It’s become commonplace to talk about “the Francis Effect.” Now, two years after Pope Francis’ election, we can see that does not mean one thing, but many things. Here are the key examples.
 |
| The First Papal Selfie |
2. Reversing Catholicism’s Bad PR. Anyone old enough to remember Vatican Council II (1962-1965) remembers clearly the euphoria that surrounded the Council and its activities. This was partly, of course, a “John Effect” created by the popular personality of Pope John XXIII, but it was also due to the sense that the Catholic Church was finally responding to the challenges of modern life after centuries of defensive stasis. The upshot was the most positive media and public attention the Catholic Church had received in more than a century, not only from Catholics but from other Christians, other religions, and even the secular world at large.
It is safe to say that, after 1968, that favorable public image began to cool and weaken, reaching its lowest point in the last 10 years. This resulted from a combination of factors, including the gap between Benedict XVI’s brilliant ideas and his clumsy public communication skills.
Francis has reversed all that, as his own wildly popular public image has rubbed off on the institution as a whole. We Catholics are enjoying the best PR of the last 50 years--at the very moment that we observe the 50th anniversary of Vatican II!
3. Reviving the Ghost (spirit) of John XXIII. One of the casualties of the long reign of John-Paul II was that an entire generation grew up in his shadow. They were “John-Paul II
Catholics,” and in too many cases his giant public presence overshadowed both the Council that had preceded and produced him and the pope that made it possible. None of the papacies we have seen since 1965 could be imagined before that, and all of John’s successors depended on and benefited from his vision of the Church’s future. Francis has made sure we do not forget John’s impact. That is precisely why, when it came time to canonize John-Paul II, Francis ensured that John XXIII was canonized on the same day.
 |
| John XXIII |
4. Retrieving the Legacy of Vatican II. Not a few Catholic leaders and commentators in the last 20 years arrived at the conclusion that the legacy of Vatican II was either accomplished, or at least on a settled path that could not change. But Francis has clearly expressed the view that much of the Council’s vision has been left unfulfilled, and has personally described himself as “humble enough and ambitious enough to try to do something about that.” In that sense, his agenda as pope leapfrogs back over his predecessors Benedict and John-Paul II to the papacies of Paul VI and John XXIII.
These were the popes who initiated and completed Vatican II. These were the popes who set the Church on the course-correction called “renewal”--a course correction of historic proportions. Francis has staked his papacy on recovering the momentum of that time.
These were the popes who initiated and completed Vatican II. These were the popes who set the Church on the course-correction called “renewal”--a course correction of historic proportions. Francis has staked his papacy on recovering the momentum of that time.
5. Dethroning Clericalism. This is hardly a case of the emperor’s new clothes, since the Catholic Church has worn imperial trappings for more than 15 centuries. And the corrupting impact of human nature on the Catholic hierarchy has been largely ignored and evaded for generations. Now Francis, in a pioneering move, has identified the symptoms that corrupt the vocations of ordained man in too many places within the Church.
Francis has made it clear that, after centuries of treating laypeople as helpless children and the ordained as faultless parents, too many clerics pursue the wrong motives for personal benefit, acquire habits that impede their service, and set themselves apart from the rest of the body of Christ. He has even called himself “anticlerical” in the face of clericalism. Images of the many glum faces among his Vatican staff during his highly critical Christmas message reflect the wider alarm felt by Bishops and priests in many lands, who now realize that their ambitions of churchly glory have been exposed.
6. Elevating Humility. From his very first papal moment on the balcony at Saint Peter’s, Francis has consistently eschewed any place of honor, privilege, imperial trappings, rank, or luxury. In the true Jesuit spirit of poverty, he has refused to place himself apart from or above others, and has thus ironically elevated humility to the rank of the highest leadership gift. His very unwillingness to pretend superiority has already made him stand out, not only among much of the hierarchy, but even among some of his predecessors. That humility now becomes a model, not just for the hierarchy, but for all of us in all of our roles as we serve others in family, in workplace, and in community. Thus Francis becomes the epitome of leadership not by command but by example. In the process, his humility has made him arguably the world’s most loved, admired, and respected officeholder.
7. Restoring Mercy. It was at the opening address of Vatican II that John XXIII rejected condemnations and harsh execution of laws and rules as the norm for pastoral leadership in the Church. Instead, he said we must replace such things with the “medicine of mercy.” Somehow someplace along the line, this message got lost. Francis has brought it roaring back to life, making it one of the hallmarks of his papacy. He never ceases to speak of the mercy of God, and makes it clear that this enjoins the rest of us to practice mercy as well. For Catholics who grew up before 1960, John’s focus was a welcome relief from the notion that Catholicism was merely a set of rules to be followed. In this day and age, Francis’s insistence on mercy brings warmth back to an institution that, in recent years, too many had found cold-hearted.
8. Promoting the Poor. It goes without saying that the Gospel message, and the mission of the Catholic Church, has always given a central place to the poor of the world. But it also goes without saying that the Catholic Church, as the world’s largest organization, has not always kept that priority in focus. We now live in a world of unprecedented wealth, but also of unprecedented inequality. Francis has made it clear that the desires for peace, prosperity, and a sustainable world will all be impossible if the problem of inequality is not solved.
This focuses our attention on the Catholic social teaching which calls for the redistribution of wealth when inequality reaches harmful dimensions. Thus Francis implies a great challenge for us and the citizens of other wealthy nations: how can inequality be reduced? How can we redistribute the wealth?
For Americans, of course, imbedded in the world’s largest capitalist society, this is complicated by the fact that we face not only the inequality between the wealthy and poor nations, but also the inequality between the 1% and the 99% in our own land. In this sense, Francis has become an especially prophetic leader for Americans. This will make his pending address to the U.S. Congress in the fall 2015 that much more intriguing and challenging.
9. “Cooling” the Culture Wars. Catholic leaders in America in the last 10 to 15 years have often been characterized by their preoccupation with issues now identified as the “culture wars”: abortion, contraception, artificial insemination, euthanasia, same sex marriage, gay rights, sex education, etc. Francis has been quite blunt on this matter. He’s not criticizing or questioning traditional Catholic teachings on any of these issues, but he is convinced that the culture wars made two mistakes. First, their preoccupation on these issues distracts them and Catholics in general from our mission to evangelize with mercy and joy. Second, they distort Catholic tradition:
The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.
Francis has announced in no uncertain terms that he does not want culture warriors nominated to be future bishops, since he believes that the culture wars represent a distortion of our core priorities as Catholics.
10. The “Cooling” of the Papacy. The first two years of the Francis papacy have been not only dynamic but remarkably congenial. Even when uttering controversial, off the cuff remarks, this pope tends to be lighthearted, quick to smile, easy to approach, comfortable in his own skin. The image of Pope Francis beaming into the camera on the cover of 
Francis lacks both the looks and the charisma of John-Paul II but, like John XXIII, he projects a down-to-earth, human appeal that people find nearly irresistible. It was one thing to attract 3 million youth to the World Youth Day in Rio (his two predecessors had performed similar feats).
But the 90 minute interview on the plane back to Rome showed a man willing to walk back to the press seats and mingle with the media in a familiar, ingratiating way. And his decision to wade into Rio’s worst slum on foot to greet poor residents showed a fearless love of people that is making him the most beloved pope in many people’s memories.
 |
| Listening to a reporter's question on the plane from Rio |
So the papacy itself has suddenly become cool! Two short years ago, few Catholics would have believed that this could happen, and none of us believed it could happen so fast.
Francis himself speaks as though his papacy will probably be a short one. But the accomplishments of his first two years are already enough to mark him as a historic figure--and a gift from God.
© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment