On Monday of this week, the Holy See quietly initiated a project that in many senses embodies Pope Francis's famous call for a "church of the poor and for the poor". Under the auspices of the Papal Almsgiver, Polish priest Konrad Krajewski, the Holy See opened up a shower and barber service for the homeless, right under the famous Bernini Colonnade in St Peter's Square.
Thirty people, including one woman, turned up to avail of the service which will be staffed by volunteers from the Italian charity, Unitalsi, as well as by Mother Teresa Sisters of Charity and Albertine Sisters. The idea is to guarantee a daily service that will afford homeless soap, a shower, a shave, a hair trim and a change of underwear. Given its rather special location, this service will obviously be suspended on Sundays and on Wednesdays when the pope holds his weekly public audience.
Bankrolled by some Roman dioceses as well as the Holy See, this latest project obviously has the full backing of Pope Francis. Furthermore, it reflects the fact that, for some time now, Rome's homeless have gravitated towards the Vatican. Walk around St Peter's any evening and you will find people sleeping out under the famous Colonnade, or indeed right in front of the press office on Via Della Conciliazione. Their presence clearly presents a perfect opportunity for Francis to practise what he so often preaches.
Critics
Yet, critics of Pope Francis – and there are plenty of them – will doubtless point to this latest innovation as another gimmick, strong on symbolism but ultimately of questionable long-term value. Those same critics, especially within the Vatican Curia, tend to say the same thing about other famous symbolic gestures by Francis such as his decision to live in the Domus Santa Marta residence rather than the Apostolic Palace, or to be driven around in a modest Ford Focus rather than a large black Vatican limousine.
The critics, however, may be making a mistake if they conclude that the "Francis Revolution" is only about stunning soundbites and spectacular gestures. The two-year Family Synod process, the beatification of Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero, papal visits to the Holy Land, Istanbul, South Korea, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and to mafia-infested Italian regions are, of course, often spectacular but they are about more than this.
They are about Francis’s much expressed urgings that the church should, as he told the new cardinals appointed last weekend, “go out in search of those who are distant, those on the outskirts”. Roll up your sleeves, he said, and stop “standing by, passively watching the suffering of the world”.
We are now very familiar with this Francis message. What many faithful may not realise quite so clearly is that the “Francis revolution”, the reforming of the curia, moves on apace at HQ, with a series of new appointments intended not just to restructure Vatican departments but also to change the curia mindset.
Appointments such as Cardinal Pietro Parolin as his secretary of state, English Archbishop Paul Gallagher as his foreign minister, Australian Cardinal George Pell as his economics "tsar" and US Cardinal Sean O'Malley as president of the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors make the point. As does the appointment of former foreign minister Archbishop Dominique Lamberti to the Vatican supreme court, in the process replacing conservative US cardinal and Francis critic Raymond Burke. Bit by bit, Francis is putting his team in place.
Elector cardinals
Last weekend’s batch of new cardinals further underlines the point. Francis has now appointed 31 new elector (under 80) cardinals in two consistories since his election in March, 2013. Given his non-European choices, this means that the European influence in the College of Cardinals continues to diminish, dropping from 51.3 per cent of elector cardinals at Francis’s election to 45.6 per cent today.
In democratic terms, this is still grossly unfair. After all, European Catholics, who make up 24 per cent of today’s universal church, are represented by 57 cardinals, or 45.6 per cent of the college, while Latin America, which accounts for 40 per cent of Catholics worldwide, is represented by 18 cardinals, or 14.4 per cent of the electoral college.
However, as his choices last weekend would indicate, Francis is working on it. Meanwhile one of the new cardinals, John Dew from New Zealand, indicated the Francis way forward when he told Vatican radio that it might be a good idea if curia prelates were to be assigned to the field, to dioceses where they would obtain "real on-the-ground experience". Pure Francis speak, really.
