John Nery sees the leader of the Catholic Church encouraging candid discussions which can appear contentious, downplaying the Church’s fixation on sexual morality and rebuilding the Church by emphasizing mercy and rejoicing ordinary life.
A look back at our December–January 2015 issue, where John Nery reflected on the late Pope Francis—whom he endearingly referred to as “Pope Frank” in the original cover title—a candid, kind, and uncommonly compassionate pontiff who leaves behind a singular legacy of empathy and service. Read the cover story below:
Waving to the crowds in Vatican City
This is an essay on a plain-speaking pope, but it begins in Greek. One solitary word of Greek, which Pope Francis used to great effect. Please bear with me.
Parresia entered Christian discourse through the example of St. Paul. It means bold or candid speech, but between friends. The New Testament scholar J. Paul Sampley writes: “In Paul’s time … the term’s “social context” was friendship, and parresia is the frank speech delivered by a friend, and its aim is the friend’s improvement…”
Fast forward two thousand years to October 2014, and Pope Francis’ rousing concluding speech at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. He is describing the candid exchange that marked the synod, noting the “moments of running fast, as if wanting to conquer time and reach the goal as soon as possible; other moments of fatigue, as if wanting to say ‘enough’; other moments of enthusiasm and ardor.” He lists the “tension and temptations” that marked some of the discussion, and then he confesses:
“Personally I would be very worried and saddened if it were not for these temptations and these animated discussions; this movement of the spirits, as St Ignatius called it … if all were in a state of agreement, or silent in a false and quietest peace. Instead, I have seen and I have heard–with joy and appreciation–speeches and interventions full of faith, of pastoral and doctrinal zeal, of wisdom, of frankness and courage: and of parresia.”
Full stop. Speaking to a hall full of bishops, he did not need to explain what the word, especially its theological import, meant. (Observers and journalists, however, went scrambling for a dictionary.) But that one word served to put the unusual candor of the discussions in the synod in the right Pauline perspective. “Many commentators, or people who talk, have imagined that they see a disputatious Church where one part is against the other,” he said; they did not realize that in fact, in the first synod called by Pope Francis, the bishops were friends speaking frankly with each other.
The Gift of Uncertainty
To be sure, not everyone is as comfortable coping with a temporary sense of disorientation as the new Pope. Conservative American bishops, in particular, have raised the alarm over what they say is a sense of drift, a creeping uncertainty, emerging in the Church in the wake of the Pope’s reforms. But his own spiritual experience proves that uncertainty can be a gift.
Pope Francis on the cover of Lifestyle Asia’s December-January 2015 Family Issue
“It is true that this trust in the unseen can cause us to feel disoriented: it is like being plunged into the deep and not knowing what we will find. I myself have frequently experienced this. Yet there is no greater freedom than that of allowing oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit, renouncing the attempt to plan and control everything to the last detail, and instead letting him enlighten, guide and direct us, leading us wherever he wills. The Holy Spirit knows well what is needed in every time and place. This is what it means to be mysteriously fruitful!”
“A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.”
Angelus, March 2013
Well before the synod, which Pope Francis launched by asking all the delegates to “speak clearly … You have to say everything that you feel with frankness,” he could already give a wink-nudge about his openness to uncertainty, his penchant for discussion. “So as an Archbishop of Buenos Aires, I had a meeting with the six auxiliary bishops every two weeks, and several times a year with the council of priests. They asked questions and we opened the floor for discussion. This greatly helped me to make the best decisions. But now I hear some people tell me: ‘Do not consult too much, and decide by yourself.'”
It is fair to say that he must regard the synods on the family (there’s another, bigger, one in 2015) as another Aparecida in the making. The 2007 conference of Latin American and Caribbean bishops, held in the Brazilian city (and the Marian shrine) of Aparecida, produced what is now regarded as a landmark Church document, especially for its teachings on popular piety. As chief editor of that concluding report, he was deeply moved by the process of consultation and discussion.
“Only the Spirit can stir diversity, plurality, multiplicity and at the same time make unity. Because when it’s us who decide to create diversity we create schisms and when it’s us who decide to create unity we create uniformity, leveling. At Aparecida we collaborated in this work of the Holy Spirit. And the document, if one reads it well, one sees that it has circular, harmonic thinking. The harmony is perceived not as passive, but creative, that urges creativity because it is of the Spirit.”
