ROME — From the moment he was introduced to the huge
crowds waiting for a new pope in the rain at St. Peter’s
Square, Pope Francis has been a surprise. People gasped
when his name was called out. He was 76, seemingly
another rigid conservative, not the younger, dynamic
figure many Catholics had hoped for.
Now six months later, the surprises keep coming, including
the pope’s new remarks that the church risked becoming a
“small chapel” overly fixated on sexual morality and
should instead offer a broader, more inclusive message.
Francis is challenging the status quo of the Roman Catholic
Church so determinedly and so unexpectedly that Vatican
watchers are debating whether this is merely a change of
tone, as many had thought at first. Some now think the
pope may be making a deliberate effort to shake up the
Vatican governing hierarchy, known as the Curia, and
prepare the ground for a more fundamental shift in the
direction of the church.
“I think we are looking at major changes,” said John
Thavis, a longtime Vatican observer and author of “The
Vatican Diaries.” “There is a lot of disorientation inside the
Roman Curia. They used to feel they were in charge. Right
now, they know they are not in charge.”
The latest unexpected jolt from Pope Francis came in an
interview conducted with a Jesuit journalist and released
Thursday in Jesuit publications around the world. Francis,
himself a Jesuit, chastised the church’s narrow focus on
controversial social issues and called instead for a more
merciful and less judgmental church. He had already sent
out earlier signals, declining to live in the papal apartments
in the Apostolic Palace, chiding prelates for driving fancy
cars and announcing that church properties should be
used as shelters for refugees.
Francis did try to temper the impact of his remarks on
Friday, telling an audience of Catholic gynecologists that
abortion was a symptom of our “throwaway culture” and
urging them to refuse to perform the procedure.
But there seems little question that Francis wants to change
the papal conversation. His predecessor, Benedict XVI,
often seemed engaged in an angry verbal jousting match
with secularism and modernity, usually delivered through
formal encyclicals or speeches that, to many Catholics, felt
like a personal rebuke. The church seemed like “a rigid
institution dictating impossible norms to follow, an overly
severe mother,” said Lucetta Scaraffia, a scholar of
Catholicism in Rome.
By contrast, Pope Francis has made impromptu telephone
calls to people who have written him letters seeking help,
while also thriving on socializing with other priests and
laypeople. He is assuming the tone of the parish priest,
many analysts say, recognizing that people struggle daily
with issues of conscience and that the church, rather than
shake a finger, must offer a broader message of comfort
and healing. Many analysts have seized on an analogy cited
by Francis in his interview: the church as a hospital in a
battlefield.
“People have been wounded in a war over secularization,”
said Ms. Scaraffia, a history professor at the University of
Rome La Sapienza. “He’s saying: ‘Let’s look after the
wounds. That’s more important than winning the war.’ ”
The deep challenges confronting the church became
evident after Benedict’s stunning decision to resign early
this year. Allegations of mismanagement were erupting in
the Vatican, and accusations of impropriety shook the
Vatican bank. Many cardinals blamed the problems on the
secretive administrative body, the Roman Curia, and
wanted Benedict’s successor to usher in major reforms that
would decentralize power.
Pope Francis has already signaled his independence from
some of the Vatican’s traditional channels, and his biggest
governance move, as yet, has been the creation of an
advisory group of eight outside cardinals to help him usher
in Curial reform. But in his interview, he hinted that bigger
changes could be coming, including possible structural
changes to the conferences of bishops, known as synods.
He also pointedly warned that certain departments in the
Curia, when functioning poorly, risk “becoming
institutions of censorship.”
Analysts also noted how Francis specifically stated that the
Curia should be at the service of the church, the bishops
and the pope — not vice versa. But rather than first
outlining specific governance reforms and instituting major
personnel shifts, Francis instead seems intent on
articulating his vision for the church to build public
support for changes yet to come.
“First, you have to get consensus based on the force of the
vision, and then you find the men,” said the Reverend
Pierangelo Sequeri, dean of the Theological Faculty of
Northern Italy. “I don’t think the cardinals expected him to
act in that way.”
Francis, who previously had been Cardinal Jorge Mario
Bergoglio from Argentina, was selected by a peer group of
cardinals widely regarded as theological conservatives.
Many analysts, as well as conservative Catholics, have
noted that despite the striking differences in his young
papacy, Francis remains a theological conservative who is
not advocating doctrinal change.
Indeed, Francis on Friday offered a strong anti-abortion
message during a meeting with Catholic gynecologists.
“Every child that isn’t born, but is unjustly condemned to
be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the
Lord,” he said.
But the pope seems intent on not being ideologically
pigeonholed. In his Jesuit interview, Francis said that in his
younger days, while overseeing the Jesuit order in
Argentina, he was often quick-tempered and came under
legitimate criticism. “My authoritarian and quick manner
of making decisions led me to have serious problems and
to be accused of being ultraconservative,” he said.
But later, when he became archbishop of Buenos Aires, he
changed his style, he recalled. He consulted regularly with
bishops and met several times a year with councils of
priests, inviting discussion and debate. “But now I hear
some people tell me, ‘Do not consult too much, and decide
by yourself,’ “ he said in the interview. “Instead, I believe
that consultation is very important.”
Indeed, some analysts believe Francis’ desire to broaden
the appeal and message of the church reflects his
background in Latin America, where the Roman Catholic
Church is competing for followers with evangelical
Protestant movements. Appealing to the global south was
considered an important factor in selecting a new pope,
while several cardinals spoke publicly about the need for a
change agent to fix the problems inside the Vatican.
Alberto Melloni, a prominent Vatican historian, said he
thought that the cardinals, despite their conservatism, were
aware that Francis would make big changes — especially
since most of those same cardinals had previously elected
Benedict and bore some responsibility for the
shortcomings of his papacy.
But Mr. Melloni added that even if Francis remained a
doctrinaire conservative, the decision to stop speaking in
terms of doctrine and “nonnegotiable values” was very
significant, given tight alignment in many countries
between the church and political conservatives.
“The political consequences of these changes are very
strong and serious,” said Mr. Melloni, director of the John
XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna, a liberal
Catholic research institute. “The Holy Father has offered a
sort of new freedom to the church in the political scene.”
Sister Carol Zinn, president of the Leadership Conference
of Women Religious, the umbrella group of American nuns
that came under harsh doctrinal scrutiny under Pope
Benedict, said Francis’ approach to the papacy — listening
to laypeople and practicing the Jesuit discipline of gradually
discerning direction — indicated that he intended to make
more than tonal changes.
“What we’re seeing is an incredible change in the
atmosphere,” she said in an interview. “And when you
have change in the atmosphere, it’s amazing what kinds of
things can unfold. Because of the commitment he has to a
discerning way of life, I think we are going to see changes,
because discernment brings changes.”
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