A miracle in the Church: Pope Francis

Recalling thoughts, hopes and prayers of the day of the election

Monica Romano

“In my life, this is the first time I have witnessed a real miracle with my own eyes”. I still recall so clearly the words of my spiritual Father and earlier parish priest – fr. Enrico Ghezzi – when Pope Francis was elected. We were all understandably very touched and felt emotional about the new Pope’s election. But at least for me this time was a bit different from my only previous time (I was too little to remember the earlier elections of “the two John Paul”). The Church was coming out from such a difficult time that ended up with Pope Benedict’s resignation – certainly because of his old age, but possibly also due to the issues the Pope had to face, such as the betrayal of his closest collaborators and an institution that because of the behaviours of individual, often authoritative, representatives had seen heavily affected its credibility and the trust of the people.  

I still recall the moment of the election so vividly. Guessing (and hoping) from the name pronounced in Latin by Cardinal Touran and not understood clearly because of the underlying translation (I was not in Italy hence followed the event from a foreign TV programme) that the new Pope was the archbishop of Buenos Aires - the one I had heard was a simple and humble pastor, the one that according to some “speculations” was “the candidate” of Cardinal Martini on the occasion of previous papal election - literally made me jump from the chair. And the second (real) jump was while listening to the name he chose. Just a few minutes before, by messaging with a friend who was in Rome, we were asking to ourselves what name the new Pope would choose. We wrote a couple of names we hoped for and when typing “Francis” I clearly recall my friend stigmatizing: “Magari, that is impossible”.

Instead, we were once again surprised and made happy by God. Once more we realized that what the Gospel teaches is the truth: “Nothing is impossible to God”. I cannot forget the mixed feeling of expectation and preoccupation that I and some of the people closest to me had been going through over the previous weeks following Pope Benedict’s resignation. Our response and way of living that “waiting time” was praying. I remember that for several weeks  after Pope Benedict’s resignation I used to pray at any time (even unusual time) I could, whenever I had  a “gap” during the day – for example while preparing myself before getting out in the morning or while seated in the car or on the plane….And so did the many people spiritually close to me – including my dearest grandmother, who kept telling me for some time after Pope Francis’ election: I prayed so hard for the new pope. What were we praying for? We prayed to “get” a holy person and a pastor close to his people. It seems we have been heard.

I also recall that I immediately understood that the times of a “cumbersome” centrality placed on the institution of the pope I had been used to since my childhood, particularly during the pontificate of John Paul II, had gone. I did not overlook the way Francis referred to himself to the people as the “bishop of Rome”, while only mentioning the vicar of his “new” dioceses -  the Church that “presides in charity”.  I felt and hoped that like for the choice of his name it was programmatic. And it was certainly striking that he presented himself for the first time to the people only dressed with the white papal vest, with no other liturgical vestments or paraments, except for the stola put on shortly while blessing the huge mass of people that gathered in St. Peter’s square. 

After the initial “mild” reaction from the square when the Habemus Papam formula was pronounced (probably because most of the people were not aware of who was “Georgium Marium cardinalem Bergoglio"), the warmth and emotion became tangible among the people at his gestures and words. Especially when Pope Francis invited the faithful to walk together – both “the pastor and the people” – in “fraternity, love and mutual trust”. And when he asked the people to receive the “prayer of you over me” and bowed in silence for a few minutes. But also when in blessing those in the square and who was connected through the modern communication technologies, he indicated that the blessing was also for “the whole world and all men and women of good willingness”. The spirit of the conciliar Church was felt strongly among many of us. Again we had another hope, that the new Pope would genuinely embrace, apply, and put forward the indications of the Second Vatican Council.

We believe that these are the first seeds of Pope Francis. By recalling them after three years, we happily feel that a new Church was born and has been flourishing from those seeds. What people like me, especially old pastors that dedicated their whole life to the Gospel and the Church, has been believing and hoping for – a Church of poverty, charity, openness and mercy, the Church of the Council - was realised and is being realised by this pastor, who “came from the other side of the world”. Let us pray for Pope Francis, as he keeps up asking us, everyday, regularly, for his peace and intentions. The power of prayer is strong and if all of us join our prayers, we will hopefully be able to help him sustain his mission - a mission of love, dedication, sacrifice and witness. 

Pope Francis and China

Theresa Xiao

"In the Far East and in various parts of the world, millions of men and women will celebrate the lunar new year. I wish that all may experience peace and serenity in the heart of their families.” With these words Pope Francis addressed his wishes to Chinese and East Asian people during the  Angelus prayer, a few days after the publication of the interview for AsiaTimes (http://bit.ly/1KTQ8No) , which focused completely on China. The Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival is one of the most important and popular festivities in East and South-East Asia - we prefer these denominations having a less Eurocentric connotation -, primarily in China. To the interviewer - finally a sinologist who knows well ancient and contemporary China - Francis speaks of the “Middle Kingdom” with words of admiration, as a "great country" with a "great culture" and an " inexhaustible wisdom", a nation that has "a lot to offer the world."

