Pope Francis: Transforming the Catholic Church

By The Associated Press

Pope Francis has started a revolution in the Roman Catholic church that has
charmed millions. But the enthusiasm isn’t shared across the board. Traditionalist
Catholics greeted Francis’ election with concern, and their fears are
being realized. Associated Press journalists and photographers chronicle the
pontiff’s journey as he goes about reforming Vatican bureaucracy using his
personal history as a model.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AP Editions
• Release date: Mar 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781633530980

Book preview

Overview

Pope Francis, the first non-European pope in over 1,000 years, has captured the world’s attention since his 2013 election as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

His emphasis on compassion over hot-button social issues opened a new debate on how the church should minister to divorced Catholics and gays and lesbians - and sparked resistance within the church.

He has focused the spotlight on Catholic social justice teaching on poverty, humane treatment of prisoners and ending conflicts worldwide, playing a critical role in the renewal of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations.

Follow the journey of this pivotal figure in the future of the Catholic Church through the renowned reporting and analysis of The Associated Press.

Introduction

A New Church

July 31, 2013

By Nicole Winfield

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Pope Francis holds his skull-cap as he leaves at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican. The rain hasn't stopped Pope Francis. The 76-year-old pontiff, who lost part of a lung during his youth to an infection, got soaked as he braved a brief spring shower to kiss babies and greet crowds at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, May 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The Francis Revolution is underway. Not everyone is pleased.

Four months into his papacy, Francis has called on young Catholics in the trenches to take up spiritual arms to shake up a dusty, doctrinaire church that is losing faithful and relevance. He has said women must have a greater role — not as priests, but a place in the church that recognizes that Mary is more important than any of the apostles. And he has turned the Vatican upside down, quite possibly knocking the wind out of a poisonously homophobic culture by merely uttering the word gay and saying: so what?

In between, he has charmed millions of faithful and the mainstream news media, drawing the second-largest crowd ever to a papal Mass. That should provide some insurance as he goes about doing what he was elected to do: reform not just the dysfunctional Vatican bureaucracy but the church itself, using his own persona and personal history as a model.

He is restoring credibility to Catholicism, said church historian Alberto Melloni.

Such enthusiasm isn't shared across the board.

Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, had coddled traditionalist Catholics attached to the old Latin Mass and opposed to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. That group greeted Francis' election with concern — and now is watching its worst fears come true. Francis has spoken out both publicly and privately against such restoratist groups, which he accuses of being navel-gazing retrogrades out of touch with the evangelizing mission of the church in the 21st century.

His recent decision to forbid priests of a religious order from celebrating the old Latin Mass without explicit authorization seemed to be abrogating one of the big initiatives of Benedict's papacy, a 2007 decree allowing broader use of the pre-Vatican II Latin liturgy for all who want it. The Vatican denied he was contradicting Benedict, but these traditional Catholics see in Francis' words and deeds a threat. They are in something of a retreat.

Be smart. There will be time in the future for people to sort what Vatican II means and what it doesn't mean, the Rev. John Zuhlsdorf warned his traditionalist readers in a recent blog post. But mark my words: If you gripe about Vatican II right now, in this present environment, you could lose what you have attained.

Even more mainstream conservative Catholics aren't thrilled with Francis.

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said right-wing Catholics generally have not been really happy with Francis.

To be sure, Francis has not changed anything about church teaching. Nothing he has said or done is contrary to doctrine; everything he has said and done champions the Christian concepts of loving the sinner but not the sin and having a church that is compassionate, welcoming and merciful.

But tone and priorities can themselves constitute change, especially when considering issues that aren't being emphasized, such as church doctrine on abortion, gay marriage and other issues frequently referenced by Benedict and Pope John Paul II.

The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, used the word gay for perhaps the first time in its 150-year history on Wednesday (July 31, 2013), in an article marveling at the change Francis has brought.

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Pope Benedict XVI, right, embraces Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the inauguration ceremony of the V Conference of Latin American and the Caribbean Bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, May 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

In just a few words, the novelty has been expressed clearly and without threatening the church's tradition, the newspaper said about Francis' comments on gays and women. You can change everything without changing the basic rules, those on which Catholic tradition are based.

The biggest headline came in Francis' inflight news conference on the way home from Brazil this week, when he was asked about a trusted monsignor who reportedly once had a gay lover.

