I
believe that where Pope Benedict grew attention from theologians in the
Christian world, the new pope will be an object of admiration and analysis for
those involved in the missional action of the Church. What a cursory examination
of Cardinal Bergoglio’s career demonstrates is a profound desire to see the
gospel unleashed as Good News for all, and a willingness to stand in prophetic
word and action to bring that Gospel to all. Here are some of the highlights
from speeches and articles.
the
entire continent is a missionary state…the paradigmatic aspect remains: all
ordinary activities of the Church take place in view of the mission. This
signifies very strong tensions between centre and periphery, between parish and
district. We need to come out of ourselves and head for the periphery. We need
to avoid the spiritual sickness of a Church that is wrapped up in its own
world: when a Church becomes like this, it grows sick. It is true that going
out onto the street implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to
any ordinary man or woman. But is the Church stays wrapped up in itself, it
will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded Church that goes out onto
the streets and a sick withdrawn Church, I would definitely choose the first
one…
We
seek to make contact with families that are not involved in the parish. Instead
of just being a Church that welcomes and receives, we try to be a Church that
comes out of itself and goes to the men and women who do not participate in
parish life, do not know much about it and are indifferent towards it. We
organise missions in public squares where many people usually gather: we pray,
we celebrate mass, we offer baptism which we administer after a brief
preparation. This is the style of the parishes and the diocese itself. Other
than this, we also try to reach out to people who are far away, via digital
means, the web and brief messaging.”
From a 2011 article on his concerns for Argentina:
Bergoglio
raised his voice to accuse the Argentinean capital of becoming a “meat grinder,” presiding
over a Mass for the victims of human trafficking, slavery-like working
conditions, and the cartoneros, who live by digging through garbage.
“For many, Buenos Aires is a meat grinder which destroys their lives, breaks
their will, and deprives them of freedom,” he cried during the Eucharistic
celebration held at the Constitución train station. Recalling the parable of
the Good Samaritan, Bergoglio condemned the fact that “in our city there are people
committing human sacrifice, killing the dignity of these men and these women,
these girls and boys that are submitted to this treatment, to slavery. We
cannot remain calm.” Buenos Aires is “a factory of slaves, a meat grinder,”
where “mafia leaders” are defended, who “never show their faces and always save
their own skin - perhaps for that recipe, so much our own, that we call
bribes.” The cardinal urged his fellow citizens to report “breeding grounds for
submission, for slavery,” “altars where human sacrifices are offered and which
break the will of the people,” asking that “everyone do what they can, but
without washing their hands of it, because otherwise we are complicit in this
slavery.”…
The
cardinal asked priests not to be “puritans” and to stop centering their
homilies on moral aspects, but instead on the gospel of Jesus Christ. “We speak of morals because it is easier,” he
emphasizes. “Furthermore - and this is bad taste - we deal with themes related
to matrimonial morals and those tied to the sixth commandment because they seem
more colorful. Thus we give a very sad image of the Church.”…
From a September 2012 article about one of his
speeches:
“I
say this with sadness and if it sounds like a complaint or an offensive comment
please forgive me: in our ecclesiastical region there are presbyteries that
will not baptise children whose mothers are not married because they have been
conceived outside holy wedlock.”
This
unique call for an end to the use of sacramental blackmail to subdue the
hopes of those who want their children to be baptised, was pronounced Sunday by
Fr. Bergoglio in his homily, during the closing mass for the Convention of the
ecclesiastical region of Buenos Aires. The convention examined the issue of
urban pastoral care.
In
this “hijacking” of the sacrament that marks the beginning of Christian life,
the Jesuit cardinal sees the expression of a rigorous and hypocritical
neo-clericalism which also uses the sacraments as tools to affirm its own
supremacy. For example by rubbing the fragility and wounds of faithful in their
faces or by dampening the hopes and expectations of those who supposedly do not
fulfil the “requirements” in terms of doctrinal preparation or moral status.
Not only are such pastoral models misleading, but according to Bergoglio, this modus
operandi distorts and rejects the dynamics of Christ’s incarnation, which
is reduced to a mere doctrinal slogan to serve the interests of religious
power. “Jesus did not preach his own politics: he accompanied others. The
conversions he inspired took place precisely because of his willingness to
accompany, which makes us all brothers and children and not members of an NGO
or proselytes of some multinational company.”…
But
according to Bergoglio, by clericalising the Church, the hypocrites of today
“drive God’s people away from salvation.” They are the followers of the
“Pharisees’ hypocritical Gnostisism,” which Jesus always turned his back on,
“appearing among the people, the publicans and the sinners.”
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