Thanks to coincidence or design, Pope Francis preceded today’s opening of the Synod of Bishops about the family with a pastoral visit to the United States. This was the latest in a series of successful papal pilgrimages to that country.

Pope St John Paul II had been met with frenzied enthusiasm and was called a superstar. Though Benedict XVI’s 2008 visit was in the middle of the child abuse scandal, it still was a resounding success. People warmed up to the 81-year-old pontiff, thus burying the unjustly bestowed image of a Rottweiler.

The fear that Francis’s visit would flounder under the Republican/Democratic divide turned out to be an exaggeration. In his addresses, both sides found positions which they liked or which they did not support.

But comments made on CNN by several political leaders showed they were more inclined to listen to what he said than to fight against it.

Once more he also managed to go beyond the liberal/conservative divide within the Church. It is difficult to pigeonhole Francis in any stereotyped category. He is not the product of any faction but reaches out to all while being loyal to himself, his office and his Lord towards whom he masterfully tries to bring people from all walks of life. In St Francis’s fashion he preaches all the time and not necessarily with words.

One strong homily was the official carcade. Helicopters whirling in the air signalled the imminent arrival of the Pope’s motorcade. These are followed by more than a dozen top-notch motorcycles and several big black SUVs. Then instead of a majestic limousine, a small black Fiat emerges. The windows are down and the Pope is waving from his little car.

Stephen Schneck, the director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America, said this was the perfect metaphor for his message “that is, to look at our lives and think about our spirituality from the perspective of those people who are most disenfranchised.”

Laird Borrelli-Persson writing in Vogue reminded us that Francis’s use of a Fiat links him to Pope John Paul II, who, when he returned to his native Poland, appeared in a Fiat 130. Moreover, it was in a Fiat Campagnola that an attempt on John Paul II’s life was made, and in which he made a triumphant return to St Peter’s Square after his recovery.

Francis reaches out to all while being loyal to himself, his office and his Lord

Francis’s use of the Fiat is just one in a very long series of significant symbolic gestures, beginning with his refusal to wear the ermine-rimmed red velvet cape and red shoes when he emerged from the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica on his election night. Then there was the white chair he left empty during a concert as he had more important work to do; the washing of the feet of male and female delinquents; the change of address from the Papal apartments to a Vatican hostel; the dinner with the homeless in New York; and the visit to the Little Sisters battling in court the big Obama. Need I add more?

Besides form, Francis radiates substance. Gathering the scripts of his speeches in the United States is like stringing various precious stones around a mammoth diamond: his address to Congress.

He did not preach to the American politicians. Through the lives of three great American men and one formidable woman – a combined choice that in itself speaks volumes – he showed them how their country really is when it lives up to its best traditions. The refugee crisis; a holistic approach to the environment, now innovatively described as a right; climate change; the protection of life at all its stages; the abolition of capital punishment; the right to conscientious objection; his reference to the Golden Rule in the context of protecting the environment, refugees and life at every stage; dialogue; social justice; and the sacred rights of land, labour and lodging were among the themes addressed.

But, as Francis told Congress, the recurrent theme of his visit was to be the family which is “essential… to the building of the country” but at the same time “is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without”.

His speeches in Philadelphia were particularly significant. The family was described as “the place where we come to learn the meaning and value of human relationships. We learn that to love someone is not just a strong feeling – it is a decision, it is a judgement, it is a promise”.

One should not be surprised at the importance given to the family during this pastoral visit. It is one of the core themes of this pontificate. He called two Synods within the space of a year to discuss the family. The second one starts today.

Traversing the Republican/Democratic divide will, undoubtedly, turn out to be a minor problem compared with the bridging he needs to do between the diverse groupings at the Synod. His concluding speech at last’s year’s session of the Synod showed what both sides should do so that the Church manoeuvres between the Scylla of a hostile inflexibility that ties the Church to the letter of the law instead to the God of surprises and the destructive Charybdis of the “do-goodism” pushed forward by an attitude of deceptive mercy.

The situation is more difficult now as during the past few months the Catholic right have unleashed the demons of fearmongering, the bogey of a schism, the rampant spreading of dubious information and the unscrupulous tarnishing of the reputation of those not within its sectarian fold.

Pope Francis is facing the greatest challenge of his pontificate as healing the wounds created before the Synod and mapping the way forward will be very difficult.

Believers cannot but pray that he will succeed to build bridges in the Vatican as he is building between Havana and Washington.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt

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