I read an article on the Christian Review titled: Four Years Later: Reflections on an Unprecedented Pontificate. When I first starting reading the article I found myself rolling my eyes a bit, and I guess they may still be rolling. It started off with this quote: “On March 13, 2013, I sat in my office and watched my screen as a new pope — a man whom I had never seen before that moment — walked out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. I had never heard of him. I did not even know his name. Like most Catholics, I had approached the papal conclave with a sense of hopeful anticipation. But the feeling that came over me when I saw the man the cardinals had elected was shockingly forceful. It was a feeling of icy cold dread. As I looked at him, standing there, staring out at the crowd, I heard seven words distinctly in my mind, unbidden: “This man is no friend of Tradition.”
I read the article and it did give me pause to consider my perceptions of this Pope. Yet I when I started reading the comments on the article, I was disturbed. One commenter pretty much came up with the belief that Pope Francis is possessed by the devil. Another said he is the ‘chastisement’. I found the whole thing event distasteful and wondering if the people who actually go to that site are completely in their right mind. I know that they are of course. They were taking their subjective first experiences of this Pope as some sort of heavenly verification about how unfit this pope is. When in fact, they are just people who long for a past that will never return and perhaps never existed.
If labels must be used, I would say I am a ‘moderate’ catholic. That means that I love tradition, for me it a living reality, but I also love many good things about the Church today. I remember the past. I was 14 when the Latin Mass was stopped and the New Ordo took effect. At the time I told the priest that it was too sudden there was little if any preparation and why could not both the Latin, and New Ordo, be kept and let the laity choose which one they would want to go to. He said that Rome has spoken.
Today many who are speaking out for the Tridentine Mass come across as just angry and frustrated and have an overly sentimental attachment to it. I often feel that it is theater to them, but not based on how the mass was actually celebrated in the past when I was young. It was often rushed, and the altar boys would often get tongue tied over the Latin and the rubrics were so rigid I would think most priests were glad when the English came in. Also, a plus that it could actually be understood. After a short time, I grew to love the Mass in a language that I could understand.
This Pope is from a poor country that has had many political struggles. Pope Francis is a champion for the individual human being and their worth before God.
He also understands that his office, as well as the office of Cardinals, Bishops, and Priest, are a call to deeper service of the people. He truly believes in the example of Jesus Christ when he washed the feet of his Apostles. He speaks to the people, not at them. He uses everyday language and does not disguise what he wants to say by using words that softens what he wants to say. He also understands the messiness of life and how before anyone should judge we should enter into their life’s experiences. When reading the Gospel it shows how Jesus related to others, to ‘the sinner’, to the ‘outcast’. So it is natural that he would seek to enter into the lives of those who are divorced and remarried outside the Church. It is messy, not clean cut. We are told not to judge for a reason. Many sins are overlooked by the pious, that could be just as serious, or more so than those who are living in marriage outside the church. Perhaps we should look into our own hearts before judging others.
As a Catholic, I understand at ever more profound levels what it means to belong to the Body of Christ. Imagine when we pray, in union with Jesus Christ, we are one with all, outside of space and time. It is in that space, outside of time, that we are in union with all. I do not think we should ever underestimate our role in the Church. The world has always been a rough, messy, cruel, going to hell in a hand basket kind of place, yet Christ Jesus came to us, loves us, and when we pray we are to open up our hearts to all.
Yes, the Church struggles, yet we are promised that the Gates of Hell will not prevail. I doubt that this Pope is seeking to destroy the Church. He wants to bring us, Christ Jesus, to lead us to understand that how we treat the poor, is how we treat Christ Jesus. If we as Christians would live that out, I doubt many of the troubles in the Church and in the world be the way they are. I would like to close with this quote from the Pope. Perhaps if all of us prayed over this, and sought to live it out in a more conscious way, we would become together in ways that are important and not waste time over arguing if this Pope is good or evil, or the anti-pope. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is trying to break open our hearts, to not be afraid like Christ Jesus was not afraid to feel the pain of others…..yes, even the pain of this Pope, who I believe does carry the heart of Christ within his own heart. Or perhaps it is Christ Heart that has one-ed itself with his.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
“Go out to others and share the good news that God, our Father,
walks at our side. He frees us from anonymity, from a life of
emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school
of encounter. He removes us from the fray of competition
and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace.
That peace which is born of accepting others, that peace
which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need
as our brothers and sisters.”—Pope Francis
