Well, having come from Philadelphia just about ten days ago
covering the Pope's visit,
I can tell you that the US media loves Pope Francis.
They think Pope Francis is the bomb.
And indeed he was received rapturously by pretty much everybody.
But the media put a huge focus, of course,
on mercy, on inclusivity, going out to the margins
and they see the Pope as representing
this sort of revolution in the life of the Church.
In fact, one of the commentators said that
she just couldn't imagine going back to the Church
the way it was before Pope Francis.
Well, having seen him and having been part
of the coverage - I agree. I love Pope Francis.
I think Pope Francis is terrific, but I must say I balk at the insinuation
that he represents some sort of revolution,
or that the Church is radically different after him,
or - and I say this as a defender of Benedict XVI- that he represents
some repudiation of his predecessor.
I would say this, and I said it on the air a couple of times,
I do think he represents a sort of springtime moment
after this long winter of the sex abuse scandal.
The fact that the Pope has comes here now
with this very positive approach, and so on.
I think he does represent a sort of springtime moment,
but I don't think he represents some major
revolution in the Church's self-understanding.
And I think a way to get at this is
to look carefully at his language of mercy.
So, he is the Pope of mercy, "misericordia,"
reaching out to those on the margins, etc.
Well, here is the thing: to say "mercy" is to say "sin".
The implications given, I think, sometimes, in the popular imagination,
that to say mercy is to say "sin doesn't matter",
"God is merciful", "God is love",
"He reaches out to everybody", and so sin doesn't matter...
Au contraire!
Because, and let me put it this way:
theologically speaking, it is not right to say that God is mercy;
the right thing to say is that God is love,
because love is what obtains among
the three divine persons from all eternity.
That's a little fine point but it is important,
because mercy is what love looks like when it turns toward the sinner...
if that make sense.
God is love from all eternity
but God is not mercy from all eternity
because God is not a sinner. There isn't sin from the beginning.
But when the divine love turns toward sin
what it looks like is mercy.
And, therefore, to say mercy
is to imply and assume and emphasize sin.
Not that sin is been somehow brushed aside
or that everything is ok. No, No!
It's to emphasize sin.
Think in terms of one of the Pope's favorite metaphors,
which is the Church as a field hospital.
But think for a second what that means.
A field hospital, means a hospital right near a battlefield.
This is not where people have gone to get their finger nails taken care of;
this is where people who are seriously wounded
in a life-threatening way are brought for treatment.
What's the implication?
The Church treats people who have been deeply wounded by sin,
deeply wounded by the dysfunction of our own culture.
To say the Church is a field hospital, is not for a second to say
"sin doesn't matter, who cares".
No. No. Mercy implies sin.
Remember too, in that famous interview that Papa Francesco gave when they said:
"How would you characterize yourself?"
And he said: "I'm a sinner who has been looked upon by the face of mercy."
That's it! That's getting the relationship right.
I'm a sinner. That's the first thing he says,
and I've been looked upon by the face of mercy.
Mercy does not simply marginalize sin, it's assuming the fact of sin.
Think too that this Pope, certainly more than any Pope in my lifetime,
speaks about the devil.
And the devil not as a bland metaphor,
but as a very dangerous spiritual person
who is doing damage and threatening us.
Again, mercy addresses a serious problem.
Think too that the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio,
born and raised as Catholic of course,
but has this real conversion experience
at the age of 17 when he goes into a confessional.
Why do you go to confessional?
Because you think "I'm ok, and you're okay?"
No, you've gone to a confessional because you've been beset by your own sin.
And in that setting he experienced profoundly the Divine Mercy,
but addressing his own dysfunction.
He talks about those in the margins a lot and that means those on the
economic and political margins, right?
What he wants to do?
He wants to bring them from the margins into a more central place, right?
To give them access to a richer life.
He doesn't want just leave people in the margins.
By the same token, he talks about the existential periphery.
And that means not just those which are
economically and politically marginalized, it means those who have been marginalized
in a spiritual sense, who have wandered far from the divine life.
And what does he want?
He wants not just to go to the margins and say "everything is fine",
just stay right here in the margins. No. No.
He wants to bring them from the margins to a better spiritual place.
Mercy assumes sin and wants to do something about sin.
Not just paper it over, not just ignore it.
I think that's one of the issues.
The other thing is that word: inclusivity.
This Pope is "inclusive".
Well, yeah, meaning like the arms of the Bernini
colonnades, going out from Saint Peter's,
the Church reaches out to the whole world.
The Church of course wants to welcome everybody.
But, as my mentor Cardinal George famously said:
"All are welcome in the Church,
but not on their own terms - on Christ terms."
That's so important, that distinction.
We think inclusive that means: "I'm ok and you are ok."
The Church reaches out and welcomes me no matter how I'm doing.
No, No! On the contrary.
The Church welcomes everybody,
but welcomes sinners to conversion.
It invites them now in to find a new life.
And that's what the Pope is talking about.
He is in many ways the Pope of conversion.
Probably the best example of this misunderstanding is
the Pope famous remark:
"Who am I to judge?"
And I'd be willing to bet that 97% of people
in the wider culture who hear that remark
interpreted that to mean: Oh, the Pope thinks
there's nothing wrong with homosexual activity.
Well, nothing could be further from the truth.
The context was a hypothetical of a priest working for the Church
who has same sex attraction, who has fallen in the past,
who is now firmly on the road to conversion and is trying to
follow the will of God.
In regard to that person, the Pope quite rightly said:
"Who am I to judge?"
Because that person is in a good spiritual space.
So it's a good example of how people tend to interpret
the language of mercy along the lines of "Hmm. Who cares!"
as though the Pope is indifferent to the nature of sin.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
All this hearkens back to the great Augustine
who famously said long ago, that:
"Miseria et misericordia" always go hand and hand.
What he means is: Misery and mercy.
To say "misericordia", mercy, is to assume "miseria",
that people are deeply suffering, that sin is real.
"Miseria et misericordia" are always two sides of the same coin.
And that's why we should keep that in mind
when interpreting the words of Pope Francis.