Posted on 02/19/2023 5:51:14 PM PST by ebb tide
The path was signposted at the start, but looking back after 10 years, it can be seen more clearly: Pope Francis has sought a transformation of the internal life and culture of the Catholic Church, at the heart of which is a conversion of power.
He announced it in the homily of his inaugural Mass on March 17, 2013, when he asked us never to forget that true power is service. He was referring at that moment to the power conferred on him as pope: to be inspired by “the lowly, concrete and faithful service” of St. Joseph, to protect the poor and care for creation. But as he has spent the past decade teaching and enabling, all true authority in the church is the participation in that same divine power. From Rome, through the college of bishops, and extending through the synods, to the whole church, the recovery of that divine power that serves has been the hallmark of his reform. And its fruits are visible.
Where not long ago the Vatican was notorious for its haughty manner, its centralism and its authoritarianism, there is now a climate of service and of freedom. The constant stream of directives issued without first engaging the parties affected has long since dried to a trickle; the few directives that the Vatican issues these days follow extensive, patient consultation. No longer does Rome use anonymous denunciations (“delations”) to discipline bishops, and it is hard to recall a single instance in the past decade where a theologian’s orthodoxy has been put on trial.
Where not long ago the Vatican was notorious for its haughty manner, its centralism and its authoritarianism, there is now a climate of service and of freedom.
Bishops from local churches on their ad limina visits to the Vatican are amazed now to find they are no longer treated as subordinates. Officials look visiting bishops in the eye, want to listen and help. Article 1 of the new apostolic constitution of the Roman Curia, “Praedicate Evangelium,” implemented last year, makes clear that the Curia “does not place itself between the pope and the bishops, but is at the full service of both,” facilitating an exchange of gifts between the local churches.
The Roman Curia no longer acts to block and control access to the pope, and the corruption that went with this gatekeeping role is history. Gone, too, are the powerful papal secretaries; Francis’ have such little profile most would be hard-pressed to name them. Under John Paul II the Roman bodies representing the world’s one million men and women religious, viewed with suspicion by the Vatican, were denied a meeting with the pope for more than 10 years. Now Francis’ meetings with the two international organizations that represent women religious and men religious (the U.S.G. and U.I.S.G., respectively) are so frequent they barely generate comment.
Papal governance is now not remote and impersonal but “collegial”—that is, in partnership with the college of bishops by means of regular consultations and free-flowing exchanges. The synod of bishops is no longer managed by the Curia to prevent open discussion and to censor questioning but has become an authentic mechanism of discernment. When Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in 1999 called for “a more universal and authoritative instrument” to tackle knotty doctrinal and pastoral issues, “in the full exercise of episcopal collegiality,” it is now clear that in the synod’s reincarnation this past decade Francis has created just that.
The structures and governance of the universal church now reflect better what Francis calls the “style of God”: graciousness, kindness and closeness. As he said in his inaugural Mass: “caring, protecting—these demand goodness; they call for a certain tenderness.” It is a major category error of the pope’s critics to see this more vulnerable kind of authority as weakness or loss of nerve. It is a mark of the true strength of the church to rely not on potestas—power over—but the ministerium of divine power.
The structures and governance of the universal church now reflect better what Francis calls the “style of God”: graciousness, kindness and closeness.
These and many other changes signal not merely a reform of governance but a shift in agency: from a semi-Pelagian trust in the power of law to a new confidence in the power of the Spirit. Unity is no longer imposed through the coercion of uniformity, but is the gift that flows from communion, which is enabled by a culture of reciprocity and mutual listening. (Where juridical acts have been necessary—Pope Francis’ 2020 regulation of the Traditional Latin Mass springs to mind—it is to place boundaries that defend that culture.) Francis in “Praedicate Evangelium” is explicit that the reform is to recover “the experience of missionary communion lived by the Apostles with the Lord while He was on earth, and, following Pentecost, in the first community of Jerusalem under the effect of the Holy Spirit.”
A new constitution for the Diocese of Rome—which the pope governs directly, as its bishop—gives a glimpse of what this might mean in concrete terms in the local church. “In Ecclesiarium Communione,” published in early January, speaks of a missionary conversion in a Samaritan key that enables the church to better perform the mercy and charity of God, requiring a synodal conversion that involves the active participation of all the baptized. This calls, in turn, for a range of consultative bodies at all levels, with every parish having a pastoral council, and as many as possible taking part in processes of decision-making involving processes of discernment.
