1 in 5 Issues like gay marriage, birth control and abortion were treated with a welcoming pastoral eye but with no sign of changing Catholicism’s historic rules Photo: Getty Images via BBC Issues like gay marriage, birth control and abortion were treated with a pastoral Welcome vision covered but with no sign of changing Catholicism’s historic rules Photo: Getty Images via BBC
In April 2020, Pope Francis decided to set up a commission to study and make progress on an issue that has been close to his heart since the beginning of his pontificate: the socalled female diaconate, i.e. the idea that women can be ordained deacons, take on the tasks now reserved for men in Catholicism, such as celebrating baptisms and marriages.
The idea of recognizing the role of Catholic women within the Church and also giving them the right to hold a post in the clergy is one of the “unfulfilled promises” made by the Argentine Pope, who was elected commander of the Vatican 10 years ago. on March 13, 2013.
But there is great internal resistance in the Roman Curia which could make this change impossible even within the current pontificate.
It’s not the only point Francisco hasn’t solved yet, it’s worth mentioning.
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Despite his speeches calling for zero tolerance for cases of sexual abuse by religious people — especially those involving pedophilia — containing, investigating, and punishing in such a capillarized institution is a difficult task, and that scourge is far from eradicated .
In the field of customs, the difficulties lie in the paradigm of reconciling 2000 years of teachings with the behavior and realities of today’s world.
Thus, issues such as samesex partnerships, contraceptive methods, abortion, and couple remarriage were eventually treated with a pastoral vision of reception—but with no sign of changing the historical norms of Catholicism.
“There are some things he promised in quotation marks and he keeps. And others that cannot be resolved overnight,” Vaticanist Filipe Domingues, deputy director of the Laity Center and professor at the Pontifical Pontifical Catholic University, told BBC News Brasil Gregorian University in Rome.
“And in places there was a widespread expectation of change, or by some parts of the church, and it turned out to be less radical than some people expected.”
“He will go down in history as a courageous Pope who had the audacity to touch on very sensitive areas. He touches the wound. But in the eyes of the world he doesn’t seem to have gotten that far,” says theologian, historian, and philosopher Gerson Leite de Moraes, a professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University.
“It doesn’t solve the problem because there’s an ancient structure, a power structure. It would take a few generations of people with the same mentality as Francis…” he comments.
Vatican expert Mirticeli Medeiros, a researcher at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, says it is “difficult for Francis to go beyond what is there.”
“On some moral and disciplinary guidelines, he has signaled that he will not change, for example on the issue of celibacy for priests,” she analyzed in an interview with BBC News Brasil.
“What could be reviewed or at least discussed as we follow but I don’t think there will be time for that would be the question of the Church’s thinking on contraceptives.”
female participation
The Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudim, published in November 2013 and seen as a sort of roadmap of his pontificate, addressed Francis’ concerns regarding the increasing participation of women in the Church.
“I am pleased to see how many women, alongside priests, take on pastoral responsibilities, contribute to the accompaniment of individuals, families or groups, and make new contributions to theological reflection Church,” he wrote, commenting in the same document that “that reserved for men Priesthood” is a topic “that is not up for debate”.
Since then there have been many open discussions. Not yet admitting priestesses, but at least eventually accepting them as eligible to be ordained deacons one level below but already members of the clergy.
A deacon does not have the same rank as a priest in the Catholic Church and there are even married deacons. But this is already a person who can perform several functions similar to that of a priest, including performing baptisms and blessing marriages.
2 of 5 Italian Alessandra Smerilli is the highestranking woman in the history of the Holy See — Photo: AFP via BBC Italian Alessandra Smerilli is the highestranking woman in the history of the Holy See — Photo: AFP via BBC
The philosopher and theologian Fernando Altemeyer Junior, professor and member of the Supreme Council of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, classifies the topic as an “internal Church challenge” of Francis.
“[Falta a ele] to propose the ministry of the deaconesses and to give rise to it in the Catholic Church, as was done in the Church in the first centuries, to pave the way for the recognized feminine,” he says.
