Some answers to questions about Pope Francis

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As a Franciscan I’m fascinated by this pope who has taken the name of our Holy Father Francis. Naturally, I’ve been reading anything that I can find on him: blogs, posts, fora, news articles, and tea leaves. 😃

There are several questions that have been repeated on a number of sites. I thought I’d offer the answers that I have uncovered.
  1. Which Francis?
In an interview, Cardinal Dolan said that when asked what he would be called, the newly elected pope said, “Francis, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.” So that’s it. We have it from someone who was in the room when he chose the name.
  1. Why St. Francis of Assisi and not St. Francis Xavier or St. Francis de Sales?
A Jesuit superior who was interviewed reported that His Holiness has a devotion to St. Francis of Assisi. He has always admired St. Francis of Assisi’s life among the poorest of the poor, his effort to rebuild the Church of his time, his fraternal love for all men, his belief that unless one embraces the poor one has no place in the Kingdom and his fidelity to the institutional Church.
  1. Where was the red?
An old friend of His Holiness, Msgr. Figueredo, reported that the pope has always been very focused on the Bishop of Rome. He wants to drive home the message to the Roman people that he is their bishop. The red vestments traditionally worn by popes over the white cassock are really the marks of the papacy, not the dress of a diocesan bishop. I guess this tells us a little about one point on his papal agenda. Contrary to what someone said on another thread, it’s not that he does not know papal protocol. It’s his desire to put emphasis on the fact that he is the ordinary of the Diocese of Rome.
  1. Can the pope change such traditions?
This answer is strictly mine. The answer is, yes. The pope is not bound by any law or tradition that is not contained in divine revelation. Nor is he bound by any precedent established by his predecessors. He calls his own shots. As much as we would like to bind him, we must remember that Christ gave him the power to bind and unbind, not us.
  1. Is he against the Extraordinary Form of the mass?
If my Spanish serves me, I would say, NO. I found an article in Spanish that reports the contrary. Apparently, within 48 hours after the publication of Summorum Pontificum, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires identified a priest and a place to celebrate the EF. From what I’ve heard from Argentinians, there are not many priests in that diocese who are interested in celebrating the EF. That’s not the Archbishop’s fault. No bishop can impose the celebration of the EF on his priests. From what I have seen and read, he does not celebrate the EF. This does not mean that he will never do so or that he opposes it. We have to remember that just because someone does not do something; it does not mean that they oppose it either. I don’t eat Cheerios. But anyone who wants to may do so.
  1. Is he Francis I?
No. He is Pope Francis. If we look at history, those popes whose names are not repeated do not have ordinal numbers after their names. Ordinal numbers are used when the name is repeated.
 
Thank you Brother.

Do you know if His Holiness speaks English at all? I’ve not come across anything indicating that he does.
 
LilyM said:
Thank you Brother.

Do you know if His Holiness speaks English at all? I’ve not come across anything indicating that he does.
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I watched an interview with one of the cardinals. I believe that it was Cardinal Wuerl. That’s not important. The cardinal was asked the question and the answer was that he does speak English, but is not fluent as he has not had much need of it.

We must remember that Pope Benedict was not fluent in English either. He acquired his fluency when he went to work at the Vatican, unlike Pope John Paul who was very fluent. Pope John Paul had been to the USA on many diplomatic missions. He was a fluent speaker. I imagine with exposure to the Vatican staff, which functions mostly in English and Italian, he will master both.

I should mention that I was listening to his homily in Italian. His Italian is not that of a native either. He speaks with a Spanish accent and makes many grammatical mistakes. However, he is perfectly comprehensible.
 
JReducation said:
I watched an interview with one of the cardinals. I believe that it was Cardinal Wuerl. That’s not important. The cardinal was asked the question and the answer was that he does speak English, but is not fluent as he has not had much need of it.

We must remember that Pope Benedict was not fluent in English either. He acquired his fluency when he went to work at the Vatican, unlike Pope John Paul who was very fluent. Pope John Paul had been to the USA on many diplomatic missions. He was a fluent speaker. I imagine with exposure to the Vatican staff, which functions mostly in English and Italian, he will master both.

I should mention that I was listening to his homily in Italian. His Italian is not that of a native either. He speaks with a Spanish accent and makes many grammatical mistakes. However, he is perfectly comprehensible.
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Thanks again Brother. I realise it’s not especially important, and that he probably has not had any pressing need for fluent English (or any at all, really).

I was asking more out of curiosity than anything else.
 
Sodalis said:
While he is Pope Francis and not Francis I, there has been at least one exception. John Paul i.

