He Pope Francisco On Monday he celebrates ten years of a pontificate marked by his popularity among the faithful and by the fierce resistance in the Catholic Church to his desire for reforms, even though these do not question the doctrinal pillars.
once was elected as Supreme Pontiff, on March 13, 2013, the Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio showed his desire to break by going out onto the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro without any liturgical ornament.
This smiling and outspoken Jesuit was in stark contrast to the timid Benedict, who had resigned his post. And he probably already had his program in mind: the reform of the Curia (the government of the Holy See), corroded by inertia, and the cleanup of the dubious finances of the Vatican.
He ex-archbishop of Buenos Aires, who never made a career in the halls of RomeHe wanted “sheep-smelling shepherds” to restore dynamism to a Church that is less and less present and overwhelmed in many places by the vitality of evangelical services.
The preaching of this critic of neoliberalism assumed claims for greater social justice, protection of nature and defense of migrants fleeing wars and misery.
“It ended with the demonization of homosexuality, with the debates on extramarital relations or on contraceptives (…). All of that came out of the foreground,” Italian Vatican official Marco Politi told AFP.
The Pontiff of the peripheries
“The Pope introduced into the Church central issues of Western democracies, such as the environment, education, law,” also underlines Roberto Regoli, a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
It also condemns the conflicts that devastate the planet. Although without obvious results, as shown by his calls to end the war in Ukraine. But the figure of him praying under the storm in Saint Peter’s Square deserted by the pandemic illustrated like few others the need to rethink the world economy.
This tireless shepherd, despite his 86 years old and his fragile state of health that forces him to use a wheelchaircontinue to favor missions in the “peripheries” of Eastern Europe or Africa.
The question of his health is an issue that worries parishioners. Francisco cannot mobilize on his own and on two occasions – June and September 2022 – he referred to the possibility of a withdrawal. Until then he was held back because the Catholic institution already had a Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVIwho passed away on December 31, 2022, exactly two and a half months ago.
In this ‘Bergoglian’ decade, the Church developed interreligious dialogue, especially with Islam. He also held a historic meeting in 2016 with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, but that rapprochement was interrupted by the support of that Christian Church for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
To deal with the scandals of sexual abuse of minors by religious, Francis abolished the “pontifical secret” in which the ecclesiastical authorities used to hide from reporting these acts. An important gesture, although insufficient for the associations of victims.
The bid for power in the Vatican
Francis brought fresh air to Rome: he preferred to live in a sober apartment, disdaining the sumptuous Apostolic Palace, and frequently invites homeless people or convicts to his table. A style that also earned him criticism from sectors that see in him a desecration of his functions.
He first Latin American Pope de la Historia continues to mobilize parishioners abroad, but there are also those who reproach him for an overly personal exercise of his authority over 1.3 billion Catholics.
“Francis showed an authoritarianism to which the Curia had long since become unaccustomed. And that can irritate,” a senior diplomat in Rome told AFP. And the opposition from the most conservative sectors of the Church is more lively than ever, despite the disappearance of two of its main representatives: Benedict XVI, who died in December, and Australian Cardinal George Pell.
The Church is now questioning who will be the successor to Francis. “The real maneuvers for the conclave have already begun. They are not maneuvers on names, but on the ideological platform of the future pontificate”, says Politi.
And although his resignation is an open possibility, for the moment, he continues to model the college of cardinals in his image and has already designated 65% of those who will elect the next pope. And he prepares several important appointments, such as the meeting of bishops that at the end of the year will discuss the future of the Church