Australia and the World Past and Present

It’s a tricky question – was Pope Francis liberal or conservative?

Well, it depends largely on your definition of those terms.

He upheld the long-standing Church teaching against abortion. This is unsurprising for the head of the Catholic Church and many would regard his stance on the issue as pointing towards conservatism.

Likewise, he maintained Church teaching on same-sex marriage and women ordaining as priests.

While not changing these traditional teachings, he did look for alternative ways to include the LGBTQ+ community and women into the Church.

He did not spend much time trying to change things that he could not change.

But he did act often where he had freedom to act. He issued multiple encyclicals highlighting key themes that he saw as important. In tone he sought to be welcoming and inclusive. He talked of our common humanity. He championed the cause of the poor and advocated for protecting the environment.

His choice of travel destinations reflected his priorities. His first trip outside of Rome was to the island of Lampedusa. The island had become the gateway for many North African migrants or refugees making their way to Europe. Francis made use of a small boat as an alter and conducted an open-air Mass, drawing attention to those who were making a difficult and dangerous journey and to those who had lost their lives at sea. The plight of refugees around the world links with the Christian values of mercy and compassion. Economic inequalities were also a chief concern for Francis.

A pope has wide discretion in the appointment of cardinals. Popes take into consideration which part of the globe they will come from, their theology and their character. Francis’s selection has been very influential. The College of Cardinals is much more global than it was under his predecessor.

Much of Francis’ influence was symbolic.

Instead of moving into the Apostolic Palace, he chose to stay in a guesthouse in the Vatican.

Once elected as Pope, rather than greeting his cardinals seated as had been tradition, he chose to greet them standing. It was a sign that he wanted a more egalitarian feel within the Catholic Church.

He washed the feet of prisoners.

He was a big supporter of ecumenical outreach. There is a tendency for any church to turn inwards and to not have much contact with other churches. Francis appointed some cardinals from the Eastern Orthodox Church. The latest cardinal appointment in Australia is from the Eastern Church. I did a double take when I saw his appointment on the news. I wasn’t used to seeing a cardinal wearing the robes of the Eastern Church. These kind of appointments demonstrate how Francis sought to reach out to people and to be inclusive. He sought to build bridges rather than build walls.

To the more conservative cardinals in the clergy, Francis was a liberal. They saw that he was prepared to at least look to change to doctrine. The conservative clergy would bristle at the suggestion from ‘liberals’ outside Church that Francis was conservative because he was pro-life and opposed same-sex marriage.

Liberal activists outside the Church would have scratched their heads when they heard conservative clergy describing Francis as a ‘progressive’ or a ‘radical’.

Francis was somewhere in the middle. He largely maintained the traditional Church teaching, but he was pushing it at the edges.

Church laws are one thing. Personal practice is another. And here, it is clear that Francis took every opportunity to seek out the poor and help them when he could. He was a spiritual practitioner first and foremost. He was not a theorist of society. He was not a political activist. He was not a protester. He was not a Marxist scholar.

He was never a keen acolyte of Liberation Theology. That was not his instinct. His way was old-fashioned pastoral work. He was not interested in debates about proletarian movements or in drawing up manifestos for action.

His conduct during Argentina’s Dirty War probably tells us a lot about his approach. During that time, the beliefs and actions of individuals were put under pressure. The government put citizens under pressure to not be subversive. Other’s believed it was time to rise up, hit back and resist.

Bergolio tried to focus on the safety of his priests. Some were working in the barrios and had come under government surveillance. Bergoglio told them to come back to the Jesuit Society but they chose to stay out in the barrios. They were eventually picked up by the government and tortured.

Once again we see Francis in the middle. He did not issue powerful condemnations of the junta. Nor did he condone the junta. For the regime, he was not conservative enough. For those who wanted to see stronger censure of the junta, he was too conservative.

But if we are talking about his actions as Pope, it seems to me that we find him somewhere in the middle ground. He did not profoundly deconstruct Church doctrine, but he pushed it as far as he could under the circumstances. In essence, Francis was not a theorist. He was a pastoralist who pared Christianity back to the early principles of mercy and compassion.