Habemus Papam!
We have been given a new Pope from outside Europe. Let us rejoice and thank God for His gift to us. It will of course take time for us to get used to Pope Francis’ style of papacy. We have been used to a teaching Pope, who followed a very popular philosopher Pope. It is early days so I will not characterise Pope Francis, but we do know he will be different.
In the secular media and on-line there have been very mixed commentary about the new Pope. I want to begin by appealing for us all to not jump to conclusions based on opinions themselves based on slender evidence. I appeal that you actually read some of the things he has said. The Catholic Herald has done an excellent job collecting quotations together. Here is a recent one, and the link follows it.
Speaking to Vatican Insider last month:
Benedict XVI has insisted on the renewal of faith being a priority and presents faith as a gift that must be passed on, a gift to be offered to others and to be shared as a gratuitous act. It is not a possession, but a mission…
We need to come out of ourselves and head for the periphery. We need to avoid the spiritual sickness of a Church that is wrapped up in its own world: when a Church becomes like this, it grows sick. It is true that going out onto the street implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to any ordinary man or woman. But is the Church stays wrapped up in itself, it will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded Church that goes out onto the streets and a sick withdrawn Church, I would definitely choose the first one…
We seek to make contact with families that are not involved in the parish. Instead of just being a Church that welcomes and receives, we try to be a Church that comes out of itself and goes to the men and women who do not participate in parish life, do not know much about it and are indifferent towards it. We organise missions in public squares where many people usually gather: we pray, we celebrate mass, we offer baptism which we administer after a brief preparation. This is the style of the parishes and the diocese itself. Other than this, we also try to reach out to people who are far away, via digital means, the web and brief messaging…
The cardinalate is a service is, it is not an award to be bragged about. Vanity, showing off, is an attitude that reduces spirituality to a worldly thing, which is the worst sin that could be committed in the Church. This is affirmed in the final pages of the book entitled Méditation sur l’Église, by Henri De Lubac. Spiritual worldliness is a form of religious anthropocentrism that has Gnostic elements. Careerism and the search for a promotion come under the category of spiritual worldliness. An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2013/03/14/pope-francis-in-his-own-words/
