving soup at the Dorothy Day Center, but we do have an obligation to get beyond our selves and our lists. The more we focus on our lists, the more certain that the Lord High Executioner's claims become true -- the "society offenders" never would be missed, because we don't see them.

Francis's point about academic degrees is especially apt. We all know people who are highly educated and use their education and their academic prowess as a shield from the outside world, or as a truncheon. The curriculum vitae is a little list of its own, but it's only retrospective.

More to come.