The Francis Effect

Thirteen months ago Pope Benedict stunned the world by resigning.  His successor, Pope Francis, has been stirring up dust and sweeping away cobwebs throughout the Vatican since last March.  It started with the red shoes.  He simply refused to wear them.  Then he spurned the comforts of a chauffeur-driven limo to ride the bus with the Cardinals and showed up to pay his hotel bill in person.

What sort of Pope is this?  Clearly he hasn’t read the company policy manual.  Although not a single word or comma has yet been altered in Canon Law or Church doctrine, Pope Francis has made it abundantly clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable within the Roman Catholic Church.  His preference for simplicity over pomp and ceremony is refreshing and his concern for the poor appears to be quite genuine.  Protocol be damned, this Pope really likes to press the flesh and to be visibly present to the people.  His security detail no doubt suffers from collective migraines.

Pope Francis is a man of action who has chosen to lead by example.  His exhortation to the clergy to spend more time mingling with the people they were ordained to serve is a page right out of his own book of life.  Before joining the seminary, he held several distinctly non-clerical jobs including a chemical technician’s position in a laboratory and a stint as a janitor and nightclub bouncer.  Now that’s definitely mingling with the people.

From his moves to update the Curia and the Vatican Bank, to greeting people outside the walls of the Vatican, to his unequivocal condemnation of child sexual abuse, to his willingness to reach out to those who feel cast aside by the Church, Pope Francis is slowly changing the face of the world’s oldest Christian institution.

His message, like the man himself, is simple:  there is a God who loves us unconditionally.  Period.  We are the ones who are hung up on conditions, restrictions, and limitations…. all of which lead to judgements.

When Jesus walked the earth, he said, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7) concerning a woman accused of adultery.  In perfect emulation, Pope Francis replied to a question regarding homosexuality by stating, “Who am I to judge?”

There is a long way to go before lapsed Catholics or even atheists rush to Church, but at least there seems to be some hope now of bridging the gap.  This shepherd knows that only a minority of his flock can be found in church pews on a Sunday morning.  The vast majority are outside those walls and he’s doing his best to reach them where they are.  Can the example of one person really change the world?  Just ask Jesus.  I bet he’s cheering on the “Francis effect.”