1) Faith Sharing:

What are the similarities and differences between Popes Francis and John 23rd?

Scripture: Philippians 4:6-9 (The peace of God will be with you)

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, . . . whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then, the God of peace will be with you.

Reflection: Understanding the Evolution of Catholic Thought and Doctrine by Illio Delio

“These comments aim to understand how the evolution of Catholic thought and doctrine is taking place in a world of increasing complexity . . . The pontificate of Francis can be described as a papacy in evolution. History has become too complex to ‘convey via a linear narrative, Massimo Faggioli contends, and must be assessed according to a complexity of factors, which include the global, universal, and local dimensions of the Catholic Church . . .

“Rather than a purely historical description of Jorge Bergoglio’s ascent to the papacy, we will use a rich, multi-textured narrative that describes a relationship between the person Jorge Bergoglio, the conditions in which he emerged as the successor to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and the shifting context of his papacy in light of Vatican Il. With Bergoglio, we have a pope from the southern hemisphere assuming leadership in the Catholic Church, at a particular historical moment following Vatican II and the unusual retirement of Benedict XVI, and leading the church in radically new ways.

“His papacy is at once personal, historical, and contextual, all discussed as the church evolves from a solid and powerful Western force to a global Catholic Church that must find its way in a world of increasing complexity. What shines through is the way Pope Francis draws his inspiration from the gospel of Jesus Christ and a grounding of the gospel in history.

“Francis is deeply concerned with the transformative power of the gospel, and his deep trust in a living God who is the ground and source of all life is not to be underestimated . . . While the papacy of Pope Francis is unfinished, Faggioli reminds us, we have new challenges and opportunities for the growth of the church in the twenty-first century, and they must continue to be explored.” (1)

Quiet Reflection

Reflection Questions: • For you, what is the best word to describe the church’s situation in the world today? • Other comments…

Intentions (freely shared) and The Lord’s Prayer

Invocation: Our Lady of La Salette, Reconciler of sinners, pray without ceasing for us who have recourse to you.

2) Learning More About Vatican Two: (optional)

a) How is Pope Francis a different pope?

“It is challenging to discuss any pope and any pontificate, but it is even more so in a church now dominated more than it used to be by mass media, digital and social media, and a news cycle without gatekeepers and often without editorial control . . . Addressing Pope Francis’s pontificate from a historical perspective is complicated. . .

“But there is a deeper liminality (or in- between moment) at the heart of this pontificate . . .The first liminal aspect of Francis’s papacy is the way he became pope, inaugurating a pontificate while that of his predecessor was not completely over in the eyes of the global church. Francis begins with his very election in the conclave and symbolizes the entire pontificate and its meaning for global Catholicism: a key junction in the history of the Catholic Church between an “already” and a “not yet” that can be understood only by analyzing this pontificate from a multilayered historical perspective . . .

“Also, Francis is a pope from the margins . . . The concept of liminality is key to understanding Francis’s pontificate because of his reinterpretation of the borders in this age of new permeable walls . . . This is at the heart of Francis’s project, in which liminality is a central aspect of the “pontifex (papacy)”— etymologically the ‘bridge builder,’ (pons (bridge) + facere (to make) —both geographically in his focus on a new map of the global world in the disruption of globalization, and historically in his efforts to reconnect the church and tradition in a non-traditionalist way.” (2)

b) What are three reasons why Pope Francis’ pontificate is similar to that of Pope John 23rd?

“The first reason is the link between the emphasis on the poor church and the personal embodiment of this ecclesiology (or view of the church).

Pope Francis: His focus was on the “poor church and the church for the poor” expressed a few hours after his election comes from Vatican II and from its visionary pope, John XXIII, who always cherished the humble social conditions of his family as an integral part of his spiritual life and as a gift . . .

Pope John XXIII: His extraordinary character . . . is shown by the fact that he opened the process for the redefinition of the papacy, not through a plan or a project, but thanks to the ‘confluence in him of the papal office, personal sanctity, and prophesy—a confluence that is exceptional in church history.’

“The second reason is that both Roncalli and Bergoglio brought with them to the Vatican an idea of a church that would be more global and more historical than it was before their election, and they connected this to the signature moments in their pontificates: Vatican II and the synodal experience respectively.

