Pope Francis three years on

Friday, March 18th, 2016

Pope Francis on Sunday marks the third anniversary of his election in March 2013, and even after 36 months it’s striking how much of an enigma he remains. Several big-picture questions, which one might have thought would be resolved by now, remain hotly debated.

Is he a liberal or a conservative?
Is he the laid-back figure of “Who am I to judge?” or the Bible-thumping moralist of “The Devil is on the prowl?”
Is the humble, simple exterior the real man, or is there a master strategist underneath?
Is he a reformer, meaning a gradual change agent, or a revolutionary?

One understands why an argument continues, because there’s abundant evidence to support almost any conclusion one wishes to draw.

Is it possible, however, that the correct answer has been staring us in the face all along, and the fact that it is often tough to grasp says more about our polarized culture than about the pope?

Spoiler alert: Based on everything we’ve seen and heard, it seems clear that the right response is, “Both.”

In that sense, Pope Francis can be understood as a living, breathing embodiment of the “both/and” instinct that’s so much a part of Catholic DNA, but which is increasingly difficult to understand in a world where false dichotomies and “wedge issues” are the political coin of the realm.

Historically, as Pope Benedict XVI once put it, Catholicism has been the great Christian tradition of “both/and”. When Protestantism raised the question of whether Scripture or tradition is the basis of authority, Catholicism answered “both.” Likewise, when Martin Luther asked whether salvation is from faith or works, the Catholic answer again was “both.”

Francis is very much like that.

On several fronts, his papacy has been a boon to the liberal wing of the Church. That’s especially true of his personnel moves; in Madrid, Chicago, Bologna, and elsewhere, he’s replaced strongly conservative prelates with center-left leaders. Such appointments are critical, because those bishops will exercise influence for a long time. Continue reading

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