Pope Francis' Liberalism and Reforms

Pope Francis

Pope Francis, the supreme spiritual leader of world’s 1.2 billion Catholic Christians, made his highly anticipated apostolic journey to Bangladesh on Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.

Francis is the third pope to visit this land and the second in independent Bangladesh.

Pope Paul VI made few hours stopover at Dhaka airport in erstwhile East Pakistan on Nov. 26 in 1970, in order to express sympathy for victims of a devastating cyclone that killed tens of thousands, on his way to Manila in the Philippines.

Pope John Paul II visited independent Bangladesh on Nov. 19, 1886.

A man of simplicity and humility, Pope Francis beholds a liberal worldview that includes everyone and excludes none. 

Since his election on 13 March 2013, Pope Francis has established himself as a prolific change-maker, who is determined to make the Church “a guiding light and moral conscience” in today’s ultramodern and increasingly secular world. 

Pope Francis is the first pope from Society of Jesus religious order (popularly known as Jesuits), first Latin American pope and also the first non-European pope in about 1,300 years. As he emerged onto the famous balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after election, renouncing traditional red papal mozetta and wearing a simple white cloak and a wooden cross, he sent out strong signals across the world he was here for change.

Over the past years he has not just radically changed the tone and demeanor of the church but also gradually sidelined conservative and traditionalist forces and practices within the church without making any major change to Church’s policy and doctrines.

Six months after his papacy started, John Gehring, program director of U.S.-based advocacy group, Faith in Public Life, summed up Pope Francis’ effects in a Washington Post article.

"Something unexpected and extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is rescuing the faith from those who hunker down in gilded cathedrals and wield doctrine like a sword. The edifice of fortress Catholicism – in which progressive Catholics, gay Catholics, Catholic women and others who love the church but often feel marginalized by the hierarchy – is starting to crumble," Gehring wrote.

In fact, it would be cynical to consider that Pope Francis doesn’t care about Church doctrine, but he is much more refocused on utilizing the Church’s energy in line with teaching of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

Time and again, Pope Francis has criticized a “self-referential” Church that grows “sick” when clergy fail to engage the world. He wants the Church to get down to the streets even if it meets with a few “accidents.”

Pope Francis also said he doesn’t want bishops who want to act like “princes” but doesn’t want to lead people as “pastors” without being “authoritarian.” He seems to have no patience for Church officials who act like “religious border patrol” and make it harder for single mothers or misled Catholics from being reunited with the Church and denying them Church sacraments.

According to analysis of an Italian newspaper, the most frequent word used in his homilies and formal addresses is “joy.” Indeed, it is refreshing change from some strict religious leaders who often take a defensive posture infusing fear among the faithful.

Francis wants to make the Church a “ field hospital” that serves anyone who seeks healing in a world full of conflicts. He has been shaping the Church toward that direction and thus, he is simultaneously illuminating the Church and the whole world.

Even atheists can go to heaven

On May 2013, Pope Francis surprised many when he said that even those who do not believe in God could ascend to heaven if they lead good and honorable lives. That year, he gave an exclusive interview to an atheist Italian journalist where he called efforts to convert people to Christianity “solemn nonsense.” In a homily in May 2013 he said, “The Lord has redeemed all of us, with the Blood of Christ, all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone!” When he was asked, “Father, the atheists?” He replied, “Even the atheists. Everyone!”

 Who am I to judge?

In July 2013, on a flight back from his visit to Brazil, Francis struck a very different note on homosexuality during an impromptu press conference. He famously said, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

Later in a statement, Francis said, "It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs."

The globalization of indifference

In November 2013, in his first Apostolic Exhortation (a sort of papal white paper) Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) Pope Francis hit out at extreme, indifferent globalization driven by capitalism. He slammed consumer culture, corporate greed and the notion of top-down economic system. He noted, “Today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”    

Careerism is leprosy

In June 2013, Pope Francis warned traditionalist and conservative Church leaders to refrain from ecclesiastical rat race to climb the slippery ladder of hierarchy.

Pope Francis decried a plague of careerism among priests and urged them to renounce their personal ambitions for service to the church -- warning that failure to do so would make them look "ridiculous."

"Careerism is a leprosy, a leprosy," the pope said in a speech to students from the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the school for future Vatican diplomats on June 6, 2013. "Please, no careerism!"

All types of priestly ministry require "great inner freedom," the pope said, which calls for "vigilance in order to be free from ambition or personal aims, which can cause so much harm to the church."

The pope recalled that St. Pope John XXIII, who died 50 years ago on June 3, had served as a Vatican diplomat for much of his career. Pope Francis quoted a statement by Pope John that church diplomacy "should always be permeated by a pastoral spirit; otherwise, it counts for nothing, and makes a holy mission ridiculous."

Transgender people are welcome 

In January 2015, Pope Francis quietly welcomed and met 48-year-old Spanish citizen, Diego Neria Lejarraga, at the Vatican. Born as a woman, Lejarraga later had undergone a medical surgery to become a transgender man. A native Spanish priest once called Lejarraga “the devil’s daughter” and Pope Francis seemingly sought to offer solace to Lejarraga by meeting him. Lejarraga asked the pope if he had a place in the Church and Francis reportedly responded by embracing him. 

Encyclical on environment

In June 2015, Pope Francis published Laudato Si (Praise be to you), a papal encyclical on climate change. He called pollution a “sin” and appealed to denounce a “throwaway culture,” “consumerism,” irresponsible developments and environmental degradation. He cited that it is a moral obligation to sign on a binding international agreement to combat global warming through "swift and unified global action."

  

Forgiveness for abortion

In September 2015, Francis opened a special, temporary “mercy window” to make it easier for women who had undergone abortions to confess and to get back to the Church. Like many of his moves, it was a symbolic gesture as abortion is considered a “mortal sin” in the Church. Francis didn’t change the Church’s stance on abortion but the move marked a new tone.   

Welcoming the divorced and remarried

In October 2015, Pope Francis convened a Synod of Bishops to discuss Marriage and Family Life. Following the meeting, Francis simplified a lengthy and rigorous marriage annulment procedure of the Church. He allowed bishops rather than a Church court to nullify a marriage, a power that they could also give to priests. He also asked the clergy to keep “open doors” to Catholics who divorce and remarry.

Soft on Islam

On various occasions, Pope Francis has taken soft, pacifist position on Islam. He refused to associate Islam with violence and denounced increasing Islamophobia of the West.

“It is true that the Muslim world is not totally mistaken when it reproaches the West of Christian tradition of moral decadence and the manipulation of human life. Islam has also had moments of great splendor and decadence,” Francis said.

Thus, Pope Francis can well be called a revolutionary in terms of his words and actions in the past five years of his papacy. His liberalism and reforms have already enlightened the face of the Church in the world.

The pontificate of Pope Francis is poised to go down in history as one of the most remarkable periods in the life and history of Catholic Church and the world.

END

Note: This is a slightly changed English version of "Pope Francis' Liberalism and Reforms" article originally published in a Souvenir Magazine dedicated to Pope Francis' Visit to Bangladesh Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2017.

References: 

1.     A practicingCatholic’s simple wish by Third World View 

2.     Pope Francis: The end of ‘fortress Catholicism’? byJohn Gehring

3.     8 of Pope Francis’s most liberal statements by Anthony Faiola 

4.     10 Quotes That Prove The Pope Is A Liberal by Pat Archbold 

5.    Pope Francis calls careerism a 'leprosy' on thepriesthood by Francis X. Rocca