Echoes of John XXIII in Pope Francis
As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope John XXIII, we also observe the emergence of a pope who, too, was elected at an advanced age. Time will tell how much the pontificate of Pope Francis will change the Church, or how much he actually seeks to change (though it will take a brave papal successor to return to gilded thrones and opulent vestments).
Early indications and, we must not forget, Pope Francis has been in office for less than a quarter of a year are that the new pope wants to see a more open, humbler Church, one that is open to the world without succumbing to the temptations of society, one that listens while it also leads.
This week we report Pope Francis remarks about the dangers of a closed Church. When the Church becomes closed, it becomes sick.
Tellingly, he used the metaphor of a room that is closed for a year, and when one enters the room, it smells. A closed Church is the same way, he said, it’s a sick Church.
There is an echo of Pope John XXIII in the imagery of a stuffy room. I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in, his famous quote goes.
Pope John accomplished that aim by calling the Second Vatican Council, which discerned an urgent need to engage with the wider world.
Indeed, he led the way when he issued his landmark encyclical on peace, Pacem in Terris, just a few months before his death on June 3, 1963. For the first time an encyclical was addressed not only to Catholics, but to all people of good will.
Such openness was remarkable, coming at a time when popes had been firmly ensconced not always by choice in the Vatican for longer than a century.
That spirit served to give confidence to those within the Church who saw the need for reviewing the ways in which the Catholic Church engaged with itself and with others. The many renewals and reforms of Vatican II, though presided over mostly by Pope Paul VI, were the fruit of Pope John’s call for an aggiornamento, for bringing the Church into the modern age.
This, as well as his kindly and informal manner, has made the Good Pope John a favourite among Catholics of progressive, liberal views.
Conversely, those who reject Vatican II, or treat it with suspicion, show little affection for John XXIII. It seems that it is for this reason that Pope John’s beatification in 2000 was tied to that of the conservative Pius IX, as mutual makeweights (a crude political compromise that dishonours both men).
Both sides tend to overlook that Pope John was in most things doctrinally conservative, even on questions of papal authority and certainly on issues of sexual morality. Indeed, his resolute orthodoxy arguably made the aggiornamento possible.
However, Pope John accompanied his conservatism with an emphasis not on condemnation, but on forgiveness and conversion, on empathy and dialogue, on placing above all God’s all-embracing love and mercy.
These are qualities that transcend philosophical differences. These are also qualities that are difficult to communicate.
Almost exactly 50 years after the death of Pope John XXIII we have received in Pope Francis a pontiff in the mould of il buono Papa Giovanni another doctrinal conservative whose amiable humility and apparent willingness to listen is winning the hearts of Catholics from across the spectrum.
Pope Francis might not introduce groundbreaking reforms, never mind an Ecumenical Church Council, but in the manner in which he communicates the message of our faith we can hear echoes of John XXIII.
On the eve of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in October 1962, Pope John addressed the crowds in St Peter’s Square. He concluded with simple words of immense warmth: As you return to your homes, he told the people, give your little children a kiss tell them it is from Pope John.
More than half a century later, the faithful can still feel that kiss.
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