In orthodox
Catholic environments, there are ongoing scandalized consciences because of
remarks and reports of remarks of Pope Francis:
-
To
Anthony Spadaro S.J. on September 30, 2013: “We cannot insist only on issues
related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is
not possible… But when we speak about
these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the
church… is clear, and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk
about these issues all the time.”
Last July, in response to a question about gay priests,
Francis famously uttered one of the lines that set the lerant tone of his
pastoral style, “Who am I to judge?” (from the NYT op ed page of March 9,
2014 by PETER MANSEAU in an article, “What It Means to Be Catholic Now.”)
On October 17m 2013, Bishop Arthur
Serratelli of Peterson, wrote:
“On Sept. 19, their thought-provoking and engaging
conversation ignited a media explosion. The New York Times headlined its story:
“Pope Says Church Is ‘Obsessed With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control.’ ” The
Guardian tagged its story “Pope Francis sets out vision for more gay people and
women in ‘new’ church.” CNN blog happily announced “Pope Francis: Church can’t
‘interfere’ with gays.”
It is very clear
from the pope’s remarks in this latest interview, as well as in his July 29th
interview on the plane trip back to Rome from Brazil, that the Holy Father is
urging all, Catholics and non-Catholics, not to condemn gay people, divorcees
and women who have had an abortion. Nonetheless, the media response’s to such
an evangelical approach is astonishing. The embrace of our
Holy Father of all people, saints and sinners, is the message of Catholicism.
Why, then, is the media predicting that Pope Francis is launching a major
reformation of Catholic teaching on these issues?
In his most
recent interview, the pope himself gives us the key to understand his remarks. He said, “When we speak about these
issues, we have to talk about them in a context.” Following his advice, we
need to look carefully at the context in which these issues are being discussed
.
First, the context
of the Church in society. There is a general perception of Catholicism that is
engendered by the media’s issue-focused reporting. Most often, the media
spotlights the Church’s teaching on right to life, human sexuality and gender
equality as out of touch with a society that tolerates and, in some circles,
vigorously promotes abortion, sex relationships outside the marital union of a
man and a woman and radical feminism. By highlighting how the Church is out of
step with the new laws on these important areas of human life, the image of the
Church as a rule-based institution becomes the context in which the issues are
presented.
Pope Francis has
happily reminded all of us that this should not be the context for discussing
these issues. We are dealing with people, not just issues.
God loves every person whom he calls into being. As the Holy Father so
beautifully says, “God is in every person’s life… Even if the life of a person
has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else —
God is in this person’s life.” God does not abandon us. He loves each of us
enough to have sent his Son as Savior. In the world, the Church is Christ. Her
message is his message. It is mercy and forgiveness. Therefore, the mission of
the Church is to bring healing to the wounded, to uplift those brought down by
sin and to set them free to love as Jesus teaches.
Second, the
context of the present papacy. The historical moment is important. Pope Francis
steps into the shoes of the fisherman, following in the footsteps of two of the
greatest popes that have ever led the Church. Our present Holy Father is not, in any way,
sweeping aside the great body of truth so
clearly enunciated by these holy and scholarly popes. He is working from the
foundation of the truth that the Church has always taught. In the wake of the
Second Vatican Council, there followed a general confusion on basic issues
among many Catholics. The flood of new insights and exciting pastoral
initiatives left many unmoored and reaching out for some solid truth to steady
their faith. Blessed Pope John Paul II published the Catechism of the Catholic
Church providing us with an easy access to the teachings of the faith.
Pope Benedict
XVI, who himself had closely collaborated with Pope John Paul in the
development of the Catechism, taught the faith with theological insight and
pastoral clarity. His Wednesday audiences, his books on Jesus and his talks
gifted the Church with a catechesis that will provide food for meditation for
years to come. His work on restoring the reverence and beauty of the Liturgy is
already bearing fruit in the lives of the faithful.
Enter Pope
Francis. He says, “The teaching
of the Church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the Church.” Here there is no wavering on Church
doctrine. When he remarks that “We cannot insist only on issues related to
abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods,” he obviously sees
these as matters on which the Church has something to offer. Not insisting only
on these issues, nonetheless, means teaching on these issues! He wants to widen the view from the issue of abortion to the person who
makes the decision for an abortion, from the issue of gay marriage to the
person with a homosexual orientation, from contraception to married couples and
their struggles.
