FRANCIS A REVOLUTIONARY SIGNS OF HIS TIMES POPE

Pope Francis settled into the early months of his papacy the big gestures which surprised, and even shocked many to question about his papacy style of administration. He had clearly in his mind what name he would choose for a pope: St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words’. But it became clear that the gestures were not spontaneous or random responses to situations in which he happened to find himself. Immediately after being elected as pope, he set out clearly the kind of priest he wants to see in the Catholic Church. This was clearly lensed when he went to the prison to wash the feet of women and he addressed more than a thousand priests, bishops and cardinals in the annual Chrism Mass, which the sacramental oils for the year ahead are blessed. In the service priests each year renew their ordination promises. Pope spoke to them in what was to become his characteristic mixture of admonition and exhortation. He focused his homily on what it means to be anointed with oil, most particularly for those who are ordained, underlining Holy Thursday as the day Jesus shared his priesthood with the apostles.

A priest who doesn’t go out and live with the flock ‘misses out on the best of our people, on what can stir the depths of his priestly heart’, he said. ‘This is precisely the reason why some priests grow dissatisfied, lose heart and become in a sense collector of antiquities or novelties, instead of being shepherds living with a smell of the sheep’. This is what I am asking you’, he said with emphasis, ‘be shepherds with the smell of the sheep’. It was a metaphor- that priest should be above all a pastor who is close to his people, to which he would repeatedly return. The same criteria must be applied when the church is appointing new bishops, he later told an assembly of nuncios, the papal ambassadors based in national churches all around the world who produce the shortlists from Rome select bishops.

It was only the first of the succession of remarks directed at those whom he suspects regard themselves as a privileged clerical caste. ‘it hurts my heart when I see a priest with the latest model car’, he said on another occasion. He denounced clerical careerism as ‘a form of cancer’. He warned new bishops that they must avoid the ‘psychology of princes’ and told new cardinals not to let their red hat go to their head. They were not being promoted, honour, or decorated, rather they were being asked to serve with greater intensity, self-effacement and humility. He told religious orders not to allow redundant convents or monasteries to be turned into hotels but rather to use them as shelters for refugees. He told seminarians and novices that they must be consistent and authentic since the Gospel was best preached by example rather than words. Priests, months, and nuns should not be ‘bachelors and spinsters’ but full of ‘pastoral fruitfulness’.

There are prayers we are going to give thanks for creation, to invoke forgiveness and entreat for peace. Pope Francis taught us to look upwards. No one will fool himself that peace will break out, but bringing peace closer. Peace begins with friendship, Pope Francis kept on saying, and friendship begins with mutual respect, and respect begins with encounter. It was not just a model for one pilgrimage. It was a programe for a papacy.