It’s right around the 6:13 mark.

youtube.com/watch?v=yJeo6Mi4LlI&feature=player_detailpage#t=373s
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I don’t know if that was a fluke in the announcement that simply stuck or if that was Pope John Paul’s choice. We’ll never know, because he was not around long enough to know much about him. I don’t know about anyone else, but I have never heard anyone speak about what happened at the moment of his election. I know that he was called John Paul I, but that was mathematically incorrect. That would be like calling a man John Smith, Sr when there is no John Smith, Jr.
 
Honestly, I have no idea why, and, as you say, he really wasn’t around long enough to pick his brain through interviews over, what in the scheme of things, would surely be small potatoes.
 
Honestly, I have no idea why, and, as you say, he really wasn’t around long enough to pick his brain through interviews over, what in the scheme of things, would surely be small potatoes.

edit: Thinking it over maybe the answer lies in your original statement.
(Ugh, I double-posted trying to edit in that quote.)
JReducation said:
  1. Is he Francis I?
No. He is Pope Francis. If we look at history, those popes whose names are not repeated do not have ordinal numbers after their names. Ordinal numbers are used when the name is repeated.
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Perhaps he thought since his name would be a combination of John and Paul that the ordinal would be appropriate because the names are being repeated, in a sense, and it would be used to draw distinction from them. Hey, that’s all I got. 🤷
 
Okay, that answers a lot, but not all. Fascinated? Are you saying it was an intellectual curiosity only? My priest has always held that St. Francis is his favorite Saint and he is beside himself over the choice of names(among other things). He already has the statue of St. Francis at the altar and we are opening Mass this weekend with “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.”

Surely you and your brothers had as a “whoopie!” moment as much as Argentina, or am I wrong. I mean, I dont’t think anyone saw this coming.
 
Thank you very much Brother for your sharing.

God loves us so much; in times of crisis he provides, in times of peace He rejoices with His Church and people, in times confusion He makes things or ideas clear through His intervention and by the help of the Holy Spirit. He has given us a new pope, Congratulations to each one of us.

The name of the new pope has already me mentioned categorically in St. Peter’s…now people have known of this…the Church is so careful that she makes very little mistakes. The new pope’s name is very clear, let us be kin enough to hear of it during Holy Masses around the world. Concerning the languages he will speak, the Holy Spirit will guide the new pope to speak the language the church all over the world understands. Let us not worry about all these, the Lord has chosen him, let us only rejoice, God is besides us and He leads His Church.

Thanks

Fr. David
 
pnewton said:
Okay, that answers a lot, but not all. Fascinated? Are you saying it was an intellectual curiosity only? My priest has always held that St. Francis is his favorite Saint and he is beside himself over the choice of names(among other things). He already has the statue of St. Francis at the altar and we are opening Mass this weekend with “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.”

Surely you and your brothers had as a “whoopie!” moment as much as Argentina, or am I wrong. I mean, I dont’t think anyone saw this coming.
Click to expand...
Here is something interesting. A very good friend of mine who is a diocesan priest and pastor asked me to teach CCD as his parish. I teach Christology to grade 5 and 6 together. After Pope Benedict abdicated I was trying to teach the kids about the papacy and how abdication worked.

There is a list of popes at the end of the bible. I asked the kids to tell me how many popes we’ve had. They went to the back to take a look. As we were talking, one of the kids made an observation, a pretty good one for a 5th grader.

“Brother, how come there is only one of the Evangelists on the list of popes?” He blindsided me with the question.

I told him that Peter was not an evangelist and that he worte letters not a Gospel. The kid immediately pointed to the four gospels and the fact that there have been 23 Johns, but no Matthew, Mark or Luke. I had never given that much thought.

We continued to think along that vein. My buddy the pastor walked in and we shared our discovery with him. He was impressed with my 5th graders as well. Suddenly, another kids, this one a 6th grader pointed out that there was only one law-giver in the list of popes, Benedict. Augustine, Francis, and Albert are not on there either.

I jokingly said, “Maybe we’ll have a Pope Francis next.” We played with several combinations of names. One kid suggested that the next pope should be a Treki and be called John Luke, like Jean Luc Piccard from Star Trek. Again, I said, "No, it’s time for a Francis.

Well, one of my 5th graders objected. He made the most interesting remark. “If a pope ever chose Francis of Assisi we’ll be in trouble.”

