{"id":3920,"date":"2013-03-20T10:39:29","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T10:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?p=3920"},"modified":"2018-07-17T22:05:15","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T22:05:15","slug":"the-inauguration-of-post-francis-and-a-churchs-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2013\/03\/the-inauguration-of-post-francis-and-a-churchs-revival.html","title":{"rendered":"The Inauguration of Pope Francis&#8230;and a Church&#8217;s Revival?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday\u2019s inauguration of Pope Francis seems a fitting juncture at which to take stock of him- this in response to a reader\u2019s recent note asking what I think about the man who reminds him of his Jewish rabbi grandfather.\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">And, in response to this reader\u2019s question, and with the admission that much remains to be seen, I like the new pope based on the few things I currently know about him.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>He took the name St. Francis. <\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">St. Francis of Assisi, who renounced his life of privilege in order to live among the poor as a beggar and itinerant preacher, has often also been associated with humility, simplicity, and the gentle care of all creation, especially the most vulnerable.\u00a0 He is actually a patron saint of ecology. It was St. Francis who first coined the expression, \u201cPreach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.\u201d If ever there were a time when the church needed a fresh wind of the Spirit in the form of what St. Francis stands for, as a return to the essentials of the Gospel, this would be it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>He cares a lot about poor people. <\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">By all accounts, the man has walked the talk, too. Theologian <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2013\/03\/13\/reactions-to-pope-francis-election\/\">Stanley Hauerwas<\/a> notes the Pope\u2019s Jesuit identity as a sign that the Roman Catholic Church doesn\u2019t just serve the poor but is a \u201cchurch of the poor.\u201d (If only this statement could also be made of the mainstream church in America<\/span><strong>!)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He has little time for clericalism.\u00a0 <\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">In spite of- or maybe because of- his own clerical credentials, the man <a href=\"http:\/\/dish.andrewsullivan.com\/2013\/03\/13\/live-blogging-pope-francis\/\">holds contempt<\/a> for clericalism. He apparently was quoted as saying the following within the context of the child abuse scandal that continues to rock the church: \u201cThese are today\u2019s hypocrites. Those who clericalize the Church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation.\u201d And, with respect to priests who refuse to baptize children born out of wedlock, he was quoted as calling their refusals a form of \u201crigorous and hypocritical neo-clericalism.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>He\u2019s old. <\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">I like old people.\u00a0 In fact, in my line of work I spend a good deal of time with them, hearing about their lives. They often have a lot of wisdom.\u00a0 At 76, the new pope is by most standards old, which qualifies as a reason for liking him. \u00a0Still, I\u2019m not sure what it says that the world\u2019s largest Christian church, one numbered in the whereabouts of 1.2 billion members, takes for its head a geriatric person (and a man at that). I mean, in a world where innovation means survival, what organizations really do this sort of thing anymore?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday\u2019s inauguration of Pope Francis seems a fitting juncture at which to take stock of him- this in response to a reader\u2019s recent note asking what I think about the man who reminds him of his Jewish rabbi grandfather.\u00a0And, in response to this reader\u2019s question, and with the admission that much remains to be seen,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,180,119,43],"tags":[1644,1641,1643,1637,1642,1638,1639,1640,1636,114],"class_list":["post-3920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-and-culture","category-christianity-in-politics","category-church","category-humor","tag-church-and-poor","tag-church-revival","tag-clericalism","tag-inauguration-of-pope","tag-papacy","tag-pope-francis","tag-roman-catholic-church","tag-sex-abuse-scandal","tag-st-francis","tag-stanley-hauerwas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Inauguration of Pope Francis...and a Church&#039;s Revival? 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