In the footsteps of his immediate predecessors, Pope Francis shows great attention towards China. What primarily distinguishes him from the other popes, however,  is the fact of being a Jesuit and a Latin American. This definitely constitutes a "comparative advantage" that may help to have a greater margin of action in the long and thorny “Chinese issue”. Certainly, China associates the Jesuits with the idea of dialogue, openness, science, culture - embodied in a paradigmatic way in the great missionary Matteo Ricci, in Chinese Li Madou利玛窦. The fact that Pope Francis is not from the West of the colonial powers (which even today recall a very sad page of the Chinese history, a disgrace, an open wound) makes him appear to the Chinese people in a different way compared to his predecessors. Colonial powers which foreign missionaries often associated themselves to, in the eyes of the Chinese people. Contributing to this idea that persists even today, that Christianity cannot be anything but a foreign religion of the '' imperialist West." There was a saying in the past: "One more Catholic, one less Chinese", that was to emphasize the alien nature, almost an "incompatibility" between China and Christianity, at least in the Chinese imaginary.

Francis has undertaken with caution, but it seems with determination, the path of reconciliation and dialogue with China. Of course taking the important steps of his predecessors, especially the Letter to Chinese Catholics, which was perhaps conceived under the pontificate of John Paul II and realized by Benedict XVI. But softening  the tone and leaving less room for voices undoubtedly authoritative, as monopolistic, that especially in recent years have only ever denounced the dark side of China. Certain tones, certain insistence, and certain ways to represent China by some who have risked to almost appear as "doomsayers" are not in line with the Church of Francis; a Church of dialogue, mutual respect, and mercy. The Church that looks at and works on "what unites rather than what divides." The Church of the Second Vatican Council, which in the XXI century cannot continue to "bypass" China (often labeled with images that seem old from 50-60 years ago) and relate to China only through  sentences and even excommunications, which have humiliated and hurt Chinese Catholics. The Great China of an ancient civilization, the China of Confucius, who lived 500 years before Christ and was a great teacher of moral and social harmony. China that generated the depth of thought, then evolved into a religious spirituality, of Daoism, characterised by a creative vitality. That China that received Buddhism from India, re-shaping it and mixing it with its own philosophical and religious traditions in a mutual enrichment. And in the modern era, China that first among the devoloping countries achieved the Millennium Development Goals and in the years 1990-2005 took out of extreme poverty over 470 million people. A concrete example to the world that poverty can be defeated if there is a political will. An achievement that the pope that  took the name of Saint Francis of Assisi certainly has not overlooked - unlike so many, religious people, journalists and commentators in various capacities. Because Francis can count on very close people who know and understand China and are in line with him with respect to what strategy should be followed.  Certainly the strategy of prudence and patience, but that does not mean closure and unwillingness to dialogue in order to find a compromise. Words that many do not like, those who do not see many realities, small and large, where mediation is the only way to move forward. Those that may also not know that the "middle way" is also a value of Chinese culture – the Doctrine of the Mean is one of the Four Books included among the Confucian Classics. The Chinese culture emphasizes harmony tending to seek it, to see it, even where there are opposites that in the Western view are irreducible. And often giving much attention to the form, the "ritual."

For the Church that “goes forth” as indicated by Francis, this can be a great opportunity to capitalize on the dialogue. With a sincere respect for who has been and is now the counterpart, combined with a deep and pragmatic awareness. China,  a "great country" that has made great achievements in socio-economic development and acquired an important place on the international stage. Not without “side effects” – i.e., the environmental issue, the sustainability of a development process that has been as radical as perhaps too fast, the growing social inequalities, the challenges associated with impressive internal migration, an aging population .... Not to mention the consumerism and the galloping materialism which are eroding family relationships and social relations, corrupting traditional values and jeopardizing the future of the younger generation. Problems that China itself has learned to recognize and now seeks to address.

Even Pope Francis shows once again to know all this. It is part of human history, the history of peoples, to pass "through lights and shadows" and a reconciliation is also needed with its own history, its past, says the Pope to China in the interview, but he also says that to all of us and to all Nations. The Church in China also deeply needs for reconciliation. The Church in China too (which is often represented with clichés, in a simplistic way and by whom he has never known it directly), has kept the faith in very difficult times. The whole Church, not only one side. A gift, a grace that is certainly the inspiration, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

We are sure and we pray that Pope Francis did not drop all this but values it, builds on it, brings it to completion, without lingering on entrenched positions. There is need to look and go further, to ensure that the Chinese Church is more and respectfully accompanied by the universal Church to better address new challenges - the same facing the Church (more generally the society) of the "Western world”, before it is too late. Secularism, the worldliness, careerism and materialism, individualism, which also invest Christians and may question their existential choices, undermining their witness of faith. And more intra ecclesia the problem of the formation (cultural, theological and spiritual) of the clergy and religious, lay participation and more generally the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, the role and the witness of Christians in society and in the world of culture , the proclamation of the Gospel in a context where Christians are a minority and where increasing prosperity begins to make more difficult among young people make radical lifestyle choices and of total donation to the Church ......

It is time to break down "old" walls of "enmity", find points of convergence in the common values that can contribute so much to the construction of world peace, and also support the Chinese Church to become, with more prophecy, a Church that truly goes forth, as Pope Francis has been preaching tirelessly since the beginning of his pontificate.

