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What Pope Francis Is NOT WhoWho IsIs PopePope FrancisFrancis andand WhatWhat IsIs HisHis DirectionDirection forfor thethe Church?Church? ←➔ •Christ the King •Paul Dokecki • Sunday, January 10, 2016 •Bob O’Gorman • Sunday, January 17, 2016 Who Is Pope Francis? OUTLINE ❧ Sources ❧ Overview (from Boff) of What Pope Francis ̶ Is Not and Is ̶ Has Brought Us That Is New ❧ How Did He Get That Way? ̶ Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi ̶ The Kingdom/Reign of God ❧ Where is he coming from? ̶ Perónism ̶ The Theology of the People and Liberation Theology ̶ South America as “Source Church ❧ Pope Francis has a special devotion to The Blessed Virgin Mary, Untier of Knots. (It is the name of a Baroque painting entitled Wallfahrtsbild painted by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner (1625-1707) in 1700 and displayed in the St. Peter am Perlach in Augsburg, Bavaria.) ❧ In her hands, Mary holds a long knotted rope which she unties. Her foot rests on the head of a “knotted” snake clearly representing Satan. Mary's faith unties the knot of sin (Lumen Gentium, 56). ❧ Paul Vallely suggests that “the knots are metaphors of the difficulties we have.” The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council took up a phrase of Saint Irenaeus, who states that "the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by the obedience of Mary; what the virgin Eve bound by her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith" (Adversus Haereses). Sources Paul Vallely is a writer and consultant on religion, international development, and business ethics. He is Visiting Professor in Public Ethics and Media at the University of Chester and Senior Honorary Fellow at the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester. He has produced award-winning reports from more than 30 countries in the developing world Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian theologian and writer, known for his active support for the rights of the poor and excluded. He was a pioneer in liberation theology. He currently serves as Professor Emeritus of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology at the Rio de Janeiro State University. John Dominic Crossan is a New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, and former Catholic priest. His research has focused on the historical Jesus, on the anthropology of the Ancient Mediterranean and New Testament worlds, and on the application of postmodern hermeneutical approaches to the Bible. Austen Ivereigh is a British writer, journalist, and commentator on religious and political affairs who holds a PhD from Oxford University on religion and politics in Argentina. A former deputy editor of the weekly The Tablet, he was for a time spokesman and public affairs adviser to the former archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and is the cofounder of Catholic Voices, a media project that has spread to thirteen countries. José Antonio Pagola was born in Spain in 1937. He completed his theological studies in 1962 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and his studies in Sacred Scripture at the Biblical Institute in Rome in 1963. He also studied Biblical sciences at the École Biblique in Jerusalem. He has dedicated his life to Biblical studies and Christology and has done research on the historical Jesus for more than 30 year. His new books have been recognized as among the best latest studies on the Historical Jesus. James Carroll is an American author, historian, and journalist. A Roman Catholic reformer, he has written extensively about his experiences in the seminary and as a priest, and has published, besides novels, books on religion and history (e.g., Constantine's Sword). Overview (from Boff) of What Pope Francis Is Not and Is and What He Has Brought Us That Is New What Pope Francis Is NOT 1. Pope Francis is not Eurocentric. 2. Pope Francis is not ecclesiocentric. 3. Pope Francis is not Vatican-centric. 4. Pope Francis is not papal-centric. 5. Pope Francis is not a restorationist or conservative. 6. Pope Francis does not see himself as a master, doctor, or indoctrinator. 7. Pope Francis does not see himself as a source of certainties. 8. Pope Francis does not see himself as an oracle but as a traveling companion who is not afraid of the most challenging frontiers. What Pope Francis Is 1. Pope Francis’s inspiration is the historical Jesus. 2. Pope Francis is an advocate and defender of the poor. 3. Pope Francis sets the world at the center. 4. Pope Francis sees the church as a field hospital. 5. Pope Francis proclaims the revolution of tenderness. 