Have you felt the “Francis effect”?
According to an Italian study 51 per cent of Italian parish priests have.
They
have reported an increase in Mass attendance since the election of Pope
Francis.
Though the report did not specify the reasons for the increase (and
there are questions about causation and correlation) one can safely
assume that, with both this study and the palpably larger crowds present
at papal events, there is something in the Roman air.
What does the “Francis effect” consist of?
It’s partly due to
Francis’s informality and determination to demystify what often seems an
enigmatic office.
Some fear this new approach will lead to doctrinal
slackness.
But this is not a valid worry if one takes into account
Francis’s writings and episcopal appointments.
The real effect is that
the Vatican, that hauntingly complex curial closet of secrets, becoming
like a model diocese, abbey or parish.
A friend who had recently met the Pope told me she was astonished
that he took time to greet the 500-plus guests individually.
The
incident illustrated Francis’s paradoxical strength: in being unassuming
and familiar he attracts more attention than if he were more remote and
august.
That way he prompts a perhaps unprecedented amount of
reflection on who this man is and what the institution he represents has
to say.