Who Is Pope Francis and What Is His Direction for the Church?

Transcription

1 Who Is Pope Francis and What Is His Direction for the Church? Christ the King Sunday, January 10, 2016 Sunday, January 17, 2016 Paul Dokecki Bob O Gorman

2 Who Is Pope Francis?

3 OUTLINE Sources Overview (from Boff) of What Pope Francis Is Not and Is Has Brought Us That Is New How Did He Get That Way? Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi The Kingdom/Reign of God Where is he coming from? Perónism The Theology of the People and Liberation Theology South America as Source Church

4 Pope Francis has a special devotion to The Blessed Virgin Mary, Untier of Knots. (It is the name of a Baroque painting entitled Wallfahrtsbild painted by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner ( ) in 1700 and displayed in the St. Peter am Perlach in Augsburg, Bavaria.) In her hands, Mary holds a long knotted rope which she unties. Her foot rests on the head of a knotted snake clearly representing Satan. Mary's faith unties the knot of sin (Lumen Gentium, 56). Paul Vallely suggests that the knots are metaphors of the difficulties we have. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council took up a phrase of Saint Irenaeus, who states that "the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by the obedience of Mary; what the virgin Eve bound by her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith" (Adversus Haereses).

5 Sources

6 Paul Vallely is a writer and consultant on religion, international development, and business ethics. He is Visiting Professor in Public Ethics and Media at the University of Chester and Senior Honorary Fellow at the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester. He has produced award-winning reports from more than 30 countries in the developing world

7 Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian theologian and writer, known for his active support for the rights of the poor and excluded. He was a pioneer in liberation theology. He currently serves as Professor Emeritus of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology at the Rio de Janeiro State University.

8 John Dominic Crossan is a New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, and former Catholic priest. His research has focused on the historical Jesus, on the anthropology of the Ancient Mediterranean and New Testament worlds, and on the application of postmodern hermeneutical approaches to the Bible.

9 Austen Ivereigh is a British writer, journalist, and commentator on religious and political affairs who holds a PhD from Oxford University on religion and politics in Argentina. A former deputy editor of the weekly The Tablet, he was for a time spokesman and public affairs adviser to the former archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O Connor, and is the cofounder of Catholic Voices, a media project that has spread to thirteen countries.

10 José Antonio Pagola was born in Spain in He completed his theological studies in 1962 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and his studies in Sacred Scripture at the Biblical Institute in Rome in He also studied Biblical sciences at the École Biblique in Jerusalem. He has dedicated his life to Biblical studies and Christology and has done research on the historical Jesus for more than 30 year. His new books have been recognized as among the best latest studies on the Historical Jesus.

11 James Carroll is an American author, historian, and journalist. A Roman Catholic reformer, he has written extensively about his experiences in the seminary and as a priest, and has published, besides novels, books on religion and history (e.g., Constantine's Sword).

12 Overview (from Boff) of What Pope Francis Is Not and Is and What He Has Brought Us That Is New

13 What Pope Francis Is NOT 1. Pope Francis is not Eurocentric. 2. Pope Francis is not ecclesiocentric. 3. Pope Francis is not Vatican-centric. 4. Pope Francis is not papal-centric. 5. Pope Francis is not a restorationist or conservative. 6. Pope Francis does not see himself as a master, doctor, or indoctrinator. 7. Pope Francis does not see himself as a source of certainties. 8. Pope Francis does not see himself as an oracle but as a traveling companion who is not afraid of the most challenging frontiers.

14 What Pope Francis Is 1. Pope Francis s inspiration is the historical Jesus. 2. Pope Francis is an advocate and defender of the poor. 3. Pope Francis sets the world at the center. 4. Pope Francis sees the church as a field hospital. 5. Pope Francis proclaims the revolution of tenderness. 6. Pope Francis offers the virtues of the good shepherd.

15 What Has Pope Francis Brought Us That Is New? 1. From church winter to church spring. We are coming out of two papacies characterized by a return to strict discipline and control of doctrines. That strategy created a winter that froze many initiatives. 2. From fortress to open house. The two previous popes gave the impression that the church was a fortress, surrounded by enemies against whom we need to defend ourselves, especially against relativism, modernity, and post modernity. Pope Francis has said clearly: Anyone approaching the church must find open doors, not border guards of the faith.

16 3. From pope to bishop of Rome. 4. From papal apartment to guesthouse. Francis is more than just a name. It is an indicator of a different project for the church along the lines of Saint Francis of Assisi: a poor church for the poor, as he himself said, a church that is humble, simple, and smells of sheep, rather than of altar flowers. He wants and needs community. That is why he left the papal apartment.

17 5. From doctrine to encounter. He does not present himself as a doctor but as a pastor. He behaved in an intimately human way toward the African refugees on the island of Lampedusa. He denounced the money fetishism and the world financial system that martyrs whole countries. Thus he captures the chief insights of liberation theology, without calling it that by name. 6. From exclusion to inclusion.

