Pope’s turbulent four years

ticket to the world’s attention.”

Two of the Holy Father’s most provocative lines have in fact defined his papacy. The first captured the attention of the world, the second the Church.

“Who am I to judge?” Pope Francis asked rhetorically on the plane back from Brazil in 2013. He was speaking about a gay person who was trying live according to the Church’s teaching, but it was received the world over as the pope finally joining mainstream Protestants in running the white flag of surrender up the flagpole of the sexual revolution. That’s not what Pope Francis originally intended, but he seemed cool with it, as he has never really taken pains to correct the popular misconception. And popular it is! The who-am-I-to-judge pope has massive support from those who otherwise wish the Catholic Church ill, from Rolling Stone cover stories to favourable editorials from anti-Catholic organs like The New York Times and The Globe and Mail.

The other line, less famous but perhaps more far-reaching, was how Pope Francis characterized those cardinals and bishops who defended traditional Gospel teaching on marriage and divorce.

The pope himself had been looking for a little wiggle room, but didn’t get it at special meeting of bishops in 2015. He was not pleased and closed the meeting with the most scathing speech of his pontificate, denouncing his opponents for “a facile repetition of what is obvious or has already been said”; of “burying their heads in the sand”; of “indoctrinating” the Gospel “in dead stones to be hurled at others”; of hiding “behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families”; of giving into “conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints.”

The “stone throwing” speech still reverberates in the Church, creating divisions and making many Catholics who ordinarily are very loyal to the pope feel quite distant from him.

Pope Francis remains a fascinating story. He is non-judgmental when addressing the world on sexual matters, and extremely harsh in his judgments on other matters, from economics to immigration to climate change. Within the Church he champions open dialogue, while at the same time denouncing the motives and character of those who take a different line.

It’s been an adventurous four years. And the next surprise is only as far away as the next airplane ride — or tomorrow’s homily.