Pope Francis, humble, authentic and credible
March 15, 2013 -- Updated 0232 GMT (1032 HKT)
Pope Francis' humble style will set tone
Editor's note:
Christopher M. Bellitto, chairman and associate professor of history at
Kean University in Union, New Jersey, is the author of "101 Questions
and Answers on Popes and the Papacy."
(CNN) -- For an institution that moves glacially,
instant analysis is as impossible as it is unwise. Yet first impressions
are important. Our initial glimpse of the new pope was curiously
disconcerting. He stood there impassive and unemotional. He looked
stunned, without almost any reaction at all except, perhaps, awe or even
fear of the moment.
Suddenly, his eyes seemed
to open wide, as if he was really seeing the position for which he had
been chosen less than an hour before. And then he spoke, not with the
power of physical force or energy but with something stronger: humility.
With the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
of Buenos Aires as pope, the Roman Catholic Church enters the next
chapter of her history. And yet, as often happens in the church, she
turns to her past for inspiration and even innovation. So we have the
first pope to be elected from the Society of Jesus, known as the
Jesuits, who were founded by Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century
while Catholicism reeled from Protestant challenges.
Christopher M. Bellitto
Yet this Jesuit takes the
name Francis from the humble servant of medieval Assisi who began the
Franciscan order 300 years before Ignatius.
Francis took to the
balcony with the word "bishop" crossing his lips more than "pope" or
"pontiff." He referred to himself first as the bishop of Rome and to
Benedict XVI not as retired pope but emeritus bishop. There was
something genuine about the way he referred to the journey of faith as
one that he and the faithful take together in love and trust. He asked
for help and the favor of a prayer -- but this wasn't the standard "pray
for me." Pope Francis bowed to receive that prayer from the people of
God he now serves.
Looking back at the
monthlong examination of conscience that Catholics, Vatican-watchers and
the cardinals have undergone, what does Francis face? What will he do
based on his own experience?
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The cardinals'
pre-conclave meetings seemed to reveal a particular job description, but
the rumors and leaks seemed to have been wrong. This man is 76 and not
in his 60s. He has not worked full-time in the Vatican's headquarters,
called the curia, raising immediate questions about how he will reform
the institution's central administration.
It is hard, at least
initially and under deadline, to discover how he acted when faced with
clerical sexual abuse, although we have heard less of this awful
situation in Latin America than in the United States and Ireland.
Francis does seem to be a
moderate who is respected by and can work with people sitting on
different benches along the ideological spectrum. He is friendly with
the conservative organization Communione e Liberazione and yet like John
Paul II embraces the church's lively sense of fairness and justice when
it comes to the poor and middle class left out by rampant capitalism
and its twin temptation, the gospel of prosperity. As archbishop, he
took a bus to work and lived in a small apartment.
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Like Ignatius, he has a
reputation for using his mind to solve a problem but his heart to make a
decision. Like Francis of Assisi, he operates within the world of an
ordained clergy while not being drowned in self-serving clerical rank
and privilege.
So what Pope Francis
seems to bring, at least at a first glance, is personal authenticity and
credibility. Both are critical precursors to change. Many people want
change, it is true, but any proposals that might or might not come won't
mean a thing unless a new spirit of credibility and trust flows down
the Tiber throughout the planet's oceans to the world's 1.2 billion
Catholics.
For too long, it seems
that the curia has been about power, which is not the same thing as
authentic authority. People respond with lasting love to authority but
with only temporary fear to power. For too long, the people in the pews
have felt distanced from their priests, bishops and the Vatican. That is
not the gospel of love and service that Jesus preached. Yet it is
precisely the gospel that Francis of Assisi and Ignatius Loyola learned
from Jesus and shared with the world in word and deed.
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