Great expectations: Catholics hold a wide range of hopes for Pope Francis' message

By Abbott Koloff And Jeff Green
Record
September 20, 2015

http://www.northjersey.com/news/catholics-hold-a-wide-range-of-hopes-for-pope-francis-message-1.1413943

Pope Francis blessing a girl on Sept. 19 on his arrival in Cuba to begin a nine-day North American trip.

Some want Pope Francis to reach out even further to estranged members of the faith, taking the church in a more liberal direction that mirrors their views on family issues and helping the poor.

Others, saying the pope has put church doctrine on a back burner, want him to forcefully reaffirm church teachings barring abortion and same-sex marriage.

In North Jersey as in the rest of the country, Catholics have wide-ranging expectations of this first pope from the New World as he makes his initial visit to the United States.

Francis comes to the U.S. this week amid expectations that he will make consequential statements both to the American people and to the world with addresses scheduled before the U.S. Congress and the United Nations General Assembly, a visit to the 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan and concluding with a Mass for a quarter-million people in Philadelphia. He’s beginning the trip with a stop in Cuba, highlighting his role as a peacemaker in helping to bring about diplomatic relations between that nation and the U.S.

The differing expectations of Francis’ flock reflect the debate that is roiling within Catholicism. The debate has been fueled in part by the pope’s actions and his apparent determination to alter at least the tone of the church as he renews an emphasis on helping the poor and replaces a focus on doctrine with a concerted effort to bring people back to the faith.

Latinos are greeting the visit by the first pope from South America with enthusiasm for one of their own. The victims of clerical sexual abuse want him to take action against church leaders who failed to punish abusers. Many Catholics want him to continue to press for action on climate change or to focus on violence and poverty in America. Others, including conservative politicians who say he has been too political and has a liberal agenda, want him to be less critical of capitalism and more focused on doctrine.

Despite those differences, the pope has a high approval rating among American Catholics, with 87 percent having a favorable or very favorable opinion of him and 70 percent saying the church is moving in the right direction, according to a recent poll by Quinnipiac University.

Carol Lorenzo, who attends Our Lady of Visitation in Paramus, said she is looking forward to the pope discussing climate change, as he is expected to do at the U.N., and the issue of prison reform. It has been speculated that the pope might talk about excessive incarceration in the U.S. during a scheduled visit with prisoners at a correctional facility outside Philadelphia.

“I think he’ll teach them how much God loves them unconditionally, and with encouragement and support they can make a better life for themselves,” she said.

Brian Hone, after Mass at Church of the Epiphany in Cliffside Park, said he has been disappointed in Francis for not doing enough to promote church doctrine on matters related to same-sex marriage, divorce, premarital sex and abortion. He said he would like to see the pope come out as forcefully on those issues as he has on global warming and offering compassion for same-sex couples.

“He’s supposed to preach the truth, not what people want to hear,” Hone said. “We have black-and-white doctrine. You are loved by God, but you can’t keep sinning.”

New tone vs. doctrine

Nearly two years ago, the pope startled some Catholics with his now-famous statement about a gay cleric: “Who am I to judge?” He has since addressed family issues, saying the church needs to be more supportive of divorced people. He has denounced trickle-down economics and pressed for action on climate change, framing it as a moral issue caused by a “consumerist lifestyle” that harms the world’s most impoverished populations. He recently endorsed the Iran nuclear arms deal.

Francis has made the plight of the poor the central theme of his papacy and has denounced the “pursuit of profit at any price.” Some papal experts say he may call on the U.S. to take more responsibility for its impact on the rest of the world.

Some North Jersey Catholics interviewed last week said that they are drawn to the pope because of his style and apparent authenticity and that they expect him to galvanize people this week, bringing some back to the church and inspiring even non-Catholics.

“In being who he is, he’s going to enliven the faith of many believers and even non-believers in this country — people who love his message and are inspired by him,” said Ed Bowen, a deacon at St. Peter the Apostle in River Edge.

