‘A text taken out of context is often a pretext’ the saying goes…As we know, an author’s words may easily be manipulated when only partially quoted. It’s possible, in such cases, to give it a totally new meaning or even a meaning opposite to the original.
In this sense, the citations of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium have drawn our attention. So it’s a good idea to examine each one of the affirmations of Aquinas in their original context, with the objective of analyzing the fidelity and concordance of this application to his line of thought.
What pretext did Francis have in using the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas? Read on..