I wondered why and I asked. To which he responded,

“St. Francis is almost impossible to imitate. Just think of it Brother. The man was the perfect Christian. If we get a Pope Francis, he’ll probably be like St. Francis. You said that being a Franciscan was very hard, because it’s very hard to be like St. Francis. Imagine if we had a Pope Francis. That would mean that Catholics would have to try to be like him.”

Well, we left it there. Lo and behold, one week to the day … . . Habemus Papam!

I had CCD class that evening. I walked in and the same kid looked up at me and said, “Brother, we’re in big trouble now.” :eek:
 
FrDavid said:
Thank you very much Brother for your sharing.

God loves us so much; in times of crisis he provides, in times of peace He rejoices with His Church and people, in times confusion He makes things or ideas clear through His intervention and by the help of the Holy Spirit. He has given us a new pope, Congratulations to each one of us.

The name of the new pope has already me mentioned categorically in St. Peter’s…now people have known of this…the Church is so careful that she makes very little mistakes. The new pope’s name is very clear, let us be kin enough to hear of it during Holy Masses around the world. Concerning the languages he will speak, the Holy Spirit will guide the new pope to speak the language the church all over the world understands. Let us not worry about all these, the Lord has chosen him, let us only rejoice, God is besides us and He leads His Church.

Thanks

Fr. David
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Fr David, it’s not worry, as I said it’s curiosity.

Unlike Benedict, I for one was completely unfamiliar with our new Pontiff prior to his election. I think it is natural under the circumstances that I would like to get some idea of him as a person as well as his similarities to and differences from his predecessors.
 
JReducation said:
Here is something interesting. A very good friend of mine who is a diocesan priest and pastor asked me to teach CCD as his parish. I teach Christology to grade 5 and 6 together. After Pope Benedict abdicated I was trying to teach the kids about the papacy and how abdication worked.

There is a list of popes at the end of the bible. I asked the kids to tell me how many popes we’ve had. They went to the back to take a look. As we were talking, one of the kids made an observation, a pretty good one for a 5th grader.

“Brother, how come there is only one of the Evangelists on the list of popes?” He blindsided me with the question.

I told him that Peter was not an evangelist and that he worte letters not a Gospel. The kid immediately pointed to the four gospels and the fact that there have been 23 Johns, but no Matthew, Mark or Luke. I had never given that much thought.

We continued to think along that vein. My buddy the pastor walked in and we shared our discovery with him. He was impressed with my 5th graders as well. Suddenly, another kids, this one a 6th grader pointed out that there was only one law-giver in the list of popes, Benedict. Augustine, Francis, and Albert are not on there either.

I jokingly said, “Maybe we’ll have a Pope Francis next.” We played with several combinations of names. One kid suggested that the next pope should be a Treki and be called John Luke, like Jean Luc Piccard from Star Trek. Again, I said, "No, it’s time for a Francis.

Well, one of my 5th graders objected. He made the most interesting remark. “If a pope ever chose Francis of Assisi we’ll be in trouble.”

I wondered why and I asked. To which he responded,

“St. Francis is almost impossible to imitate. Just think of it Brother. The man was the perfect Christian. If we get a Pope Francis, he’ll probably be like St. Francis. You said that being a Franciscan was very hard, because it’s very hard to be like St. Francis. Imagine if we had a Pope Francis. That would mean that Catholics would have to try to be like him.”

Well, we left it there. Lo and behold, one week to the day … . . Habemus Papam!

I had CCD class that evening. I walked in and the same kid looked up at me and said, “Brother, we’re in big trouble now.” :eek:
Click to expand...
Yeah, but a good kind of trouble, I think 🙂
 
FrDavid said:
Thank you very much Brother for your sharing.

God loves us so much; in times of crisis he provides, in times of peace He rejoices with His Church and people, in times confusion He makes things or ideas clear through His intervention and by the help of the Holy Spirit. He has given us a new pope, Congratulations to each one of us.

The name of the new pope has already me mentioned categorically in St. Peter’s…now people have known of this…the Church is so careful that she makes very little mistakes. The new pope’s name is very clear, let us be kin enough to hear of it during Holy Masses around the world. Concerning the languages he will speak, the Holy Spirit will guide the new pope to speak the language the church all over the world understands. Let us not worry about all these, the Lord has chosen him, let us only rejoice, God is besides us and He leads His Church.

Thanks

Fr. David
Click to expand...
Thank you Father. I hope that my subordinate will get it right at tomorrow’s mass. This morning he prayed for Thomas our bishop and Benedict our pope. The community broke into laughter. Poor Brother L. stopped and looked up in a state of surprise. He had not caught himself. For us, it’s very awkward to have a Pope Francis, because in our Franciscan Missal, Francis is mentioned along with the other saints in the Canon and in the penitential rite.