Treasure of Faith
Plain-speaking must itself be a form of creativity. Here are three examples (out of hundreds) of Pope Francis’ frank talk between friends.
There is a reason why we use the terms “father” and “mother” to refer to consecrated men and women, he suggested in a famous interview with fellow Jesuit Antonio Spadaro. The religious are meant to be fruitful (or, to use his word, generative). “And the church is Mother; the church is fruitful. It must be. You see, when I perceive negative behavior in the ministers of the church or in the consecrated men or women, the first thing that comes to mind is: ‘Here’s an unfruitful bachelor’ or ‘Here’s a spinster.’ They are neither fathers nor mothers, in the sense that they have not been able to give spiritual life. Instead, for example, when I read the life of the Salesian missionaries who went to Patagonia, I read a story of the fullness of life, of fruitfulness.”
“God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking His mercy.”
Evangelii Gaudium
Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican Mercy Tuason is received by His Holiness Pope Francis
“Let us never forget that authentic power is service.”
Homily, March 19, 2013
Pope Francis greets disabled people during the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City
“I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs, or anything else–God is in this person’s life. You can see, you must try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.”
Pope Francis, 2013
Pope Francis (right) and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI pray together in Castel Gandolfo
“I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
Evangelii Gaudium
There is a reason why he has also chosen to downplay the Church’s preoccupation with sexual morality; it buries the real treasure of the faith. In a revealing series of interviews with Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti, conducted when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he spoke about priorities. “I observe a degradation of the religious message in certain enlightened Christian elites due to a lack of living the faith.”
Asked for specifics, he replied: “I see it in the fact that these people don’t pay attention to the kerygma [the proclamation of the Gospel] but instead move straight to the catechism, preferably the section on morality. It’s enough to listen to some sermons, which ought to be kerygmatic, with an element of catechism… And within that mortality, although less so in sermons than on other occasions, people prefer to talk about sexual morality, about anything that has some link to sex… In doing this, we relegate the treasure of the living Christ, the treasure of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, the treasure of living a Christian life, which has so many other implications beyond the questions of a sexual nature, to being of secondary importance. We overlook an extremely rich catehism, with the mysteries of faith and the creed, and end up focusing on whether or not to march against the passing of a law that would allow the use of condoms.”
Greeting the crowds during his weekly public audience in Vatican City
“The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades.”
Angelus, February 16, 2014
Pope Francis takes time out for a selfie with a faithful at the end of his weekly public audience in Vatican City
“An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them.”
Pope Francis
Rebuilding the Church
And there is also a reason why he can call on others to help repair the Church; he is rebuilding the Holy See itself. In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”–a true road map to a papacy that emphasizes mercy and rejoices in ordinary life), he issues a forthright declaration.
“Since I am called to put into practice what I ask of others, I too must think about a conversion of the papacy. It is my duty, as the Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions which can help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of evangelization. Pope John Paul II asked for help in finding ‘a way of exercising the primary which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation.’ We have made little progress in this regard.”
That’s speaking frankly, between friends.
“I ask God to give us more politicians capable of sincere and effective dialogue aimed at healing the deepest roots–and not simply the appearances–of the evils in our world! Politics, though often denigrated, remains a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good.”
Evangelii Gadium
Pope Francis, “The People’s Pope”
“It’s best not to confuse optimism with hope. Optimism is a psychological attitude toward life. Hope goes further. It is an anchor that one hurls toward the future, it’s what lets you pull on the line and reach what you’re aiming for and head in the right direction. Hope is also theological: God is there, too.”
Pope Francis
Pope Francis prays at the birth place of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, who was the first Korean-born Catholic priest and is the patron saint of Korea at the Shrine of Solme Dangjin, South Korea
“If anyone feels offended by my words, I would respond that I speak them with affection and with the best of intensions, quite apart from any personal interest or political ideology. My words are not those of a foe or an opponent. I am interested only in helping those who are in thrall to an individualistic, indifferent and self-centered mentality to be freed from those unworthy chains and to attain a way of living and thinking, which is more humane, noble and fruitful, and which will bring dignity to their presense of this earth.”
Evangelii Gaudium
This article was originally published in our December-January 2015 issue under the title “Pope Frank.”
This article was written by John Nery, then-editor and columnist at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and then-editor in chief of inquirer.net.
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