Pope Francis (Pastor of Mercy) (7 page)
The large processional cross rising into view from the balcony signaled to the crowd below the imminent greeting by the new pope, introduced first by Cardinal Tauran as ‘Francis.’ Jorge Bergoglio, the man who stepped out on the loggia from behind that cross, was not exactly who they had been expecting, and neither were his actions. He was dressed in a simple white cassock and white zucchetto, without the beautiful and elaborate stole and red cape worn by his predecessors at their first address. It almost seemed he didn’t know what to do with the sustained cheering that awaited him. He gave one modest wave and then stood motionless as he gazed out stunned onto the lighted St. Peter’s Square to the huge crowd that had gathered there after dusk for this very purpose.
He finally addressed the crowds, “Brothers and sisters, good evening! You know that it was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one... but here we are... I thank you for your welcome. The diocesan community of Rome now has its Bishop. Thank you!” The new Holy Father’s Argentine friends would surely catch the reference to their homeland as the ‘End of the World,’ stretching over 2,300 miles from the mountainous Bolivian border southward to the Terra del Fuego, separated from Antarctica by the Drake Passage.
The preferred title Pope Francis chose for himself then and thereafter was ‘Bishop.’ A ‘pope,’ which means ‘father,’ is father to the universal Church, and has jurisdiction over the Church because he is the successor of the Apostle Peter. Christ gave the keys of the Kingdom to Peter in Matthew 16:18: “You are Peter [which means Rock], and upon this rock I will build my church....” As Providence would have it, Peter became head of the local church at Rome, the capital of the empire that engulfed the Mediterranean Sea, and the lands that surrounded it: the civilized western world.
There are two reasons that Pope Francis prefers to refer to himself as a bishop. First, wanting always to promote what he calls a “culture of encounter” through closeness to the people, he sees his relationship as bishop of the diocesan community of Rome as modeling the relationship that should take place between the clergy around the world and their congregations. While a pope is a world leader, governing millions of people he cannot meet in person, a bishop gets to know many people in his diocese and the people have the opportunity to get to know the bishop, even often developing a relationship with him. As pope, Francis' relationship with the faithful of Rome is an important example for clergy to be pastors who, as he says, should be “shepherds living with the smell of their sheep” and leaders who foster the spiritual communion and fraternity of the local church.
Pope Francis' words are reminiscent of the words said at Mass, “Remember, Lord, your Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity, together with [Francis] our Pope and [N.] our Bishop and all the clergy” (from Eucharistic Prayer II as translated by ICEL). Francis, Bishop of Rome, continues in his first address, “And now, we take up this journey: Bishop and People. This journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches. A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among us.”
The second reason for preferring to be called a bishop is ecumenical. Pope Francis, as a former ordinary for Eastern rite Catholics in Argentina that were in communion with Rome, also has to connect with those Eastern Christians that were separated from Rome in 1054, a time of the first great division in Christianity. The split happened over a crisis being handled in an uncharitable manner and ended with bishops excommunicating each other. While Catholics and Eastern Christians share a great deal in their beliefs, one difference is the Eastern belief in the collegiality of the bishops in such a way that the Apostle Peter was first among equals.
In contrast, Catholics believe in the primacy of the pope with universal jurisdiction. Vatican II, however, affirmed that the collegiality of bishops and the primacy of the pope are compatible, when properly understood. Father Spadaro recalls in his interview with the Pope, “Pope Francis spoke about ‘the path of collegiality’ as the road that can lead the church to ‘grow in harmony with the service of primacy.’ So I ask: ‘How can we reconcile in harmony Petrine primacy and collegiality? Which roads are feasible also from an ecumenical perspective?’” The Pope responded, “We must walk together: the people, the bishops and the pope. Synodality [the gathering of bishops to work out Church matters] should be lived at various levels.” The Eastern Christians were listening; Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, chose to attend Pope Francis’ inaugural Mass on March 19, 2013, representing the first of his line ever to do so.
