Pope’s Transparency Par-excellence!

Walk Middle Path, Tells Bishops

Dr. James Kottoor

Tread the “middle path between doctrine and reality,” directs Pappa  Francis  the Synod Fathers, according to Joshua J McElwee reporting from Rome.

“Emphatically calling on the prelates to "feed the flock" and to search for lost sheep, the pontiff also directed them to avoid the temptation to become either a "hostile rigorist" concerned only with enforcing church doctrine or a "destructive do-gooder" that advocates "false mercy" instead of truth telling.

Saying that some 190 prelates at the meeting faced ''moments of desolation, tension and temptations," the pope also warned against the temptation to "transform bread into stone and throw it against the sinners, the weak, and the sick -- to turn [the bread] into 'unbearable burdens.'"Francis was speaking Saturday evening Oct.18, at the closing session of the synod of bishops,” according to reports from Vatican.

On Saturday Bishops were asked to vote on the final draft, which had three controversial paras  dealing with 1. gay people, 2. Church's teaching regarding divorced and 3. remarried persons who did not obtain annulments before remarrying, These three paragraphs  did not get the traditional two-thirds majority support, that is  122 of the 183 prelates who were present during the voting. But Francis asked those concerned , in a gesture of total openness to publish the full text alongside the tally of bishops who voted approval and disapproval for each paragraph, to make the whole world know how the Bishops voted.

Comparisons are odious, but to make a local application this  was quite unlike the total secrecy practiced by the Palai CBCI meet of India’s Catholic bishops or of the partial secrecy followed by Indian political parties at top level meets

So addressing Bishops he told them in all frankness: "Many commentators, or people that talk, have imagined seeing a church in dispute where one part is against the other, doubting even the Holy Spirit, the true promoter and guarantor of unity an harmony in the church,"

Transparency Parexellence

       The objectionable phrase  for many was “welcoming” gays into the church to give them “fraternal space” instead of going and searching for them.  So the final document states that there "is no foundation whatsoever" to compare homosexual marriage to heterosexual marriage but says gay people "should be welcomed with respect and sensitivity."Hence the Pope said:

       "The task of the pope is to guarantee the unity of the church; to remind pastors that their first duty is to feed the flock -- feed the flock -- that the Lord has entrusted to them and try to search to welcome -- with fatherhood and mercy and without false fears --the lost sheep," he said. Then, saying, "I made a mistake," Francis corrected himself: "I said welcome. Go find them!"

     What a great example on the part of the supreme pastor that he can make mistakes and equally he was not in the least ashamed to correct such mistakes instantly and publicly, once brought to his notice. So the Vatican reporter Joshua writes:

 “Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said Saturday the pope decided to publish the synod's entire final document, including the three paragraphs without a two-thirds majority, "to ensure maximum transparency on this whole process" and to allow bishops' conferences around the world to use the document in preparation for the 2015 synod.

   Calling the synod  a "journey" Francis continued:"Like every walk there were moments running fast, as if to win time and reach the goal as quickly as possible; other moments of tiredness, as if to say that's enough; other moments of enthusiasm and ardor… There were moments of profound consolation, listening to the testimony of true pastors that wisely bring in  to the heart the joys and the cries of the faithful”

Temptations on Journey

             But calling it "a journey of men," the pope said "there were also moments of desolation, of tension and of temptations, of which you could mention some possibilities."Listing those temptations, the pope began with "the temptation of the hostile rigorist."

             "From the time of Jesus, it is the temptation of the zealots, of the scrupulous ... considered -- today -- 'traditionalists' and even 'intellectualists,'" he said. The pope then warned against "the temptation of destructive do-gooding, which in the name of a false mercy bands wounds and cures them without first medicating them; that treats the symptoms and not the causes and roots. It is the temptation of 'do-gooders'  ... considered 'progressives' and 'liberals,'" he said.

Three other temptations mentioned by the pope are:

·         "To transform the stone into bread to break a long fast, heavy and painful, and also to transform the bread into stone and throw it against the sinners, the weak, and the sick, namely to turn it into 'unbearable burdens;'"

·         "To come down from the cross, to please the people, and not to stay to fulfill the will of the father; to bow to worldly spirit rather than purify it and bend it to the Spirit of God;"

·         "To neglect the 'deposit of faith,' considering us not preservers but owners and masters or, to the other part, the temptation to ignore the realty, using a meticulous language and a language of polishing for to say many things and to not say anything! They call them "Byzantineisms," I think, these things."

·          

               Continuing, the pope said the bishops with the pontiff "have the task and the duty to preserve and serve" the church " not like masters but like servants...The pope, in this context, is not the supreme lord but the supreme servant -- the servus servorum Dei [the servant of the servants of God]; the guarantor of obedience and conformity of the church to the will of God, the Gospel of Christ, and the tradition of the church,"

               Concluding, the pope referenced the upcoming 2015 synod and said the bishops "now still have a year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families face,"   Joshua McElwee reports from Rome.

           But to be down to earth what are the challenges this report addresses to the Church in India, on the national, Diocesan and Parish levels. It looks they are three for the consideration of responsible persons at the helm of affairs in the Church in India, if they are ready to follow the example of Pope Francis:

1.               Practice of total transparency in Church administration by saying goodbye to all secrecy?

2.               Admitting mistakes publicly, knowing well, we all, however highly or lowly placed we are, make mistakes and blunders knowingly or unknowingly,

3.               To show courage to own up mistakes publicly (not privately) and say “I have goofed” as Francis did and correct them publicly. That is real confession, not the “sacramental one” done in secrecy.

 So to all Church citizens I pray: “Lord speak and speak frankly, for your servant is listening to learn and correct following the example of Pappa Francis.”

jkottoor@asianeindia.com