ragon
THE
P RTAL
April 2013
Page 8
Like a parish priest
A few days is not very long to judge a papacy on, but that is how long it took certain
quarters of the church and secular press to conclude that Francis, and not Benedict, is just
the kind of pope that people want and the Church needs.
Here is a pope, they applaud, who
behaves like a parish priest with the
common touch, rather than a papal
monarch; who is charismatic and
personable, who speaks off the cuff
and breaks from protocol, who is not
aloof and intellectual; whose faith
comes from the heart, not the head.
pontificate of Pope Francis has largely gone unheeded.
Commentators have wasted no time in interpreting his
election as a sign that the Church is about to change
big time, and much for the better.
a touch early to make a judgment
I have to admit that I still feel a strong sense of loss
at the resignation of Benedict XVI, but I am trying
to resist the temptation of making an uncritical
Here is a pope who refuses the papal limousine and assessment of his tenure, and grant that not all was
instead takes the bus; who shuns top-table formality, perfect. By the same token, while I feel a little less at
preferring to take any available space at table with the ease just now and that bit less able to relate to our
cardinals; who manages to trim a papal inauguration new pope, I’ll admit that it is a touch early to make a
Mass down by an hour, and favours Franciscan judgment based on a bunch of characteristics, quirks
simplicity over Gothic splendour. The “embattled and biographical details.
mood” which characterised Benedict’s pontificate
History will no doubt show us that both men had their
latterly, has been replaced, they note, by an “upbeat
mood”; people can look once again at the Church strengths and their weaknesses as pope; that each had
“with sympathy”, rather than view it as “far-off ” and successes and failures – moments to be proud of and
moments they would rather forget; that each brought
untrustworthy.
gifts to the Church when they were needed.
focus on social issues
It is true that the contrasts in style between Benedict
XVI and Francis are marked, and that the focus of
Pope Francis’ ministry is likely to be different, with a
focus on social issues and a simpler reaching out with
the message of the Gospel, rather than on doctrinal
battl