Twice during his first address, the Bishop of Rome asked the people to pray. First, he led them in the three most basic and universal prayers memorized by the faithful as children, Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, for “our Bishop Emeritus, Benedict XVI.” Next, he told them, “Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world, that there may be a great spirit of fraternity. It is my hope for you that this journey of the Church, which we start today... will be fruitful for the evangelization of this most beautiful city.”
Before imparting his first Apostolic blessing, an expectation of all new popes, he bowed and asked the people to pray for him, also emphasizing the role of the laity within the Church in walking together with their pastors. “And now I would like to give the blessing, but first - first I ask a favor of you: before the Bishop blesses his people, I ask you to pray to the Lord that he will bless me: the prayer of the people asking the blessing for their Bishop. Let us make, in silence, this prayer: your prayer over me.” Then, after the people’s silent prayer, he briefly donned the ornate papal stole while giving the Apostolic blessing before promptly taking it off.
After the blessing, he parted with these words: “Brothers and sisters, I leave you now. Thank you for your welcome. Pray for me and until we meet again. We will see each other soon. Tomorrow I wish to go and pray to Our Lady, that she may watch over all of Rome. Good night and sleep well!” It would not be long before the people saw the ‘Bishop’ again.
Cardinal Dolan recalls, in “Praying in Rome”, what happened later that evening after the Pope’s first address. “After his appearance on the balcony, we were all to return to the Domus Sanctae Marthae for dinner. We piled into one of several buses waiting for us cardinals, while the new Holy Father had a sedan, with proper security escort, ready to chauffeur him back to the Domus. When I got off the bus, my brother cardinals and I waited for the Holy Father to arrive. And when the last bus pulled up, guess who got off? Pope Francis! I guess he told his driver, ‘That’s OK. I’ll just go with the boys, as I have been doing.’” The cardinals would see Pope Francis soon at dinner. Cardinal Dolan recalls, “That night we had, as you might imagine, a rather festive supper. At its conclusion, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, toasted the new Holy Father. Pope Francis stood to reply. His toast to the cardinals who had just elected him as Successor of St. Peter? ‘May God forgive you for what you’ve done!’ which brought the house down.”
Pope Francis later retired to Room 207 that night at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, just as he had done during the rest of the conclave. Several days later, he was still living at that room which had been assigned to him during the conclave. Then on March 26, Father Lombardi made the announcement that Room 201 in the Domus would be Pope Francis' new home instead of the large papal apartment. The Holy Father’s decision to remain there was the result of Jesuit-inspired discernment and communal living, and his usual theme of closeness to the people.
Pope Francis told Father Spadaro, referring to the communal life of the Jesuits, “I was always looking for a community. I did not see myself as a priest on my own. I need a community. And you can tell this by the fact that I am here in Santa Marta. At the time of the conclave I lived in Room 207. This room where we are now was a guest room. I chose to live here, in Room 201, because when I took possession of the papal apartment, inside myself I distinctly heard a ‘no.’ The papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace is not luxurious. It is old, tastefully decorated and large, but not luxurious. But in the end it is like an inverted funnel. It is big and spacious, but the entrance is really tight. People can come only in dribs and drabs, and I cannot live without people. I need to live my life with others.”
The Domus Sanctae Marthae (St. Martha’s House) was built in 1996 by Pope John Paul II to house the cardinals gathering for a conclave to elect the pope. When there is no conclave, the simple modern high-rise complex is used as a guesthouse for those coming on church business to the Vatican. Father Spadaro describes Pope Francis’ room that he was invited to for the interview, “The setting is simple, austere. The workspace occupied by the desk is small. I am impressed not only by the simplicity of the furniture, but also by the objects in the room. There are only a few. These include an icon of St. Francis, a statue of Our Lady of Luján, patron saint of Argentina, a crucifix and a statue of St. Joseph sleeping, very similar to the one which I had seen in his office at the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel, where he was rector and also provincial superior.”
