The recent
decades were painful ones for the church in the United States. The Roman Catholic Church endured wave after
wave of humiliating sex abuse scandals. The response of the hierarchy was
frequently breathtakingly incompetent, further eroding its authority with
ordinary believers. The Protestant
mainline tore itself apart with vicious public battles over human sexuality and
suffered from dwindling numbers, declining influence, and disappearing
financial resources. Evangelicals were
politicized, allying themselves with some of the most retrograde movements in
American political history. Younger
Evangelicals, disgusted by their elders’ evident contempt for the poor, support
for a murderous, unnecessary war, and their enduring political, theological and
social intransigence, left in droves.
The church as a whole endured the mockery of the so-called “new atheists”
who blamed religion for the varieties of human misery. The fanaticism of a murderous few was
attached to the horrified and bewildered many.
The hope of the gospel seemed to be in increasingly short supply.
For right-wing
Catholics and conservative Evangelicals the world was turned into a
battleground. Life was a constant conflict
between good and evil, right and wrong, us and them and neutrality was
impossible. Hierarchies, both official
and self-appointed, were ever vigilant for deviance. Departures from the party line were exposed
and ruthlessly attacked. Official
sanctions were endured by some, public humiliation by others. A dreary paranoia afflicted both the watchers
and the watched. Gloom, rather than hope
and confidence, seemed the order of the day.
Our leaders told us we were under attack. Grim faced and stern they called us to battle
an implacable foe. And scapegoats
abounded: liberals, Muslims, Democrats, feminists, homosexuals, socialists, and
so on. Some Christian leaders made sure
their enemies knew how they felt about them! Among the Evangelicals, at
least, certain leaders seemed to go out
of their way to find the harshest words available to demonize their opponents
and then complained bitterly of their poor reputations—predictably blaming the
media for their plight.
And then
something amazing happened. Benedict
XVI, that brilliant and troubled man, stepped down and the college of cardinals
elected Jose Mario Bergoglio pope. From
the first moments of his papacy Pope Francis let the world know that a
different spirit was now blowing through Rome and, indeed, through the entire
world. His simplicity, his humility, his
generosity caught everyone off guard. We
had gotten used to the sober keepers of the sacred flame. We had gotten used to the chiding, the
warnings, the frowns, and finger wagging.
And here came a man who eschewed the papal apartments, worshipped with
the housekeepers and gardeners, and made phone calls to single mothers and
recuperating critics! He seemed
cheerful, at ease, confident and hopeful. He denounced greed and indifference to the
poor, suffering and desperate. He called the church away from obsession with
moral, theological and political squabbles and back to the good news of the
Gospel: that this world and its people are beloved of God, who redeemed it
through Jesus and intends to make all things new.
` The
response has been stunning. Almost
overnight he changed the tone in Rome and, indeed, the entire Christian
world. Anyone who thinks he is going to
substantially change Roman Catholic doctrine will be disappointed. But he has shown what a genuinely caring and
simple human being in a place of religious leadership can do to open doors and
hearts. He has even found a hearing
among non-believers and people hostile to the church or faith of any kind. It is clear that people have been longing for
a religious figure who would demonstrate true humanity, humility and love. They
have found in Pope Francis such a man.
He reminds me of that cheerful Italian peasant who loved God and people:
Pope John XXIII. Protestants in general
and Evangelicals in particular have always had their disagreements with
Rome. I am no fan of the rigid top-down
hierarchical structure, the marginalization of women, or the elevated role of
the priesthood. But this Protestant
Evangelical is thankful for Pope Francis: his concern for the poor, his love
for the other, his insistence on the beauty and hopefulness of the gospel. For the first time in a long time I feel the
stirring of hope. And for that I am
thankful to Pope Francis and to God.
John E. Phelan, Jr.