Isn’t it great to have friends come from far away?

Personal reflection on the interview about China and the Chinese People with Pope Francis

Rob Rizzo SJ

In entering into relation with another there is always the possibility of making mistakes while getting to know them, but I believe the biggest mistake would be to presume that we fully know the other and thus seal them within that definition.

I don’t have the pretention to think that I know what Pope Francis was thinking, but what he said about ‘the cake’ struck me. In this I saw an opening up, so as to not take ones own cultural background as a given, but to accept that the other may understand the very same thing differently due to different cultural backgrounds. Therefore this allows for dialogue and even gives space for interest and curiosity of one another to grow.

The possibility of making mistakes remains of course but should this scare or discourage us? I don’t think so, clearly the importance of acknowledging and evaluating the dangers remains however this should not discourage us from reaching out to one another. It is so freeing to hear that our (and my) past mistakes don’t mean that it’s all over. Rather than regretting the past and holding onto it, allowing it to keep me stuck in the past there is the opportunity to acknowledge it, learn from it and decide to walk towards a hopeful and realistic future. I love the image he used of water that keeps pure because it flows ahead, does it mean that the water has an easy and open stream ahead of it? I don’t think so, but the water as it flows downstream will naturally find even the smallest space to pass from, and as it goes along it is also purified passing through the rocks.

So what did I personally receive from Pope Francis’ interview? Hope, for dialogue, for learning and for resilience as this river flows.

The first time that a pope meets the Orthodox patriarch of all Russia

Another surprise from Pope Francis has come these days. After the news of the visit to Sweden at the end of the year on the occasion of the anniversary of Luther's reform and the first ever interview made by a pope fully on China to AsiaTime online and published in the past few days, here comes the joint announcement of the meeting between Francis and Kirill on February 12. A meeting that was discussed, desired and prepared for a long time, but its realization still comes with surprise and emotion.

The Risen Lord says: "you must go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee’” (Mk 16.7). The Risen Lord goes before us everywhere, as he did at the upper room and at Emmaus, wherever men build their cities, everywhere they love. Today the Risen Lord precedes us in the land of Cuba, where through the encounter between the Bishop of Rome and the Patriarch of Moscow the Christian people becomes even more and more visibly one flock in the footsteps of the one shepherd. In the land of Cuba, land traditionally atheist, which a few months ago had rejoiced for the "reconciliation" with the United States thanks to the mediation of the Pope.  Cuba today seems almost "return" the favor in an evolving history where faith exceeds doubt and human logics. Furthermore, it should not be overlooked that Francis and Kirill will meet at an airport, that is a meeting place, a place of passage, a crossroad between people in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world. 

A history of division and excommunications is the one between the Catholics and Orthodox, which has not only hurt the Church and the Christian community as a whole, but also offended the faith of the simple and questioned the credibility and the "feasibility" of Christian love and brotherhood.  As Christians, how can we announce the brotherly love and peace if we are separated? Here is the scandal that it is now time to stop, overcoming old divisions and claims, while looking with pragmatism and mutual respect to the history and tradition of each side. 

Today Pope Francis builds on Paul VI's legacy. In his well-known trip to the Holy Land, in fact, Paul VI embraced the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras and together they cancelled their mutual excommunications. Pope Francis collects the seeds sown by the Second Vatican Council, of which he even further confirms the centrality in the life of the Church – not only in words, but with concrete, objective, field choices that leave no room for doubt or ambiguous interpretations, unless there are improbable manipulations. 

Kirill makes this gesture of reconciliation in a time when the bishops of the Orthodox churches agreed to convene this year a pan-Orthodox Synod. Since the second Council of Nicea (787 a.C.) it has been for more than twelve centuries that the various Eastern Churches do not meet together on the occasion of a council.  This is also a sign of the times, a hope for reconciliation and unity.  

The next February 12 in Cuba Francis and Kirill will show that the Christian way to overcome the "hostility" and break down the "barriert” is reconciliation. Revived strongly through the extraordinary Jubilee of mercy, reconciliation becomes the ordinary way to follow for each of us, a via sacra that exceeds the boundaries of individual churches to reunite ideally in the one Church of Christ. Francis and Kirill are well aware that reconciliation and unity must be pursued with all means not only as basic conditions of the Christian community, image of Christ's body. In fact, how to deal with the challenges and evils of the modern world by proclaiming and bringing the Gospel if first we the Christians are not united? Poverty, which still affects a large part of humanity; international migration and in particular the growing number of refugees fleeing from wars and totalitarian regimes; the  side effects of globalisation, which affects the weakest and contribute to consolidate an economic system based on profit and social inequalities; the crisis of values because of rampant materialism and consumerism, which invade even emerging countries and the Western world of Christian tradition; the plight of Christians living in the Middle East and in many parts of the world where they are a persecuted minority; the difficulties of the Christian churches – the decline of vocations, the difficulties of clergy and religious, the new pastoral problems.  

We hope and pray that this meeting will be a fruitful seed that bears much fruit – ut unum sint!