Habemus Papam. “We have a pope.”
The Vatican has finally chosen its new pontiff in 76-year-old Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has been named as Pope Francis.
As the symbolic white smoke clears and rejoicing among Catholics linger, expectations from the new pontiff remain high — will he be able to revive the Catholic Church’s ailing reputation?
This is the first time in 1,300 years that a non-European successor was chosen to become the Church’s new leader, albeit Bergoglio’s Italian roots.
He is also the first pontiff from the Americas and the first Jesuit to be elected as such.
According to Robert Marquand of Christian Science Monitor (CSM), Bergoglio “was not foreshadowed prominently on the short lists of various experts, though the 76-year-old was said to be the runner-up to retiring Pope Benedict in the 2005 conclave.”
Nick Squires of CSM said that “there are high hopes that Francis will bring radical changes to the Catholic Church, which has had its standing battered by scandal and controversy in recent years.”
However, such changes may not turn out to be as radical as expected, since according to various news sources, Pope Francis shares the same conservative doctrinal beliefs as his predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II.
“He has opposed Argentina’s gay marriage laws, has been fiercely pro-family, and is also known as an advocate for the poor. In church terms, he is seen as a master conciliator who will be adroit at healing many of the rifts and scandals over finances and pedophile priests that have dogged the Vatican in recent years,” Marquand initially elaborated in his CSM article, “Why Pope Francis is something of a surprise.”
However, in his more recent later article, “Will Jesuit identity help Pope Francis repair ‘fractured church?’ Marquand says: “As Francis’s views are parsed, it appears he does not share Pope Benedict’s emphasis on a smaller, more orthodox, and arguably ‘purer’ church, but is emphasizing outreach and a willingness to look freshly at problems. South American liberation theology advocate Leonardo Boff, removed from his teaching post by Benedict in a bitter church fight decades ago, has praised the choice of Francis as a new direction for Catholicism.”
A closer look into the life the 76-year-old pope lived so far would reveal his austerity and modesty.
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio traveled by bus and preferred the modesty of a small apartment over the comforts of an episcopal palace — qualities that would “raise the prospect of a a radical culture clash with the pomp and circumstance of the Vatican, which is matched only by the British royal family for its love of costume, ceremony, and tradition,” Squires further said, adding that “there is an expectation that the first non-European pope for nearly 1,300 years and the first pontiff from the Americas could clear up the intrigue-ridden Curia, the powerful governing body of the Holy See.”
Christopher Morris of TIME Magazine wrote:”Is Francis up for the task? The fact that he held his own in balloting back in 2005 against the formidable Ratzinger shows that he has always had the respect of the Cardinals — and indeed, he has enough years of work with the secretive and sclerotic Roman Curia, the Vatican’s bureaucracy, to be able to work with it.”
“He will also bring much needed oxygen to parts of the Catholic empire. Just before the Conclave that elected him convened, he celebrated his 55th year of joining the Society of Jesus-whose members are popularly called Jesuits. That itself is a matter of rejoicing for the order-even though Bergoglio is on the conservative end of the often liberal Jesuit scale. The order has seen its once formidable influence wane as the star of Opus Dei rose during the reign of John Paul II. Bergoglio’s choice of regnal name too is telling. Many people immediately saw the reference to the great saint of the church, Francis of Assisi. But anyone raised by the Jesuits would have heard the resonance of another great saint and member of the Society of Jesus: the great evangelist to Asia, Francis Xavier,” Morris further said.
Last year, among Argentine priests, the outspoken Bergoglio delivered these powerful words to fellow church leaders, whom he accused “of hypocrisy and forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes,” says the Associated Press (AP).
“Jesus teaches us another way: Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit.”
Bergoglio compared “the concept of Catholicism to the Pharisees of Christ’s time – people who congratulate themselves, while condemning all others,” reported AP.
Sergio Rubin, Bergoglio’s authorized biographer said that “this sort pastoral work, aimed at capturing more souls and building the flock, was an essential skill for any religious leader in the modern era.”
Rubin’s words elaborate further on Bergoglio’s (Pope Francis’) admirable qualities.
“It’s a very curious thing: When bishops meet, he always wants to sit in the back rows. This sense of humility is very well seen in Rome,” Rubin said before the 2013 conclave.
“Is Bergoglio a progressive – a liberation theologist even? No. He’s no third-world priest. Does he criticize the International Monetary Fund, and neoliberalism? Yes. Does he spend a great deal of time in the slums? Yes.”
“Bergoglio almost never granted media interviews, limiting himself to speeches from the pulpit, and was reluctant to contradict his critics, even when he knew their allegations against him were false,” Rubin further narrated through AP.
In his first public mass as pope, while addressing cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis emphasized on the need for the Church to focus on the Gospels of Jesus Christ, as reported by Reuters.
“We can walk all we want, we can build many things, but if we don’t proclaim Jesus Christ, something is wrong. We would become a compassionate NGO and not a Church which is the bride of Christ.”
While these views paint a clearer picture of Pope Francis as the new leader of the Catholic Church, Morris gives this perspective: “The question of fealty, however, remains key to the Church. As enormous as it is, it must deal with the fractious faithful — many of whom find Rome and the Holy See more and more distant from their everyday lives. The entrenched priestly sex abuse scandal and the unplumbed depths of the Vatican’s finances only seem to turn off more Catholics by the day. Perhaps Francis can return to the Gospel reading for the Sunday Mass before the conclave, a selection read in Catholic churches around the world. It was the parable of the prodigal son. Many Cardinals use it to talk about bringing back Catholics who had left the church. The church itself may have to discover that it has been prodigal and find a way to return to its people.”
Whether Pope Francis’ election was brought about by divine intervention or a simple human decision, leading the Catholic flock onto verdant pastures will still be a long and tumultuous journey for this new shepherd.
(AJPress)
