Reviewing Pope Francis’s pontificate and trying to assess it is an understandable goal, but since the Pope himself said that his priority was to trigger processes, I find it more interesting to follow that approach and try to identify the ones he set in motion. Some of these are even revolutionary, particularly in terms of language: he brought papal communication into the third millennium, the age of social media, a time in which communication is direct, where mediation still matters but much less than before. In this way, the traditional, rigid, doctrinal, measured, academic language was revolutionized; it became a language of proximity, often even conversational, conveyed through interviews that were not doctrinally vetted and yet were capable of establishing a direct connection between the Bishop of Rome and his audience, which in these cases extended beyond the Church. This language was also poetic, allowing it to speak to everyone, and not just to the faithful.
Straddling the line between revolution and reform is the exercise of the Petrine ministry, not “haughty,” distant, or removed from us anymore, but a ministry that has moved closer to us, carried out “in the midst of the flock,” without gold, braids, or red capes—the color of Roman emperors. This kind of ministry required a new language and a sense of closeness to make visible the “field hospital” Church, the Church that goes out into the world, which he spoke of from his earliest days. The reform of the papacy, within which the revolution in language is embedded, was perhaps the most successful reform of his pontificate, made tangible through his daily actions. I find it hard to imagine a return to the old-fashioned ways of exercising the Petrine ministry.
Alongside this concrete reform was his determination to carry out a major structural reform: to breathe life into a synodal Catholic Church. This profound transformation is not yet complete, but it is underway, and the recent rejection by the Italian synodal path of the final document drafted by the bishops shows just how deep this change is. Essentially, it means giving a role at all levels to the laity, both men and women, while reducing or overcoming clericalism, that system which grants ecclesial power exclusively to the ordained and thereby diminishes the influence of specific cultures under the homogenizing mantle of the Roman Curia.
This is also where the reform of the College of Cardinals takes on its full meaning, now an expression of territorial and cultural diversity that is no longer co-opted into Roman uniformity, but instead expands the Catholic spectrum through varied forms and expressions. In short, it is pluralism within the Church: a move beyond the clerical and curial system that opens the door to new theologies, visions, and cultures; the Catholic kaleidoscope in which polar tension allows for dialogue without demanding that conflicts or differences be resolved.
Francis began speaking about this in 2015, and today it is striking that he saw this synodality, this involvement of the laity in the governance and direction of the Church, as a hope meant to help change the world:
“Our gaze also extends to humanity. A synodal Church is like a banner raised among the nations in a world which, while calling for participation, solidarity, and transparency in the administration of public affairs, often hands over the fate of entire populations to the greedy hands of small groups of power. As a Church that ‘walks together’ with humanity, sharing in the struggles of history, we nurture the dream that the rediscovery of the inviolable dignity of peoples and the service-oriented role of authority may also help civil society to establish itself upon justice and fraternity, creating a more beautiful and more human world for the generations that will come after us.”
This discussion about the ecclesial form and the way the Petrine ministry is exercised is essential to bringing to life that “Church that moves forward” which Bergoglio spoke about throughout the years of his pontificate. The Church that moves forward, a plural Church, reaches out to people; it does not close in on itself, nor does it see itself as a judge above and beyond history, but rather stands with us, with other believers and non-believers, within history. Being in history means being in society, in societies, here among us, among the secularized, with whom it coexists, without feeling the need to impose itself as a perfect society or the sole bearer of truth. With Bergoglio, it has come to recognize the richness of this encounter. “It is important to acknowledge a mutual openness between these two horizons: believers are increasingly able to live their faith peacefully without imposing it, to live it as yeast in the dough of the world and in the environments in which they find themselves,” he said, “and non-believers or those who have drifted away from religious practice are not strangers to the search for truth, justice, and solidarity, and often, even without belonging to any religion, they carry within their hearts a deeper thirst, a search for meaning that leads them to question the mystery of life and to seek fundamental values for the common good.”
All of this inevitably leads us to the relationship with other faiths, a subject on which Bergoglio spoke with striking clarity in Singapore, during a meeting with young people: One of the things that has impressed me most about the young people here is your capacity for interfaith dialogue. This is very important because if you start arguing, ‘My religion is more important than yours…,’ or ‘Mine is the true one, yours is not true….,’ where does this lead? Somebody answer. [A young person answers, ‘Destruction.’ Editor’s Note] That is correct. All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine. But God is for everyone, and therefore, we are all God’s children. ‘But my God is more important than yours!’ Is this true? There is only one God, and religions are like languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian. Understood? Yet, interfaith dialogue among young people takes courage. The age of youth is the age of courage, but you can misuse this courage to do things that will not help you. Instead, you should have courage to move forward and to dialogue.”
We have reached the fulfilment of this innovative path, a path that, through the revolution in language and in the exercise of the Petrine ministry, the profound synodal reform, the renewed friendship with the secularized, and the collaboration with other believers, lays the foundation for the vision of fraternity expressed in “Fratelli tutti.” It is the culmination of the great vision of God’s pluralism, what Francis pointed to when speaking in Ur of the Chaldeans, in present-day Iraq, when he had the opportunity to visit the land of Abraham: “The otherness of God points us towards others, towards our brothers and sisters. Yet if we want to preserve fraternity, we must not lose sight of heaven. May we – the descendants of Abraham and the representatives of different religions – sense that, above all, we have this role: to help our brothers and sisters to raise their eyes and prayers to heaven. We all need this because we are not self-sufficient. Man is not omnipotent; we cannot make it on our own. If we exclude God, we end up worshiping the things of this earth. Worldly goods, which lead so many people to be unconcerned with God and others, are not the reason why we journey on earth. We raise our eyes to heaven in order to raise ourselves from the depths of our vanity; we serve God in order to be set free from enslavement to our egos, because God urges us to love. This is true religiosity: to worship God and to love our neighbor. In today’s world, which often forgets or presents distorted images of the Most High, believers are called to bear witness to his goodness, to show his paternity through our fraternity.”
Thus, with Bergoglio, the Church has journeyed further in its understanding of pluralism, following the path set by the Second Vatican Council and moving beyond it. This recognition of pluralism, however, is not limited to the Church alone—it is also evident in the Document on Human Fraternity, signed by Pope Francis and Ahmad al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University: “Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept.”
The safeguarding of human plurality, united in its diversity through fraternity, does not exhaust the duty to protect divine creation. With Laudato si’, Pope Francis widened the perspective beyond humanity, affirming that the care for, rather than exploitation of, creation is a responsibility entrusted by God to humanity. Thus, it is the universalist vision of Teilhard de Chardin that has entered St. Peter’s through Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
Cover photo: A woman walks in front of a fresco representing Pope Francis close to Ajaccio’s Cathedral, in Ajaccio, Corsica, on December 10, 2024, five days before the Pope’s visit to the French Mediterranean island. Pope Francis will travel to Ajaccio on December 15, 2024, the first visit by a Pope to Corsica, highly anticipated on the French Mediterranean island with a strong Catholic tradition. (Photo by Pascal Pochard-Casablanca / AFP)
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