This debate resurfaced during the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon that took place in 2018. And since 2020, a special commission has been set up to discuss the problem and try to solve it.
Little progress has been made since then and rumor has it in the Vatican that this is due to strong opposition from the Curia.
Medeiros agrees that there is “a lot of opposition” to the issue, claiming that the Pope himself “does not see any consistency in establishing the practice”.
She gives an example that can help to solve the problem: In the Greek Orthodox Church, a special diaconate for women has been created that is not bound to the sacrament of Holy Orders in this case limited to men.
“Maybe he’ll find it as an avenue,” he says.
“Francisco talks a lot about women,” comments Domingues.
“He talks a lot about it, he says that the Church is female, that Mary is more important than the apostles. And he has appointed many women to high positions. But much remains to be done, much could be done to accommodate women and give them a voice and decisionmaking power in the church.”
Data released by the Vatican shows that the number of women employees of the Curia has increased from 846 to 1165 in Francis’ pontificate they accounted for 19% of the total; today it is 26%. On the 10level career scale used by the institution, most are in the sixth or seventh level.
Six women occupy leadership positions beyond the tenth level they depend on the direct appointment of the Pope. Six are undersecretaries, and Italian nun Alessandra Smerilli, appointed secretary of the Dicastery for the Integral Service for Human Development in 2021, is the woman to hold the highest office in the history of the Holy See.
pedophilia and sexual abuse in general
A stain on church history, cases of pedophilia and sexual abuse in general have always been taken very seriously by Francis. When he took office, he was in contact with a dossier on the subject that had been prepared by the previous pontificate.
A year after taking office, Francis established the Commission for the Protection of Minors and released a letter following the release of a report that indicated there had been at least 1,000 survivors of priestly abuse over the past seven decades.
He repeatedly said one must be “ashamed” and “ask for forgiveness” for sexual scandals at the heart of the Church.
3 of 5 Pope Francis has set up a commission to protect minors after being exposed to a dossier on pedophilia and sex abuse cases in the Church — Photo: Getty Images via BBC Pope Francis has been exposed to a dossier on pedophilia and sex abuse cases in the church — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
“I am deeply sorry. God is crying,” he said in September 2015 during a trip to the United States.
His position as pope was to make the situation known “crimes and sins of sexual abuse of minors must no longer be kept secret” and to call for “zealous vigilance”.
Administratively, it began to demand accountability from the bishops.
Commissions have been set up around the world to investigate such facts, but experts say that’s still not enough.
“Even the bureaucracy of the church prevents progress in this direction. And corporatism, since the church is manmade and every human institution, no matter how much it claims to play a sacred role, is open to abuse. Abuse that is often covered up,” Moraes contextualizes.
Medeiros points out that “Francisco’s reform is grandiose, but its execution does not depend on him alone”.
“He has made important strides in the fight against pedophilia. He has ordered the establishment of commissions for each diocese and opened courses to train members to become major state ombudsmen,” she lists.
Divorce, contraceptives, abortion
There was no promise in the moral realm, that’s true. Expectations for change were motivated more by the popular view, which was largely based on the Argentine pope’s seemingly more progressive qualities, at least compared to his predecessors.
In the Admonition Evangelii Gaudim, he reaffirmed his position firmly against abortion, stressing that “the Church should not be expected to change its position on the subject” and that “it is not a subject that is the subject of alleged reforms or ‘modernizations ‘ is”.
“It is not a progressive option to try to solve problems by eliminating a human life,” he explained in the document.
But when the same text says that the Church “does little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations”, it itself shows a more pastoral attitude towards welcoming those who resort to this measure.
In 2016, an unprecedented gesture: he published a letter authorizing priests to acquit “from now on” people “who have committed the sin of abortion.”
4 of 5 Francis admitted to using contraceptives during the Zika epidemic — Photo: Getty Images via BBC Francis admitted to using contraceptives during the Zika epidemic — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
On contraceptives, too, his pronouncements seem more progressive than any action that implies an effective change in the catechism.
In 2016, he said the church could relax bans on contraception in Zikaaffected regions.