Not everybody is as enthusiastic. At the Church of the Epiphany in Cliffside Park, Joe DeMiglio said Francis has “dodged” the issue of abortion, adding that he hopes the pope clarifies his statements on the matter this week.

Experts on the Roman Catholic Church say none of the pope’s statements or actions — including making it easier for women who had abortions to be forgiven — have even hinted at a change in church doctrine.

“What the pope is saying is new from the perspective of tone, but not new from any doctrinal sense,” said Jo-Renee Formicola, a political science professor at Seton Hall University. “The problem is a lot of people confuse attitude with doctrine. The attitudinal changes scare people because they are afraid that it will lead to a doctrinal change. Some people just don’t want to face what’s in the world. The church will always maintain its principles.”

She added that “the pope is neither a liberal or a conservative.” Yet the pope is political by the nature of his position as leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide and the head of state of the Vatican, said Andrea Bartoli, dean of Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations.

Francis’ stand in support of the Iran deal is similar to opposition by Pope John Paul II to George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, Bartoli said. He added that the pope’s position on climate change is “about the care of our home” and a “pastoral concern” for the poor. And a decision to allow priests, instead of just bishops, to forgive the sin of abortion was the pope saying “we need to enlarge the embrace.”

“He is saying you need to attend to the poor first,” said Bartoli, who was invited to attend a ceremony with the pope at the 9/11 Memorial on Friday. Some of the pope’s statements, he acknowledged, have led to “a backlash.”

“The church is a very differentiated world,” he said. “This is from the very beginning,” It has always been a forum of competing opinions, Bartoli said.

Politics a concern

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for his party’s gubernatorial nomination and for a U.S. Senate seat, said he is “perfectly happy” with the pope’s efforts to be more inclusive, including expanding forgiveness for women who have abortions.

“However, his ventures into politics concern me,” Lonegan said, adding that “Jesus Christ didn’t take a position on global warming.” Lonegan said he does not believe global warming hurts the poor, and hopes the pope focuses “on the teachings of the Catholic Church and doctrine” during his visit to the U.S., although he did not have a specific teaching in mind. He said he is pleased that the pope has begun to bring people back into the church, but he added: “Nobody’s perfect.”

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., a Democrat from Paterson, said the pope has not been taking political sides as some Republicans contend.

“The pope has said some things about abortion that I don’t agree with,” said Pascrell, who is pro-choice on that issue. He said Francis “is trying to find a common ground” and is “a pope for our time” who moved the church’s focus away from dogma without abandoning its principles. He said he is looking forward to hearing the pope’s message this week, anticipating what he called a “theology of reconciliation.”

Monsignor William Reilly, pastor of Most Holy Name Parish in Garfield, said his parishioners, many of them Latino, are excited because of Francis’ Latin American roots, and they “are proud of him.” He said the pope’s teaching, including those on climate change, are not political but constitute “the social teaching of the church,” which he said “embraces all aspects of life and the earth.”

Bartoli, the Seton Hall dean, said he hopes the pope asks Americans to “love the poor and stop violence,” but without wading into politics and “American contentiousness” by talking about gun control. “I think the U.S. can see this as an invitation,” he said. “The most political thing I’d hope he’d say is abolish the death penalty.”

Sex-abuse scandal

The pope has addressed clerical sex abuse by creating a tribunal to examine whether bishops should be punished for negligence in such cases, a move that is widely seen as unprecedented in the church, and by forming a papal commission on abuse that includes laypeople and victims. “This is the first time you’ve seen policy created from bottom up instead of top down,” Formicola said.

Yet some advocates for victims say they are waiting to see whether the tribunal actually issues any punishments to a bishop. “One thing that is really lacking: He has not removed a single bishop for sexual abuse,” said Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Formicola, who wrote a book about clerical sex abuse, said she would like the pope to address the issue this week “to show the world that the church is trying to reconcile with people who have been abused. People are still hurting.”