This book is the new English edition of Matthew Fforde’s La pastorale della solitudine: Una nuova proposta, which appeared in 2020 in the wake of a worldwide lockdown when loneliness became a real prospect for many people. It does not take the compulsory cessation of social activities to create loneliness, of course. As Pope Francis observed in May that year: “Our time is marked by loneliness and indifference, which generate loneliness and lead to the throwing away of many lives. This is our culture today. Individualism, indifference, which generate loneliness and cause rejection: the throwaway culture.”
The Holy Father’s words form the epigraph of Fforde’s little work, which punches well above its weight. As he notes in his introduction, even without the impact of the pandemic, loneliness was and still is an “epidemic of our times”. He has published on this topic before, in Desocialisation: The Crisis of Post-modernity of 2009. Now he addresses his comments “to Catholic clergy, religious orders, associations and lay faithful”, but also to “our Christian brothers and sisters not of the Catholic tradition… and to men and women of other religions or no religions at all, and thus be a way of linking up with them in a common action of healing and relieving suffering.”
Loneliness is not just a fleeting sadness, but an ailment that plagues society – ironically at a time when we are more connected than ever with social media, iPhones and constant entertainment for our distraction. Yet none of these can provide the human interactions we need and for which so many people in our communities evidently long. In six short chapters, Fforde states his case; much of it is based on the observation of his university students in Rome, who for decades have provided “important insights – from the perspective of young people – into the phenomenon of social ties so characteristic of post-modernity”.
Fforde draws on a wide range of sources – not least Holy Scripture and the teachings of the last three popes – to inform his arguments. Healing the pain of loneliness is part of the work of the Church, he contends, following Christ’s example of curing the sick of illnesses of mind and body. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats looms large: “it is no surprise, in this context, that the history of Christianity has been marked by the known and unknown work of so many people dedicated to caring for and healing the sick”. No surprise, indeed, but the malaise of loneliness is for Fforde “on its way to becoming one of the great issues of our time, [and] is closely connected with the decline of Christian culture”.
It is time for the Church to up its game, then, and remind the world that “the call to community through love for love and for truth is not only to be read in spiritual terms”. The scale of the problem is laid out in a startlingly depressing chapter called “The Negation of Contemporary Man” – in simple terms and with bare figures. They are statistics with which priests, social workers and teachers will be all too familiar, and they disproportionately affect the elderly, the disabled, the unemployed and children. A 2019 opinion poll reported that more than a quarter of young people felt that their life was devoid of a sense of purpose. What a shocking realisation that is.
Fforde lays a significant portion of the blame on “DeChristianisation”, the subject of another chapter. He argues that a vacuum in society and personhood that was previously filled by faith leads to disaffection and isolation. Conversely, then, “if the spiritual bases of community have been weakened or knocked away, then the obvious solution is to return them to their proper state”. What that might look like is simple, at least in theory: “a revival of Christian culture in the West, the restoration of that ancient bedrock, in order to generate that love for love and for truth that will restore community to our broken societies”. A noble aspiration, but is it really achievable?
Hopefully, and with God’s grace, yes. Fforde closes with chapters on pastoral care for loneliness – its essential character and its practical organisation – and in fact makes it all sound straightforward, with opportunities for individuals and organisations to make a practical difference to those suffering from loneliness. Grasping these will enable us to get on with the business of “keeping Christ company” in the lonely, whoever they may be (cf Matthew 25:40). Pastoral Care for Loneliness should be essential reading for anyone who is involved with pastoral care, be it in a parish or a school or in some other way in the life of their local community.
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