The Loom of Literature

“In this time of global crisis—of war and deep polarization, of rigid paradigms and mounting climate and economic anxieties—we need the brilliance of a new language, powerful stories and images, the voices of writers, poets, and artists.” I was struck when Pope Francis wrote these words, and struck again when he repeated them, almost verbatim, on May 27, 2023, at a conference in Rome organized by Georgetown University and La Civiltà Cattolica, which I then edited. It wasn’t only what he said, it was the urgency in his voice. At a moment when many public narratives had either withered or calcified, Francis seemed to be suggesting that literature might be one of the few remaining forces still capable of shaking us awake. Its task is not to prescribe strategies but to generate vision—to sketch patterns of connection, to spark transformation. And right now, vision is precisely what we lack.