A Papal Week

from encyclopedia.com 

Like many people I’ve been following with interest the news of Cardinal Bergolio’s election to the papacy as Pope Francis I. Just arriving home from a trip to my hometown this past Wednesday, I turned on the TV and realized they were about to announce and introduce the new pope! I bought my laptop to the kitchen counter (next to the TV) and started posting information on Facebook as it appeared: that the new pope was born in 1937, was a Jesuit, and most profoundly, Latin American! The news in 1978 of a Polish pope was momentous and this news was hardly less so.

Not that my personal history matters, but I remember that when I was six in 1963, the death of Pope John XXIII came on a TV news bulletin. I thought his last name was cool----XXIII---but Mom explained to me what that was. Of course I don’t remember his election in 1958, when I was one, but all the other papal elections (only six in my lifetime, including this week’s) have interested me.

Some friends of Facebook friends began posting their disappointment that he isn’t for gay rights, women’s reproductive rights, women’s ordination, and other topics. While agreeing (as a Progressive-leaning Protestant myself), I had to think that those are important issues but not high (one assumes) on the agenda of the college of cardinals, so one can be disappointed but not startled. Among my web-surfing, I found a clip of an interview with ethicist Stanley Hauerwas who noted his passionate advocacy of the poor and impoverished, adding that those issues, rather than others  important to North Americans, are highest among the new pope's interests. Other articles focused on what Fr. Bergolio did or didn’t do during the Argentinian “dirty war” of a few decades ago, and still others noted his modest lifestyle and humility. See, for instance:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/15/pope-francis-joy-humility-unbending
I also found articles that were hopeful, based on the cardinal’s background and values, that his papacy would be very good for Christian-Jewish and Christian-Muslim relations.

I attended one of my interfaith groups this past week and enjoyed the different perspectives. A Latin American colleague was so thrilled at a Latin American pope that he said he felt like dancing. A liberal Protestant colleague said that she had greeted news of Francis I’s election in a typical way as many of us: with a “grocery list” of important theological and social issues with which we judge the new pope’s background, but she added that she appreciated our Latin friend’s perspective and joy. A Jewish colleague said that Francis I’s background bodes very well for Christian-Jewish fellowship.

A ministerial colleague puts several perspectives together very well with a reminder that the church is the Body of Christ, even though our different sources of authority among Christian groups puts us at opposing theological conclusions---and yet we remain Christ’s body, upholding prayerfully the well-being of one another: http://michelletorigian.com/2013/03/14/the-white-smoke-matters/