Jorge Bergoglio was always an unlikely pope. In almost 500 years, no Jesuit had ever been chosen. Bergoglio had not cultivated Vatican connections or the conference circuit. Though his piety and intelligence were never in doubt, he had greatly contributed to radical divisions among the Jesuits in Argentina. When already over 50, his drive for power and control met with a savage rebuke. The Jesuit leadership in Rome dispatched him to the provincial city of Cordoba with no specific job and only occasional permission to say Mass in public.
Pope Francis is rightly viewed as a man of exceptional charisma. Yet how is it that those who met him at a Jesuit house in Dublin during a three-month stay in 1980 can scarcely recall him?
Francis’s often-turbulent story was brilliantly told by Austen Ivereigh in his biography Pope Francis, the Great Reformer (2014). Wounded Shepherd, like its predecessor, is informed by an impressive range of sources. It is an indispensable guide to a man who may well be judged as one of the most outstanding popes in history.
Francis’s constant insistence on a merciful church is perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of his papacy. No more eternal damnation for missing Mass on Sundays ! Unlike the often-merciless church of previous eras, Francis is simply replicating the words and example of Jesus Christ. His respect and practical kindness extend to prisoners, refugees, the divorced and to those of other faiths and of no faith. As bishops, he chooses priests who are very close to their flocks rather than academics or efficient managers.
For Francis, the inherent dignity of all people is vastly more significant than, for example, their sexual orientation. He thinks in terms of doors and bridges, not barbed wire and machine guns.
Church for the poor
The Second Vatican Council strove to devolve power from Rome to the local churches. This project was largely frustrated by an overweening Papal Curia which frequently treated distinguished bishops and cardinals like junior secretaries taking dictation. Francis’s vision is entirely different, one that is profoundly indebted to his experience of the church in Latin America. He wants a “synodal” church whose leadership is essentially local, although its major decisions would require papal approval.
For Francis, the faith of the laity, especially of the poor laity, is the main inspiration for church renewal. He wants a poor church for the poor. For this ideal to be realised, a profound spiritual conversion towards Gospel values is required on the part of church leaders. Such a conversion is always immensely challenging, as Francis’s own life has testified.
Though always excoriating clerical sex abuse, Francis was relatively slow to appreciate its extent. In 2018, for want of sufficient evidence, he defended a Chilean bishop who had been accused of covering up for a notorious priest paedophile. On discovering his mistake, Francis offered an abject apology. At his Rome residence, he spoke for seven hours in total with three of the victims in this case. In line with Francis’s own thinking, Ivereigh attributes the shameful level of clerical sex abuse to “the sense of entitlement and superiority that turned self-denying service into self-gratifying predatory exploitation”.
God’s creation
Laudato Si’ (Praise Be to You!), Francis’s encyclical on ecology and climate change, enjoyed a worldwide impact. It was enthusiastically praised by Greta Thunberg, Al Gore and the economist Jeffrey Sachs. Though relying on many collaborators, Francis’s personal input is very obvious. He sees the world as God’s sacred creation. Whereas ancient peoples respected nature, the capitalist tradition consistently treats nature as a source of plunder. No shame is expressed for massive ecological destruction, let alone for the harm done to the lives and health of the surrounding peoples.
Francis’s stand predictably earned him contempt on the part of many very rich and “pious” Catholics, especially in the USA.
Ivereigh’s account of the Vatican Bank resembles the scenario for a Martin Scorsese movie, though happily with rather fewer murders. So abysmal was the level of corruption in the bank that even the indulgent Italian financial authorities withdrew their co-operation. Francis, typically, set about the bank’s reform with relentless and effective measures.
Francis is celebrated for his aphorisms. Examples: “A shepherd should know the smell of his sheep.” “Clericalism is an aristocracy.” “Mercy is the beating heart of the Gospel.” “The presence of God today is Rohinga.” To a gay man he said “God made you like that and I’m fine with it.” His preference is for a church that “is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets”. For such convictions, Francis will continue to be both loved and loathed within and without the Roman Catholic Church.
Dr Patrick Masterson has described Christianity as an adventure in love. If this definition be true, Pope Francis has lived out that adventure with a very singular courage and generosity.
John Feighery is a Divine Word Missionary priest who has worked in Brazil.