Similar to John XXIII’s conciliar aspirations, Francis had confidence in a collegial and synodal church that could awaken a new consciousness of the church’s role in the global world . . .

“The third reason is Francis’s confidence in the ability of the gospel to run the church, sometimes in defiance of the church’s normative dimension . . .

In Pope Francis, ressourcement (return to the sources) is not just a renewed attention to the sources of ancient and medieval Christianity emphasized in Vatican II. Like Vatican II, Pope Francis sees pastorality (attending to their basic faith-needs) as the art of giving all people access to the one source—the Gospel message.

“For these three reasons and many others, Pope Francis’s pontificate can be seen as transitional from that of Pope John XXII’s only in the sense that it is about the shift from a balance that was assumed to be definitive to a different (not necessarily new) kind of balance in Catholicism.” (3)

Reflection Questions: • What qualities do you consider important in these two popes to understand their motivation and vision? • Other comments…

c) What are some false impressions we may have about the Papacy?

“The papacy is one of the most fascinating leadership roles in our world, in part because it is probably the longest-serving leadership in history and is marked by a claim that it is universal or unchangeable . . . This claim is relevant for understanding the history of Catholicism and the papacy of Francis within this long history for two reasons in particular.

“The first common impression is that the papacy is immutable, always remaining the same. The reality is that the papacy has changed substantially in its two thousand years of history . . . In the last fifty years, these changes cannot be perceived adequately from a strictly juridical and institutional point of view.

“The second commonly held impression is that the papacy has had a stable structural history. However, the history of church structure has been a long, slow process of detachment from surrounding non-church structures. Most importantly, Vatican II read this ‘history of Church adjustment’ in light of a new theology aimed at re-centering Catholicism in light of the message of Jesus Christ.” (4)

d) How can we compare Pope John XXIII’s and Pope Francis’s histories?

“Pope Francis’s pontificate represents a continuation and evolution of the globalization of the papacy, which started in the 19th century (1800s). There are many continuities with and changes from his predecessors. However, there are striking similarities between Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (John XXIII, Pope from 1958 to 1963) and Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis, elected in 2013). This analysis and comparison can tell us something about the evolution of the papacy and about Francis’s papacy in particular.

Pope John XXIII: • “Birth and early life: born in 1881 into a peasant family of limited means in northern Italy (Lombardi), the fourth of thirteen children; lived his life in the Italian countryside; • Worldview: his early life was more constrained, including seminary life in Italy, the use of local dialect, and sports; later, he had international experiences as a bishop’s secretary, a Vatican official, and a Papal diplomat; • Life experiences: in the early 1900s, he had a clerical formation from a very young age; • Social and political situation: he was surrounded by a young, united Italy run by secularists and anticlerical politicians in a still Catholic country. • Church-life: as a young priest, there was the anti-modernist purge launched by Pius the 10th in 1907; • Theological themes of later life: reviewing the contemporary meaning of history and tradition; • Life-changing experiences: as nuncio in Paris from 1945 to 1953, it was the issue of the worker- priests in France; • Studies and Ministries: he was a Milanese or Lombard priest more than a Roman or Vatican priest; he studied at one of the most prestigious theological schools in Rome and studied history by reading very advanced scholars for the time; he had a very troubled relationship with Rome because he was the secretary of a Bishop who was accused of lack of dogmatic rigor (sufficiently Catholic).

Pope Francis: • “Birth and early life: born in 1936 into a family of limited means in northern Italy (his father came from Piedmont, northern Italy, and his mother from Genoa, west-central Italy); first modern pope to be born in an urban area near the immigrant city of Buenos Aires, a megalopolis; • Worldview: his early life was more common, that is, he worked as a chemist and had a passion for music, dance, and soccer; he never enjoyed traveling; • Life experiences: in the 1950s, he explored more as a youth; • Social and political situation: he came of age in a Catholic Argentina polarized between an atheistic and anticlerical left and a Peron-centered government, which Bergoglio got in touch with while in school. • Church-life: in the early 1970s, liberation theology challenged the cultural unity of a clergy formed before Vatican II. • Theological themes of later life: emphasizing the place of the poor in the church; • Life-changing experiences: as provincial, it was the obedience of the Jesuit priests living in the villas miserias (slums); • Studies and Ministries: his experiences were very Latin American and Spanish; his relations with the Jesuit generals curia in Rome was very complicated until, of course, after his election to the pontificate on March 13, 2013.” (5)

Reflection Questions: • Is there anything surprising for you in the answers to questions c) or d) above? • Other comments…

e) What were the moments of spiritual rebirth and pastoral challenges of these two as bishops?

