Clarification: This article which appeared in Crisis Magazine on March 26th, (its link was posted on the site of Fisheaters.com), only reflects the opinion of its author. It in no way reflects the opinion of the LLA or its members.<\/p>\n
Hans Kung, the dissenting European theologian, said he was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153overwhelmed by joy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in a radio interview after the elevation of Pope Francis. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is hope in this man,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gushed Kung, who predicted that Pope Francis will conform to the progressive interpretation of Vatican II and not follow the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153line of the two popes from Poland and Germany.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Leonardo Boff, one of the fathers of liberation theology, was quoted in the German press as saying that Francis is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more liberal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d than commonly supposed.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Roger Mahony took to Twitter to proclaim that the Church would move from high church to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153low\u00e2\u20ac\u009d church under Francis: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So long Papal ermine and fancy lace!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The National Catholic Reporter approvingly quoted an unnamed Vatican diplomat as saying that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Traditional Latin Mass brigade is finished.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Esteban Paulon, president of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals, told the Washington Post that Pope Francis is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153known for being moderate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and when \u00e2\u20ac\u0153he came out strongly against gay marriage, he did it under pressure from the conservatives.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d According to Sergio Rubin, whom the Post calls his authorized biographer, Pope Francis initially \u00e2\u20ac\u0153urged his bishops to lobby for gay civil unions\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as an alternative to gay marriage.<\/p>\n
Benedict\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech on Islam at the University of Regensburg didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sit well with Francis, according to the Telegraph in the United Kingdom. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153These statements will serve to destroy in 20 seconds the careful construction of a relationship with Islam that Pope John Paul II built over the last twenty years,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it quotes him as saying.<\/p>\n
Reports on his compliance with Benedict\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s authorization of wider use of the Traditional Latin Mass are conflicting, but it is safe to say that he was less than thrilled by it. According to columnist E.J. Dionne, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an American bishop noted that the choice of Francis would not be greeted as a clear victory by conservatives,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d since on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153liturgical issues, he has opposed those who seek to roll back changes instituted by the Second Vatican Council.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The picture that is forming of Pope Francis from all these bits and pieces is not that of a Ratzingerian restorationist but of a centrist prelate whose theological views, tone, and emphases are characteristic of the post-Vatican II period. He is no Hans Kung. He is too pro-life and Marian for that level of theological conjecture. But it is a stretch to think that he shares Benedict\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rigorous critique of the crisis within the Church and the modern world. There is a reason why the progressive bloc within the previous conclave saw him as a desirable alternative to Ratzinger.<\/p>\n
It was telling that Pope Francis in his first address from the papal window pointed to Cardinal Walter Kasper as a theologian whom he admires. Kasper is known for his hyper-ecumenism and taste for theological novelty.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are on good terms with the Archbishop of Canterbury and as much as we can we are helping him to keep the Anglican community together,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kasper said in 2010, referring to a group of disaffected conservative Anglicans that wanted to join the Catholic Church. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not our policy to bring that many Anglicans to Rome.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Apparently Kasper and Francis agreed on this issue. Greg Venable, an Anglican prelate in Latin America, has told the press that the future pope \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly that the Ordinariate was quite unnecessary and that the Church needs us as Anglicans.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Francis has the benevolent and winning personality of John Paul II and the humility of Benedict (though his took a less celebrated form), but his theological views mark him out as more centrist than his two predecessors. They attributed the collapse of Catholic institutions largely to a misapplication of Vatican II. Referring to the liturgy, Benedict spoke of the need for a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reform of the reform.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Francis appears happy enough with the first reform.<\/p>\n
Francis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s papacy may not so much move the Church into the future as back to the recent past, circa 1970. Quarrels over the proper interpretation of Vatican II are more likely to explode than end. Emboldened liberal bishops under him may seek a reform of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reform of the reform,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and they may push for a revisiting of settled moral, theological, and disciplinary stances. None of this repositioning will take place at the level of official teaching but at the murkier levels of tone, emphasis, and appointment.<\/p>\n
That the Catholic left considers his election a shot in the arm can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be chalked up simply to projection. There are enough nuances here to give them hope. They believe that this is their moment to try to undo the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict and return to the casual, informal, and spontaneous liturgical spirit of the 1970s while reviving a more poll-friendly situational ethics. Tweeted Mahony: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you feel the new energy, and being shared with one another?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Hans Kung accepts that Pope Francis can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t adapt to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153everything\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the modern world, but just hopes the general trajectory of his pontificate will be progressive. In Pope Francis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparent emphasis on individual conscience (he dispensed with the traditional spoken papal blessing when speaking to journalists last Saturday on the grounds that some of them weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Catholic or believers), toned-down morality, and Seamless Garment-style prioritizing of poverty, peace, and the environment, Kung and company see a pope with whom they can at long last \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dialogue.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Clarification: This article which appeared in Crisis Magazine on March 26th, (its link was posted on the site of Fisheaters.com), only reflects the opinion of its author. It in no way reflects the opinion of the LLA or its members. Hans Kung, the dissenting European theologian, said he was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153overwhelmed by joy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in a radio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}