* * * * * * *
Blogger: Francis is
exercising the praxis of what was taught in the Council, by Paul VI, John Paul
II, Joseph Ratzinger as Prefect of the CDF, Benedict XVI:
All questions of human action must be seen through the prism of the human
person as image of the divine Person of the Son ["sons in the Son"]
where the dynamic consists in making the total gift of self [Gaudium et spes
#24]. He is envisioning the total panorama of the human person through the
prism of Christ as the mercy of the Father for man. That prism is the
epistemology of the subject ("I") as complemented by the epistemology
of the object ("he, she, it" - or "the rule book").
I introduce Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow in his catechism to Krakow
after the Council: “The doctrine of faith and morals… is the content of the
teaching of the pastors of the Church, so that on the one hand doctrinal acts
of the magisterium have a pastoral sense, while on the other pastoral acts have
a doctrinal significance, deeply rooted as they are in faith and morals. These
pastoral acts contain the doctrine that the Church proclaims; they often make
it clearer and more precise, striving incessantly to achieve the fullness of
the divine truth (cf. Jn 16, 13). All this has been signally confirmed by
Vatican II, which while preserving its pastoral character and mindful of the
purpose for which it was called, profoundly developed the doctrine of faith and
thus provided a basis for its enrichment…”
What was this pastoral enrichment of the faith? Wojtyla continued: “If
we study the Conciliar magisterium as a whole, we find that the Pastors of the
Church were not so much concerned to answer questions like ‘What should men
believe?” ‘What is the real meaning of this or that truth of faith?’ and so on,
but rather to answer the more complex question: ‘What does it mean to be a
believer, a Catholic and a member of the Church?”[1]
What
was the answer? The enrichment of the faith in Vatican II was not to add or
subtract new truths, but to present them in a new key. The same melody is
played, but now not in the key of C, but in the key of F sharp. The new key is
the subject, the existential person, as the complementary development of the
abstract objective truth. It is the same truth of Christ, but not as the dogma
of Chalcedon of 451, but in the kerygmatic preaching of St. Paul: Christ lives,
loves you, died for you and will be present to you and with you until the end.
Pope Francis is living out this development of the Council.
* * * * * *
Pope Francis is
beginning his Petrine ministry where his venerable predecessors left off. He is
taking the dogma and morality of the Church and applying it pastorally. He sees
“the Church as a field hospital after battle.”
What a great
image! Society’s whole scale departure from the truth about the human person
has wounded many. The Church is about healing individuals. The Church is not
custodian of a “rule book.” But, she is the voice of Christ calling the world
to justice, peace and charity. The doctrine, that is, the teaching of the
Church on faith and morality, guides us along the way and lights the path to
goodness.
(…) We need to
listen to what the Successor of Peter is telling us. He is calling us to the
central message of the Gospel. God loves us in Christ. He heals the wounds of
sin and division. He calls us to the fullness of life within his Church. By
speaking in the common sense pastoral language that bishops and priests use
every day, the pope, as Supreme Pastor of the universal Church, is disarming those
who stand against the Church.[2]
It is that gift
of candor that makes Pope Francis a reformer. He is reforming the way the world
sees Catholicism.
Conclusion:
(Assessment of the man)
Aldo Cagnoli, Alitalia
Pilot, flying Cardinal Bergoglio between Rome and Buenos Aires. They met on
April 20, 2005 on a flight between Rome and B.A.
“When I met him for the first time on the
place and we exchanged a few opinions, he was just as I had always pictured
him, right down to some of his quirks. I was struck by his great ability to
make the person he was speaking to feel at ease and on the same wavelength, his
severe appearance in contrast to his warmth and, above all, his extraordinarily
unaffected manner.”
“The
greatness of the man, in my humble opinion, lies not in building walls or
seeking refuge behind his wisdom and office, but rather in dealing with
everyone judiciously, respectfully, and with humility, being willing to learn
at any moment of life; that is what Father Bergoglio means to me. His greatness
lies in his down-to-earth nature combined with his tremendous wisdom, his open
mind combined with his moral rectitude, the ability to listen to and learn from
everyone, even when he has so much to teach us.”
[1] K
Wojtyla, “Sources of Renewal,” Harper and Row [1979] 17.
[2]
That is, he is presenting the Church as precisely the answer that the human
person is looking for. He is looking for love, tenderness, mercy, total
fulfillment, eternal joy and happiness, and this through the self-giving of
Christ crucified.
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