Who am I to judge? he asked, when it comes to the sexual orientation of priests, as long as they are searching for God and have good will.

Under normal circumstances, given the sexual morality at play in the Catholic Church, outing someone as actively gay is a death knell for career advancement. Vatican officials considering high-profile appointments often weigh whether someone is ricattabile — blackmailable.

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Pope Francis answers reporters’ questions during a news conference aboard the papal flight on the journey back from Brazil. Pope Francis reached out to gays saying he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten, July 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Zennaro, Pool)

But Francis said he investigated the allegations himself and found nothing to back them up. And that regardless, if someone is gay and repents, God not only forgives but forgets. Francis said everyone else should too. By calling out the blackmail for what it is, Francis may well have clipped the wings of an ugly but common practice at the Vatican.

Francis also made headlines with his call for the church to develop a new theology of women's role, saying it's not enough to have altar girls or a woman heading a Vatican department given the critical role that women have in helping the church grow.

While those comments topped the news from the 82-minute news conference, he revealed plenty of other insights that reinforce the idea that a very different papacy is underway.

Annulments: He said the church's judicial system of annulling marriages must be looked at again because church tribunals simply aren't up to the task. That could be welcome news to many Catholics who often have to wait years for an annulment, the process by which the church determines that a marriage effectively never took place.

Divorce and remarriage: He suggested an opening in church teaching which forbids a divorced and remarried Catholic from taking communion unless they get an annulment, saying: This is a time for mercy.

Church governance: He said his decision to appoint eight cardinals to advise him was based on explicit requests from cardinals at the conclave that elected him who wanted outsiders — not Vatican officials — governing the church. Francis obliged, essentially creating a parallel government for the church alongside the Vatican bureaucracy: a pope and a cabinet of cardinals representing the church in each of the continents.

And then there was Rio.

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Pope Francis waves from his Popemobile, Brazil, July 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Enric Marti)

From the moment he touched down, it was clear change was afoot. No armored Popemobile, just a simple Fiat sedan — one that got swarmed by adoring fans when it got lost and stuck in traffic. Rather than recoil in fear, Francis rolled down his window. Given that popes until recently were carried around on a chair to keep them above the fray, that gesture alone was revolutionary.

He told 35,000 pilgrims from his native Argentina to make a mess in their dioceses, shake things up and go out into the streets to spread their faith, even at the expense of confrontation with their bishops. He led by example, diving into the crowds in one of Rio's most violent slums. Either you do the trip as it needs to be done, or you don't do it at all, he told Brazil's TV Globo. He said he simply couldn't have visited Rio closed up in a glass box.

1

Argentina Years

The Young Pope

March 13, 2013

By Nicole Winfield

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This early 1950's picture released by journalist Sergio Rubin, shows Jorge Mario Bergoglio, right, posing with unidentified schoolmates of a preparatory school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cardinal Bergoglio, who took the name of Pope Francis, was elected the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, March 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Sergio Rubin, ho)

From the end of the earth, the Catholic Church found a surprising new leader Wednesday (March 13, 2013), a pioneer pope from Argentina who took the name Francis, a pastor rather than a manager to resurrect a church and faith in crisis. He is the first pontiff from the New World and the first non-European since the Middle Ages. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires who has spent nearly his entire career in Argentina, was a fast and fitting choice for the most unpredictable papal succession — start to finish — in at least six centuries.

He is the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first named Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, the humble friar who dedicated his life to helping the poor. The last non-European pope was Syria's Gregory III from 731-41.

You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome, the new pontiff said as he waved shyly to the tens of thousands who braved a cold rain in St. Peter's Square. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth, but here we are. Thank you for the welcome.

The 76-year-old Bergoglio, said to have finished second when Pope Benedict XVI was elected in 2005, was chosen on just the fifth ballot to replace the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. In the past century, only Benedict, John Paul I in 1978 and Pius XII in 1939 were faster.

Francis' election elated Latin Americans, who number 40 percent of the world's Catholics but have long been underrepresented in the church leadership. On Wednesday, drivers honked their horns in the streets of Buenos Aires and television announcers screamed with elation at the news.

It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait, said Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar at the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico. Everyone from Canada down to Patagonia is going to feel blessed.

The new pontiff brings a common touch. The son of middle-class Italian immigrants, he denied himself