A year ago today, white smoke puffed out of one of the Vatican’s chimneys and immediately a cry rang out in St Peter’s Square: “Habemus Papam!” At the first glimpse of Pope Francis, the crowd was buoyed and ecstatic, albeit confused as who the chosen one was.
The feeling one year on is still very present as Roman Catholics across the world are attempting to discover more about the Pope and returning to the Church inspired by the man’s charisma. It has been labelled as the Pope Francis effect. Is it being felt in Malta?
The Curia does not have any statistics in hand, however, most parish priests contacted by Times of Malta said they noted a marked rise in support for the Church, albeit they could not “directly attribute it” to Pope Francis.
St Julian’s parish priest, Fr Claude Portelli, said: “After the divorce referendum there was definitely a drop in attendance, it was like a ripple effect, but, over this past year, there has been a slow increase.”
He speaks directly to the heart, giving the idea that the Christian faith can be lived in a down-to-earth manner
Although he could not quantify it, Fr Portelli said he could clearly see that churchgoers were more prepared to listen to the Pope’s teachings.
“He speaks directly to the heart, giving the idea that the Christian faith can be lived in a down-to-earth manner.”
He welcomed this as beneficial for Malta, which he termed as a “spiritually poor country”. Fr Portelli referred to a recent online survey in which the majority of people described Lent as merely the time when “you do not eat sweets and meat”.
“We’ve spoon-fed a religion based on rules and obligations and not on personal encounter,” he said. “But, at least, people are accepting more what the Pope is saying. I can see that because my parishioners talk about him a lot.”
Fr Charles Tabone, the Church public relations officer, agreed there had been a change in the attitude of quality.
“And, yes, over this year I have met people who returned to the Church after a number of years but I can’t tell if that is because of Pope Francis,” he said.
Priests speak of the Pope’s charisma. “My parishioners are always talking about his latest endearing action, like when he took a photo with that little boy dressed up as a Pope,” said Fr Henry Balzan, parish priest of San Cajetan in Ħamrun, who is also noticing fuller pews on Sundays.
In Lija, which according to the 2005 census had the highest ratio of churchgoers in Malta, Pope Francis too has left a mark. “It’s the feeling of the congregation which has changed. The faithful are uplifted by the Pope’s vision of a Church of poverty,” Fr David Gauci, Lija parish priest, said.
There is a flipside. “Of course, he’s not going down so well with the conservatives,” he quipped. Those who love pomp and ceremony are not impressed by this Pope who shuns it.
Fr Stefan Attard, who until recently was based in Rome, said many lay people he bumped into all praised the Pope.
“Even among those who are not avid churchgoers there is the feeling that he is a breath of fresh air.”
Meanwhile, Catholic leaders in France, Britain, Spain, the US and Latin America have reported growth in the numbers of churchgoing Catholics. Lapsed Catholics are surging back to the confession box “by the hundreds”, according to the Italian Centre for Studies of New Religions.
Attendances at the Pope’s weekly address in St Peter’s Square, in Rome, are up to 85,000 in contrast to the 5,000-strong crowd attracted by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Even priests seem to draw inspiration from him. Several parish priests told Times of Malta they listened to his Sunday sermons on Facebook.
“He speaks in a very simple manner and manages to put forward his message clearly. Tell me, do you read his sermons? Because it’s important journalists do so,” Fr Kalċidon Vassallo, Balzan parish priest, said. It seems that, within a year, Jorge Bergoglio, formerly Archbishop of Buenos Aires, has transformed the plummeting reputation of the 2,000-year-old institution he leads.
It was, perhaps, a much-needed lifeline. There was outrage at ongoing sex-abuse scandals and alleged cover-ups of sexual misconduct; the Vatican bank was under investigation for money laundering; leaked private documents from Benedict’s personal desk attempted to expose corruption within the Roman curia.
Amongst all this, pews in Europe and the US were emptying.
Certainly, Pope Francis’s tone and sense of humour have helped.
On Valentine’s Day, before extolling the virtues of a love ‘per sempre’ (forever), he told the crowd: “We all know there isn’t a perfect family, neither a perfect husband nor a perfect wife. And let’s not talk about the perfect mother-in-law.”
He has graced the covers of some unlikely international magazines, such as Rolling Stone, Esquire (“best dressed man of the year”) and, more substantially, Time, which anointed him Person of 2013.
He is often referred to as “the cool Pope” and graffiti artists recently sprayed a portrait of the 77-year-old Argentine as Superman in a cassock on a wall close to St Peter’s basilica.
However, earlier this month, he played down the notion that he was a superhero who would bring sweeping reforms to the Roman Catholic Church, stressing that its ban on contraception and opposition to gay marriage will remain.
The October Synod of Bishops, when family life will be discussed, will throw some light on whether this was just the honeymoon phase for the new Pope.
Walking the walk
• Unlike his predecessors, Pope Francis refused to live in the Apostolic Palace. “You could fit 300 people in here,” he apparently told aides. Instead, he chose to stay on at the modest Casa Santa Marta guesthouse, his home during the conclave.
• He has rejected the traditional red mozzetta lined with ermine, and the red shoes to which Benedict was so attached, in favour of black boots and a plain white cassock.
• Instead of the usual pectoral cross of gold, he wears an inexpensive metallic-looking crucifix, which he brought from Buenos Aires (the look is apparently catching on in the Vatican).
• He travels around Rome in a modest blue Ford Focus.
‘Wave of endearment’
The feeling in St Peter’s Square last year is still the same
This time last year, Times of Malta journalist Kurt Sansone was in Vatican City reporting the election of the new Pope under the incessant rain.
“When Jorge Bergoglio appeared on the balcony, he stood there as if in shock and there was a lull before he started addressing the crowd,” he recalled.
“In those few seconds, you could feel the thousands gathered in the square stiffen.
“There was trepidation and, on everyone’s mind, there was but one question: who on earth did the cardinals elect? But the minute he started talking, in that man-on-the-street manner, you could feel this wave of endearment.
“By the end of his short address, when he asked for the audience to pray for him and wished us a safe journey, the crowd was won over.”
The faithful immediately took to the name he chose – Francesco – which gave a hint of where he was coming from and where he wanted to go.
“Immediately, there was the feeling that he would be a “people’s Pope” – so clearly different from his predecessor – and the relief and euphoria in the air was palpable. In a sense, one year on, it is still very much there.”
Highlights of the first year
In his first encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis issues a startlingly direct message to the rich and powerful: “The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor.”
During an unscheduled press conference on an aeroplane, he told a journalist: “If someone is gay, and they seek the Lord, and they are in good faith, who am I to judge?” The off-the-cuff remark instantly made headlines around the world, although, as commentators were quick to point out, the words indicated no doctrinal shift whatsoever.
On Maundy Thursday, just days after his election, Francis went to the Casal de Marmo, a young offenders’ institution.
There he washed the feet of 12 inmates aged between 14 and 21. One of them was a girl from Serbia, who became the first Muslim and the first woman ever to have her feet washed by a Pope.