Pope John XXIII: • Engaging in pastoral care as a Bishop had been Roncalli’s dream; he was appointed patriarch of Venice in 1953 when he was 72; his relations with the poor and with the blue- collar workers of Venice were much more indirectly mediated through a much more traditionally ecclesiastical lifestyle;

Pope Francis: • He was appointed an auxiliary Bishop in 1992 when he was 55. This appointment was . . .what may be called his born- again hope in terms of the spiritual and ecclesial rebirth that became visible after his election to the papacy; when Buenos Aires was hit by the financial crisis of 2001-2002, he acted as an advocate for the urban poor; he seems to have been much more of a political animal eager to tackle political issues that were also social.

Similarities: • Their ministries as Pope have some common themes as well, especially in such iconic moments as Pope John XXIII’s visit to the Roman prisons not far from the Vatican on December 26th, 1958, and the many visits of Pope Francis to prisons during Holy Week in Rome, in Italy, and during his trips abroad. • There were also many similarities between the conclaves of October 1958 and March 2013. The most visible parallel is in the age of the new popes—76 for both. However, the 1958 conclave had eleven ballots, whereas there were just five in 2013.” (6)

f) What are four points of convergence between the two pontificates?

“There are several points of convergence between the ways the pontificates of John XXIII and Francis unfolded:

“The first point of convergence is their vision of church reform as spiritual reform. Roncalli called Vatican II the ‘new Pentecost,’ while Francis framed the bishops’ synods of 2014-15 in terms of discernment. Their plans mainly were connected to a collegial procedure of … changing the paradigm (or approach) for interpreting doctrine more than changing it.

“The second point of convergence is their message of the church’s openness to renewal. John XXIlI (unity and mercy in Vatican II), and Francis (the poor and on mercy in the synods and the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy). For both popes, change is about the conversion of the church from a predetermined model to a model following Jesus Christ. Both popes believe change is about institutional reform and spiritual and theological renewal.

“The third point of convergence is the need to deal with a dysfunctional bureaucratic machine in the Vatican and their interpretation of that mandate . . . This way of reforming the church without focusing only on fixing structural problems arose due to their shared ecclesiology, which was not focused on the institution.

“The fourth point of convergence is the importance of the geopolitical situation (church and state concerns) of the Catholic Church. • John XXIII inherited a church that was supposed to be firmly on the side of NATO; • Francis inherited a post-9/11 Catholicism in which the neoconservative narrative sees the church as part of an ideological and political anti-Muslim alliance.

In this sense, the political pushback against John XXIII’s encyclicals Mater et Magistra (1961) and Pacem in Terris (1963) are analogous to the ideological criticism of the exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013) and of the encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015, a preemptive criticism in this particular case).” (7)

Reflection Questions: • Which of the four points of convergence in f) remain essential for you in the church today? • Other comments…

3) Concluding Prayer: A Prayer by Thomas Merton

Lord God, we have no idea where we are going. We do not see the road ahead of us. We cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do we know ourselves, and the fact that we think we are following your will does not mean that we are actually doing so. But we believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you. And we hope we have that desire in all that we are doing. We hope that we will never do anything apart from that desire. And we know that if we do this, you will lead us by the right road, though we may know nothing about it. Therefore, we will always trust you, though we may seem lost and in the shadow of death. We will not fear, for you are ever with us, and you will never leave us to face our perils alone. Amen. (8)

Invocation: Our Lady of La Salette, Reconciler of Sinners, pray without ceasing for us who have recourse to you.

Endnotes: (1) Illio Delio in Massimo Faggioli’s, The Liminal Papacy of Pope Francis: Moving toward Global Catholicity, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2020, pgs. xv-xvi; (2) Ibidem, pgs. 1-3; (3) Ibidem, pgs. 21- 22; (4) Ibidem, pgs. 23-24; (5) Ibidem, pgs. 29-32; (6) Ibidem, pgs. 36-39; (7) Ibidem, pgs. 40-41; (8) Prayer by Thomas Merton, edited.