On a trip to Canada last year, he demonstrated that he wanted to review the ban on Catholics, but opposed “many of those who call themselves traditional.”
Another issue where progress was expected concerns the socalled remarried, ie those who divorce and remarry.
It was expected that the situation would be officially resolved in her favor at the Synod of Bishops on the Family, held in 2015.
In the end, the solution was very Franciscan: nothing has changed doctrinally, but there is an orientation for the pastoral reception of remarried couples, with each pastor evaluating on a casebycase basis.
Gay Marriage It was July 2013, and Francisco was speaking to journalists on board the plane that was to take him back to Rome after his first international trip as Pope, having been to Brazil. In response to a question, he made a comment that would make headlines around the world.
“If someone is gay and seeks Jesus and is of good will, who am I to judge him? The catechism says that these people must not be excluded, they must be integrated into society. We must be brothers,” he commented.
Since then, Francis has addressed homosexuality on many occasions. And although he never said anything along those lines, in some situations there was a general expectation that Catholicism’s advances on this issue might be even greater than the reception always defended by the current Pope.
For Medeiros, this attitude is precisely “the fulfillment of Francisco’s ‘plan of goals'”. Because the premise in the exhortation was Evangelii gaudium.
“This appeal to reach fringe groups,” emphasizes the Vatican expert.
“He managed to establish and institutionalize a genuine pastoral approach to greeting.”
In October 2020, for example, the disclosure of some sentences from the documentary film Francesco by filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky caused a stir.
5 of 5 Despite the Pope’s statements, there is no movement to suggest that LGBT marriages are recognized by the Church — Photo: Getty Images via BBC Despite the Pope’s statements, there is no movement to suggest that LGBT marriages Marriages are recognized by the Church — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
“Homosexuals have the right to be in a family, they are children of God. You cannot exclude a person from your family or make life impossible for him. What we need to do is a law of civil coexistence that is legally protected.” , said the Pope in the passage.
But stop there. If the Argentine defends the right of samesex civil unions and preaches that they should be pastorally welcomed by the Catholic communities, there hasn’t been, and still isn’t, a movement to suggest that LGBT marriages will one day be recognized by the Church.
“It is a sensitive issue for the Church. And when Francisco joined that agenda, there was a general expectation that he could handle it, but his stance has always been one of acceptance,” Moraes assesses.
“And that’s what you can do, because the Church has 2,000 years of teachings, reflections, positions, as much as it tries to dialogue with the present, it’s premodern, ancient, medieval. It is not a modern institution. “
“Every effective action encounters dogma, doctrine. In these guidelines, the doctrinal aspect is imposed. So Pope Francis will always bring the discussion to the pastoral level, because there he manages to welcome,” the theologian continues.
In March 2021, the Vatican itself issued a statement reiterating that “the Church does not and cannot have the power to bless samesex unions.”
spiritual celibacy
Established by Catholicism in the 12th century, the dogma prohibiting priests from starting a family is also a common theme when discussing the modernization of the Catholic Church. And it’s another issue Francis doesn’t seem to want to change.
The issue emerged more prominently at the Amazon Synod in 2018. The document, approved by those attending the meeting, suggested that given the shortage of priests in the Amazon, priests should be ordained with waivers of the requirement.
As long as, the text states, they are “fit and congregationally approved men, having a fruitful permanent diaconate and receiving proper formation for the presbyterate”.
However, the Pope does not seem to have liked the idea. The issue was ignored in the postsynodal exhortation Querida Amazônia, published months later.
emeritus pope
Domingues is aware of another issue pending for Francis that could have implications for his own future should he ever decide to resign his pontificate and adopt the style of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. (19272022), “to withdraw”.
“There is no regulation of the matter. It is only intended that a pope can resign,” says Domingues.
“The figure of ‘Pope Emeritus’ was created with the situation of Benedict 16 and never settled.”
Francis never promised to solve this problem. But there’s an expectation, particularly given his comments that suggest he won’t disregard making a decision similar to his predecessor’s later on.