Unity is no longer imposed through the coercion of uniformity, but is the gift that flows from communion, which is enabled by a culture of reciprocity and mutual listening.
It is to enable the church to live in this way ever more under the effect of the Spirit that Pope Francis in October 2021 called the three-year global Synod on Synodality. Even now, at its halfway point, it is clear that the experience of deep mutual listening has been transformative for many of those taking part, awakening a desire among the faithful for greater responsibility and participation in the life and mission of the church. The declericalization of authority, in such a way that leadership and ministry in the church can be better rooted in charisms, is already underway in the Vatican, where laypeople, as well as religious women, are occupying significant executive roles.
By rooting authority in a careful listening to the Spirit made known in the lived faith of ordinary people, the synod is giving expression to what St. John Henry Newman called the “breathing together of faithful and pastors,” one that allows the Spirit to truly guide the church. It is a striking thought that, whenever the next conclave takes place, the cardinals will elect the next pope aware that, via this unprecedented assembly of the people of God, the Spirit has spoken to the church in our time.
One of the signs that the transformation is taking hold is the increasingly strident resistance it is provoking. The opposition to Francis throughout his pontificate has been at its most intense and ferocious precisely in his reform of authority and governance, and notably in and around the synods. There is a new willingness in the Catholic Church, modeled by Pope Francis, to hold its disagreements in fruitful tension, allowing the Spirit to show new paths forward that transcend those divisions. This way of proceeding causes fear and anger in those seeking the apparent securities of an imagined past. They must be listened to respectfully, and their fears appreciated. But as Pope Francis understands, the church can only evangelize today’s world using “God’s style” if the medium is not to undermine the message. The church’s true authority lies in its sharing in God’s power, which is always expressed in humble service. It is among Francis’ greatest achievements that after 10 years we are able not just to understand this, but to see it in action.
Look for a special “deep dive” episode of America’s “Inside the Vatican” podcast for the 10th anniversary of Francis’ election. Go to americamagazine.org/podcasts.
Major Barf Alert regarding the Jesuits’ America Magazine
No. Francis infused the church with wokeism and socialism.
Yes, I can see that being a fulfillment of Revelations, where it says that whole world wandered after the First Beast.
Emperor Palpatine comes to mind…. when the word “power” was mentioned…
Francis has turned the saying “Is the Pope Catholic?” on its head. Now the answer is “NO”!
What a barf-generating article! francis has been a disaster!
Since Vatican II Church attendance has fallen from 76% Mass attendance to 25%. Pope Francis reign has been a dismal failure since 2013.
This must be the Vatican’s version of Pravda, or the NY Slimes (but I repeat myself).
And, btw, has Francis cut out all those meany parts of the New Testament yet?
Satanic roots?
Really? Because he seems like a communist to me.
“Tear it down to build it up again” (in who’s image?).
::francis has been a disaster!::
~~~~~~~~~~~~
To you and to me and to anyone who cares about the Church. But for those who wish to destroy the Church he has been quite successful.
Jesuitical word salad.
On the contrary, Francis has brought the church into disrepute.
CC
“Because he seems like a communist to me.”
He IS a Communist, always was one. I squawked to high heaven on FR that if Francis became Pope that what IS happening, was going to happen, but the Church chose to hire this faux Pope anyway, so now he is the anti-Pope, and it’s too late to do anything about it. He has been stacking the College of Cardinals with those of like mind, and when he dies the Catholic Church will hire another Pope who will be a clone of this one.
The fox got his nose under the gate to the chicken coop, and it only takes one success to destroy it. Same with our Country. Biden got in, and within his four year reign, his Commie regime will have destroyed our Country.
Look what happened in Turkey. In the space of one rule, Erdogan has taken a secular gov’t in a Muslim country as Ataturk envisioned, and has changed it into a Muslim dictatorship. It doesn’t take long folks. Brazil is the next country to be a goner. But who cares, we will be just like Brazil too, in equally short order.
My friend, you paint a depressing but unfortunately accurate picture.
LOL!!! He’s a MARXIST!
Should we be surprised by an article from Pope Francis' biographer?
Every copy of America I’ve read over the last 20 years has featured articles attacking the Catholic Faith! Now the Church is being punished by a Jesuit who is soiling the Chair of Peter, and who is increasingly considered by the Faithful to be Satan’s Pope!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.