Pope Francis and What He Represents: Ten Reasons Why I Keep Listening Widely and Maintaining Hope

As I just stated in my previous posting, as I read commentary about Pope Francis and what's happening in my church today, I commit msyelf to listen widely, and I intend to keep doing that, for a variety of reasons. I do also, believe or not, commit myself to continue trying in every way possible to keep hope for a better church alive, even as I take seriously the testimony of many Catholics living on the margins of the institution, or those who have been so savaged by the institution that they want nothing more to do with it — especially survivors of childhood clerical sexual abuse — as a reality-check against hope that is grounded in nothing more than fantasy and media spin.

Here's where I come from as I continue listening to testimony about these issues:

Mary Hunt on What Worries Her about Francis: "Substantive Structural and Doctrinal Issues Do Not Evaporate Just Because the Pope Does Not Wear Prada"

In a new essay at Religion Dispatches, theologian Mary Hunt discusses three puzzles that she's trying to make sense of as she looks at the Francis phenomenon and how Pope Francis is currently being lionized in the media:

Leonardo Boff on the Latin American Context of Francis's Papal Style, and the Shift from Doctrine and Discipline to Human Search and Human Inquiry

Another essay by theologian Leonardo Boff, which, to my way of thinking, glosses the analysis of his reflection on Pope Francis's dialogue with Italian intellectual (and non-believer) Eugenio Scalfari, about which I blogged yesterday. Here, Boff talks about how the third world has come to the Vatican with Francis (the English translation of this Boff essay is by Melina Alfaro). Boff maintains that many of those perplexed by style that the new pope brings to the papacy have not given sufficient attention to the fact that Francis "comes from a different manner of being Church, which has matured in the Third World."

Commentary on New Pope: Three Voices That Stand Out for Me

Amidst the torrent of commentary that has appeared in the last two days about the new pope, several pieces have stuck out for me. I'd like to point readers to them today, with some notes about why they've caught my attention--and, in contrast to much I've been reading about these matters, have caused me to keep thinking and asking questions that, in my view, I need to ask, if I'm faithful to my calling as a Christian and a theologian.

The Symbolic Imperative of the Papacy Under Pope Francis: Kenotic Atonement

As often happens, I’m feeling considerably out of step with much that’s being said following the election of Cardinal Bergoglio as pope yesterday. As a result, I hesitate to write about this topic today. What if I’m entirely wrong-headed, and misleading people who read what I write here? (But, then, if they had any sense, they surely wouldn’t be taking my flounderings at understanding and finding any path at all in the wilderness as gospel, would they?)

John Allen on Background of Pope Francis

John Allen's write-up on Cardinal Bergoglio at NCR: according to Allen,

Breaking News: Habeunt Papam, Apparently (with Updates)

News media are reporting white smoke from the papal conclave, but to my knowledge, no announcement yet of who has been elected.

Papal Conclave and Transition in Papacy: A Collection of Statements and Resources

I think I heard somewhere that something is going on in Rome lately. Anybody else hear those rumors? I should probably look into them.

Measuring the New Pope: Cartoon Commentary by Cam Cardow

Cam Cardow of Cagle Cartoons and the Ottawa Citizen, via Truthdig.

The Cardinals Close the Conclave Doors and the Holy Spirit Flits Away?

I love Ken Briggs's sharp, sly observation about the silliness of what most of the cardinals being interviewed lately about the papal conclave are saying: he notes that the Holy Spirit, who's supposedly in charge of the whole shindig, can't even get a press conference. And then he observes,

SNAP to Cardinal Angelo Sodano: Step Down Tomorrow as Papal Conclave Begins

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has just issued a press release calling on Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, not to offer a special liturgy tomorrow to mark the opening of the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. As SNAP maintains, Sodano, who was formerly the Vatican's Secretary of State, "is a dramatic symbol of almost everything that is wrong with the Catholic hierarchy, especially when it comes to addressing and stopping the sexual assault of children by clergy and the cover up these crimes."

Mainstream Media Reporting on Papal Transition: Neither Fair Nor Balanced

I'm pretty sure I've told this story before here, but it bears repeating, I think: some two decades ago, I "won" a national essay contest for scholars of religion. The "prize": we winning essay writers were flown in to present our essays at the national center for the study of religion and American culture that sponsored the contest.

As Papal Election Nears, AP Recycles Old News about Bishop Finn Attacking NCR's Catholicity

Does anyone in the world but me find it, well, odd that, on the eve of a papal election, the Associated Press is shopping around an article by Maria Sudekum about Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City "rebuking" the National Catholic Reporter for, as Finn wants us to imagine, having ditched Catholic identity? Here's the Sudekum article, which has just shown up at the ABC news site. FOX (of course) is also helping to push this article, as are the Washington Post, Breitbart, and a slew of news outlets.

Fr. Paul Surlis: "Lost Hope Has Put the Church in Today's Crisis"

Joseph Ratzinger at Vatican II

Margaret Talbot is not the only one currently writing about the lost opportunity for Catholic reform under pope Benedict XVI. At Consortiumnews, Fr. Paul Surlis, who taught moral theology at St. John's University in New York for many years, discusses "The Catholic Church's Lost Hope." As he notes, the reforms mandated by the second Vatican Council, which provided great hope for many Catholics, were stopped in their tracks by John Paul II and his successor Benedict, and loss of hope produced by this reactionary decision has placed the Catholic church in serious crisis.

Margaret Talbot on a Church Surely "In Some Kind of Trouble": Squandered Opportunities for Catholic Reform

Margaret Talbot puts her finger right on the glaring sore spot in a church that is, as she says, surely "in some kind of trouble" when it can expel a priest faster for advocating women’s ordination than for raping children. As she says, sexual abuse of minors exists in other institutions, but when it comes to the Catholic church, the following stands out:

Mary Hunt on What Papal Transition Means and What Feminists Can Do About It

At the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) website, theologian Mary Hunt asks why feminists should be concerned with the transition in the Roman Catholic papacy. Her short answer: POWER. The papacy itself is about tremendous power; the transition of the papacy is about power in the balance. And feminists must be concerned about how power is allocated in the world, if they are to achieve their goal of a more just and equitable distribution of power worldwide.

As Papal Conclave Begins, Testimony of Abuse Survivors and Their Allies

As the papal conclave begins, here's the testimony of some survivors of childhood clerical sexual abuse, of friends and allies of survivors, and of the media, as the media listen to the voices of survivors:

Mahony to Media: Vatican Instructed Me to Attend Papal Conclave

In other cardinals-in-the-news news: as Francis X. Rocca reports in National Catholic Reporter, Cardinal Roger Mahony told Catholic News Service last week that he has been amazed at calls for him not to attend the papal conclave because of what the public now knows about his track record in dealing with priests abusing minors in the Los Angeles archdiocese. Mahony states that the Vatican, through its ambassador to the U.S., instructed him to attend the conclave--despite the pressure from lay Catholics for him to stay at home.

Cardinal O'Brien Tells the Truth, Sort of, and Catholic Non-Conversation Continues

By now, most readers of Bilgrimage will be well aware of the latest breaking news in the stories leading up to the election of a new pope: namely, that Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien issued a statement this weekend acknowledging the truth of the allegations against him, which led to his recent decision to retire and not attend the upcoming papal election conclave. O'Brien's latest statement is on the website of the Scottish Catholic Media Office.

Sunday Commentary on State of Catholic Church As Papal Election Nears

Habemus papam! Well, at least, according to "Saturday Night Live," it appears we do.