Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on March 13, 2013, the day he was elected pontiff. AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
Thursday is the one-year anniversary of the election of Pope Francis.
Here is my story from last weekend that includes Inland residents’ thoughts on the pontiff.
I also interviewed three longtime Vatican observers but for space reasons wasn’t able to include some of their insightful comments in the story. Here are a few more excerpts from my conversations with them.
I’ve been calling Larry Cunningham for years for his insights on the church. Cunningham is a professor emeritus of theology at the University of Notre Dame and an expert on church history.
I talked with him about how the pope has been called a “radical” by some, for, among other things, his famous “Who am I to judge?” comment about gay people and his strong statements against the “tyranny” of unbridled capitalism.
Cunningham said Francis’ tone is nonjudgmental and he has a strong emphasis on mercy.
“The problem is that from that perception people too quickly jump to the conclusion that he will be a theological liberal or even a theological bomb-thrower,” he told me. “I think he’s theologically traditional. He’s very much in the mainstream of the church.”
Cunningham and other Vatican observers say that even though Francis has a different tone and approach than his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, his statements are firmly within church teaching.
“On the other hand,” Cunningham said, “he’s been kind of imaginative in that he realizes there are real ethical and moral issues facing the church that have been benignly ignored. He’s at least bringing them up for sustained discussion.”
Cunningham pointed to how the Vatican surveyed Catholics around the world on topics such as how the church should minister to same-sex couples, unmarried couples who live together and divorced people. The survey was in preparation for an October Vatican synod on the family.
Cunningham doesn’t expect any changes in church doctrine coming from the survey and synod. But he believes the pope is encouraging discussion on issues such as whether the church should always deny communion to divorced people who do not receive annulments and then remarry.
Rev. Mark Morozowich, dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at CatholicUniversity in Washington, D.C., said the pope has tried to put church teaching in perspective.
Francis said the church had become “obsessed” with issues such as gay marriage, abortion and contraception. Same-gender sex, abortion and the use of birth control are sins in Catholic teaching. But so, Morozowich said, is gluttony, “and people don’t get upset over the sin of gluttony.”
The pope wants people to focus more on “the healing love of Jesus Christ” and on the joy of being believers in Christ, he said. Francis also wants to convey a message of inclusion.
“He has been very clear in helping people to realize the church is a place for people who are struggling,” he said. “It’s a welcoming place, an open place, an inviting place. It’s a place that is also challenging. It calls for courage. It calls for self-sacrifice.”
Morozowich said the pope is “bringing spirituality to the forefront.”
“Some people are in church to get death insurance,” Morozowich said. “They have a list of do’s and don’ts and can check off a list.”
Francis wants Catholics to reflect more profoundly on their faith and beliefs, he said.
George Weigel, a leading Catholic theologian and longtime Vatican observer, said in an email that not enough attention has been paid to what he views as the pope’s top priority, the “new evangelization,” in which Catholics deepen their faith and proclaim the Gospel to others.
I noted to Weigel how, with few exceptions, liberal and conservative Catholics share an admiration for the pope.
Weigel likened people’s views of the pontiff to a Rorschach blot, “something onto which everyone projects their hopes and fears. So it’s hardly a surprise that conservatives as well as progressives praise Pope Francis when they see the things they most cherish magnified in him.”
Perhaps the best place to turn to find out more about how Francis thinks and how he approaches the papacy is to read the August 2013 interview the pope had with Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal. Here is the interview, as translated by America, the U.S. Jesuit journal.
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