"Pope Francis makes Church more Catholic than Roman”
Pope Francis is handed a bunch of flowers during the weekly general audience at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican. Photo AFP, Vincenzo Pinto
Southern Europe
Pope Francis celebrates his 10-year anniversary of being the head of the Roman Catholic Church this Monday. Evangelical theologian, Leonardo De Chirico from Rome, reflects on developments in the Roman Catholic Church under Francis's rule. "The Catholic magisterium becomes more "catholic" and less "Roman."
Under Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic Church has shifted its focus from Catholic distinctiveness towards being inclusive and focusing on social issues, De Chirico says to Evangelical Focus. The theologian notes that the Pope has been making the Church more Catholic in de-centralising the Church and encouraging participation from the peripheries. He points out that the Pope's focus on inclusion has opened up traditional Roman Catholic identity markers to all people. "Practising or not practising their faith, believing or not believing, and people in 'disordered' lifestyles, are included and made to feel they belong to the Church."
Brethren
This striving for an inclusive Church can also be seen in Francis's redefinition of the term "brethren", Evangelical Focus writes. Earlier popes used the term only to refer to other Christians, such as Protestants, who were called "separated brethren." According to De Chirico, Francis uses the term to refer to "the one human family", in which Muslims, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists and Protestants are all brothers. "Our common humanity takes over the spiritual connotation of being "in Christ" as the basis for shared fraternity, he says to Evangelical Focus.
In addition, the Pope seems to have shifted his attention from the secularising West, where the influence of the Church is dwindling, to the Global South, including Africa and some Asian countries, Evangelical Focus reports.
Gender theory
On the occasion of his anniversary, Pope Francis said that gender ideology "is the most dangerous of ideological colonisations." He did so in an interview with the Argentine newspaper “La Nacion”, Agencia Ecclesia writes.
Francis points out that the gender theory "goes beyond the sexual question" and is "dangerous because it dilutes differences, and because the richness of man and women and all humanity is the tension of differences." By erasing these differences, humanity will be erased, the head of the Roman Catholic Church warned. He stressed that he always tries to distinguish "between pastoral care for people with a different sexual orientation and gender ideology".
Doctrine
It is hard to classify Pope Francis as progressive or liberal, the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad writes. Francis appoints both liberal and conservative clergy. Francis does not change the doctrine of the Church but emphasises freedom of conscience, the Dutch newspaper concludes. For example, instead of being clear about concrete methods of anti-conception, he appeals to "responsible parenthood." This lack of clarity is not always appreciated, the RD concludes.
Knee
Pope Francis also clarified that he is not about to lay down his office. Despite his health problems with his knee, he wants to continue his task of reforming the Roman Catholic Church. "You don't lead the Church with your knee but with your head."
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