It’s not a perfect benchmark. However, since Franklin D Roosevelt, it has been taken to be the test of a government’s commitment for a whole legislature. Faced by the Great Depression in 1930s, in his first 100 days in office, Roosevelt passed 15 major bills through Congress.

Reality is better understood not from the centre, but from the periphery- Pope Francis

Pope John XXIII definitely passed the test of the proverbial first 100 days. On October 28, 1958, Angelo Roncalli was elected Pope: 90 days later – on January 25, 1959 – he convoked the major event of the Catholic Church in a century – Vatican II. Not without muted resistance, of course.

Such an important news item was reported in the following day’s issue of the Osservatore Romano on its first page, but without a comment and without the actual text of Pope John XXIII’s speech. It has never published this speech. It took three full months for the Jesuits’ La Civiltà Cattolica to comment on the announcement of the Council.

To the annoyance of Pope John XXIII, the cardinals present at St Paul’s Basilica did not gather around him to express their agreement and well wishes. “Instead,” the Pope said, “there was an impressive and respectful silence”. Knowing very well Curial mind-set, John XXIII saw that only a shock treatment could get things moving.

Benedict XVI used the same strategy when he announced his will to resign from the Papacy. Purposely, he did not even inform his closest aides – thus pre-empting any resistance from those would have liked to make him change his mind.

Pope Francis seems bent to show his beef immediately. He started by saying several ‘no’s’ to custom on the very day of his election. He must have been thinking of John XXIII’s words that “our duty is not just to guard this treasure, as though it were some museum-piece and we the curators, but earnestly and fearlessly to dedicate ourselves to the work that needs to be done in this modern age of ours”.

Francis’ resoluteness stunned the Church. To the disappointment of certain Catholic quarters, he made his first appearance at St Peter’s Basilica’s balcony wearing only a white cassock and a white skullcap: no embroidered vestments, no super-tall mitre, no ‘fiddleback’ chasuble, and not even a stole.

The new Bishop of Rome humbly bowed his head, asking his sheep to bless him before he blessed them and the world. Since then, the Pope’s attire has been a simple Gothic-style chasuble and mitre. However, Francis did not stop at gestures, important though they are.

Several of his expressions are charitably blunt. So was our Lord when He referred to Herod as a fox, to Scribes and the Pharisees as hypocrites and whitewashed tombs. Francis’ consistent breach of protocol is not the result of absentmindedness but a clear statement that he is resolute in not letting the customs of the court dictate his ministry, especially his ministry to the poor.

On Maundy Thursday, putting aside Church law, he included two women – a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic – among those whose feet he washed. The Osservatore Romano, in the manner of an eye-opener, referred to this as an “an unusual choice given that the rite re-enacts Jesus’ washing of the feet of his male disciples”.

Since my space is limited, I will conclude with few of Francis’ latest pastoral advice: “reality is better understood not from the centre, but from the periphery”; “Those who approach the Church should find the doors open and not find people who want to control the faith”; “Jesus instituted the seven sacraments with this attitude and we are establishing the eighth: the sacrament of pastoral customs office. Jesus is indignant when he sees these things because those who suffer are his faithful people, the people that he loves so much.”

Finally, to us priests: “…in some sense [we become] collectors of antiques or novelties, instead of being shepherds living with ‘the smell of the sheep’. This I ask you: be shepherds, with the ‘smell of the sheep’.”

joe.inguanez@gmail.com

Fr Inguanez, a sociologist, is executive director of Discern.

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