2025-05-02-eEdition

PAGE 12 THE CATHOLICWEEK I MAY 2, 2025 almost 1,300 years.The Jesuit was also the first member of his order to be elected pope and the first member of any religious order elected in nearly two centuries. He spent much of the first nine years of his pontificate pursuing two ambitious proj- ects: revitalizing the church's efforts at evangelization -- constantly urging outreach rather than a preoccupation with internal church affairs —and reforming the central administration of the Vatican, emphasizing its role of assisting bishops around the world rather than dictating policy to them. His momentum and popularity outside the church seemed to falter in 2018 be- cause of new revelations about the extent of clerical sexual abuse in the church and of bishops' efforts to cover up the scandal, as well as instances in which, initially, Pope Francis seemed more prone to believe bishops than victims. Pope Francis' focus on the pastoral aspect of his ministry, and the ministry of all priests, led him to shed elements of protocol and even safety concerns that would have dis- tanced him from crowds at his public appearances; he kissed thousands of babies, drank the popular Argentine mate herbal tea whenever anyone in the crowd offered it, and tenderly embraced people with disabling or disfiguring ailments. In the first years of his pon- tificate, he invited small groups of Catholics—beginning with the Vatican gardeners and gar- bage collectors—to join him for his early morning Mass in the chapel of his residence, and his short homilies quickly became a primary vehicle for his teaching. With an average congregation of fewer than 50 people, the in- timate setting gave the pope the space to minister simply and directly, as most of the world's priests do. The morning Masses were livestreamed during the strictest of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the spring of 2020; but in May that year, the Vatican stopped providing any coverage of his daily liturgies. Eight months after taking office, Pope Francis published his apostolic exhortation, "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), a de- tailed vision of the program for his papacy and his vision for the church—particularly the church's outreach and its response to challenges posed by secular culture. Faith, he constantly preached, had to be evident in the way one treated the poor and weakest members of soci- ety. He railed against human trafficking and rallied forces inside and outside the church to cooperate in halting the trade in people. Not counting a brief visit to Castel Gandolfo to meet retired Pope Bene- dict XVI, Pope Francis' first trip outside of Rome was to visit migrants—many brought across the Mediterranean by smugglers—in Lampedusa, a southern Italian island just 70 miles from Tunisia. Although initially he said he did not like to travel and insisted he would not be a globetrotter like St. John Paul II was, he made 47 foreign trips, bringing his close-to-the- people papacy to the centers of global power, but especially to the "peripheries" of the world's influence and power. Making his first-ever trip to the United States, Pope Francis visited in September 2015 and became the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress. Referring to himself as a "son of immigrants"—and pointing out that many of the legisla- tors were, too—he pleaded for greater openness to accepting immigrants.Throughout the trip, planned around the World Meeting of Families in Phila- delphia, he defended marriage and the family, insisted on the sacredness of all human life and urged the people of the United States to work together to help one another and offer hope to the world. Pope Francis' simple lifestyle, which included his decision not to live in the Apostolic Palace and his choice of riding around Rome in a small Fiat or Ford Focus instead of a Mer- cedes sedan, sent a message of austerity to Vatican officials and clergy throughout the church. He reinforced the message with frequent admonitions about the Gospel demands and evangelical witness of poverty and simplicity. The pope also stressed the importance of collegiality, or consultation with his brother bishops, and established an in- ternational Council of Cardinals to advise him on reform of the Vatican bureaucracy and gover- nance of the universal church. The council had as many as nine members, never more than three of whom were Vatican officials. A NEW STYLE OF BEING POPE Pope Francis' very first words to the crowd in a rainy St. Peter's Square were disarmingly informal: "Buona sera" ("good evening").Many noted that he was wearing only his white papal cassock without the traditional ermine-trimmed, red velvet cape called a mozzetta, which his pre- decessors had worn on the same occasion. Before bestowing his traditional blessing, he bowed and asked for the blessing of the crowd. In an interview later, he said he had not prepared what he would say or do, but "I felt deeply that a minister needs the blessing of God, but also of his people." Under his watch, the papal charities office increased its outreach, particularly to the homeless who live near the Vatican. Sleeping bags were handed out at Christmas, show- ers were installed in the public bathrooms in St. Peter's Square and a special, private tour of the Vatican Gardens and Vatican Museums was arranged. Like St. John Paul used to do, Pope Francis also insisted on personally administering the sacrament of reconciliation. Making parish visits in Rome, he arrived early to meet with the parish council, parents of recently baptized babies and usually a group involved in charitable work. But before celebrating Mass, he always left time to hear confessions. Still, it apparently was a complete surprise, even to Pope Francis' closest aides, when, at a penance service in 2014 in St. Peter's Basilica, instead of going to the confessional to hear con- fessions, he turned and knelt at another confessional to receive absolution first. He also set aside the usual practice of washing the feet of 12 priests during a pub- lic celebration of the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper. Instead, he celebrated smaller Masses—closed to the public—and washed the feet of Catholic and non-Catholic youths at a juvenile detention facility in 2013.Ten years later, he returned to the same jail to wash the feet of young men and women. For four of the next six years, he celebrated the Mass at Ital- ian prisons, including two in Rome, one in Paliano and one in Velletri. In 2014, he washed the feet of people with severe physical handicaps at a reha- bilitation center, and in 2016, he celebrated the liturgy and foot-washing ritual at a center for migrants and refugees. In early January 2016, the then-Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments issued a formal decree at the pope's request, changing the rubrics of the Roman Mis- sal, which mention only men having their feet washed. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman at the time, said the pope wanted to high- light "this dimension of the gesture of Christ's love for all." ANEWAPPROACH "Go out" was Pope Francis' constant plea to every Catho- lic, from curial cardinals to the people in the pews. More than once, he told people that while the Bible presents Jesus as knocking at the door of people's hearts to get in, today Jesus is knocking at the doors of parish churches trying to get out and among the people. In the early years of his pa- pacy, his daily homilies at Mass in the chapel of his residence were summarized by Vatican news outlets and became key vehicles for helping Catholics live and share their faith in word and in deeds. But even his more formal homilies at large liturgies were relatively simple and conversational. A large section of "Evangelii Gaudium" was devoted to sug- gestions for improving priests' homilies, which he said were all too often moralistic, disorga- nized and long-winded. Pope Francis' criticisms of clergy did not stop there; he warned priests against a "busi- ness mentality, caught up with management, statistics, plans and evaluations" and "osten- tatious preoccupation with the liturgy, doctrine and the church's prestige." While he stressed God's limitless mercy and readiness to forgive, the pope was unspar- ing in denouncing Christians for "enmity, division, calumny, defamation, vendetta, jealousy and the desire to impose certain ideas at all costs, and even persecutions which appear as veritable witch hunts.Whom are we going to evangelize if this is the way we act?" Pope Francis also sought to correct what he saw as an overemphasis on certain moral teachings at the expense of the essential Gospel message. "We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contra- ceptive methods," the pope told an interviewer. "The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear, and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time." Pope Francis From page 9 POPE FRANCIS: 1936-2025 CNS photo/Paul Haring Pope Francis greets the crowd at the start of his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Oct. 15, 2014.