Pope Francis is gaining our trust by practising what he preaches
Holy See’s conversation with Vatican journalist about mercy shows he believes what he says, writes Liam Collins
EVERY so often the stories surface: a priest refuses to baptise a child because its parents haven’t gone to Mass, or a couple who have been living together can’t get married in the Catholic Church because they have been “living in sin”.
They may even be the exceptions rather than the rule, but these are the examples that, for good reason, make the headlines.
The priests behind them have studied theology; they can interpret the minutiae of canon law. They may even be well-meaning, or have become enthralled by their own expertise. The Catholic Church, like most organisations, enforces its rules.
But what about a Pope who believes that mercy, not rules, is at the heart of the Church of which he has become the titular head? Who believes that he himself needs forgiveness, a thought that often occurred to him as he heard confession?
“A priest needs to think of his own sins, to listen with tenderness, to pray to the Lord for a heart as merciful as his, and not to cast the first stone because he, too, is a sinner who needs to be forgiven,” Pope Francis has said in his first book as Pope, The Name of God is Mercy.
Published last year, it is a series of questions and answers between the Pontiff and Andrea Tornielli, an experienced Vatican journalist, and it shows the Pope as a man whose priority is humanity rather than doctrine.
“The conduct of the scholars of the law is often described in the words of the gospel: they represent the principal opposition to Jesus; they challenge him in the name of doctrine. This approach is repeated through the long history of the Church,” Pope Francis said.
“I would like to mention another conduct typical of the scholars of the law, and I will say that there is often a kind of hypocrisy in them, a formal adherence to the law that hides very deep wounds... there are men attached to the letter of the law but who neglect love, men who only know how to close doors and draw boundaries.”
The two men, the Pope and the journalist, met on a number of occasions to discuss the themes of mercy, sin and forgiveness in a conversational, rather than theological, way.
The author said in his introduction: “This book is the fruit of the conversations that began in his lodgings in St Martha’s House in the Vatican on a muggy afternoon last July, a few days after his return from a journey to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.
“We live in a society that encourages us to discard the habit of recognising and assuming our responsibilities: it is always others who make mistakes.
“It is always others who are immoral. It’s always someone else’s fault, never our own. And sometimes we even experience the return of a kind of clericalism, always intent on building borders, ‘regulating’ the lives of people through imposed prerequisites and prohibitions that make our daily lives, already difficult, even harder.”
It was against this background that the two of them discussed the quality of mercy.
As a parish priest in Argentina, the young Fr Jorge Bergoglio — the Pope’s birth name — already knew that it was not for him to judge.
“I remember a mother with young children, whose husband had left her,” he said.
“She did not have a steady job and only managed to find temporary work a couple of months out of the year. When there was no work, she had to prostitute herself to provide her children with food.
“She was humble. She came to the parish church and we tried to help her with our charity, Caritas. I remember one day she came with her children and asked for me. I went to her. She had come to thank me. I thought it was for the package of food that we had sent to her. ‘Did you receive it?’ I asked. ‘Yes, yes, thank you for that too. But I came here today to thank you because you never stopped calling me Senora’.
“Experience like this teaches you how important it is to welcome people delicately and not wound their dignity. For her, the fact that the parish priest continued to call her Senora was as — or perhaps even more — important than the help we gave her.”
Tornielli asked: “Why, in your opinion, is humanity so in need of mercy?”
Pope Francis replied: “Because humanity is deeply wounded. Either it does not know how to cure its wounds or it believes that it’s not possible to cure them.
“And it’s not just a question of social ills or people wounded by poverty, social exclusions, or one of the many slaveries of the third millennium... all things seem equal, all things appear the same. Humanity needs mercy and compassion.”
One of the results of this, said the Pope, is that people turn to fortune tellers and soothsayers as they “try to find salvation wherever they can”.
He added: “Mostly people are looking for someone to listen to them. Someone willing to grant them time, to listen to their dramas and difficulties. This is what I call the apostolate of the ear, and it is important.
“I feel compelled to say to confessors: talk, listen with patience and, above all, tell people that God loves them.”
Addressing the themes of respect, arrogance and corruption, Pope Francis recognised what many ordinary Irish Catholics already know, that those who appear to be the most devout are often the least capable of tolerance.
“We can’t be arrogant,” he said. “It reminds me of a story I heard from a person I used to know, a manager in Argentina. This man had a colleague who seemed to be very committed to the Christian life: he recited the rosary, he read spiritual writings and so on.
“One day the colleague confided, en passant, as if it were of no consequence, that he was having a relationship with his maid. He made it clear that he thought it was something entirely normal. He said that ‘these people,’ and by that he meant maids, were there ‘for that too’.
“My friend was shocked; his colleague was practically telling him that he believed in the existence of superior and inferior human beings, with the latter destined to be taken advantage of and used, like the maid.
“I was stunned by that example: despite all my friend’s objections, the colleague remained firm and didn’t budge an inch. And he continued to consider himself a good Christian because he prayed, he read his spiritual writings every day, and he went to Mass on Sunday.
“This is arrogance, and it is the opposite of the shattered heart mentioned by the Christian fathers.”
The Pope famously said on his first flight from Buenos Aires to Rome, when asked about homosexuals and the Church: “Who am I to judge?”
He told Tornielli: “On that occasion, I said this: ‘If a person is a gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?’
“I was paraphrasing by heart the catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalised.
“I am glad we are talking about homosexual people because before all else comes the individual person, in his wholeness and dignity. And people should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies.”
He also addressed the idea, often incorporated in the lives of successful Catholics, that once they go to Mass and confession, their behaviour as ordinary citizens is no concern to others.
“The corrupt man does not know humility, he does not consider himself in need of help, he leads a double life,” the Pope said.
“We don’t become corrupt people overnight. It is a long, slippery slope that cannot be identified simply as a series of sins. One may be a great sinner and never fall into corruption.
“The self-confidence he has built up is based on fraudulent behaviour. He spends his life taking opportunistic shortcuts at the cost of his own and others’ dignity. The corrupt man gets angry because his wallet is stolen and so he complains about the lack of safety on the streets, but then he is the one who cheats the State by evading taxes, or else he fires his employees every three months so he doesn’t have to hire them with a permanent contract, or else he has them work off the books. And then boasts to his friends about his cunning ways.
“He is the one who goes to Mass every Sunday but has no problem using his powerful position to demand kickbacks.”
His honeymoon as Pope is over but Francis continues to seek ways to deliver the message that the Church is not only for the devout or those who obey the rules, but also for those who may be great sinners but have a belief in forgiveness. “As a confessor, even I have found myself before a locked door,” he said. “I have always tried to find a crack, just a tiny opening, so I can pry open that door and grant forgiveness and mercy.”
Reviewing the book for The New Yorker magazine, writer James Carroll concluded: “The Church of which Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope was itself a locked door. As Francis he has, exactly, found a ‘tiny opening’. He is pushing and, to universal surprise, the door is beginning to swing open.”
‘The corrupt man goes to Mass but has no issue using his position to get kickbacks’ ‘A prostitute thanked me for calling her Senora. Dignity is as important to her as food’