18 7. From church to world. 8. From the world to the poor. In the first interview he gave to journalists, on March 16, 2013, Pope Francis called for a poor church for the poor. He has put the poor at the center.

19 How Did He Get That Way?

20 From Leonardo Boff s Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi Both Francis of Assisi and Francis of Rome had a mission, each in his own time; to restore Christ s church, to restore the church that Christ had redeemed with his blood. Francis is not only a name; it is a project to create a church that is poor, simple, evangelical, and stripped of all trappings. The church model... inspiring Francis of Rome: a poor church for the poor as he put it very well himself, a church that tries to be faithful to the legacy of Jesus. Its pastors must smell of sheep. That means they should walk side by side with the people.

21 Boff (cont'd) According to philosopher Max Scheler, Francis of Assisi is the western prototype of emotional reason, the heart s reason. If Benedict XVI, expressed intellectual reason, Pope Francis represents the heart s intelligence, which loves people, embraces people, kisses children, and looks lovingly upon crowds. Francis of Assisi had a friendly relationship with women. Let us hope that he may inspire Francis of Rome to cultivate a relationship with women... not only of respect but of valuing their decisionmaking initiative on how faith and spirituality should be in the new millennium.

22 THE KINGDOM/REIGN OF GOD

23 Jose Mario Bergoglio, newly elected as Pope Francis, asked the faithful to join him in his first prayer, the Lord s Prayer. This prayer has been called by John Dominic Crossan The Greatest Prayer.

24 With Francis, and together at every mass celebration, we say these words, as Jesus taught us to pray: THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. Crossan argues that When you read kingdom of God,... mentally rephrase it as the ruling style of God. It imagines how the world would be if the biblical God actually sat on an imperial throne down here below. It dreams of an earth where the Holy One of justice and righteousness actually gets to establish as we might say the annual budget for the global economy.

25 And in a world characterized by justice and righteousness, says Crossan: The earth will belong equally to all, undivided by walls or fences.... Lives will be in common and wealth will have no division. For there will be no poor man there, no rich, and no tyrant, no slave. Further, no one will be either great or small anymore. No kings, no leaders. All will be equal together (Sibylline Oracles ).

26 James Carroll, in his history-based search for a Christ relevant to our secular age, cites Crossan: Jesus had initially embraced John the Baptist s expectation of God s imminent intervention in history but moved on from that way of thinking. Instead of speaking of God as imminent apocalypse, Jesus began to proclaim God as already present. That meant that the Kingdom of God is an ongoing challenge to individuals to lead a responsible, simple, radical life.

27 The person of the historical Jesus, then, proclaiming and enacting the kingdom/reign of God, doing God s will on earth as it is in heaven, inspired Bergoglio throughout his life and ministry.

28 Regarding the kingdom/reign of God, Jose Pagola argues: The reign of God is already here among you (Lk ). Jesus experiences it. It is... a transformation which involves the whole of life and of society. It liberates people from whatever dehumanizes them or causes them suffering.... God is coming not to destroy people but to destroy evil.... It is a reign of gentleness and of goodness.

29 Pagola (cont d) Jesus is communicating his own experience of a compassionate God who cares more about people s lives go and tell John what you hear and see.blind, lame, lepers, deaf, poor have good news brought to them than about religious issues which lay beyond their understanding.

30 Pagola (cont d) Where the weak and the marginalised are brought to the centre, there is the reign of God. He is offering shalom, i.e. total wellbeing. He saw the growth of an inequality which favoured the minority in the Temple and in the cities of Tiberius and Sepphoris, and he opposes it You cannot serve God and Mammon. He is calling for a new kind of personal and social behaviour. Yet, the reign of God is still only a seed or yeast. He tells them to pray Thy kingdom come. Its triumph would finally be a celebration, drinking new wine in a heavenly banquet.

31 Again re the kingdom/reign of God, Austen Ivereigh recalls Pope Francis placing it in the context of the Jesuit Spiritual Exercises: The First Week impresses with us two fundamental realities: we recognize and abhor our sins and their roots in the spirit of the world, and we converse about all this with Jesus suspended on the Cross.

32 Ivereigh (cont'd) There is only one sure way to enter into the labyrinth of our sins: by holding on to the wounded hand of Jesus. In the Second Week, we hear the summons to work for the Kingdom; we come to understand the meaning of the struggle and how much is at stake; we begin to comprehend that the only weapon by which we can win the battle is humility; and we make our election.

33 Francis themes and historical questions

34 we recognize and abhor our sins and their roots in the spirit of the world Jesuit Spiritual Exercises Inequality is the root of social ills. Pope Francis He made this assessment without partisan political/ideological implications re conservatism-progressivism/liberalism, American Republican-Democrat party differences, or the like. [Where does this clear and unswerving recognition and abhorrence of our sins as THE obstacle to kingdom/reign of God come from in Francis s history?]

35 Without the preferential option for the poor, the proclamation of the Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today s society of mass communications. Pope Francis [Where does this response to poverty and inequality come from in Francis s history?]

