Francis was the unpredictable pope who emphasised mercy

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio first appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s in March, 2013, we knew we were going to be dealing with a different style of papacy. He appeared before the world in simple white, rather than the more ornate vestments of his predecessors and gave the crowd below a simple wave. He moved out of the papal apartments into more simple rooms in the hotel built on the grounds of Vatican City. He chose a more modest car to be driven about in. All in all, he was trying to set a new tone for the papacy.

It continued more or less this way for the duration of his pontificate. He did things his own way. He was no particular respecter of traditional ways of doing things if he believed these were getting in the way of his vision for the Church. This was especially in evidence in how he chose cardinals. Traditionally, the bishop of a big or historically important diocese would almost automatically get a red hat, for example, Los Angeles in the US, or Milan in Italy.

Expectation

Instead, Pope Francis preferred to bestow red hats on bishops from the far-flung places of the Church, where in some cases there are very few Catholics. Therefore, we have seen bishops from countries such as Mongolia, or Tonga, or Singapore or Morocco elevated to the College of Cardinals. Francis liked to surprise people.

This means it is not at all easy to predict who might be the next pope. Many of the voting age cardinals will not know each other very well, and many will have become cardinals totally against their expectations. They will have expected to be thinking mainly about the Church in their own areas, rather than universally. When they enter the Conclave, they will look around at each other perhaps not sure which of them would make the best candidate to succeed Francis.

He was the first ever pope from South America, and therefore also the first Argentinian pope”

We might think that the next pontiff will be like Francis given that he has selected 80% of those of voting age. But things might not transpire that way given the very unusual make-up of the current College of Cardinals.

One of the keys to understanding Pope Francis was simply to understand his background, as is the case with all of us. He was the first ever pope from South America, and therefore also the first Argentinian pope ever. He was born in 1936, the son of Italian immigrants. Argentina used to be a common destination for immigrants from Europe. It seemed to be a country going places. Instead, it became a country of failed economic promise and would lurch from populist, democratically elected leaders like Juan Peron who was Argentina’s president from 1946 until 1955, that is, from the time when Pope Francis was 10 until he was 19.

Peron was for the people, but his economic policies, and those associated with ‘Peronism’ – still a very strong political force in Argentina – have rarely benefited the country as a whole. Peron came to power for a final time from 1973 until 1974 when he died. The military took over the country again, leading to a very bloody crackdown on opponents.

Leadership

This coincided with Jorge Mario Bergoglio taking over the running of the Jesuit order in Argentina, an extraordinarily difficult period to be at the helm.

Pope Francis was a typical South American of his era in that he seemed suspicious of the United States and was quite ‘Peronist’ in his own style of leadership as pope. He seemed drawn to Liberation Theology, which tried to place the Church on the side of the poor (and was criticised by John Paul II for having what he believed were Marxist leanings). He also had a strong anti-clericalist streak, which is no harm, and seemed to actively dislike the authoritarian strain that can easily exist within Catholicism, and which he often seemed to identify with conservatism in general.

He had a particularly strong dislike for what he called ‘rigid’ priests, who were overly-clericalist, stiff in their personal style, overly concerned in his view with wearing the correct vestments and with liturgical ‘correctness’, and were too concerned with the rules at the expense of the pastoral. He seemed to dislike the Latin Mass.

But sometimes I wondered if he was trying to correct a problem that was more prevalent in the Argentina of his youth, or indeed in the Ireland of the same time because the rigid, authoritarian priest is overwhelmingly a thing of the past, in Western countries at least. The problem today is less like to be rigidity, and is more like to be ‘laxism’, a sort of ‘I’m ok, you’re ok’ approach to moral theology.

I think if there is one thing I most strongly associate with the pontificate of Pope Francis it is his emphasis on mercy and what he called ‘accompaniment’.

In working towards the goal of moral perfection, we need the grace of God”

Christianity sets very high moral standards for people and as someone said to me once, when a religion has very high standards that everyone will fail to meet at some stage, then you need plenty of mercy and plenty of forgiveness.

Jesus said we had to be “perfect, as our Father in Heaven is perfect”. Therefore, the Christian life is about working towards that goal in the same way an athlete seeks to become as good as they possible can in their own sport. In working towards the goal of moral perfection, we need the grace of God, and not even the saints get all the way there, although they come closer than most, which is why they are recognised as saints. Many saints are, of course, never formally recognised as such. You might even know a few such people yourself. Saints are more common than we think.

Guidance

But all of those saints had many stumbles on the way, and ideally would have had someone they could turn to for spiritual guidance, someone who knew when to urge them on, when they needed encouragement and when they needed some criticism, all the things a good coach does when training an athlete.

Pope Francis seemed to believe that the Church has often been too quick to offer criticism and that its spirituality and moral advice have been too punitive in approach.

There is a delicate balance to be struck here. What you don’t want to do is make it seem as if the moral standards of Christianity are impossible to live up to, and at the same time you don’t want to give the impression that they don’t really matter and that God will always forgive you, no matter what. He will forgive you if you seek forgiveness and you have a purpose of amendment. This is the very basic of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The need for the Church, and for individual Christians, to strike the right balance in this regard is the lesson of the pontificate of Pope Francis that has made the strongest impression on me. I think it is the main lesson he wanted us to draw from his papacy. May he Rest in Peace.