Pope Francis Lives 'The Joy Of The Gospel' By Example
Pope Francis realizes that he must also put into practice what he asks of others since he is the first among the bishops. He must think about the conversion and changes necessary to the papacy. We have seen some of them in his personal life of simplicity. Choosing not to live in the Papal Palace, he remains in the two or three small rooms located in the retreat house where the cardinals overnighted during his election. His outreach to the poor, sick and suffering is an example of Christ’s presence among us. His call for mercy in the Church touches the hearts of many people of other Christian traditions and faiths.
He believes that “The papacy and the central structures of the universal Church also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion” (Evangelii Gaudium, paragraph 32). His “kitchen cabinet” of eight cardinals is helping him undertake this reform. The recent Extraordinary Synod was a remarkable example of his openness in conducting a worldwide survey and then to encouraging the bishops to speak their minds. He is a Pope who believes that the Spirit speaks through all the baptized.
He wants to revive the Vatican II teaching regarding the work of each country’s bishops’ conference: “…conferences are in a position to contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit. Yet this desire has not yet been fully realized…. Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach” (E.G. 32).
On all levels of Church life, he challenges us to do away with the attitude, “We have always done it this way.” The Pope challenges everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of transmitting the faith in their respective communities.
He continues his instruction by writing that a missionary style of “Pastoral ministry… is not obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed…. the message has to concentrate on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary” (E.G. 35). As Vatican II explained, “in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or a ‘hierarchy’ of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith” (E.G. 36).
The Pope quotes the great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, who also “taught that the Church’s moral teaching has its own ‘hierarchy,’... What counts above all else is ‘faith working through love’ (Galatians 5:6). Works of love directed to one’s neighbor are the most perfect external manifestation of the interior grace of the Spirit… Thomas explains that, as far as external works are concerned, mercy is the greatest of all the virtues” (E.G. 37).
The main point the Holy Father is making is that “A Church with a missionary heart ‘never closes itself off, never retreats into its own security, never opts for rigidity and defensiveness’” (E.G. 45). Concluding Chapter One, Pope Francis says that the Church is a “Mother with an Open Heart: The Church is called to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open. One concrete sign of such openness is that our church doors should always be open, so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door. There are other doors that should not be closed either. Everyone can share in some way in the life of the Church. Everyone can be part of the community, nor should the doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason” (E.G. 46-47).
