Breda O'BrienPope Francis wants us to return to the very roots of our Faith, writes Breda O’Brien
Two years later, the first and most important part of the ‘Francis Effect’ is a new sense of mission, a sense that it is good to be Catholic, and that we have something irreplaceable to contribute to the world.
Pope Benedict is a man of the written word, careful and reflective. Francis is a man of the spontaneous comment which captures the headlines.
Both are sons of the Church. However, one could do nothing right in the eyes of the media, and the other, for the moment at least, can do little wrong.
One can imagine Pope Emeritus Benedict being burnt in effigy if he suggested that the odd slap did children no harm. While eyebrows were raised about Francis’ comment, the controversy quickly faded away.
As a result of popularity in the media, everyone can tell you one or another of Pope Francis’ famous phrases – the Church being a field hospital, or that pastors should have the smell of the sheep on them.
Downside
The downside of Francis’ popularity in the media is that his most radical comments are rarely reported. When I say radical, I mean in the original sense of the word, which comes from the Latin for root, radix.
Francis wants to return to the very roots of our Faith, to the Gospel and to knowing, loving and trusting Jesus. Naturally, the media rarely choose to focus on this central aspect of his message.
You can see that the Pope is steeped in prayer. He radiates peace and joy, and is like a living embodiment of love and compassion.
And yet, as the title of John L. Allen Jr’s new book, The Francis Miracle: Inside the Transformation of the Pope and the Church, hints, Jorge Bergoglio was not always like this. In fact, his public image in Argentina was at best of a shy man, and at worst, a dour one.
John Allen recounts a conversation the Pope had with a friend who is a cardinal. The unnamed cardinal asked Pope Francis bluntly about what had changed him from the man he knew in Argentina.
Pope Francis replied, “On the night of my election, I had an experience of the closeness of God that gave me a great sense of interior freedom and peace, and that sense has never left me.”
That is a very precious experience, which Allen terms a ‘miracle’. But it is a miracle that Pope Francis wants us all to share.
He believes that unless the Church really knows and loves Jesus that we will fall prey to one of two heresies – excessive legalism, or a kind of permissiveness that does not present the real challenge of the Gospel.
His is not a Church of abstractions, but a Church of the poor, a maternal Church. He spoke to a Roman diocesan conference in June 2014 about the Church as mother.
“She is a little aged, our Mother Church… We shouldn’t call her ‘Grandma Church’, but still she is a little older… We must rejuvenate her! We must rejuvenate her, but not by taking her to the plastic surgeon, no!… The Church grows younger when she is capable of generating more children; she grows younger the more she becomes mother. This is our mother, the Church and our love for children. To be in the Church is to be at home, with mom; at mom’s house.”
Perhaps Pope Francis’ image of the Church comes not just from Our Lady, but from the fact that he has a great appreciation of women. He is the first Pope to have worked for a woman boss.
He has spoken with great appreciation of Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, for whom he worked as a chemical assistant. She insisted on meticulous attention to detail.
Ordination
According to John Allen’s new book, it was his former boss who was a Paraguayan communist that Pope Francis had in mind when he said that he didn’t mind being compared to a Marxist, as she was “a great woman”.
It will be interesting to see whether the Pope will take concrete steps to involve women at all levels of decision-making in the Church. While the question of ordination is closed, he has indicated that he wants to give women a greater role, but to date that role has not been fleshed out to any great degree.
If it is not, it will be a great disappointment to many faithful women. Maria Voce, leader of Focolare, when asked about a council of women, suggested instead a lay council that would parallel the advisory council of cardinals which Pope Francis set up.
If he convened a similar group of faithful lay people who included at least four women, that would be a gesture that would speak to the whole world.