Against a Political Shift, Francis Pushes for Change
pope had purposefully taken “little steps” to avoid engendering more resistance. There has also been widespread consensus on his failure to hold bishops accountable for clerical sex abuse.
But it is Francis’ prioritizing of social justice over culture-war issues such as abortion that has caused the sharpest internal divisions, with some conservative cardinals suggesting that he is a heretical autocrat leading the faithful toward confusion and schism.
Conservatives speak of a culture of fear inside the Vatican. They point to examples like Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, once the top doctrinal watchdog in the church, who was fired by the pope.
But the main rallying point for conservatives has been the doctrinal opposition to the pope’s exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, which seemed to open the door for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive holy communion.
A group of cardinals demanded a clarification from Francis, who has ignored them for years. Two of the cardinals have since died, but the group’s leader, the American cardinal Raymond Burke, has pushed on. Cardinal Burke recently sat on a panel in Rome about confusion in the church. As he noted that the pope can “fall either into heresy or into the dereliction of his primary duty,” conservatives cheered.
Francis seemed to have his critics in mind when he wrote in a major document last month that for a Christian, helping migrants was no less holy than opposing abortion. “Christianity is meant above all to be put into practice,” he wrote.
For now, Francis appears to be winning the battle with his critics, said Joshua J. McElwee, a correspondent with The National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper in the United States. “The longer he continues, the more likely these changes will be irrevocable,” he said.
But outside the church, Francis has often found himself on the losing side. Donald J. Trump, who Francis once suggested was “not Christian” for his desire to build a wall on the Mexican border, is in the White House. In Europe, authoritarian leaders — among them Andrzej Duda of Poland, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — style themselves as defenders of Christian Europe while barring the gates to refugees.
On the day that Mr. Trump was sworn in, the Spanish newspaper El País asked Francis i f he was worried about populism, xenophobia and hatred. The pontiff responded with a reference to Hitler. “Hitler didn’t steal power,” he said. “His people voted for him and then he destroyed his people. That is the risk.”
Some of Francis’ supporters believe that he is uniquely prepared to face this rising populist tide. “Francis’ election prepared the church for precisely the challenges posed by the rise of populism and nationalism,” said Austen Ivereigh, the author of “The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope.”
He said that Francis’ views were formed in Argentina by a Latin American strain of nationalism and populism focused more on standing up to multinational powers than a European nostalgia for a past of mythic purity. “He understands why people are angry at globalization,” Mr. Ivereigh said.
Francis seems comfortable with his new role as a lone voice in the populist wilderness. Last month, he gave a homily about prophets.
“Sometimes truth is not easy to listen to,” Francis said, noting that “prophets have always had to deal with being persecuted for speaking the truth.”