The Pope’s welcome and welcoming outlook

The recent interview with Pope Francis appearing jointly in 16 Jesuit publications around the world and  headlined in major newspapers has ignited significant discussion. With the Pope’s outstretched hand to gays and a less judgmental posturing on issues like contraception and abortion, it was important to read more thoroughly his whole 12,000 word interview in English from the US-based Jesuit magazine, America.

Many newspapers cherry-picked the “sound bites” and didn’t provide context probably due to its length. In his first six months, the Pope has uttered one-line statements about gays that were both startling and refreshing, a marked departure from his predecessors.

In a statement a month ago, which also gained headlines, he was quoted as saying, “If a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am not one to judge.” This Pope seemed reluctant to be reflexive on gays.

The interview, ranging from doctrine, governance, church history, mysticism, arts and creativity to what the future holds for the church, were well thought of from a disciplined Jesuit background and having been an on-the-ground missionary. He eschewed theological discussion and instead used his growing-up years, loving parents, a cherished grandmother and his life experience as additional touchstones to his own conduct. The topics on gays and same sex-unions are broached only midway through the interview.

When asked in the beginning, who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio (the Pope’s real name), he answered, “…I am a sinner.”  It was a leveling statement, coming from a Church culture which always treated the Pope’s words as infallible, as ex cathedra.   

The Pope talked about his Jesuit education favoring the Ignatian method of “discerning” what God really wants of his faithful. He uses “discern” or “discernment” 23 times in this interview. He further adds that his Society of Jesus, (he is the first Jesuit Pope) is an institution “…fundamentally in tension.”

This constant discerning plus the doubt of “tension” make, he says, for a more humbled church view that recognizes that nothing is absolutely certain. He believes the missionary ethic in Jesuit teachings prods a church “to find new roads, to be able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend mass, those who have quit or are indifferent. The ones who quit sometimes do it for reasons that, if properly understood and assessed, can lead to a return. But that takes audacity and courage.”

The Pope has a vision of a pro-active, always on the outreach, and inclusive church rather than that for a selected few. It will not be smug, or prescriptive or judgmental.  His church will engage in discussions on the vagaries of the modern world.

The interviewer, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., segues the conversation to gays and same-sex relations and those whose lives don’t fit into orthodox church teachings. He recounted being asked if he approved of homosexuality and his reply was another question: “When God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?  We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation.”

The Pope’s reply is a clear example of deep pondering, and the discernment to him was, “what would God say about homosexuality?” Not what the mortal bishops would say, since we know their ready condemnation. And since the Pope, who in the past months has washed the feet of prisoners, fed refugees, and mixed with young people, believes that God is inclusive, then homosexuals cannot be rejected or condemned. He’s a far cry from his predecessor, the once Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who before and during his papal reign had issued declarations that being gay was “evil” and a “disordered sexual inclination… essentially self-indulgent.” 

Having been prodded, the Pope adds righteousness to his argument. He brings up a hypothetical case of a woman who had an abortion, a failed marriage, later remarries and is now happy with her children. If the woman felt a strong need to find peace, to confess her sad past, to be welcomed in her Christian community, and get on with her life, would she be inclined, he asks, to do so with a Church that has condemned her?

The Pope is now in top form. He’s heard gay marriage, abortion and contraception much too often. He knows they are hot button issues but he also has a different agenda. He says he may be the “son of the church” and therefore must address these issues but, stepping on the brakes, he says forcefully “…it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”

Instead he makes this declaration:

“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The Church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.” He adds that dogma, when imposed, goes against his belief that the Church must not forget its “missionary style (which) focuses on the necessary things: this is also what (moral teachings) fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn…”   

Finding a new balance

In a warning tone the Pope says, “We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.”

The Pope becomes a stern teacher wondering out loud how his priests have been preaching. He reminds them that all sermons must begin with the “…proclamation of salvation,” “…the saving love of God…”  rather than “…moral and religious imperatives…”  which he feels have prevailed instead.

He wonders if homilies delivered by priests today are meeting people’s needs, if priests “recognize the heart of their community… and be able to see where the desire for God is lively and ardent.”

The Pope leaves the subject and proceeds to another controversial issue, that of the role of women in the Church. 

His insights include a Church that “cannot be herself without the woman and her role,  “…that they are “essential for the church…” citing the Virgin Mary as “… more important than the bishops.” His stern words are not patronizing and certainly no bromide to bishops with exclusive male dominant views.

As his interview comes to a close, the Pope alternates between mystical expansive thoughts verging on the poetic, and a renewed warning of an inflexible Church. He instructs the reader to find and encounter God everywhere following St. Ignatius’ “spiritual senses.” 

Delving into the lyrical, the Pope believes “God is found in the gentle breeze perceived by Elijah,” “…like the almond flower of Sicily, which always blooms first,” and “…encountered walking, along the path.” He notes God will be a surprise so one “…must discern the encounter. Discernment is essential.”

His thoughts lead to a dictum, that those Christians who stick to the teachings that are “clear and safe” will find nothing. In clear reference to the Church’s obstinacy on today’s issues, he warns yet again that if the Church rests only on “doctrinal security,” with a “static inward-directed view of things” then the Church practices “…an ideology among other ideologies.”  

The Pope is cognizant of how consciousness and self-understanding changes with time.

He recalls when the world accepted slavery or the death penalty and the Church had “rules and precepts that were once effective, but now they have lost value or meaning.” Emphatically, he states that Church teachings as a static monolith, without taking in new understandings, are wrong. 

Challenge to Philippine clergy

The final blow was unwavering and clear. The Church, he says, has experienced brilliance in thought and “…times of decline in its ability to think.” Much as the striving of human beings can lead to mistakes, it must always continue, striving “…for genius and not for decadence.”

The reactions from Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma and the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) have been tepid in agreement. They said the Pope’s remarks are “…not in opposition to the existing doctrines of the Church.” Palma added that “Pope Francis is telling us to be compassionate but it doesn’t mean that the Church will change its teachings,” he said. “Do not expect that to happen.”

Unfortunately, the Philippine clergy has not studied the interview more thoroughly. 

The Pope is not just calling on us to be compassionate to those who’ve been marginalized and condemned by the Philippine Church. The Pope is very clear that the way to handle these burning issues is to understand it, contextualize it with an inclusive faith and from that interaction, NEW thinking and new relevant teachings may be gathered. 

This interview was no flash in the pan. The Pope is laying the groundwork for some very significant shifts to make the Church retain and increase its faithful and to be relevant in today’s world.

The Philippine Church’s opposition to gays and gay unions has been at loggerheads with public opinion; a recent Pew Research Center survey shows 73% of adult Filipinos agree that “homosexuality should be accepted by society.”

The Church too has been at loggerheads with the government over contraception and the recent government’s support of same-sex marriage. In light of their seeming intransigence, the Philippine Catholic Church could assume a posture that may result in being at loggerheads with the Vatican too. – Rappler.com

 

John L. Silva is Executive Director of the Ortigas Foundation Library.