by Tom Watkins

RAISED AS A Catholic, I experienced a mix of Catholic and public school education while growing up, eventually graduating from a Catholic high school.

Yes, the nuns whacked my knuckles a few times, but honestly, that has no bearing on the resentment I have held over the years about the Catholic Church. It has much more to do with the bigger items like covering up priest pedophilia and not standing stronger on issues of social justice.

I have never been prouder of having been raised Catholic when the U.S. elected our first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy. I was 7 then and prouder still now that Pope Francis leads the helm of the Catholic Church. At age 76, this Harley-riding Cardinal became the 266th Bishop of Rome – and leader of the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis gets it even as it seemed to me that the Catholic Church lost its moorings in past decades, spending more time on social moralizing, even as it neglected the teachings of Jesus about caring for the poor and the “least among us.” Pope Francis is a true champion of the poor and a force for positive change in the world.

This Pope, a former night club bouncer, admitted that the Catholic Church had in recent times, become fixated with attempting to enforce rules of human behavior outside the priesthood, while looking the other way on internal value issues.

His message of social justice seems to be resonating worldwide. Pope Francis has said that the Church is too “obsessed” with social issues such as abortion, gay marriage and contraception.

He has set a welcoming tone to the GLBT community: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” he pondered.

Now this that is the welcoming religion I was taught at St Jerome’s Elementary School.

LGBT magazine, The Advocate, along with Time magazine, named him Person of the Year.

 

Faith And Charity Can Go Hand-In Hand

He has spoken out about frivolous spending by the Church citing an example that the average set of Cardinal’s clothing costs as much as $20,000. Pope Francis urged Church officials to dress more modestly and ordered a German bishop to explain how he spent $3 million on a marble courtyard, wasting money.

Pope Francis is engineering a profound social and spiritual paradigm shift towards humility, compassion and love – the softer side of Catholic teaching.

It has been reported that as the conclave of Cardinals elected him Pope, his neighbor and old friend, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, turned to him in the Sistine Chapel and whispered in his ear: “Don’t forget about the poor.” He has not.

He recently celebrated his 77th birthday by having breakfast with four homeless men, resurrecting the virtue of humility for the world to see. His action comes across as sincere, not some mere papal photo op.

The Pope, like many presidents and those in power, can become encapsulated in a protective bubble, unable to easily venture out among the common people. As a Cardinal in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pope Francis often walked among the poor. He’s charged Konrad Krajewski, a Polish archbishop, to distribute alms to the poor on his behalf. Father Konrad estimates he distributed about two million euros on behalf of Pope Francis in 2013. Yet it is reported the Pope regularly leaves the Vatican at night to feed the homeless. Dressed as an ordinary priest, he joins Archbishop Konrad Krajewski wandering the streets of Rome.

For most of my adult life the wheel seemed to be moving backward as the Catholic Church reinforced secretive, hierarchical, dogmatic positions of the past. Now there appears a real possibility of change and progress.

Pope Francis comes off as real and less plastic then his predecessors. He tweets and poses for selfies. His genuineness of human interaction shines through. He has internalized the teachings of Jesus Christ and is acting in a Christ-like fashion.

The Catholic Church, reeling in recent years from allegations and admissions of child sexual abuse by members of the Church, now has Pope Francis to take effective action against such atrocities, amending Vatican law, and taking the right and moral action to make sexual abuse of children a crime. He is also establishing a committee to fight abuse.

As I wrote on May 1, 2010 (“Pedophilia, Lies and the Church”) http://domemagazine.com/tomwatkins/tw050110): “The church has maintained a code of silence and covered up for a sin that comes as close to “unforgivable” as anything I know – harming children. No, let’s call it for what it is – child rape.”

There are some in the church who want to make this issue a problem of “faith” when it is one of transparency, truth, accountability and right and wrong.

There are also those who argue that anyone who raises these issues is “anti-Catholic.” I am not.

Priests who sexually abuse children are not “confused souls,” they are criminals. People who shield and cover up for criminals are charged with obstruction of justice.” The Pope seems to agree with me and other right thinking people who place children’s needs above institutional protectionism.

 

“The Times, They Are A-Changin’”

The times are indeed changing with this new leader of the Catholic Church. Will this new era of humility and focus on caring for the poor and social justice trickle down to the parish level?

According to a recent Pew Research poll, Catholics in America are split on the direction the Pontiff should take the Church: 46 percent believe in a new direction and 51 percent want the Church to maintain its more traditional positions.

In announcing its choice for The Time Person of the Year, magazine Editor Nancy Gibbs said, “He (the Pope) is saying, ‘We are about the healing mission of the church, and not about the theological police work’.”

Eight decades ago, economist John Maynard Keynes remarked: “When the facts change, I change my mind; what do you do, sir?’”

As the first Pope from the developing world, Francis has emphasized that serving the poor and promoting social justice are essential to the church’s mission. It is my estimation, through his thoughts and deeds, he will do more to change the moral authority of the Church than what has been done in past centuries.

If the new Pope’s teachings trickles down to parishes around the globe, then the world may indeed become a better place. That would be a 21st century miracle.