FRANCIS has been Pope for just over six months and he has already
ushered in what can only be described as a kind of ecclesiastical
perestroika. It’s a message that may well find resonance in a country like Ireland where many people describe themselves as Catholics but no longer attend Mass regularly.
But Pope Francis understands the art of communication and the golden rule that what is heard is the message. And too often what people have been hearing is a list of negatives: The Church is against this, or the Vatican opposes that. The Pope is calling Catholics to concentrate a bit more on what the Church is for and less about what it is against.
Principally, for Francis, this is about transforming the Church from a place of ideology to a Church where people experience spirituality and the deep-seated need for transcendence is met.
In so doing, he is reaching out to what might be described as the Catholic middle ground. He is moving away from a model of the Church that is ‘fewer and truer’ to one where all Catholics can find a home.
The remarkable 12,000-word interview in which the Pope excoriates some elements in the Church for being “obsessed” with abortion and gay marriage shows that Francis wants the hierarchy to find a different way of being the Church. It would be wrong to think that he is signalling a seismic shift where the Catholic Church would suddenly start endorsing gay marriage or would approve of abortion.
Francis makes it clear in the interview that he is a loyal son of the Church and, as such, stands fully behind Church teaching. It’s hardly a surprise that the Pope is a Catholic, but he is a Catholic that wants the Church to emphasise more the message of mercy and love. As one theologian put it to me: “It’s about telling people what God can do for them, rather than what they have to do for God.”
Predictably, some liberal elements in the Church have been emphasising what pleases them in the interview.
But what Francis is shifting is emphasis rather than doctrine. He is trying to steer a middle ground between those who push a heartless form of Catholicism, based on rigid rules and regulations, and those who would adopt an all-you-need-is-love approach.
Ever since his election, Francis has adopted a different style from his immediate predecessors. His approach has been less regal and more humble. In fairness, Benedict XVI paved the way by resigning — a deed that seemed unthinkable just hours before Benedict announced that he had given as much as he could give and was moving on. His resignation broke the taboo around Papal monarchy and Francis has broken many more taboos.
The Pope is trying to reach out to those who have long since drifted away from the practice of their faith or even those who are hostile towards Catholicism. He is likely to get short shrift from the latter, but he may well get a warm reception from lapsed Catholics.
This is why he says the Church needs to find a new balance between upholding rules and demonstrating mercy. Otherwise, he warns, “even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards”.
It’s a stark warning that rings true in Ireland, where the Church’s moral authority has crumbled as a result of revelations of the cover-up of clerical abuse.
The reason that the Catholic Church has survived for 2,000 years is because of an ability at moments in history for the Church to recreate and represent itself. Catholicism survived the Dark Ages by preserving Christian tradition in the monasteries.
The Church survived the Reformation by engaging in a massive programme of reform in the 16th century. We may be witnessing one such moment when one form of Catholicism dies and another is birthed.
Pope Francis’s simple style and humility have won him widespread approval. The challenge for bishops and priests across Ireland will be to put flesh on the bones of what the Pope is saying and make real Francis’ pledge that the Church will be more open to meeting people with mercy and love.
They will need to reassure people that the form of Catholicism Francis criticises — the Church that has “locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules” — is also capable of openness and being a place of welcome for many rather than a museum for the saintly few.
* Michael Kelly is editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper