National Catholic Reporter
Hans Kung | Sep. 23, 2013
This is the first of a series of articles examining Pope Francis’ recent interviews. A new article will be published each day this week on NCRonline.org.
Pope Francis shows courage: not only in his brave appearance in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, but also by entering into an open dialogue with critical nonbelievers. He has written an open letter to leading Italian intellectual Eugenio Scalfari, founder and longtime editor in chief of the major liberal Roman daily newspaper La Repubblica. These are not papal instructions, but a friendly exchange of arguments on equal levels.
Among the 12 questions from Scalfari printed in La Repubblica Sept. 11, the fourth seems to me of particular importance for a church leadership ready for reforms: Jesus perceived his kingdom not to be of this world — “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” — but the Catholic church especially, writes Scalfari, all too often submits to the temptations of worldly power and represses the spiritual dimension of the church in favor of worldliness. Scalfari’s question: “Does Pope Francis represent after all the priority of a poor and pastoral church over an institutional and worldly church?”
Let’s focus on the facts:
From the beginning, Francis has dispensed with papal pomp and glory and engaged in direct contact with people.
* In his words and gestures, he has not presented himself as the spiritual lord of lords, but rather as the “servant of the servants of God” (Gregory the Great).
* Facing numerous financial scandals and the avarice of church leaders, he has initiated decisive reforms of the Vatican bank and the papal state and called for transparent financial politics.
* By establishing a commission of eight cardinals from the different continents, he has underlined the need for curial reforms and collegiality with the bishops.
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