September 24, 2013    Martin Mallon  (Ireland)     Martin's previous articles          

(Comments welcome here)

                          REFORM IS IN THE AIR

At last, signs that the institutional church is catching up with Christ’s church, the People of God. Pope Francis gave a 12,000 word interview to a number of Jesuit journals and many believe this is his first real encyclical, pointing towards the church he hopes for, and is working towards, in the future. Everyone should read this interview which can be found here:  

The emphasis is being taken off abortion, homosexuality and contraception; there are other issues out there.  

Most commentators say this is not going to effect doctrine just pastoral practice. Rubbish, if practice by priests and the hierarchy change to catch up with the practice of the People of God so will doctrine and this Pope knows it. His approach is inspired; change the practice, the talk and the doctrine will look after itself.  

Contraception is the obvious example here. The People of God use contraceptives, the hierarchy is catching up in talk and the doctrine will now be interpreted as Paul VI originally intended, each couple should use their conscience. To date the hierarchy has often tried to attach infallibility to the teaching of no contraceptives, a spurious idea to begin with, and it will be easy to accept the reality of the practice of the People of God.  

Let us be clear, Pope Francis was very explicit in his interview and knew exactly what the implications were when he stated that:  

Thinking with the church, therefore, is my way of being a part of this people. And all the faithful, considered as a whole, are infallible in matters of belief…  

The Pope is stating nothing knew here; this is the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Where this Pope is different is that he appears to believe this statement and, hence, the implications as stated above.  

Francis has a problem. Despite his talk and statements we still have the Roman Curia, in the form of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, excommunicating an Australian Priest, Fr Greg Reynolds, for not following the orthodox line. This type of action causes scandal in the church, but at a time when priests are not excommunicated for child sexual abuse the People of God are dumbfounded. However, Francis is aware of the problem; he knows that the Curia will be a hard nut to crack and we see this when he stated in his interview that:  

…many think that changes and reforms can take place in a short time. I believe that we always need time to lay the foundations for real, effective change…

 Francis has observed that proper foundations were not put in place before Vatican II and, therefore, the Curia were able to thwart many of the teachings of that Council, such as collegiality. The Pope is now in the process of laying the foundations so that the Curia will never run riot in the church again; for instance cases such as Fr Reynolds will in future be dealt with by an Australian Synod. Eventually, such synods will have to include priests and lay people as well as bishops.  

How clear it is that Pope Francis needs all the prayers and support that we can give; only the Holy Spirit will be able to sustain him through this traumatic period and help him overcome the inevitable resistance and obstructions from the Curia. Let us pray that the papacy of Pope Francis lasts long enough so that he can institute his Holy Spirit inspired reforms.