6. Pope Francis offers the virtues of the good shepherd. What Has Pope Francis Brought Us That Is New? 1. From church winter to church spring. We are coming out of two papacies characterized by a return to strict discipline and control of doctrines. That strategy created a “winter” that froze many initiatives. 2. From fortress to open house. The two previous popes gave the impression that the church was a fortress, surrounded by enemies against whom we need to defend ourselves, especially against relativism, modernity, and post modernity. Pope Francis has said clearly: “Anyone approaching the church must find open doors, not border guards of the faith.” 3. From pope to bishop of Rome. 4. From papal apartment to guesthouse. Francis is more than just a name. It is an indicator of a different project for the church along the lines of Saint Francis of Assisi: a poor church for the poor, as he himself said, a church that is humble, simple, and smells of sheep, rather than of altar flowers. He wants and needs community. That is why he left the papal apartment. 5. From doctrine to encounter. He does not present himself as a doctor but as a pastor. He behaved in an intimately human way toward the African refugees on the island of Lampedusa. He denounced the money fetishism and the world financial system that martyrs whole countries. Thus he captures the chief insights of liberation theology, without calling it that by name. 6. From exclusion to inclusion. 7. From church to world. 8. From the world to the poor. In the first interview he gave to journalists, on March 16, 2013, Pope Francis called for “a poor church for the poor.” He has put the poor at the center. How Did He Get That Way? From Leonardo Boff’s Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi ❧ Both Francis of Assisi and Francis of Rome had a mission, each in his own time; to restore Christ’s church, to restore the church that Christ had redeemed with his blood. ❧ Francis is not only a name; it is a project to create a church that is poor, simple, evangelical, and stripped of all trappings. ❧ The church model . inspiring Francis of Rome: a poor church for the poor as he put it very well himself, a church that tries to be faithful to the legacy of Jesus. Its pastors must smell of sheep. That means they should walk side by side with the people. Boff (cont'd) ❧ According to philosopher Max Scheler, Francis of Assisi is the western prototype of emotional reason, the heart’s reason. If Benedict XVI, expressed intellectual reason, Pope Francis represents the heart’s intelligence, which loves people, embraces people, kisses children, and looks lovingly upon crowds. ❧ Francis of Assisi had a friendly relationship with women. Let us hope that he may inspire Francis of Rome to cultivate a relationship with women . not only of respect but of valuing their decision- making initiative on how faith and spirituality should be in the new millennium. THE KINGDOM/REIGN OF GOD Jose Mario Bergoglio, newly elected as Pope Francis, asked the faithful to join him in his first prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer has been called by John Dominic Crossan “The Greatest Prayer.” With Francis, and together at every mass celebration, we say these words, as Jesus taught us to pray: THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. Crossan argues that When you read “kingdom of God,” . mentally rephrase it as the “ruling style of God.” It imagines how the world would be if the biblical God actually sat on an imperial throne down here below. It dreams of an earth where the Holy One of justice and righteousness actually gets to establish—as we might say—the annual budget for the global economy. And in a world characterized by justice and righteousness, says Crossan: “The earth will belong equally to all, undivided by walls or fences. Lives will be in common and wealth will have no division. For there will be no poor man there, no rich, and no tyrant, no slave. Further, no one will be either great or small anymore. No kings, no leaders. All will be equal together” (Sibylline Oracles 2.319–24). James Carroll, in his history-based search for a Christ relevant to our secular age, cites Crossan: Jesus had initially embraced John the Baptist’s expectation of God’s imminent intervention in history but moved on from that way of thinking. Instead of speaking of God as imminent apocalypse, Jesus began to proclaim God as already present. That meant that the Kingdom of God is an ongoing challenge to individuals to lead a responsible, simple, radical life. The person of the historical Jesus, then, ❧ proclaiming and enacting the kingdom/reign of God, ❧ doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven, inspired Bergoglio throughout his life and ministry. Regarding the kingdom/reign of God, Jose Pagola argues: The reign of God is already here – ‘among you’ (Lk.
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