We say, “I confess to Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, our holy father Francis, . . . that I have sinned, etc”

Franciscans have always called St. Francis, Holy Father Francis. There was never any confusion as to whom we meant.
 
**Looks like a VERY promising Pappa. May the SACRED HEART and St. Francis Bless Him. Being a Franciscan at heart, ANYONE with the name of St. Francis (Of Assisi) is bound to be good ;):D. I find that His philosophy looks VERY much like St. Francis. No wonder He chose the name of the Serpahic Father. Our New Pappa LOVES the poor, is very orthodox doctrinally , He is VERY humble and is VERY sharp intellectually (Being a Jesuit I wouldn’t excpect anything less…)👍

May the SACRED HEART and St. Francis Bless Pappa Francis!! 👍👍:D**
 
pnewton said:
Okay, that answers a lot, but not all. Fascinated? Are you saying it was an intellectual curiosity only? My priest has always held that St. Francis is his favorite Saint and he is beside himself over the choice of names(among other things). He already has the statue of St. Francis at the altar and we are opening Mass this weekend with “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.”

Surely you and your brothers had as a “whoopie!” moment as much as Argentina, or am I wrong. I mean, I dont’t think anyone saw this coming.
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My daughter said that there was a “whoopie” moment in St. Louis at St. Louis University (a Jesuit college and my daughter’s alma mater)!
 
The big concern I have is him perhaps overesteeming his role as Bishop of Rome. If he wants to rule as primus inter pares that’s fine. We’ve got better bishops now than in the past I believe (at least here in the US). It would certainly help the relationship with the Orthodox, who wail and gnash their teeth about any kind of overt display of papal supremacy.

But he can’t forget the primus part. The EP, Patriarch Kiril, the Archbishop of Canterbury, even the Queen have protocol and standards because they are visible signs of unity, even if they aren’t necessarily visible signs of authority. This makes me more concerned than anything to do with liturgy. If he underesteems the universal nature of the papacy out of concerns about ecclesiology, or because of humility, he’s not helping the Church.
 
He’s a humble Jesuit, a group that rejects trappings, from a land that had a real problem in its history with cult of personality dictators, so I think Francis is just scared of going there so to speak and has a distaste for it.
 
To be honest, I didn’t like how he asked the people to first pray for him instead of first blessing them. I don’t see it as humility just pandering to the base. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the Pope is conservative but really? I’m someone who is against Bishops living luxurious lives and having daimond rings because I think it is hypocrital but things like the Lateran palace are places of work and there have been a ton of Popes who still lived simply there like Pius XII and Pius X and Pius V. With all the stuff happening in Church, all it’s history etc… it’s impossible to work in a small seminary as a ton of militant atheists I’ve talked with pretended that the Pope do.

The Pope is the representative of Christ on earth. I don’t think he or any Bishop should live a life of luxury but even living poor like Pius X, Anthony Mary Claret, John Nuemann etc… these guys still showed their authority, didn’t hold back criticizing the enemies of the Church and still attessed that even though as persons they are still human, their authority comes from God and should be obeyed in those matters. All the rubbish articles by the secular media saying that the Church needs to change to their lustful ideals made me want to throw a brick at whoever wrote themfor being so ignorant. They’re not interpreting the Pope’s choice of humble living as a show of Christian virtue, they’re just laughing in our faces. We shouldn’t mind them of course because it’s not like their own perverse ideas are doing any good. I just wish the new Pope will be very strong and work to decrease and convert cafeteria Catholics.

As someone said above, the Papacy is universal. If a Bishop says that homosexuality and their perverse unions are A-OK, uproot him we don’t need him. If someone approves of women Priests, uproot him, deal and concemn all these heresies. It’s the right thing to do as it purifies Church teaching and it is also what devout Catholics want and need. These people need help; we don’t need pandering to the secular world which couldn’t care less about doing the right thing or examaning our own ideals.
 
I am no Franciscan, but I have to say that this election was a cause of joy, elation and celebration at my house. We were driving home from San Antone during the final balloting. Even my son (8) was on the edge of the seat waiting for smoke. We were laughing and enjoying the running commentary of Sirius Radio (Fr. Dave Dwyer and Lino Rulli). When we heard the roar of the crowd in the background and the announcement of white smoke, it was pure pandelirium.

Then again when we heard the announcement from the balcony once again we started whooping it up. It was a great moment and one that I am sure will stay with my son the rest of his life.
 
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