Bryce Maloney ‘26

Opinions Editor

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is an 87 year old single father from Argentina who works multiple jobs. They include, among other things: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Chirst, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of all Italy, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Vatican City State, and Servant of the Servants of God. In short, if you didn’t already get the message, I’m talking about His Holiness Pope Francis, the 266th leader of the Roman Catholic Church. His children are the 1.3 billion faithful worldwide for whom he serves as God’s representative on earth. However, not unlike an unruly teenager, many Catholics both clergy and laity alike seem less than eager to follow his advice and council, nor to recognize his authority. Many traditional Catholics, especially those in the United States, have actually become vocal critics of the Holy Father in a way which has not been seen within the church since the time of the Reformation. They find themselves unhappy and disillusioned with the Pope’s stance on, among other things, blessings for same-sex couples performed by Catholic clergymen, the acceptance and participation of LGBTQ+ Catholics, the role of women in the church, as well as limits on the ways by which the Latin Mass may be celebrated. Higher-ups in the American Catholic Church have spoken out especially against Papal initiative – seemingly trying to demonstrate the idea that the most Catholic thing someone can do is to publicly chastise the man who has been chosen by the greatest Catholic minds in the world as the leader of our church. The belief that the Pope is God’s representative here on earth plays a defining role in what it means to be Catholic. In short, it’s what separates us from everyone else. As Protestant denominations may change makeup and teachings from parish to parish, the universality of our faith provides that under Papal leadership, all of our followers aim toward one mutual focus. It provides clarity and unity in the variance of a disunified world. 

Last year, the Holy Father ousted one of his harshest critics, the now-ex Bishop of Tyler, Texas, Joseph E. Strickland. Among other criticisms, Strickland was reported to have read a letter aloud during a speech in Rome last October, which claimed that Francis was a “Usurper.” Strickland later called the author of that letter a “dear friend” before showering his work with praise. While many could make the argument that this type of self-serving insubordination showcases the cracks which run deep in the bureaucracy of the Roman church, I think that the problem comes more from the mentality of certain conservative leaning factions of Catholic leadership. While people starve and die in the millions, and as wars rage on in Ukraine and Palestine, conservative leaders of our church find it more important to spend their days arguing about saying the mass in a dead language, revoking the right of pro-choice politicians to take communion, and a push against women taking on a greater role in the church. While I am well aware that the Catholic church and its surrogates are responsible for some of the most wide ranging charitable and humanitarian projects across the globe, I think leaders like Bishop Emeritus Strickland who use their platforms in their community to push their own personal agendas damage the truly great work done by the Catholic church. It gives people the idea that leadership of the Church has disconnected with the lives of real people– and instead spends its time squabbling over issues which only seem to chastise and isolate people from the fullness of God’s love. It’s a huge part of the reason that the church is losing money, and that masses seem entirely devoid of younger people. As a Catholic who took the initiative of receiving my First Communion and Confirmation as an adult, I can testify that my decision came largely as a result of Pope Francis’s openness, not in spite of it. In reality, I think Pope Francis seems to be one of the few leaders in the Catholic church who has accurately understood the need to prove that our Catholic values can match those of the modern world – and that if we should ever hope for our churches to be full once again, we should consider the idea that openness may be a more suitable method of action. 

If recent years in the Catholic Church have taught us nothing else, we should know by now that only complete transparency will restore the faith of Catholics in their leadership. There is an old saying: a church that marries itself to the spirit of one age will be widowed in the next. I worry that leaders in our church who hold us back from making substantial progress on these issues have married themselves to the thinking of the past. Allowing for that opinion to become mainstream within our church is detrimental to its survival. After all, to quote Pope Francis, “We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us has to fight for our dignity.” 

Featured Image Courtesy of Newsweek

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