G
gilliam
Guest
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What on earth is going on? A year ago the Catholic church was arguably at its lowest ebb since the Reformation. The shy, intellectual and conservative Benedict XVI had just astonished the world by retiring in exhaustion, the first pope to retire since Gregory XII in 1415. There was outrage at ongoing sex abuse scandals and associated cover-ups – exposéObserver of his sexual misconduct. Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, had leaked private documents from Benedict’s personal desk in an attempt to expose corruption within the Roman Curia. The Vatican bank was under investigation over money laundering. Amid the chaos, pews in Europe and the United States were emptying as parishioners, appalled at revelations of paedophile priests, joined those alienated by an aloof church’s obsession with issues of sexual morality.
Even in Latin America, Bergoglio’s backyard and a modern bastion of Catholicism, the pentecostal and evangelical churches were on the rise. A revolution was required. According to Catholic tradition, the conversion of St Francis of Assisi took place when Christ called out to him from a crucifix in the crumbling medieval church of San Damiano: “Francis, rebuild my house, which is falling into ruins.” Given the dire circumstances 800 years later, it is easy to see why returning to the legacy of one of the church’s best-loved saints appealed to Bergoglio last March.
The choice of name, a papal first, was greeted with cheers from the 115 cardinals who had just elected him. But did they – did anyone – expect what has followed? Elected at a time of crisis, Pope Francis has emulated his namesake by choosing poverty, humility and solidarity with the poor as the route map to the church’s salvation. In the Sistine Chapel a year ago, he called on the church to “come out of herself and to go to the peripheries” of life to meet the marginalised and the excluded. Days later he told assembled journalists that he wants a “poor church for the poor”. Many religious figures have said the same through the ages. But the first non-European pope for more than a millennium appears to mean it. The question is: can he deliver? And what would that church look like?
theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/pope-francis-revitalising-catholic-church
What on earth is going on? A year ago the Catholic church was arguably at its lowest ebb since the Reformation. The shy, intellectual and conservative Benedict XVI had just astonished the world by retiring in exhaustion, the first pope to retire since Gregory XII in 1415. There was outrage at ongoing sex abuse scandals and associated cover-ups – exposéObserver of his sexual misconduct. Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, had leaked private documents from Benedict’s personal desk in an attempt to expose corruption within the Roman Curia. The Vatican bank was under investigation over money laundering. Amid the chaos, pews in Europe and the United States were emptying as parishioners, appalled at revelations of paedophile priests, joined those alienated by an aloof church’s obsession with issues of sexual morality.
Even in Latin America, Bergoglio’s backyard and a modern bastion of Catholicism, the pentecostal and evangelical churches were on the rise. A revolution was required. According to Catholic tradition, the conversion of St Francis of Assisi took place when Christ called out to him from a crucifix in the crumbling medieval church of San Damiano: “Francis, rebuild my house, which is falling into ruins.” Given the dire circumstances 800 years later, it is easy to see why returning to the legacy of one of the church’s best-loved saints appealed to Bergoglio last March.
The choice of name, a papal first, was greeted with cheers from the 115 cardinals who had just elected him. But did they – did anyone – expect what has followed? Elected at a time of crisis, Pope Francis has emulated his namesake by choosing poverty, humility and solidarity with the poor as the route map to the church’s salvation. In the Sistine Chapel a year ago, he called on the church to “come out of herself and to go to the peripheries” of life to meet the marginalised and the excluded. Days later he told assembled journalists that he wants a “poor church for the poor”. Many religious figures have said the same through the ages. But the first non-European pope for more than a millennium appears to mean it. The question is: can he deliver? And what would that church look like?
theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/pope-francis-revitalising-catholic-church