His appointment is a recognition that the church's future lies not in Europe, or not only in Europe
The Catholic church has become a global institution not only in its history, in its congregations and in its work, but – at last – in its leadership too. For the first time in a thousand years the election last night of an Argentinian Jesuit from Buenos Aires rebalanced one of the oldest worldwide organisations away from its increasingly moribund heartland in Europe and placed its gaze if not its body firmly outwards, to the continent so cruelly colonised half a millennium ago in the name of the same God but also to Africa and Asia.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the new Pope Francis, is a first on many levels: first from outside Europe in a millennium, first from Latin America, the first Jesuit, and the first to take the name Francis – a name associated with the simplicity and poverty of St Francis and his Franciscan order. That might be taken to reflect the new pope's own reputation for extreme personal modesty.
But he can also be seen as the continuity candidate. He's already 75, he was reportedly the runner-up to Pope Benedict – allegedly refusing to enter the final ballot – and, like almost all cardinals, he's held various appointments within the Vatican bureaucracy. He has been associated with the scandal-tainted conservative lay organisation Communion and Liberation, absolutely not to be confused with Marxist-inspired liberation theology.
So what does his appointment say about how the world's largest church sees its future? First and most obviously, it is a recognition that that future lies not in Europe, or not only in Europe. He meets the acknowledged need for a new leader with a long experience of pastoral activity. This is not a pope who will wear handmade scarlet shoes like his predecessor: as a bishop, the new pope was known to cook for himself and had a celebrated predilection for travelling around Buenos Aires on the bus. His personal style will be a sharp contrast with the notoriously hierarchical Curia. His appointment must also be taken as a recognition of the need for a new kind of conversation, or a new emphasis in the conversation – an emphasis on social justice – and a new demeanour for the movement whose riches and glory so dominated the past days of the conclave.
He is an outsider in style and in geography and in experience. For that reason alone, he may answer his small group of 114 electors' anxieties about the lamentable state of the Curia. Cardinals arriving at the conclave were openly critical of the recent history of bad decisions, from the catastrophic refusal until recently to face up to the scale of the clerical abuse scandal, to the ending of the excommunication of a Holocaust denier, to the Vatileaks scandal last year.
But he is also a social conservative who has shown a combative streak in facing down the Argentinian government's plans to introduce same-sex marriage. His election may indeed be a mixed blessing for President Cristina Kirchner, with whom he has spent much of his time in conflict. But he is also the man who took his own priests to task for refusing to baptise the children of unmarried parents. He played an important role during the Argentinian economic crisis, establishing a reputation as someone prepared to speak up for the poor, and highlighting the costs of globalisation. He may help to lift the eyes of congregations in the west from the clerical abuse scandals with a new sense of mission – but it is a sense of mission that is needed almost as much in South America, where church attendance is declining almost as steeply as in Europe. He too will have to pay attention to global concerns about the role of the laity, and about the rise of a kind of militant evangelism.
What he is not, on the evidence of his calm and relaxed appearance on the balcony of the Vatican last night, is a charismatic individual. And although 75 may not be old these days, the heavy demands of the role of the modern pope that were one of the reasons Pope Benedict gave for his resignation will surely challenge him too. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.
The Catholic church has become a global institution not only in its history, in its congregations and in its work, but – at last – in its leadership too. For the first time in a thousand years the election last night of an Argentinian Jesuit from Buenos Aires rebalanced one of the oldest worldwide organisations away from its increasingly moribund heartland in Europe and placed its gaze if not its body firmly outwards, to the continent so cruelly colonised half a millennium ago in the name of the same God but also to Africa and Asia.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the new Pope Francis, is a first on many levels: first from outside Europe in a millennium, first from Latin America, the first Jesuit, and the first to take the name Francis – a name associated with the simplicity and poverty of St Francis and his Franciscan order. That might be taken to reflect the new pope's own reputation for extreme personal modesty.
But he can also be seen as the continuity candidate. He's already 75, he was reportedly the runner-up to Pope Benedict – allegedly refusing to enter the final ballot – and, like almost all cardinals, he's held various appointments within the Vatican bureaucracy. He has been associated with the scandal-tainted conservative lay organisation Communion and Liberation, absolutely not to be confused with Marxist-inspired liberation theology.
So what does his appointment say about how the world's largest church sees its future? First and most obviously, it is a recognition that that future lies not in Europe, or not only in Europe. He meets the acknowledged need for a new leader with a long experience of pastoral activity. This is not a pope who will wear handmade scarlet shoes like his predecessor: as a bishop, the new pope was known to cook for himself and had a celebrated predilection for travelling around Buenos Aires on the bus. His personal style will be a sharp contrast with the notoriously hierarchical Curia. His appointment must also be taken as a recognition of the need for a new kind of conversation, or a new emphasis in the conversation – an emphasis on social justice – and a new demeanour for the movement whose riches and glory so dominated the past days of the conclave.
He is an outsider in style and in geography and in experience. For that reason alone, he may answer his small group of 114 electors' anxieties about the lamentable state of the Curia. Cardinals arriving at the conclave were openly critical of the recent history of bad decisions, from the catastrophic refusal until recently to face up to the scale of the clerical abuse scandal, to the ending of the excommunication of a Holocaust denier, to the Vatileaks scandal last year.
But he is also a social conservative who has shown a combative streak in facing down the Argentinian government's plans to introduce same-sex marriage. His election may indeed be a mixed blessing for President Cristina Kirchner, with whom he has spent much of his time in conflict. But he is also the man who took his own priests to task for refusing to baptise the children of unmarried parents. He played an important role during the Argentinian economic crisis, establishing a reputation as someone prepared to speak up for the poor, and highlighting the costs of globalisation. He may help to lift the eyes of congregations in the west from the clerical abuse scandals with a new sense of mission – but it is a sense of mission that is needed almost as much in South America, where church attendance is declining almost as steeply as in Europe. He too will have to pay attention to global concerns about the role of the laity, and about the rise of a kind of militant evangelism.
What he is not, on the evidence of his calm and relaxed appearance on the balcony of the Vatican last night, is a charismatic individual. And although 75 may not be old these days, the heavy demands of the role of the modern pope that were one of the reasons Pope Benedict gave for his resignation will surely challenge him too. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.