gpmj12
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Thirty-three years ago, Lulu Mitshabu left the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a refugee. She was at the market when she sensed danger. She grabbed her children and, without going home, made the arduous journey across the border and eventually to Australia.
In February this year, doing humanitarian work for Caritas Australia, Lulu was back in DR Congo during the visit of Pope Francis. The pope, at 86, made all his public appearances in a wheelchair. Yet his energy was contagious. Lulu describes the challenges faced by DR Congo as incredibly complex and often related to a culture of violence. She was amazed by the impact of the pope’s personality.
“He shone a spotlight on DR Congo when everyone else seems to have forgotten or given up. He lit up the room where we gathered with him. He offered blessings in Lingala, one of the local languages. His words and actions touched my heart. He got people to commit to talking and listening.”
As Pope Francis celebrates 10 years as head of the Catholic Church, talking and listening have been the hallmarks of his outstanding leadership. His style has frightened Catholics who depend on an authoritarian church. Francis is building a Christian community in which status and rank count for less and in which the poor count for more. The church has a fancy word for it: synodality. It just means journeying together.
On March 13, 2013, Jorge Bergoglio became the first pope from south of the equator when he was chosen by his fellow cardinals to replace the retiring Pope Benedict. He’d already booked his return ticket to Buenos Aires. His early days set a tone from which he has never departed. On election, he went back to his hotel to pay his own bill. He moved out of the salubrious papal apartment and into more modest accommodation at the Vatican.
During his first Easter, he washed the feet of prisoners. A few months into the job, he went to the Italian island of Lampedusa to take up the cause of refugees. He has never let up. For 10 years, he has fed the human race a solid diet of hope. He believes, in the summary of his biographer Austen Ivereigh, that the truth is a person, not an ideology or an arid moralism. Rather than thinking that people have left the church, Ivereigh claims that Francis believes the church has left people.
Francis’ record is far from perfect. His response on the central issue of child abuse, for example, has been inconsistent. But one of the key resources Bergoglio brought to the job was the experience of being wrong.
As a young and dogmatic leader of the Jesuits in Argentina, he made significant mistakes during the country’s “dirty war”. His thinking constantly turns to ideas of mercy and forgiveness. He knows what it is to need such things and he has the grace to say as much.
If a conclave were held tomorrow to replace Pope Francis, no Australians would be entitled to vote. The unofficial quota from Oceania is made up of a cardinal from each of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga. It is curious that Australia is on the sidelines, but this is emblematic of the way the pope thinks.
He appointed Tonga’s Cardinal Mafi, the youngest cardinal, in 2015, the same year he published his ground-breaking letter about the environment, Laudato Si’. This letter is possibly the most significant papal document of my lifetime. It takes a fresh look at a tradition that for centuries has assumed all other creatures exist for the benefit of humanity and lack dignity in themselves.
Tonga, a small country ravaged by the effects of climate change, is at the kind of place that sits at the heart of Pope Francis’ view of the world. The centre of his world is not in Washington, or even in Rome. It is much more in small villages and communities where the basics of life are far from guaranteed. He understands that Jesus came from a backwater called Nazareth.
Some people accustomed to positions of influence have found this hard to stomach, especially in the United States, where many bishops openly oppose Pope Francis. They hide behind issues such as abortion and gender, implying that the pope has strayed from traditional teaching. He hasn’t really. Pope Francis has restricted the celebration of Mass according to the old Tridentine formula, believing that prayer is a place we should come together rather than break off into factions. Liturgy is the field on which some Catholics fight a proxy ideological war rather than share an authentic encounter with God.
Pope Francis is playing a long game. The major change he has made in the church is not about any specific doctrine. It is about who gets to make decisions and the process by which the church’s beliefs grow and develop.
Pope Francis has called us to look at the whole world with loving eyes. It is sad that some people can’t see it this way.
In February this year, doing humanitarian work for Caritas Australia, Lulu was back in DR Congo during the visit of Pope Francis. The pope, at 86, made all his public appearances in a wheelchair. Yet his energy was contagious. Lulu describes the challenges faced by DR Congo as incredibly complex and often related to a culture of violence. She was amazed by the impact of the pope’s personality.
“He shone a spotlight on DR Congo when everyone else seems to have forgotten or given up. He lit up the room where we gathered with him. He offered blessings in Lingala, one of the local languages. His words and actions touched my heart. He got people to commit to talking and listening.”
As Pope Francis celebrates 10 years as head of the Catholic Church, talking and listening have been the hallmarks of his outstanding leadership. His style has frightened Catholics who depend on an authoritarian church. Francis is building a Christian community in which status and rank count for less and in which the poor count for more. The church has a fancy word for it: synodality. It just means journeying together.
On March 13, 2013, Jorge Bergoglio became the first pope from south of the equator when he was chosen by his fellow cardinals to replace the retiring Pope Benedict. He’d already booked his return ticket to Buenos Aires. His early days set a tone from which he has never departed. On election, he went back to his hotel to pay his own bill. He moved out of the salubrious papal apartment and into more modest accommodation at the Vatican.
During his first Easter, he washed the feet of prisoners. A few months into the job, he went to the Italian island of Lampedusa to take up the cause of refugees. He has never let up. For 10 years, he has fed the human race a solid diet of hope. He believes, in the summary of his biographer Austen Ivereigh, that the truth is a person, not an ideology or an arid moralism. Rather than thinking that people have left the church, Ivereigh claims that Francis believes the church has left people.
Francis’ record is far from perfect. His response on the central issue of child abuse, for example, has been inconsistent. But one of the key resources Bergoglio brought to the job was the experience of being wrong.
As a young and dogmatic leader of the Jesuits in Argentina, he made significant mistakes during the country’s “dirty war”. His thinking constantly turns to ideas of mercy and forgiveness. He knows what it is to need such things and he has the grace to say as much.
If a conclave were held tomorrow to replace Pope Francis, no Australians would be entitled to vote. The unofficial quota from Oceania is made up of a cardinal from each of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga. It is curious that Australia is on the sidelines, but this is emblematic of the way the pope thinks.
He appointed Tonga’s Cardinal Mafi, the youngest cardinal, in 2015, the same year he published his ground-breaking letter about the environment, Laudato Si’. This letter is possibly the most significant papal document of my lifetime. It takes a fresh look at a tradition that for centuries has assumed all other creatures exist for the benefit of humanity and lack dignity in themselves.
Tonga, a small country ravaged by the effects of climate change, is at the kind of place that sits at the heart of Pope Francis’ view of the world. The centre of his world is not in Washington, or even in Rome. It is much more in small villages and communities where the basics of life are far from guaranteed. He understands that Jesus came from a backwater called Nazareth.
Some people accustomed to positions of influence have found this hard to stomach, especially in the United States, where many bishops openly oppose Pope Francis. They hide behind issues such as abortion and gender, implying that the pope has strayed from traditional teaching. He hasn’t really. Pope Francis has restricted the celebration of Mass according to the old Tridentine formula, believing that prayer is a place we should come together rather than break off into factions. Liturgy is the field on which some Catholics fight a proxy ideological war rather than share an authentic encounter with God.
Pope Francis is playing a long game. The major change he has made in the church is not about any specific doctrine. It is about who gets to make decisions and the process by which the church’s beliefs grow and develop.
Pope Francis has called us to look at the whole world with loving eyes. It is sad that some people can’t see it this way.