For the past few weeks the eyes of the world were set on Rome as a new pope had to be chosen. When Jorge Mario Bergoglio appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, there were mixed reactions. He was unknown to many, and looked shy in a rather rigid manner. But moments later his impact was impressive.
Simplicity and radicalism speak more than words
Since these first moments the Pope has made deft use of symbolism, as evidenced by his choice of attire, his riding the bus with cardinals rather than taking the papal car, his humble appearance and his greeting ‘buona sera’, his gesture of asking the people to pray for him before he gave his first apostolic blessing, his request for silence in a square thronged with people.
Other moments followed: a visit to a hospital to see a sick cardinal, going personally to pay his hotel bill, calling a vendor in Argentina to cancel his newspaper order, and offering a snack and a chair to the Swiss guard on night duty at his apartment. His greetings to the people after his first Sunday Mass as Pope, like a simple parish priest, and using a simple chair instead of a throne.
These actions have already spoken volumes and left a lasting impression. I felt like being inside Morris West’s novel Lazarus, where an aged pope, known for his strong conservatism, stuns everyone by not being what anyone expected him to be. Only, this time it’s for real.
In his first homily, Pope Francis highlights the road map through the simple words ‘camminare’, ‘edificare’, ‘confessare’, words loaded with meaning, which he immediately had put into practice in his lifestyle. What comes to mind is the famous expression of Paul VI: “The people of our day are not impressed by teachers, but they will listen to teachers only if they give witness.”
What makes this man so special at an age when most bishops would retire? What makes him fit to lead the Church in this delicate moment?
First of all, it is his formation, the blending of a Jesuit formation with the choice of a Franciscan ethos. There is also a deep-rooted simplicity whereby even though a bishop he chose to remain in touch with the grassroots realities of his diocese.
There is also the integrity that comes from prophetic choices, such as his wish that people did not travel for his inaugural Mass and gave money to the poor instead. In an interview on Porta a Porta, his sister said she had chosen to do just that.
Pope Francis’s desire is to go to the essentials, something that has characterised the history of the Church’s true spirit of reform. Enzo Bianci calls it ‘La nuda missione simplicity of words that communicate the gospel in familiar tone, in gestures and symbols that are easily understood and resonate with people. The fact that the Bishop of Rome celebrated Holy Thursday with young prisoners and washed their feet shows a Pope who wishes to wear an apron more than golden capes.
We prayed for a Christ-like leader. Our heart is filled with gratitude for this gift. Gospel choices are not easy to follow but simplicity and radicalism speak more than words and can become the narrative through which God communicates to the world.
The Church today is celebrating liturgically the mystery of the Resurrection but it feels as if Easter has already happened in the Church, and spring has already filled the air.
For 500 years the Church in Europe initiated evangelisation in Latin America; now it seems what has been sown is bearing fruit. The dream of the Latin American Church has been to give back what it has received; it seems that time has come as we have a Bishop of Rome with a Latin American spirit.
In this difficult time for the Church and the world, new evangelisation can only happen with new ways of being Church. Only when the Church is pruned can it bring forth a new spring. Only the logic of the Resurrection can renew the face of the Earth.
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