A Conservative’s Guide to the Real Pope Francis

By DON ROLLINS

In his forthcoming book on the life and papacy of Pope Francis, To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism, practicing Catholic and conservative New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat (DOW-that) renders a mixed review of the sitting pontiff.

Describing the tone of the book in a recent Times op-ed, Douthat acknowledges the star power accorded Francis is deserved; and the pope the world sees is more or less the real article: humble, engaging, funny, compassionate and forward thinking.

Douthat also posits he is not about a theological thrashing of the Holy See, nor does he want to be lumped with similarly disaffected American conservatives who fail to appreciate “... the breadth of his (Francis’) ambitions and purposes, his real historical significance, his clear position as the most important religious figure of our age.”

But things go downhill in a hurry as Douthat turns to a stern critique of Francis’ papacy by drawing a distinction between Francis, the very public pastor, and Francis, the near-absentee overseer of a worldwide communion of almost 1.3 billion.

For Douthat, Francis has shone in his pastoral role, drawing admiration well beyond the Catholic fold. But Douthat worries the pope has too little investment in such practicalities as running the Vatican, using papal authority to reinforce canon law or addressing the deepening schisms laid bare by his election.

Douthat also derides Francis for a papacy far different than the one anticipated by the 95 out of 115 cardinals that elected him. Aside from being the first Jesuit and South American, Douthat finds no evidence the College of Cardinals suspected the former Jorge Bergoglio Frances would prove all that different from his most recent predecessors.

Yet they were dead wrong, Douthat says. And now the church is led by an overzealous “reformer,” ill-suited for or uninterested in the particulars of administration.

Douthat cites several points for his claims: a Vatican on the edge of chaos; public pronouncements that conflict with longstanding doctrine; lax commitment to end sexual abuse within the church and; making unofficial “truces” with modernity that result in the watering down and “decentralization” of Catholic teaching.

Taken together, Douthat’s Francis is a popular pope in the middle of a failed papacy that will neither reform nor revive the Roman tradition: “All of this makes for interesting copy for those of us who write about the church. Truces are unsatisfying and instability is exciting and theological civil wars can be worth waging. But there is no sign as yet that Francis’s liberalization is bringing his lapsed-Catholic admirers back to the pews.”

As should be expected with any detailed account of a sitting pontiff, early reactions to Douthat’s work greatly vary — even less surprising, given no modern-era pope this side of Pope John XXIII has rattled theological, social and political cages on par with Francis.

But even if the worst of what the right-leaning Douthat has to say has some basis in truth, it should be leavened by the long list of social, spiritual and environmental issues Francis has dared engage — a desperately needed, 21st century embodiment of Catholic social teaching and practice.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister and substance abuse counselor living in Pittsburgh, Pa. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2018

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