MORE experienced commentators than me have already made an assessment of the impact of the Papal visit to the United States.<\/p>\n
I can only muse from my little, always untidy, office at Saint Bridget\u2019s. Looking back, I remember the Men\u2019s Night (September 29) when, at short notice, I strung together a few thoughts on the \u201cChurch under Pope Francis\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was there that I suggested this Pope was the first to take seriously the direction of Vatican II, for the Church to engage, encounter and dialogue with the world.<\/p>\n
Last weekend (September 26\/27), in a homily on the texts from Numbers, James and the Gospel of Mark, worded a theme around the ninth paragraph of Francis\u2019 speech to the combined Houses of the US Congress.<\/p>\n
That theme picked up on the Pope\u2019s text that religions, including Christian faith, had a potential for extremism and violence that excluded \u2018other\u2019 voices when, in reality, the presence of God is found within and without the boundaries of our Catholic faith.<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, Robert Stewart, when launching the project for parish re-settlement of Syrian refugees, made the interesting observation that Pope Francis is calling us to a new way of \u2018being Church\u2019.<\/p>\n
While much of this interpretation of the US visit may be true, the Pope was largely unscripted in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Still there were signs that Pope Francis wants to deal with issues differently. He came to Philadelphia to speak about family \u2013 avoiding explicitly focusing on abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage (the Pope mentioned it only once at a Bishop\u2019s meeting on Sunday morning).<\/p>\n
While I personally saw this as an omission, it became increasingly clear that Francis does not want to deal with these contemporary issues in the strident tone with which we have approached them in the past.<\/p>\n
In fact, this more obscure approach indicates that he does not want the walls of the \u2018culture wars\u2019 to be hoisted, hoping instead for benefits from a more engaging approach without, I should add, compromising or capitulation on these key issues.<\/p>\n
From a commitment to holding both clergy and bishops responsible for sexual abuse in the church, to an acknowledgement that marriage has transformed, the Pope is redefining the emphasis of the Church.<\/p>\n
The emphasis is not about changing doctrine \u2013 it is a direct acknowledgement that the church lives in a contemporary, modern society, that is changing all around it.<\/p>\n
His remarks on Saturday (Sept 26) and Sunday reveal a Pope who wants his papacy to be about actions, not attitude.<\/p>\n
Telling the Bishops, \u201cChristians are not immune to the changes of our times\u201d highlights what Francis says is \u201cthe concrete world with problems and possibilities\u2026where we must live.\u201d<\/p>\n
This reference to the concrete world of people is a fresh emphasis. If shone through the \u2018off the cuff\u2019 remarks in Philadelphia that all but replaced the prepared text.<\/p>\n
Avoiding the language of confrontation in favour of more direct talk with the men and women of these times might prove promising.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the tone of the language is different, avoiding hyperbole and offering hope to people at odds with the Church.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis believes that love is moving us forward. But it is still early days and we Christians can only support the Pope in an ambitious task that seeks to avoid the confrontation of the past in favor of a new direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MORE experienced commentators than me have already made an assessment of the impact of the Papal visit to the United States. I can only muse from my little, always untidy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastoral-messages","tag-pope"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1280,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}