March 27th, 2014
What with his ministering to the poor, committing economic illiteracy, and chiding his flock for being “obsessed” with the freedom of the Church he oversees, Francis the First has become the pontifical version of the cool priest the kids all loved in the 1970s. You know, the one who rode a bike and played guitar and didn’t get caught up in all that dogmatic Latin jazz, brother. Like the handsome, conflicted padre on Ballykissangel. I’m halfway convinced that when Harvey Weinstein makes his Oscar-bait biopic about Franics it’s going to be called Lightworker: Tambourines in Rome.
I’m all for evangelization, I suppose. But the spectacle of so many non-Catholics and even anti-Catholics rallying to the side of Francis does make you wonder who’s rubbing off on whom. (Which, by total coincidence, was the Church’s problem in the ’70s, t00.)
The latest data point comes from Doyle McManus in the LA Times, who uncharitably suggests that President Obama might learn something from this Holy Father:
But one year after his elevation, Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is riding high in the polls. In a Pew Research survey this month, 85% of American Catholics said they have a favorable view of the pontiff, well above the 74% who admired his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Church leaders talk of a “Francis effect” that’s bringing fallen-away Roman Catholics back to the fold. “He has rebranded Catholicism,” wrote the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit writer. “Business schools could use him as a case study.”
There’s been a “Francis effect” alright, but it has nothing to do with church attendance. (About which I have seen exactly zero data to suggest that any such thing exists.) The effect is to have exposed certain people, both inside and outside of the Church. Like Father Reese, for instance.
Goodness knows, what the Catholic Church needs–as much as social engagement and robust supply-chain verticals–is a good re-branding. People have so many choices for religious practice these days, what with technology. And Father Reese would know, he’s a Jesuit. They’re so scholarly. Which is why he talks about “rebranding” what is, at least by priestly lights, the single, eternal truth of creation. And he does so, of course, with the implicit suggestion that those who came before Francis–you know, those awful “hardliners”–need to be apologized for and swept out of theological and public consciousness. Coca-Cola, KFC, the Word made Flesh–product is product.
Last week the Galley Wife was at Mass in the city. During the homily the priest took to gushing about Francis, as they’re wont to do these days. Catholics now have, he said, “for the first time in generations,” “a pope who is truly humble” and “connected.” Those other guys? The one that stood in the face of totalitarians for his people? The one that finished the work of a saint, warned about the dangers of consumerism, and identified the threat relativism posed to the modern world? Well, father didn’t mention them by name or anything, but the inference was pretty clear. A bunch of stuck-up jerks.
I’m tempted to suggest that every generation of Catholics gets the Pope it deserves, but that doesn’t seem quite right. One of the charming things about Catholicism is that you can’t reasonably hold the sheep responsible for the shepherds.
No, the original formulation of that line comes from Joseph de Maistre, who once quipped that “Every nation has the government it deserves.” And I suspect that’s closer to the truth here: The Catholic Church has the Pope it deserves.
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