Published in the Westchester Guardian, September 2014
“I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” Pope Francis.
Born in Buenos Aires in December 1936, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, officially committed to the religious life in Argentina, joining The Society of Jesus as a novice in March 1958.
The Jesuits spirituality is drawn from St. Ignatius’ “Spiritual Exercises“, whose purpose is to conquer oneself and to discipline one’s life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment, material, political, etc. Jesuit formation for the priesthood, the longest among Catholic religious orders, takes between eight and fourteen years.
While obtaining two degrees, Fr. Bergoglio was ordained to the priesthood in December 1969, taking his fourth and final vow in 1973. He was ordained as a bishop 1992. His episcopal motto, miserando atque eligendo, stands for Jesus’ mercy towards sinners. John Paul II made him Cardinal in February 2001.
As archbishop, he kept in touch with the poor, assisted in soup kitchens and visited the sick, including AIDs victims, often showing up unannounced to drink tea with parishioners and to support local priests. He continuously visited parishes, advising priest to have mercy, keep their doors open and, remember, “trampling upon a person’s dignity is a serious sin”. One initiative plans to have by 2016, two hundred charitable agencies assisting the needy and led by an informed laity. Also, new parishes were created, administrative offices were restructured, led pro-life initiatives and doubled the number of priests assigned to work in Buenos Aires slums (villas miserias), so savage that even ambulances and police have refused to enter. Practicing sacristy for the street.
Many villas residents rely on church soup kitchens for survival and teenage pregnancy is rampant with the main culprit being Paco, an addictive, smoke-able cocaine by-product that has ravaged the slums, increasing crime. In reply, parishes started rehab centers, but priests have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered. In 2009, when one of his priests received a death threat for having spoken out against drugs, the future pope walked the streets, providing himself as a target and a dare for anyone wanting to retaliate. No one bothered the priest again.
The true parable of the Loaves and Fishes, as taken by Pope Francis, reflects his idea of charity and poverty. The miracle is not just in the appearance of more food – God did not multiply the fish and bread into one large pile. The miracle is that as the apostles kept going back to retrieve and distribute – more food kept appearing. God provided the necessities as needed, with leftovers. They never ran out!
Pope Francis and Economic Justice: The name Francis has great underlying significance as the name of the Christian saint- grounded in Jesus Christ with the poor and outcasts. Our Pope has known poverty, violence, the plague of corrupt politics and oppressive governments, the cruelty of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. He has seen elites rig political systems, keeping the poor in poverty. This is what passes as capitalism in most of the world. When Americans think about capitalism, we think in terms of efficiency and production in a rich, free, stable country. We may not see what Francis sees.
An economic system, wealth, he insists, should “be distributed among each of the people and social classes.” A society must care for the vulnerable – pregnant women and mothers, making sure children have enough to eat and basic health care throughout life with an adequate education. “The dignity of each individual person and the pursuit of the common good are concerns which ought to shape all economic policies”. One who “approaches the Eucharist without compassion for the needy and without sharing will not find themselves well with Jesus.”
On Business. Business is a proper activity “a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life … striving to increase the goods of this world and to make them more accessible to all”. It’s wrong to exploit a community without contributing to the creation of a stable social and economic system as well as fair wages.
On Governments. Government has a necessary role. “Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic,” Francis writes. “It has to be ordered to the attainment of the common good, which is the responsibility above all of the political community.” Calling politics “a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity…” while the Catholic faith “teaches us to create just forms of government, in the realization that authority comes from God and is meant for the service of the common good.”
The church has consistently rejected coercive systems of socialism and collectivism, because they violate inherent human rights to economic freedom and private property. The essential element is genuine human virtue. “I have never shared the Marxist ideology because it is not true.” Archbishop Hélder Câmara, of Brazil, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.”
On Classifications. Words like “liberal” and “conservative” don’t describe Francis’. “They divide what shouldn’t be divided. We should love the poor and love the unborn child. Service to the oppressed and service to the family; defense of the weak and defense of the unborn child; belief in the value of business and belief in restraints on predatory business practices — all these things spring from the same Catholic commitment to human dignity. There’s nothing “progressive” about killing an unborn human child or allowing it to happen. And there’s nothing “conservative” about ignoring the cries of the poor.”
On Globalization. “It is true, globalization has saved many persons from poverty, but it has condemned many others to die of hunger, because with this economic system, it becomes selective. The globalization which the Church supports is similar not to a sphere in which every point is equidistant from the center and in which then one loses the particularity of a people, but a polyhedron, with its diverse faces, in which every people conserves its own culture, language, religion, identity.” This is not Marxism. This is not redistribution.
Our first Pope Francis is living by one of St. Francis great statements – “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words.”
#1079
Glenn Slaby Blog