Since the 100 days of his pontificate have elapsed, precisely on 20 June, it is high time to evaluate Pope Francis’ spirit-led pontificate.

The dominant characteristic that greatly contrasts Francis’ pontificate with that of his erudite predecessor, Benedict XVI, is that Francis is everybody’s pope. His innovative style of being pope is in fact making a huge difference on how the papacy and Church are conceived nowadays. It seems that even Jews and Protestants, as attested by Francis Rocca’s article “Pope Francis Is Good for Jews” and Chris Nye’s contribution entitled “Pope Francis Is Good for Protestants”, are happy with the Argentinean pontiff.

Pope Francis’ superb charisma revolves on symbolism. He is undoubtedly special because of who he is, the manner in which he acts and what he says. His simple ways and strong words are attracting back many people who recently abandoned the Church. The latter feel surely at home and cared for by this gentle and extremely humble Pope. The collegial thrust of his Petrine ministry is absolutely pivotal in helping him reach out to others as the serving Bishop of Rome. The Catholic understanding of the Church rightly harps on the importance of sacramental and non-sacramental symbols without which the Church simply cannot tangibly express its divine nature. Thus, what the current Pontiff is doing is exactly that of adopting symbolic sacramental acts thanks to which he can be close to the people who has been entrusted under his pastoral care by Divine Providence. Symbolic gestures like offering a chair and sandwich to a Swiss guard; stopping to pay his bill and retrieve his bag at his hotel; phoning to cancel his hometown newspaper; advising Argentineans to not come to Rome for his installation as Pope but instead give the money to the poor; and most strikingly, washing the feet of the young prisoners on Holy Thursday are really convincing signs of a Pope who does not want to rule over but serve instead in the most humble of ways!

The Bolzano-based Italian local daily, Alto Adige, hit the nail on the head in its sharp analysis of Pope Francis’ first 100 days of his pontificate when it commented: “A hundred days since white smoke rose from the chimney on that rainy evening of 13 March, there is no sign of letup of the ‘honeymoon’ between Pope Francis and the growing masses of the faithful. The words and gestures of a pope who cleared the field of papal trappings and heavy protocol to make way for the papacy’s pastoral nature as ‘bishop of Rome,’ close to the people, especially close to the poor and weak, are fascinating not only to believers, but also to non-believers across the whole world.”

A corresponding and much telling comment is also found in the conservative Parisian-based daily Le Figaro. It is almost reasonably preoccupied when the ‘papamania’ will finally ease. “The gulf between the Catholic Church and public opinion seems to be reduced, thanks to a very popular and unconventional pope. Two objective indicators show the rapprochement: the number of people at the Wednesday audiences has nearly quadrupled. From an average of 25,000 people, the attendance approaches 100,000 people. And the new crowds that stream into St Peter’s Square are not primarily the pious, nor the ‘Catholic’ in the strict sense, but those curious to see the man in white up close, to the point of sometimes being magnetized by his charism of simplicity. The second measurable index: the Twitter account of the Pope, launched by Benedict XVI with two million subscribers, has more than tripled.”

What is the underlying reason for such huge popularity? Thanks to his life example prior to becoming the 266th successor of Saint Peter, Pope Francis had the guts to state that a self-centred church is sick. The main remedy that is to be expected from him as Pope is that of “open[ing] his arms to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important.”

In other words, being Jesus Christ in today’s shattering world!

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

SAN GWANN