I went to the site that Dunstinsdad suggested Christ the King Soverign Priest, and I found exactly what Cathy and I have said about St. Francis de Sales and his approach.
“Cook the truth in charity until it tastes sweet," this famous quotation of St. Francis de Sales is the principle of our apostolic work. Fruitless discussions or, worse, uncharitable polemics never help to attract souls to the Lord. Again, St. Francis de Sales said: “One drop of honey attracts more bees than a barrel of vinegar.”
We will not save souls with spears, but only with love. Our Holy Father St. Francis sent the Brothers into a town to preach to the infidels of that town and to fallen away Catholics. He ordered them not to say word until he told them to do so. They walked across the town to the other side and asked, “Father where and when should we preach?” Our Holy Father responded, “We already have. The Gospel is preached by the way you live and by how you love others.” He taught us to preach with life, not just words.
He also left the Church another legacy, that legacy was Holy Poverty. Holy Poverty was not just material poverty to be lived by those who vow to follow the Franciscan rule as friars, nuns, religious sisters or secular brothers and sisters. It is for all the Church. Pope Benedict told a group of Marian Youth last week, “Follow Francis of Assisi and Benedict. Let them guide you.”
Pope Benedict acknowledges that the gift left to us by our Holy Father St. Francis was truly a gift from Christ to the Church. Holy Poverty goes beyond material detachment, though this too is important on the journey to Heaven. But material detachment without detachment from our love for our own opinion and our own point of view is nihilism, because it leads no where. It does not lead to Christ. Material poverty is the beginning of a conversion process, but it must conclude with poverty of the heart, of the mind and of the soul.
Holy Poverty is putting ourselves and our ideas aside and opening our arms to receive what Christ gives us through the Church. Francis understood this. Even though the Church of his time was guilty of many sins, probably more than the Church of today, he loved her dearly. Instead of criticizing her or publicly displaying her dirty laundry, he approached Pope Innocent III with humility and reverence, despite Innocent being less innocent than his name suggests. But Francis saw only the Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, not the sinful man. He knew that only the Vicar of Christ had the authority to accept or reject the gift that he had to offer the Church, the renewal of the Church.
At first Innocent was reluctant to accept Francis’ offer, the offer to rebuild the Church in Christ’s image. However, he was moved by Francis’ humility and submission to his authority and his will. So, he gave temporary approval for the way of life that our Holy Father Francis was proposing – to live the Gospel literally. After Innocent’s death, Honorius was elected Pope. Once again, Francis gift to the Church was called into question by the Pope. Once again Francis presented himself before the Holy Father. This time the Holy Father asked Francis to rewrite his rule and to soften it, because it was too hard for any Christian to follow the Gospel as literally as Francis proposed.
Francis respectfully informed the Pope that he had written what Christ had told him to write. For Francis had heard the voice Christ telling him what to write. Even then, the Pope told him to soften it. Francis went back to Assisi and rewrote the rule and mitigated it as has been directed by the Pope, knowing full well that this was a slightly different version of the rule from what Christ had dictated. But he believed that Christ would want him to obey his Vicar, even if that meant changing the words that Christ had dictated to him.
When Francis thought about it and prayed over it, he realized one very important thing. Christ was testing his faith. Christ had inspired his first rule, but in it there was one passage that said, “I Father Francis and all the Brothers promise obedience to the Pope, the Vicar of Jesus Christ” Christ had tested Francis’ love for him and Francis passed the test. He understood that his conscience had to be guided and enlightened by faith and the Church. They could not be separated.
How did he pass the test? He passed through the exercise of Holy Poverty, letting go of his idea of what was right or evangelical and accepting what was received from the Church. Regardless of her sinfulness, her weakness, the Church was the bride of the King. Francis knew that the King had promised his bride that the gates of Hell would never prevail against her. Regardless of how right it felt to him to follow his original inspiration and to reform the Church by introducing a lifestyle like the life lived by the Apostles and early Christians, it was even more right to obey and love the Bride of Christ, trusting Christ’s promise that the Church would never be overcome by sin.
There was sin in the Church and there would always be sin, but sin would never triumph. Francis did not need to fight the sin within the Church to renew her. He needed to fight the sin within him, he was too attached to his own idea of what the Church ought to be. The only way to fight this sin was by embracing Holy Poverty. To be so poor that one doesn’t even attach much importance to one’s opinion or ideas in the face of the Church’s teachings and gifts. Thus he reformed the Church of his time as millions followed his marriage to Holy Poverty and the Gospel life.
JR
, and was pretty successful at it by the grace of God. Would he be viewed positively? My guess is they would champion his charitable ways, and downplay his adherence to EENS as being an unfortunate “product of his times”.