It is in this room that Pope Francis rises each day at 4:45 a.m. According to Andrea Tornielli, in the Vatican Insider, “The first few hours of Francis' day are dedicated to prayer and meditation on the Readings which the Pope comments on, in the brief homilies he gives in his morning masses in the chapel of the place he likes to call the ‘boarding school’, commonly known as St. Martha’s House: a simple and modern building decorated with light-coloured marble and stained glass. The Bishop of Rome sits in the pews at the back of the chapel to pray. These spontaneous but not completely improvised morning preachings are one of the most important changes of the new pontificate.... The Pope is assisted by cardinals, bishops or visiting priests and the masses are attended mostly by Vatican staff – from IOR staff to rubbish collectors – and their families. Francis greets all of them one by one and then has breakfast in the St. Martha’s House ‘common room.’”
Prayer is essential for Pope Francis. He said in Ch. 4 of Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio, “In my view, prayer should be an experience of giving way, of surrendering, where our entire being enters the presence of God. It is where a dialogue happens, the listening, the transformation. Look to God, but above all feel looked at by God.” The Rosary and Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament remain some of Pope Francis’ favorite forms of prayer, besides, of course, celebrating the Mass.
Cardinal Bergoglio was accustomed to wearing old and worn shoes, but just before he went to Rome, friends gave him a pair of new black shoes to make sure he would be suitably dressed for the conclave. Cardinal Bergoglio, after all, was the type that even after being made a cardinal, refused to order new robes, choosing instead to have alterations done on the ones worn by his predecessor. So when he was raised to the papacy, Matthew Bunson tells us in Ch. 8 of Pope Francis, that Pope Francis refused the papal red shoes, preferring the black ones his friends from Argentina had given him. He also refused to wear the jeweled gold cross typically worn by the pope, choosing to keep the metal pectoral cross he had worn as bishop and was designed after the image of Jesus from his favorite painting; White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall. In keeping with his simplicity, he even told his driver on the morning of March 14, to stop by the hotel where he had stayed prior to the conclave so he could personally pay his hotel bill. He also personally made a phone call to Argentina to cancel his Buenos Aires newspaper subscription; he would no longer need it.
Pope Francis’ first homily as pope was at the widely anticipated Missa Pro Ecclesia (Mass for the Church) in the Sistene Chapel. While this homily is typically a ponderous one, Pope Francis, keeping in mind that the cardinals were not the only ones present and that the flock of the Church throughout the world were also listening, kept his tone and style very simple and pastoral as he would do with all his papal homilies. He focused on a simple theme from the readings, in this case ‘movement’, which relates to life. It was his practice to number a short list of aspects on that theme, reviewing the points again at the end.
He also refrained from using theological terminology that may not be understood by the people. Instead, he has become known for using his own sayings and freshly coined metaphors. Andrea Tornielli remarks, in “Vatican Insider”, on the Pope’s morning homilies, “Every morning Francis comes up with new and effective illustrations to his messages, such as the ‘babysitter’ church, the concept of ‘God spray’, confession not being like a ‘dry cleaner’s’, ‘sitting room Christians’, ‘museum-piece Christians’ and ‘starch-pressed Christians’. Then there are his references to ‘prayers of courtesy’, the ‘balm of memory’, ‘adolescent progressivism’ and ‘pastoral customs’ which instead of fostering people’s faith, complicate it. But the most striking thing about Francis is the simplicity of his words. Particularly those about tenderness and forgiveness: ‘The message of Jesus is mercy. For me, I say this humbly, it is the Lord’s most powerful message.’ This message has encouraged people across the world to return to the Church and to confession after years of estrangement.”
With Holy Week soon approaching, the new Holy Father made special arrangements for Holy Thursday Mass. While typically the papal Holy Thursday Mass and its rite of foot-washing are held at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome, Pope Francis chose to emphasize the Church’s preferential option for the poor by celebrating it instead at the Casal del Marmo youth prison just outside Rome, like he had done previously as a cardinal in Buenos Aires. At his Last Supper, Jesus had washed the feet of his disciples, saying to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:12-14).