I am hopeless with numbers and abysmally worse at remembering anniversaries. It’s a good thing that you are not married, a close friend said.
I believe the cynics’ conclusion that Francis is all sizzle but no steak is far from the truth
Fortunately, technology makes good where the winding roads of memory falter. My smartphone does not forget any birthday or anniversary. It does not miss one tiny appointment. It dutifully reminds me more than the most efficient butler would do.
There is just one snag. If I forget to diarise a subject, there is no way my smartphone is going to remember to tell me about it.
My second line of defence is also technological. It takes the form of Facebook or e-mails. Last Tuesday, an e-mail came to my rescue. It reminded me that besides Joseph and Simon, even Francis is celebrating, albeit a somewhat loftier anniversary.
Last week was Pope Francis’s first 100 days as Bishop of Rome. While for a Church that thinks in centuries, 100 days are not a big deal, for media that relish in seconds, 100 days are like an eternity.
The e-mail in question was sent by the ultra-liberal movement We Are the Church. For those who are not very familiar with things ecclesiastical, it is good to know that there is no love lost between We Are the Church and anything faintly connected to the Roman Curia and its fellow travellers.
This particular e-mail was like the swallow that does not make summer: it was positive about Pope Francis’s first 100 days. It reads: “We see at least a better opportunity for our Church… to find authentic and convincing ways to spread the Gospel of Jesus.” They then added: “Francis, Bishop of Rome, has shown an approach that is not doctrinal, but pastoral, for which the faithful have been longing for so long.” They also approvingly note “his simple but strong gestures of a merciful and benevolent ministry”.
Such an endorsement is no mean achievement for Pope Francis. The positive attitude of We Are the Church is not solitary. At the grass roots, one can feel an ever increasing feel-good factor. A priest told me that someone who went to confession after many years away from the sacrament said his heart was touched by Pope Francis’s simplicity.
The feeling is not confined to Malta. John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter noted anecdotal accounts from several countries speaking of increases in Mass attendance and confessions. The crowds for Francis’ activities were large but are becoming larger, to the greater pleasure, at least, of the papal paraphernalia vendors. A mid-April survey by the US-based Pew Forum shows overwhelming approval ratings; the global media are still in a ‘We all love you’ mode, and it is being forecast that the Rio youth festival will prove to be a powwow greater than the big occasions of John Paul II.
Critics can say that up until now, Pope Francis has neither issued any notable doctrinal statement nor has he shaken in any noticeable way the Roman Curia.
While admitting that this is all factually correct, I believe the cynics’ conclusion that Francis is all sizzle but no steak is far from the truth. The first objection would probably be addressed when Pope Francis finalises the ‘faith’ encyclical his predecessor had started to work on. The second should be the task of the Commission of Cardinals appointed to look at the Vatican labyrinth come October.
However, what is much more important is that Pope Francis is making an impact as he inspires people by his simplicity of style, his courageous gestures and his innovatively powerful statements.
His style is his substance. Style is always important, and particularly so in the Vatican culture, so steeped in tradition and minutely choreographed rituals. Elgar would definitively be on the side of those not amused by Pope Francis, as this is a pontificate without pomp and circumstance.
There is no need to list all his significant gestures. Reference to just a few, suffices: the washing of the feet ‘in contravention’ of Church law; the predilection to Domus Sanctae Marthae rather than the papal apartments; the abandonment of the red cape, shoes and hats characteristic of his predecessor; the infrequent use of the papal throne; the preference for an open car than the closed Popemobile; the option for a simple liturgy instead of a baroque one.
His statements do not disappoint those who like his style. Let me just pepper a few: the condemnation of savage capitalism; asking people to pray for him; the comparision of overly grim Christians to “pickled peppers”; referring to the Banca Vaticana, he said Peter and Paul had no bank account; he condemned the culture of waste; berated the dictatorship of a faceless economy; his blunt denunciations of the Church’s “triumphalism”, careerism and pride; and his recent statement that “even the Church, when it becomes self-referential, gets sick and old”.
Within the Church, Pope Francis will need evangelical cunningness to steer between the traditionalist Scylla, who believe his ministry is leading to the demolition of the papacy, and the liberal Charybdis, who always ask for more. The path is not an easy one to traverse.
Equally difficult will be his mission of dialogue and bridge-building with a secularist culture that wants the smiling Pope to be a Pope that compromises on substance besides style.
The way forward is difficult. But the first 100 days are full of promise for the future.
• One of Us is a new EU citizen initiative appealing to the European Commission to greatly advance the protection of human life from conception in Europe – within the possibilities of the competency of the EU.
The organisers of the initiative take courage from a recent judgment of the European Court of Justice (Brüstle vs Greenpeace) describing the human embryo as the beginning of the development of the human being. One of Us is asking the EU to end the financing of activities which presuppose the destruction of human embryos, in particular in the areas of research, development aid and public health.
The initiative has to be backed by at least one million EU citizens. Up to the point of writing, 60 per cent of the target has been achieved. There is need for 4,500 signatures from Malta. Only 1,238 have signed.
Please visit www.oneofus.eu/ and sign the petition. It will take you just two minutes to do so.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt