Will Pope Francis be a Reformer?

Though a moderate in many aspects – especially in his drive for Ecumenical inter-faith relations (he is very much liked by Israel and Argentina’s powerful Jewish community), and in his embracing of Second Vatican Council reforms – he has however systematically opposed same-sex marriage which became legal in Argentina in 2011, and strongly opposes abortion laws that are being promoted locally by both the left and the “liberal” right…

Msgr. Bergoglio is an ardent devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose protection he invoked in his very first message urbi et orbi.  The first place he went to pray as pope was Her Chapel at Santa Maria Maggiore where he promptly kicked out Cardinal Bernard Law from the US, one of the bishops associated with covering up child abuse cases which ended up costing the Church hundreds of millions of dollars in US Courts.

The local left also speak of his alleged involvement in the crimes of Argentina’s civilian-military regimen from 1976 to 1983, a false and totally unsubstantiated accusation pointing to the Kirchner government’s extreme uneasiness with the new pope.

As a sign of times to come, Francis is also the first pope in history to choose a name that honours one of Christendom’s most important saints: Saint Francis of Assisi, a 13th century reformer who preached by setting the example for all.

Although of a wealthy family, Saint Francis chose to live in poverty and austerity telling his followers that a good Christian’s duty is to “Preach the Gospel always, if necessary use words”; meaning thereby that the best preachers are those setting the best examples, something the Church seems to have increasingly forgotten in modern times.

Saint Francis founded the Franciscan Order and its female counterpart founded by his spiritual sister St. Claire, both of which made poverty vows.  His preaching got him into trouble with local secular and Church authorities even landing him in jail.   As today, the Church during St. Francis’s time was very much in need of a major internal clean-up.   Francis of Assisi reproached the pope in front of all his cardinals for their excessive attachment to luxury, their banality and mundane ways.  Later, Pope Innocent III would finally approve his predication and approved the founding of the Franciscan Order.

So, will Pope Francis do as his spiritual predecessor and wage a veritable war for greater austerity inside the Church, requiring its highest authorities to set the example, both inside and outside the Church? 
 
Will he really do something about all the prelates involved in proven sexual misconduct, cutting them off fully and completely from the Church, and not just “transferring” them away to some quiet place hoping their immoralities and perversion will just go away, as if by magic?
 
Will Francis fully and thoroughly clean up the Vatican Bank (Institute of Religious Works) forcing it to cancel shady financial deals, reject usury-based financial income, and put its monetary wealth to work for the poor?
 
Again, will he identify and weed out the truly guilty of such crimes and perversion, severing all Church ties with them?

In short, will Francis do something that none of his predecessors seems to have had the courage and will to do over the past fifty years, which is to stop sweeping all this ugliness under the carpet, but rather cleaning the place up for real?  That all remains to be seen…

WHICH FRANCIS?

But we’re not really sure whether Msgr. Bergoglio chose his papal name only because of the Saint from Assisi.  It may have been to honour other Francis’s like St. Francis Javier, or even 16th century St. Francis de Borja both of whom were, like himself, Jesuits. 

Perhaps Msgr. Bergoglio is honoring all of these Francis’s. But the one that has caught the Catholic world’s imagination is clearly St Francis of Assisi, in which case much will be expected of Pope Francis.  No pope – until now – had ever chosen that name which many perceive as emblematic of a key enemy of certain castes of mischief-makers inside the Vatican.
 
—————–