To have a pope and
a pope emeritus for the first time
in, well… centuries, invites particular comparisons between them. There has never been a press environment and
blog environment like what we have today, desperate to ‘scratch the itch’… to
indulge in the irresistible urge to compare and contrast… and even pick a
favorite. This attitude is, of course,
antithetical to who and what we are as Catholics. The pope, whoever he is, is but a man, with
his own gifts and his own limitations.
Modern popes are, by and large, elderly gentlemen who have had extensive
experiences as priests and bishops and leaders in different capacities in the
world-wide Church. In recent decades,
the popes have come from lands far and wide, but still originating in the
relatively homogeneous to a Western-European mold.
The press and blog narrative
I am hearing in many places is that Benedict is the old standard-bearer who
enjoyed the trappings of office and was not willing or able to shepherd the
reforms necessary to make the Church more ‘relevant’ to the needs of the modern
world. Francis is being hailed as a ‘breath
of fresh air’, as exemplified by his public acts of charity and humility, along
with the new energy that he is bringing to the office. Anyone who has been paying attention,
however, knows that there is more to this story than the myopic press narrative. These are both unbelievably humble men. These are both men of endless energy and zeal
for the Gospel. These are both men who
are, no doubt, faithful unto death to
the core teachings and beliefs of the Church.
There will be no women priests or wholesale alienation of the patrimony
of the Church under Benedict or Francis or their successors. The pope, no matter who he is, cannot turn the Church into something she is not. Meanwhile, each pope will live the Petrine ministry, day-by-day, each in his own unique way... this is an area where, perhaps, comparison is not only permitted, but fruitful, for each pope will emphasize through their own person and personality (created by God and elected by the Holy Spirit to the Petrine ministry) what it means to live and minster "as Peter" in a particular age. It is yet another sign of the incarnational nature of our Church. God places the grace and power of his divinity in the weak, earthen vessels of humanity, that his glory may be perfected in the world. Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia... where there is Peter, there is the Church.
In today’s
meditation in Francis Fernandez’s In
Conversation with God, he cited a writing of Georges Chevrot (1879-1958),
which better articulates what I am trying to communicate:
…we will not fall into
the all too easy temptation of setting one Pope against another, having
confidence only in those whose actions respond to our personal feelings. We are not among those who nostalgically look
back to a former Pope or look forward [to] one in the future who will
eventually dispense us from obeying the present one. Read the liturgical texts for the coronation
of Pontiffs and you will notice that nowhere is there a reference to a
conferral of powers proportionate to the dignity of the person elected by the conclave. Christ gives these powers directly to Peter’s
successor. Therefore in speaking of the
Roman Pontiff we exclude from our vocabulary any expressions derived from the parliamentary
assemblies or the polemics of newspapers; let it not be said that people not of
our faith should be ones who explain the prestige of the head of Christendom in
the world to us.
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