Like many people, I have spent some time in recent weeks caught up in the media-fest that has accompanied the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the new Pope Francis.
Like many people, I have spent some time in recent weeks caught up in the media-fest that has accompanied the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the new Pope Francis.
There have been many pieces written about his election, background and beliefs, as well as the future of the papacy and of the Catholic Church. Too much of this, many feel, has comprised tick-box pieces evoking certain fears, rehearsing established prejudices and struggling to be constructive: that is, informative and educational.
One problem with a 24/7 media culture is that nuance is either not attempted or lost, wanting instead to come on one side or other of an argument. This is true of the more gossipy media as it is increasingly more of the serious ones too. So the situation at the moment is either to marvel at this man, this charming Argentine with so many ‘firsts’ in terms of the papacy, to be self-congratulatory and say how different he is / will be; or else to impugn him in a sometimes pettifogging manner with all sorts of nastiness, failings and scandals before he has begun in earnest his Petrine ministry.
In this case, as in others, I have personally tried to respond to the rapidly gelling stereotypes by drawing on my legal instincts and on my sense of prolepsis to try and contextualise the questions around this new pope – on ABC Broadcasting Corporation, SKy, Al-Jazeera, Premier Radio, France 24 and others.
After all, loving the poor and adopting Francis of Assisi is wonderful, but does not necessarily contradict the instincts that lead to deeply held but widely criticised stances on HIV-AIDS and on issues of sexuality, for example. We need to try to look at the whole man rather than atomise and deconstruct him. Confronted with paradox we need to pause for thought. Personally, I keep coming back to the main point of my own recent interviews: the Vatican needs reform, and the question is whether this man who is more conservative than he is progressive in doctrinal terms will manage to make a significant difference?
That begs the next question: how will the Curia in the Vatican react to this man and in what ways will they facilitate or impede his ministry and its outreach? What difference will he make to Catholicism, to other churches in an ecumenical context, and to other faith such as Judaism and Islam? After all, he is 76 and the whole Society of Jesus cannot will to change that fact. Whatever we make of him, Pope Francis needs the prayers of Christians.
* A range of views and perspectives on Pope Francis can be found on Ekklesia here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/PopeFrancis
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© Harry Hagopian is an international lawyer, ecumenist and EU political consultant. He also acts as a Middle East and inter-faith advisor to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales and as Middle East consultant to ACEP (Christians in Politics) in Paris. He is an Ekklesia associate and regular contributor (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/HarryHagopian). Formerly an Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Committee and Executive Director of the Middle East Council of Churches, he is now an international fellow, Sorbonne III University, Paris, consultant to the Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide (UK), Ecumenical consultant to the Primate of Armenian Church in UK & Ireland, and author of The Armenian Church in the Holy Land. Dr Hagopian’s own website is www.epektasis.net Follow him on Twitter here: @harryhagopian