Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, defies easy
categorization. Neither liberals nor conservatives quite know what
they are getting.
The left has immediately pounced on him for his reported
opposition to gay adoption, gay marriage, abortion, and euthanasia,
even as they approve of his name, which they interpret as a sign
that he is oriented towards “Social Justice” and eschews
“pomp.”
Meanwhile, traditionalists, while praising his humility and
happy to see his past pro-life, pro-marriage statements, aren’t
uniformly thrilled either, with some seeing him as an elliptical
Jesuit who will arrest the Church’s orthodox trajectory and
liturgical tightening under Benedict XVI.
It has been reported that Bergoglio came in second at the last
conclave, suggesting that he appealed to those who found Joseph
Ratzinger too retrograde (though it has been reported that
Bergoglio threw his support behind Benedict). Bergoglio apparently
emerged from this one as a fusionist candidate between the two
camps in a field without frontrunners.
Still, a 76-year-old “slow-moving” prelate “with one lung,” as a
reporter for Atlantic Monthly described him, is an
enigmatic choice, particularly since Benedict resigned to make way
for a pope with more “vigor” and “stamina.” The choice may raise
more questions than answers about Benedict’s resignation.
At one time, the Jesuits would have hailed the first Jesuit pope
as a crowning moment for an order founded out of papal zeal. They
would have quoted St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier on
the need for a strong papacy. Instead, they seemed pleased that
Bergoglio named himself after a Franciscan. Like the secular media,
the modern Jesuits see St. Francis of Assisi as the patron saint of
community organizing, even though by today’s standards his actual
views would be regarded as militantly orthodox and he would have
seen the conflation of the corporal works of mercy with specific
left-wing political programs as mystifying.
Pope Francis makes history as the first pope from Latin America,
where the faith is strong in numbers if receding. But perhaps more
remarkable is that he is a Jesuit: Who would have thought a
conclave, ostensibly searching for a reformer, would pluck him from
one of the most troubled orders in the Church?
Some liberal Jesuits have apparently criticized Bergoglio, which
is a good sign. But that may not mean much, since the order has
grown so radical that even centrists within the order receive flak.
Informed reports on where he stands on the theological spectrum
within the order will likely appear in the next few days and fill
out the picture.
If he is an orthodox reformer in the mold of St. Francis of
Assisi and a missionary in the spirit of St. Francis Xavier, he
will need to start close to home. The Jesuits have grown so worldly
and heterodox that if St. Ignatius of Loyola were alive today he
wouldn’t even be ordained into it. The Jesuit system of colleges
and universities has gone from defending the faith to defaming
it.
The focus on curial corruption seems to have deflected attention
from this larger disease of bad theology, liturgy, education, and
discipline, of which corruption and chaos at the Vatican are mere
symptoms. Benedict took a stab at healing it, but the job remains
largely undone.
One suspects the Catholic left is breathing a sigh of relief
that his successor may have even less stomach for that task. On the
finer theological and liturgical points, where the most
consequential struggles within the Church are fought, Pope Francis
is probably seen as an improvement over Benedict. A few
spirit-of-Vatican II types have identified what they consider
heartening quotes from past interviews, such as, “One does not
remain faithful, like the traditionalists or fundamentalists, to
the letter,” and, “It is true that going out onto the street
implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to any
ordinary man or woman. But if the Church stays wrapped up in
itself, it will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded
Church that goes out onto the streets and a sick withdrawn Church,
I would definitely choose the first one.”
The choice may prove even trickier than that, as the Church is
both wounded and withdrawn and cries out for a St. Francis of
Assisi and St. Francis Xavier.
Photo: UPI
