Pope Francis is not doing well, and now that he is relying on oxygen, the situation is a little more somber. He needs our prayers. Leaders face a more serious judgment than foot soldiers. Even the saintly Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney, worried about answering to God for the souls in his small parish. The pope is a father, and all fathers and mothers (and all leaders, whether of companies, departments, governments, courts, military units, or countries) have to answer to God for the souls in their care. No one goes to heaven alone, and no word goes unrecorded.
In truth, some have been very happy and some very unhappy with Francis's papacy, but the pope we get is the one God permits us to have. You don’t select your earthly father, and you don’t select the holy father. Life is not a democracy, and in the church hierarchy, you don’t have to think every policy decision made is the best of all possibilities. But his critics have been a tad over the top at times. Obedience and unity are always challenging virtues.
Most of the problem is one of temperament. An NYU economics professor I know put the issue of the last three popes in perspective. John Paul II might say that the important thing in work is not the object of work, but the subject, the worker. Pope Benedict might say that work should not be an idol, but serve the good of humanity, including the worker. Pope Francis might say, If you don’t pay just wages to your employees, you are killing them! Same teaching, different ways of expressing it based on culture, temperament, and personality.
Francis came from that Italian “colony” in the new world called Argentina. The funny thing is, if it were not for United States immigration law, which closed the doors to Italians, who knows, maybe his family could have found its way to New York, making him the first American pope. A New York pope and a New York president would have been classic!
Another aspect of his temperament that people often don’t get is that he was a Jesuit high school teacher. I spent many years in Jesuit-run schools back in the days when there were enough Jebbies to teach most classes. So nothing in his style is a surprise. Teachers always had something of an adversarial relationship with students. Mixing up the pitches and throwing curve balls was a way of life. No surprise that the late, quirky political commentator, John McLaughlin, parodied here, also taught in a Jesuit high school. You might not always agree with them, but if you disagreed, Jesuits forced you to sharpen your argument. You were not in class to be comfortable, and God help you if you were smug or complacent. JUG, Justice Under God, a.k.a. detention, was a way of life.
One of the key things Francis is doing is to reorganize the church’s bureaucracy in Rome. Before becoming Pope, he reorganized the Jesuits in Argentina and his diocese as bishop. During the process, one Jesuit remarked about his inscrutable decision making process, "Only Bergoglio knows what Bergoglio thinks."
John Paul II knew that a great reorganization was needed in the management of the Church, but decided that he could fight Rome or evangelize the world, but not both. Pope Benedict saw it as his role to solidify a solid understanding of Vatican II while resolving some outstanding issues in Rome. Francis sees it as his mission to continue the reorganization, much as President Trump is struggling to reimagine the Washington bureaucracy. For Francis, this has been hit-and-miss so far. Some of his advisors, including some fellow Jesuits, have hobbyhorses they have been waiting since the death of Pope Paul VI to ride. This has not always gone smoothly, but no one doubts that change was needed.
Francis was named pope in part to deal with improving Latin America. At this close vantage point, it is hard to see if the seeds that have been planted have taken. Generational change takes time to assess. The ratio of priests to laymen is still extremely high by United States standards, with a single priest for 10,000 people in some parishes. The hierarchy of the Church is primarily obliged to provide the sacramental channels of grace to the Church. Without the sacraments, laymen are handicapped in their mission to sanctify their domain of expertise, the world.
Pope Francis is also a pastor of peace. In an unprecedented move on Feb. 25, 2022, he literally dropped by uninvited to the Russian embassy in Rome to speak to the ambassador about paths to peace in the Ukraine war. It is not hard to believe that he is right now offering up his current suffering for an end to that horrific conflict. And as a pastor, he has been making daily telephone calls to a Catholic parish in Gaza, even from the hospital, to express solidarity with his flock struggling there.
In the United States, Francis’s decision to restrict the Latin Mass and the ruling on how to evangelize people in irregular marriages and same-sex couples caused some controversy. Whatever the merits or lack of merits in these issues, they were poorly implemented. Bishops and priests were often only a few steps ahead of the New York Times in hearing about things that required them to have an immediate answer for their flock. Ouch.
As a teacher, Francis is more a parish priest in his style of commentary than a pope measuring every verbal nuance, especially in press conferences. As one wit joked, I listen to the vicar of Christ on earth. It is when he gets in a plane, I find it hard.
A student of the work of theologian Romano Guardini, Francis is comfortable with the belief that the multifaceted nature of human understanding and divine mysteries can sometimes create a sense of ambiguity.
If you’ve never read one of Francis’s letters and encyclicals, they offer much food for thought. A few years ago, radio host Michael Savage, who is not Catholic, favorably read portions of Francis’s exhortation on marriage to his audience over a number of shows. There is no doubt that Francis has the ability to keep it real.
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Francis’s sermon last week, which had to be read because he was in the hospital, was to encourage the work of artists and creators. Clearly he is carrying on as best he can. According to Catholic University of America professor Fr. Robert Gahl in a great interview at 20:12 here, Francis’s latest encyclical letter on the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the pinnacle of Francis’s teaching as pope. It is great reading for Lent. He says, In the heart of Christ "we find the whole Gospel, a synthesis of the truths of our faith, all that we adore and seek in faith, all that responds to our deepest needs."
If things turn out badly in his hospital stay, it is certainly a high note to go out on. If not, Francis is beginning his Lent early. Either way, as the psalm says, Teach us, oh Lord, to number our days aright.
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