KEY MOMENTS IN FRANCIS’ BANNER FIRST YEAR
From his simple sound bites to his breaking of Vatican rules, Pope Francis has made being Catholic cool in his fi rst year. He might not like his superstar status, but he certainly knows how to work a crowd and he has endeared himself to the public for looking out for the poor and radically shifting the church’s focus to mercy rather than moralizing. The anniversary of Francis’ papacy was Thursday. Here’s a look at some key moments in Francis’ fi rst year that give insight to what the future may hold for the Catholic Church.
Defying convention
Francis believes the church has too many “small- minded” rules and hasn’t been shy about breaking them. Just two weeks after being elected, he washed the feet of a woman and a Muslim during a Holy Thursday ceremony re- enacting Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet. Vatican rules state it should be performed on men only. Francis has declared at least two saints without going through the Vatican’s protocol, not to mention his decision to shun the papal apartments for the Vatican hotel.
‘ Who am I to judge?’
Francis’ fl outing of rules has extended to security: He ditched the Popemobile for his fi rst foreign trip to Brazil, and was swarmed by crowds in Rio de Janeiro when his motorcade took a wrong turn. The Rio trip was also a watershed because he uttered the now- famous words “Who am I to judge” about gays on the fl ight home. It set the stage for a radical shift in tone about church teaching on homosexuality and opened the debate on whether the church could endorse civil unions . Traditionalist and some conservative Catholics have ranted about the Pope’s actions, saying it confuses the faithful and undermines church teaching.
A Jesuit Franciscan or a Franciscan Jesuit?
If there ever was an indication the Jesuit from Argentina would be a very diff erent kind of pope, it was his decision to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th- century friar who gave up his wealth to minister to the poor. The “slum pope,” who is the fi rst pontiff to name himself Francis, has made cold- calls to the sick, elderly and unemployed, and took to heart the saint’s call to “rebuild my church” through a process of radical reforms of the Vatican bureaucracy. But he is still a Jesuit, with the Society of Jesus’ trademark missionary zeal and collaborative but authoritarian style of governance.
Two popes
When Pope Benedict XVI abdicated, he insisted he would remain “hidden from the world” in prayer. But Francis has slowly coaxed him out of retirement and given him an increasingly public role in the church . With Benedict increasingly back in the spotlight, comparisons to his more crowd- pleasing successor will likely come to the fore, for better or worse.