On April 11, 2024, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States Cardinal Christophe Pierre delivered the Cardinal Bernardin Common Cause Lecture at Loyola University Chicago. Launched in 2017, the Common Cause lecture series was named in honor of former Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. Cardinal Bernardin was known for his development of the “seamless garment” ethic of life and his commitment to the common good. The lecture was sponsored by Loyola’s Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and it was presented in partnership with Commonweal, with Editor Dominic Preziosi in attendance. Cardinal Pierre’s presentation was titled, “Pope Francis: Discernment and the Dialectic of Mercy.” 

Cardinal Pierre discusses the connections between discernment and mercy in forging a path forward for the Church. He argues that the Church needs to implement the “see-judge-act” approach, a paradigm of discernment that enables the Church to interpret and respond to social and political changes in the world. Following Pope Francis’s call for the Church to be in a permanent “state of mission,” the cardinal asserts that “our struggle to effectively bring Christ to people today is not solely due to society’s increasing skepticism and secularization, but also because we have strayed from a genuine missionary posture.” Pierre suggests that what is central to this posture is the language of mercy, which could bring about authentic renewal.

The tenor of the event was earnest but joyful. A lively Q&A period on topics like the National Eucharistic Congress, polarization in the Church, and the Vatican’s role in international relations and diplomacy followed the lecture. A livestream of the presentation and Q&A has been made available by the Hank Center. A condensed version of Cardinal Pierre’s lecture was published in the June 2024 issue of Commonweal, and the full version is available on Commonweal’s website.