36 Any Church community, if it thinks it can comfortably go its own way without creative concern and effective cooperation in helping the poor to live with dignity and reaching out to everyone... will easily drift into a spiritual worldliness camouflaged by religious practices, unproductive meetings, and empty talk. Pope Francis [And where does this challenge to parish churches come from in Francis s history?]

37 I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. Pope Francis [And this challenge to our parish churches?]

38 Where is he coming from?

39 Answers: 1. As already seen, his Catholic faith, with its understanding of the kingdom/reign of God, and his Jesuit background 2. Perónism 3. The Theology of the People and Liberation Theology 4. The South American Source Church

40 Perónism

41 Perónism is an Argentine political movement based on the political thought of the highly controversial Juan Domingo Perón ( ) and his second wife, Eva Perón ( ). He was initially president of Argentina from 1946 to Overthrown in a coup d'état, he served again from 1973 until his death in The Perónist ideal consists of the "three flags:" social justice Argentinian economic independence Argentinian political sovereignty Perónism is a third position ideology, rejecting the extremes of capitalism and communism. It espouses corporatism, with the state mediating and negotiating compromises between managers and workers.

42 Austen Ivereigh describes Francis s [b. 1936] youthful Peróninfluenced church-related political activities: In the 1940s to 1950s, hundreds of thousands of Catholics among them the young Jorge Bergoglio joined Catholic Action s study circles. There were marches, leaflets, and speeches that laid the blame for social ills squarely at the feet of liberal capitalism, while urging workers to resist the blandishments of socialism and embrace Catholic social teaching.

43 Yet Catholics and socialists still cooperated in Congress, finally persuading it to pass laws introducing Sunday rest and eight-hour workdays. This was the Church vigorous, confident, a little triumphalist in which Jorge Bergoglio grew up.

44 The Theology of the People and Liberation Theology

45 Himself a pioneer in liberation theology, Leonardo Boff explores Pope Francis s liberationist thinking: Many have wondered whether, since the present Pope Francis comes from Latin America, he is a supporter of liberation theology. The question is irrelevant.

46 The important thing is not to be for liberation theology but for the liberation of the oppressed, the poor, and the victims of injustice, and that he is without question. In fact, this was always the purpose of liberation theology.

47 Real liberation from hunger, poverty... comes first. That reality belongs to the benefits of the kingdom of God and is what Jesus intended.... Pope Francis is fulfilling the primordial insight of liberation theology and promoting its registered trademark: the preferential option for the poor and in favor of life and justice.

48 It doesn t matter that Pope Francis does not use the expression liberation theology. The important thing is that he speaks and acts in a liberating way. In Argentina a tendency developed, not as an alternative to liberation theology but as a typical expression of the local culture: a theology of the people or theology of popular culture.

49 The people under Juan Domingo Perón developed a high level of political consciousness and created a rich and popular culture participating in the destiny of the nation.... Father Bergoglio always supported this theology of the people.

50 Instead of doing a class analysis showing the origins of impoverishment and social oppression [Marxist-orientation], theology of the people prefers to analyze popular culture in its dynamism and its contradictions, stressing... participation and liberation

51 South America as Source Church

52 Austen Ivereigh (in his book and recent NCR article) writes: Possibly the greatest Latin American lay Catholic intellectual of the 20th century, Methol Ferré spent most of his life convinced that Latin America had been moving from being a "reflection church" -- one that echoed Europe -- to a "source church" that would in time invigorate the universal church.

53 Looking back through Christian history, Methol Ferré saw that in every era a Church in one part of the world becomes a source for the Church elsewhere, which it to a large extent reflects. Thus Alexandria and Syria were the source Church of the first Christian era, as were Spain and Italy at the sixteenth-century Council of Trent, and France and Germany at the Second Vatican Council.

54 Methol Ferré saw the distinctive theology that came out of the CELAM gathering at Medellín in 1968 as characteristic of a source Church.

55 Methol Ferré and Bergoglio in 2005 believed that Latin America's moment had not yet come; both believed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger should be pope. That was partly why Bergoglio resisted the attempt by a group of cardinals to elect him in that conclave.

56 But after 2005, it began to be clear that the hour was at hand. "In the next two decades Latin America will play a key role in the great battles which are taking shape in the twenty-first century," Bergoglio wrote in the prologue to a book that came out that year.

57 First, however, the Latin American church had to gather again. [Among Pope Benedict s] first moves was to give permission for the CELAM meeting at Aparecida in On the flight from São Paulo, Brazil, to the Aparecida shrine, Benedict said: "I am convinced that from here will be decided -- at least in part, but a fundamental part -- the future of the Catholic church."

58 Bergoglio was elected by his fellow bishops to take charge of the redaction of the concludin document, which is shot through with teología del pueblo [theology of the people] concepts

59 Two years ago in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals chose not just the man, but the program [as Bergoglio had in choosing St. Francis s name and program]. Whether or not they were aware of it, in electing Francis they were allowing the fire lit at Aparecida to be brought to Rome, to shake up the Vatican and to light up the universal church.

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