“ANNUNTIO VOBIS gaudium
magnum: habemus papam.”
Again to the pealing of
bells reverberated March 13, from across St. Peter’s Square to the all the
corners of the world the age-old tidings of great joy: We have a pope!
A Jesuit pope, OMG!
So quick are the
end-of-world doomsayers to cry: ‘Prophesy fulfilled!”
By being a Jesuit, Jorge
Mario Cardinal Bergoglio now Pope Francis fits some “black pope” hearsay if not
heresy as the last in the line of Peter. This directly taken from the
derogatory moniker appended to the Jesuit superior general: “Black Pope” said
to have been derived from the order’s garb of black cassock in the past
centuries (they have since wore white ones), and the “storied power” of the
Jesuits within the Church. Most probably though from the fact that the superior
general of the Society of Jesus is elected for life. Just like the pope – now
reduced to presumption in the light of Benedict XVI’s resignation.
Rather than indulge – and
waste time – in conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios, I would rather seek
to know more about the persona of my novus
Pontifex Maximus. Even as I pray for him, for his blessed pontificate for
the good of Mother Church.
Lacking in personal
contact, so I shall resort to the next best way to know about him, indeed to
learn him. By his words. For as a man, so much more as a prince of the Church,
his word is his honor.
Thus, Cardinal Bergoglio –
at least some of his words – then from the web:
First on the secular front,
I readily find connection with.
On politics:
"Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with
vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die
for the common good."
Some totally alien, aye,
indeed, very strange, thought there given Philippine political praxis.
Some resonance in the
current Sabah situation we find in then-Cardinal Bergoglio’s Mass in April 2,
2012 on the 30th anniversary of the failed Argentine invasion of the
Falklands which they claimed as their Islas Malvinas: "We come to pray for
all who have fallen, sons of the homeland who went out to defend their mother,
the homeland, and to reclaim what is theirs, that is of the homeland, and it
was usurped."
The Sultanate of Sulu
readily finds some solace there.
In the light of the
scandals that surrounded the Roman curia, the governing body of the Church:
"I see it as a body that gives service, a body that helps me and serves
me. Sometimes negative news does come out, but it is often exaggerated and
manipulated to spread scandal.”
Leading to his take of
media: “Journalists sometimes risk becoming ill from coprophilia and thus
fomenting coprophagia: which is a sin that taints all men and women, that is,
the tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects."
For those who have no
inkling of what those strange terms meant, cocrophilia refers to obsessive
interest in excrement, especially the use of feces for sexual excitement; coprophagia
is the consumption of feces. That’s taking bullshit to the literal, aye,
gustatorial extreme.
We leave the muck there
and proceed to the realm of the ecclesial.
To priests: "Jesus
teaches us another way: Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and
interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word
in body as well as spirit."
Evangelization and social
reformation, I very well see there. Further highlighted thus: "We need to
avoid the spiritual sickness of a church that is wrapped up in its own world:
when a church becomes like this, it grows sick. It is true that going out on to
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 on to the
streets and a sick, withdrawn church, I would definitely choose the first
one."
And then some more, with
modern means:
"We also try to reach
out to people who are far away, via digital means, the web and brief messaging."
Of today's Catholicism:
"This Church of, come inside so we make decisions and announcements
between ourselves and those who don't come in, don't belong" he likened to
the Pharisees of Christ's time: "People who congratulate themselves while
condemning others." Remember Luke 18:9-14, the Parable of the Pharisee and
the Publican?
No parable now, but real
cases of pharisaic hypocrisy: "In our ecclesiastical region there are
priests who don't baptise the children of single mothers because they weren't
conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today's
hypocrites. Those who clericalise the church. Those who separate the people of
God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to
sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to
parish so that it's baptised!"
Bonfiring vanity thus:
"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."
His choice of papal name –
Francis, connected to the 13th century saint from Assisi known as
the very embodiment of humility – bespeaking of the then-Cardinal’s own
“littleness” – eschewing the archbishop’s palace for a small apartment, riding
clattering city buses, making his own meals, and accessibility to people from
all walks of life.
As he is reported to have reminded priests in one of his sermons
last year: Jesus bathed lepers and dined with prostitutes and taxmen.
His papal name also impacted from another Francis – Xavier, one of the 16th century founders of the Society of
Jesus to which he belonged, the religious order famously known for its
scholarship and outreach.
There, by his very name, we may already
be looking at the path of Francis’ Petrine ministry.
Gaude, populum Dei, habemus papam!
(Published in Punto! Central Luzon March 15, 2013)
