He was conscious of being a guest in someone else’s home

Yet the Pope spoke in a voice which was that of someone who was conscious of being a guest in someone else’s home. Very deftly, the Argentinian Pope began his address to Congress by talking of “we” Americans.

Oct 07, 2015

By Paul Vallely
Yet the Pope spoke in a voice which was that of someone who was conscious of being a guest in someone else’s home. Very deftly, the Argentinian Pope began his address to Congress by talking of “we” Americans. Then, he invited his listeners to dialogue and to examine their conscience.

In Congress, he cited four great Americans from history and then invited modern America to live up to the challenge. At the UN, he demanded action and not fine international decorations. Throughout, he challenged without wagging his finger.

He did the same at the Synod of Bishops in Rome.

At the end of the fairly heated debate during and around the last Synod a year ago, Francis made a concluding speech in which he warned traditionalists and conservatives against zealous literalism and “hostile rigidity” — but also cautioned progressives and liberals against “destructive do-goodism” and a “misguided mercy” which wants to bind up wounds without first treating them.

The equipoise of the speech won him a heartfelt standing ovation from the vast majority of synod members.

Again, on the eve of the Synod, the Pope once again chose his words carefully, but again, the underlying message was clear. Francis, in his final address in the US, gently urged the Church to stop fighting old battles and fearing the future.

“Christians are not immune to the changes of their times,” he said, warning the bishops that their response should not be defensive: “Jesus encountered hostility from people who did not accept what he said and did. For them, his openness to the honest and sincere faith of many men and women who were not part of God’s chosen people seemed intolerable.

“The disciples, for their part, acted in good faith. But the temptation to be scandalised by the freedom of God, who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, bypassing bureaucracy, officialdom and inner circles, threatens the authenticity of faith. Hence it must be vigorously rejected.”

Jesus rebuked those closest to him for being so narrow, Pope Francis noted and called on the Church to “overcome the scandal of a narrow, petty love, closed in on itself, impatient of others!”

Francis has sent other revealing signals. With the inclusion of Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier aside, he has appointed the same team to run the Synod which drafted the controversial interim report halfway through the last Synod, criticised by some bishops as tendentious.

The arch-conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke, despite being appointed as a member of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has been removed from Synod membership.

The Pope has handpicked additional Synod Fathers, some of whom — like retired Cardinals Walter Kasper and Godfried Danneels, and Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago — share his own reconciliatory views on the treatment of the remarried and gays.

Source: Tablet

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