Better as a voice than a governor
Pope Francis is completely opposed to that kind of world, and he is right about all that.
Smiling, avuncular and roughly treated
Newsrooms have made lots of hay with Pope Francis’s smiling image and avuncular manner as well, not to mention his frequently unscripted remarks. He has also come in for some rough treatment from conservative Catholics, much of it undeserved, especially for things he never actually said. Much, but not all of it.
Like, in both cases, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” The last five words are possibly the words by which folks know him best — which is to say most folks know him hardly at all, because he did not mean what many took him to mean.
The ample quote from which reporters and editors pulled those five words would take up several inches of column space. Most of the words were not about the Church’s position on homosexuality at all, though most of the coverage touted a coming revolution in Church teaching on human nature and sexuality — a hope Francis has not exactly fulfilled in the years since, reaffirming the teaching and even taking on “gender ideology.”
The pope’s words were spoken in answer to a question about a potential security problem. A fellow appointed to a sensitive position within one of the Vatican’s powerful financial institutions, Msgr. Battista Ricca, had reportedly tried to get his particular friends favorable treatment and even an embassy gig, and, when he was stationed in Uruguay, became known for frequenting gay cruising areas of the city.
The reporter who put the question to Pope Francis framed the issue in terms of a “gay lobby” that had apparently made significant inroads inside the halls of Vatican power. The problem with Ricca, in short, was that his behavior was dangerous because enemies can exploit it.
“When we confess our sins and we truly say, ‘I have sinned in this,’,” Francis also said in answer to the reporter’s question, “the Lord forgets.” So, he continued, “we have no right not to forget, because otherwise we would run the risk of the Lord not forgetting our sins.”
“Many times, I think of Saint Peter,” he added. “He committed one of the worst sins — that is, he denied Christ — and even with this sin they made him Pope.”
Pope Francis wasn’t wrong in what he said, but he did give the impression that he missed the point. he spoke about the man’s spiritual condition, when the real question was about misbehavior that could harm the church. In fairness, most folks covering the business missed it, too.
A global head
That, in very short form, is who Francis is. But does he matter, other than as a moral voice for those who care to listen to him?
Yes, as head of the Catholic Church. The church is an important element in every society where she is present, and the Church is present pretty much everywhere. Francis is the chief governor of a global society with more than a billion members.
The church frequently plays an outsized role in healthcare, education, development, and social services. It does in America, and does so even more in countries of the developing world. It often also plays an outsize role in politics or at least certain moral debates, as it also does in America. And the authorities in each country take their direction (for the most part) from the pope.
Everyone has skin in the game when it comes to the church, whether you know it or not, and regardless of whether you like it.
There is one specific area of governance — a crucially important one — in which the pope has come in for much deserved criticism. He has been worse than merely spotty on the crisis of abuse and coverup in the Church — abuse of minors and vulnerable adults — which observers across the spectrum of opinion in the church recognize as a general crisis of clerical and hierarchical leadership culture.
Francis has given the church paper reforms in these regards, for which he has received praise. He has not implemented or applied his reform laws consistently. The effect of that failure has been to exacerbate the crisis of trust among the faithful, whose faith in the church’s ability and even willingness to deliver justice is badly eroded. These may be counted as pastoral failures, but they are certainly failures of governance.