This is to fulfill a promise made to a friend who emailed me—soliciting my comments—a 12-page document chronicling the liberal pronouncements of Pope Francis that have shocked, stunned, angered, and frightened certain Catholics because they are seen to give enemies and critics of the Church reason to rejoice. I promised to make those comments and for whatever they’re worth publish them in this column. I didn’t try to make a coherent, individual article out of it; as requested I merely typed my comments casually as the lengthy email unfolded. So here goes—for clarity, the quotations from Pope Francis are in bold type, my comments follow in regular font.
“The Church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, little
rules.”
So what’s the fuss about? Note that Francis said SOMETIMES. He didn’t say ALWAYS. There could be some truth to that. Small things and little rules could
worm their way into our consciousness until we, the Church, are so bogged down
by the work of the Lord that we neglect the Lord of the work. It’s just a word of caution.
“Heads of the Church have often been
narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers.”
Now, Francis
should have used the word “some” to refer to the “heads of the Church”. Without that “some”, this
statement sounds generalizing, ergo, unfair. Francis here probably has in mind certain heads of the
Church—for doesn’t that happen sometimes to anyone who speaks and gets carried
away? Or maybe he did say “some
heads” but the reporter dropped it.
Forgive him, and look around.
Do we not also see some Church leaders who are just as Francis says,
“narcissistic, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers”? If we’re honest enough we might even
add more adjectives in the same vein.
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and
the use of contraceptive methods…. The Church’s pastoral ministry cannot
be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be
imposed insistently.”
How touchy could we get about
this? Perhaps Francis is seeing
something off-balance, some flaws in the pro-lifers’ approach, who knows? It’s just a remark—he didn’t make an
encyclical around it, so take it as a challenge to examine ourselves. Sometimes we pro-lifers do something
counter-productive, too, like in-fighting, an indication that our zeal is
misguided.
“We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the
church is likely to fall like a house of cards.”
I see nothing wrong with that
statement, except that for me, balance is balance, no such thing as “new” or
“old”, and balance translates to equanimity, a grace we receive when we (as
Mary says in Cana) “do as He tells you to do.”
“The Church is or should go back to being a community
of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls,
are at the service of the people of God.”
Fantastic! Any
prophet would have said that.
Priests, pastors and bishops ought to care for souls, and to be “at the
service of the people of God.” What
we ought to ask is, Why did Francis say “the Church should go back….”? Does it mean he thinks priests, pastors
and bishops have ceased to serve as anymore as curers of souls?
(Address to inter-religious
assembly at Refugee Service):
“Many of you are Muslims, of other religions,
and have come from different countries, from different situations. We must not
be afraid of the differences! Fraternity makes us discover that they are a treasure,
a gift for everyone! We live in fraternity!” Wise words. It doesn’t mean Francis is converting
to Islam, or denouncing the tenets of the Catholic Church. Shouldn’t those words give hope and
encouragement to the assembly? A
sense of fraternity—no fear of the differences and a conviction that we are all
brothers—is the beginning of inter-religious dialogue. Put a holier-than-thou person at the
head of a peace mission and that mission is doomed from the start.
(Address at Shrine of St. Cajetan): “Do you
need to convince the other to become Catholic? No, no, no! Go out and meet him,
he is your brother. This is enough. Go out and help him and Jesus will do the
rest.”
Great! This simply means Francis wants us to
stop talking and instead start living our faith! Words alone, or an unexamined desire to convert others, can
never convince people to become Catholic.
It’s our actions that do attract others to the faith we profess. Words come from our mouths; the light
of Christ radiates from within.
“The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth
unemployment and the loneliness of the old. The old need
care and companionship; the young need work and hope…This, to me, is the most
urgent problem that the Church is facing.”
Francis
says specifically, “This, to me..”
Three important words—meaning it is but his opinion, he doesn’t claim to
speak for the College of Bishops.
He only speaks as and for himself,
Jorge Bergoglio, and he is just one man, and every man has a right to speak his
mind out, even if he is pope. And
here Francis is simply reminding us there are other serious issues to
address. This is a good reminder,
especially to those who fight only the big fights, to be in the limelight, to
be known as crusaders, in other words, those soldiers with self-serving
intentions. (If you say “Ouch!”
then perhaps you are one of those Francis is reminding).
Furthermore, Francis here
sees that unemployed youth go astray (trying to find meaning in their life
through drugs, free “safe” sex, hedonism, and a make-love-not-babies
mentality—the very evils we pro-lifers are fighting! Francis sees that the loneliness of the old could dispose
them to suicide, thereby tending to justify the champions of euthanasia and
assisted suicide. Why should his
words be taken as denigrating pro-life efforts? Why mock him if he sees youth unemployment and loneliness of
the old as “most serious of the evils…”?
Isn’t he merely pointing to two of the roots that cause the evil we are
fighting against now? Francis is
in fact (by opening our eyes to those roots of evil) making the fight lighter
for those to come after us. Give
the guy the benefit of the doubt—he’s on our side!
“If someone is gay and he searches for the
Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"
Francis says IF, that is conditional. IF someone searches…and has good will…
who is he to judge? Who are WE to
judge? IF implies that the gay
person seeking the Lord with good will is going through a process—and that
takes time—and a judgmental attitude from us (straights) would surely threaten
to derail him from that path to the Lord.) This statement is not to be taken as a papal push for “gay
rights”—perhaps just a spur of the moment utterance from a man who acknowledges
his own sinfulness.
“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I
approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God
looks at a gay person, does He endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?' We must always consider the person.”
Isn’t this very
Christ like? Francis evaded the
trap of the provocateur by firing back with a question leading to a truth—God
looks at everyone with love.
Again, this shouldn’t be taken to mean Francis is poised to defy the
teachings of the Church on such matters; he’s simply being kind, just as Jesus
would be kind to, say, the adulterous woman about to be stoned.
The pope is human,
too. Just like some of our bishops
here (who, by the way, sometimes admirably speak as ordinary citizens but are
quoted by media as the voice of the whole Church), Francis can speak as an
ordinary citizen, too, and may be misconstrued by an uninformed media. Francis is not always speaking ex
cathedra—we can glean from his context that sometimes he speaks as Bishop of
Rome, as an ordinary parish priest, or as ex-archbishop of Buenos Aires; at
times he makes off-the-cuff remarks that make him sound like an ordinary Catholic
guzzling beer at a billiard hall.
We have to try and see where Francis is coming from. Have faith. Hang on. Pray more for Francis. If we are so easily angered by his
statements that the enemies of the Church feel triumphant about, then—believe
it or not—we are lending our strength to these very enemies. And that’s the truth.
