Based on a blog of Benjamin Brenkert, an ex-Jesuit
Did you hear
what Pope Francis said? "The Church
is a field hospital open to all." "Stop talking about abortion all
the time." "The Church must get out of the bedroom." "The
LGBTQ community is loved and welcomed to actively minister in the life of the
Church." "The free market is good." "Women theologians
deserve the same presence as men." "U.S. nuns are too feminist."
"Women can breast feed in public." "Divorced Catholics should
receive communion." "The Church needs to express herself mercifully."
"All people who do good works go to heaven." "All dogs have
souls and go to heaven." "Yoga and Zen meditation cannot open
people's hearts to God."
But wait;
Pope Francis didn't mean that; well, he did say something like it, though not
exactly in those words; no it's not official Church doctrine. It was said
during a pastoral moment; give him a break. He can't prevent how the media
(mis)characterizes him.
While we
hope Pope Francis is ushering in major reforms in the Church, people do need
depth of faith, after all the world is on fire in so many places, but on a
meta-level the Church hierarchy needs to be held accountable to Pope Francis'
evolving standards of discernment, subsidiarity and sensus fidelium.
To do this,
Pope Francis needs to do more than simply author apostolic exhortations and
encyclicals, or replace Western Cardinals and Bishops with non-Western
Cardinals and Bishops. Now the laity who are energized by Pope Francis' reform
need him to use his pen to confront anti-gay Archbishops like Charles Chaput or
Thomas Wenski, or anti-feminist Cardinals like Raymond Burke. As Vatican II
reminds us, the Church as an institution must respond to the signs of the
times.
Is Pope
Francis doing actually what is necessary (within his power) to engage and
shake-up bishops from out of their resistance and entrenched positions? The world knows about the history, foibles, and
sins of the men who preceded him, yet the picture frame holding the portrait of
Pope Francis is empty. This spells trouble for a Pope who has the courage to reform
the Vatican's bank and bureaucracy, to reprioritize the Vatican's role in
diplomacy, and to remove prelates that have opposed him. While this makes the
Pope audacious, he is less prophetic than the media credits him as being. Pope
Francis needs to reform the Church's heart, soul and mind. Perhaps the Pope's
powers like any leaders are limited, yet it remains unclear as to how this
successor of Saint Peter will or will not reform doctrine. To do this, the Pope
must be less of a star and more of a trailblazer.
Like any super
star the popular Argentine Pope is always being recorded; most pastoral moments
go viral instantly. It's not the Pope's fault that his supporters and
detractors put words in his mouth, or that the media jumps on every opportunity
to move the Roman Catholic Church into the post-modern era. Insights into Pope
Francis' heart and mind, conscience and soul sell papers, magazines and books.
But is the free market helping to usher in reform, or clouding the truth about
this Pope's agenda? Are the Pope's many cameos really helpful to his cause, or
beneficial to the fringe characters and safe outsiders who long for him to help
them return to their families?
While the
Pope creates new sound bites at synods or takes selfies with adorable little
children his understanding of doctrine remains undefined. While he shapes the
hearts of the faithful, he remains remiss in penning a new vision, mission or
prayer for the institutional Church. While the script is different, more
appealing, perhaps even a la carte, Pope Francis certainly shares the beliefs
of his predecessors Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Over a year into his
papacy, Pope Francis is still unable to confront doctrine, to reexamine
revealed truth or to shift official church teaching.
While the
Pope wins the court of popular opinion by expressing his views in short,
ambiguous, unfocused and empathic comments he distorts the fundamental place of
doctrine in shaping the catechism of faith. While the Pope calls out prelates
for being too worldly, e.g., terrorists of gossip, he does not articulate how
they should interpret scripture, doctrine, dogma or tradition.
Seemingly
the Pope lets Bishops with influence tell the world what he actually believes
about grave social matters, like treating gay and lesbian couples with mutual
recognition and respect, or what he believes about larger moral issues, like
the doctrine of the reception of communion by divorced and remarried Catholics,
or why feminism has negatively affected vocations. While the Pope raffles off
cars and bikes to raise money for the poor his Bishops remain entrenched in
their opposition, the media is remiss in covering their disagreements. Through
their bias, bliss and fandom for Pope Francis, the media contributes to the
systemic harm done to the marginalized and least informed amongst us. The
resulting structural violence safeguards prelates with histories of
anti-feminist and anti-gay theology.
I propose
that the papacy of Francis thus far is becoming more about his pastoral
theology and less about his shaping Church doctrine to reflect the needs of the
21st Century. That the media has not asked the Pope to articulate his
understanding of doctrine is baffling because it matters in the public and
personal lives of some 20 percent of the world's population who identify themselves
as Roman Catholic.
These men
and women use doctrine in varying degrees to deploy principles of belief,
through words and deeds in their community, and also by practicing their faith
at home and in private prayer. For the Church scripture and revelation have a
dynamic relationship in shaping doctrine, dogma and the tradition.
Pastoral
moments come up, for instance when a loved one dies and questions about his or
her Christian burial come up. But it is egregious to think that during those
moments of crisis doctrine does not matter. Upon his ordination the gay or
straight priest is charged with obedience to the authority of the Church, not
to willfully employ pastoral theology. The priest is charged by his ordaining
Bishop to serve the will of the Church, not to create free thinkers.
Accordingly doctrine shapes pastoral theology, not vice versa.
To be more
effective, Pope Francis must now spend time with the writings of Saints
Augustine, Bonaventure, Aquinas, and John Paul II as much as he does with
saints Kung, Kasper, Gutierez and Johnson. While he reforms the day-to-day
operation of the Vatican, he must find time to look at documents from prior
Church councils or synods, papal bulls and encyclicals, canon law, all in an
effort to more honestly reflect his pastoral theology through official Church
teaching. The Pope of deeds needs to teach us through inspired words, otherwise
his successor can easily revise -- or redact -- what it means to be a follower
of Jesus Christ in the 21st Century.
To conclude:
everyone has an ethical responsibility to report what the Pope believes, not
just to characterize what he says in ways that sell news. The media and Pope
Francis can learn something about being clear and truthful from Aesop's fable
about the boy who cried wolf and the wisdom of the composer Stephen Sondheim,
whose songs senses and conveys the darker currents of pain, loneliness, and
yearning that swirl somewhere within people.
