This is not a comment on the autobiography of Dr Eddie Fenech. It is about a different journey.
Go down memory lane. It is March 13, 2013. It had just been announced that the cardinals had elected a new pope. When the then Cardinal Bergoglio came out on the balcony at St Peter’s, he surprised many before even before he opened his mouth.
The first surprise was the choice of name: Francis. It echoed Christ’s mandate to the Saint of Assisi: Rebuild my Church.
More surprises followed. He described himself as the Bishop of Rome before describing himself as the Pope. He asked people to pray for him. He waited in silence for the faithful’s heart felt prayer. And then he announced that he wanted the Church of Rome to lead the other churches on a new journey. This was to be an ecclesial journey: bishop and people.
In the following weeks and months this journey started to take shape. In the now famous interview with the editor of the Jesuit periodical La Civilta Cattolica he said that two reforms were essential for this journey to be successful: a reform of attitudes and a reform of structures and organisations. I think that in more than one sense these two reforms moved forward hand in hand.
To achieve his aim he used to the full the power of the image. While Benedict XVI talked to the crowds immediately after his election, clad in red velvet, ermine and brocaded silk, Francis was dressed in plain white and a plain metal cross. On the first Maundy Thursday he went to a prison to celebrate the liturgy and washed the feet of female ‘apostles’. He carries his own suitcase when he travels, takes selfies with youths, invited the homeless on the occasion of his birthday and uses a small car inside the Vatican. His first trip outside the Vatican was to Lampedusa where he strongly pricked the world’s conscience about the fate of irregular migrants and refugees.
All these images, and many others, caught the imagination of millions and enthused them.
His decision not to live in the Pontifical apartments in favour of an apartment at Domus Sanctae Marthae was a strong statement about the character of the man and what he wanted to achieve. It was another step in simplifying the papacy and the way it was managed. Today it certainly does not resemble the court of a medieval king.
Pope Francis himself had said that his calling for others to reform had to be accompanied by the reform of the papacy. On the structural level it is very clear that he will raise the Synod of Bishops to the dignity that Vatican Council II wanted it to have; a dignity which was emasculated particularly during the papacy of John Paul II.
The increased importance of the Synod of Bishops ties in very well with his theme of ‘journey.’ The word ‘synodos’ means “walking together”! Collegiality is once more a meaningful ‘in’ word.
The unprecedented setting up of the C8 - a group of eight cardinals to help him govern the Universal Church and reform the Curia is another important organizational innovation. This decision showed that the Pope really wants to curtail the centralizing power of the Roman Curia. There are just two Europeans among the eight chosen cardinals and only one of them is an Italian. The Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga is the coordinator of the group. This key role is now in the hands of a cardinal who recently did not have any problem to criticize the position Cardinal Muller, the head of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, about the reception of communion by the divorced and remarried.
Perhaps Pope Francis’s most radical structural change so far is the setting up of the new Secretariat for the Economy. Pope Francis has given this super-ministry “oversight for the administrative and financial structures and activities” in all sectors of the Vatican and the Holy See. Things are bound to change in the central administration of the Church.
If we were to discuss Pope Francis from the perspective of doctrine I don’t think that we will find any notable changes between his theology and that of the previous popes including the much criticised (many times unfairly) Pope Benedict. Many people fail to notice this important fact and consequently risk misinterpreting this papacy.
Pope Francis is still the media’s darling. This does not always serve him well. The media tend to sensationalize and report out of context many of his statements. Such a thing creates unnecessary misunderstanding and raises unrealistic expectations.
On the other hand, Pope Francis is not the darling of everyone inside the Church. He has been dubbed by some extremists as not being orthodox enough. Besides, those whose power is being clipped inside of the Roman Curia do not look at him too kindly. There are also those who are genuinely troubled by all the changes happening around them.
The Pope is aware of all this. In one of his very realistic and down to earth statements he said that he is conscious of being the Pope of those who want him to push the accelerator and those who want him to push the breaks.
This is another metaphor that accompanies the theme of the journey. It will not necessarily be a smooth one and it will probably not reach its final destination by the end of this pontificate. However, in similar vein to the journey started by John XXIII many years ago it should be a journey can lead the Church to changes and/or developments in attitudes, structures, pastoral strategies and perhaps even doctrine that even the initiation of the journey never had in mind.