O discurso do Papa Francisco: entre redes de memória e processos de atualização de sentidos

Abstract

Currently, there are numerous reports that echo the sayings of the current Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, attributing nomenclature to him as “controversial” and/or “revolutionary”. Considering the discourses about Pope Francis that circulate in our society, the study that we propose emphasizes the episodes that put into operation the effects of controversial meanings with regard, especially, to the issue of homosexuality. This work is affiliated with the perspectives of discursive studies, as proposed by Pêcheux (2014a, 2014b, 2015a and 2015b) and by Orlandi (1993, 2006, 2012, 2017 and 2020). Based on this theoretical device, we seek to reflect on the functioning of the process of meaning that materializes through the speeches of Pope Francis, discursivized by the media as revolutionaries. This is because, through the observation of the way in which language, history and the senses are related in society, there seems to be a process of rupture between the discursive position of the Pope and what is taken as a basis in Catholic religious discourse. In view of this, the selected corpus consists of excerpts from Pope Francis' speeches regarding the issue of homosexuality. Our objective is to understand the discursive process at work: its conditions of production and, in particular, the updating of the discursive memory produced by Pope Francis, a noticeable occurrence when what he said is compared with the discourse of the Catholic Church. In view of this, it is therefore a matter of understanding, through Discourse Analysis, the game of images that is set in motion around Pope Francis, so that it is possible to make some hypotheses about the current recognition of this Pope as that of the revolution. The present research hopes that the discussions developed, the results obtained and the conclusions formulated provide conditions for the elaboration of reflections in relation to which discursive and ideological formations currently support the revolutionary discursivity around Pope Francis.